THE Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication (CCX) is being downsized in response to a funding gap, and a “significant number” of its employees are being made redundant, the chair of its trustees confirmed this week.
Two weeks ago, cash-flow projections indicated that the charity would not be able to continue beyond the end of June, and a redundancy process with staff was begun. The chair of trustees, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent, said on Tuesday that the funding gap was identified after trustees of overseas partners “made the strategic choice to redirect their funding to church growth in their own countries”.
Efforts to fund-raise had secured offers from “a couple of major funders”, he said. “We have had to downsize our operation — and sadly that has left a significant number of our staff redundant — but this new pivot in our emphasis enables CCX to continue in operation with a reduced staffing level.”
The Centre was established by Dr Ric Thorpe in 2015, after he became Bishop of Islington with a remit to lead the creation of 100 new worshipping communities in the diocese of London and to support church-planting across the Church’s dioceses (News, 10 July 2015 and 29 June 2018). In subsequent years, church-planting took a central place in the Church’s drive for numerical growth, prompting rapid expansion of the Centre (News, 29 June 2018).
Its Myriad initiative was established in 2020, to support the national “Vision and Strategy” goal of establishing 10,000 lay-led worshipping communities by 2030 (News, 2 July 2021). It aims to “reach one million new people with the good news of Jesus Christ”. On behalf of the diocese of London, it runs Creative Growth, offering courses and coaching as part of a campaign for every church in the diocese to “start a journey of growth and multiplication” and to establish 400 new worshipping communities by 2030. It also offers courses in pioneering, planting, and growing churches, the Become course for leaders on housing estates and in low-income areas, and support for resource-church leaders.
Having been established under the aegis of the London Diocesan Fund, the Centre was set up an independent charity in 2023. The LDF transferred £721,571 to the Centre and paid £331,828 towards the cost of delivering its Vision 2030 programmes.
The Centre’s last annual report, filed in September, sets out plans for “expanding our work across the country” to support diocesan strategies. Income in 2023 totalled £2.5 million, and expenditure totalling almost £1.4 million and reserves of £1.1 million.
Income has been dependent on donors and philanthropists, producing “uneven” cashflow, the report says. Grants made up 98 per cent of the income in 2023, of which 28 per cent was listed as “restricted”. This latter category included funding for “national work”, YWAM’s The Send project, and £217,000 from the London Diocesan Fund for Creative Growth. The Centre employed 22 people in 2023.
A statement on the website, published on Tuesday of last week, says: “As demand has grown in tandem with financial challenges, we have pivoted to a new operating model, under the existing charity. We are shifting from direct delivery to a lean, agile train-the-trainer model. This change will multiply CCX’s reach by equipping local leaders to deliver our content in their own contexts.
“Our mission — to plant, grow, pioneer and serve on estates — remains at the heart of this shift. There is a new chapter ahead for Myriad, as our lay-led planting initiative will become an independent charity — multiplying its impact while continuing to collaborate with CCX. . . This pivot is a bold, necessary move — not to scale back, but to multiply mission in a time that demands creativity, stewardship and faith.”
The new model was outlined alongside the announcement that Dr Thorpe had been elected as Archbishop of Melbourne (News, 30 May). His successor as executive director of CCX will be the Revd Herbert (“H”) Miller, Associate Vicar of St Barnabas’s, Kensington. He has served as Creative Growth Ambition Lead for the diocese of London, having begun church-planting in the United States in the 1990s.
On Monday, Bishop Broadbent said: “We are thankful to God for the chance to carry on this work — so much of the Christian life is death and resurrection, and nothing about the Kingdom of God is ever pain-free.”
