Alex, Anji and I got to share with KIA and PX friends in Frankfurt and launch “No Wastelands”
“Why would I care about future generations? What have they ever done for me?” Groucho Marx
How do we evaluate our work, witness and ministries? To say the 2023-24 academic year has been a hectic one for us would be a dramatic understatement. At a personal level I feel physically spent and frankly too old to repeat again what we did last year. While my body is frail, my soul feels more alive than ever with what we’ve been able to do. How can we sift through what got valuable traction and what was just us spinning our wheels? How do we make the most of our unique opportunities, but discern more sustainable ways forward?
Statistics can help tell a story. As we evaluated our 2023-24 year we found that Seedbeds helped release the potential in over 487 local leaders, in over 30 places, in 19 towns and cities from 10 nations, through our 6 local leadership capacity building programmes. Another over 22,251 people engaged with us for inspiration through our Seedbeds Communications ministry including our books, speaking, YouTube channel and our social media. In terms of our vision to see a world where every local community can flourish, this is only a start, but this year saw Seedbeds make a real contribution. We even have a new chart (below) to prove it!
Scholar and Change Maker Louise Jones in action with Newbigin Community Trust at Windsor Olympus Academy, Winson Green
Numbers, however, can only ever be part of our assessments. It’s the stories of transforming lives and local communities that make what we do worthwhile. Take Louise Jones, for example, who began in our Change Makers programme five years ago, soon after becoming a resident in Winson Green. Last year Louise also graduated with an MA from NTC University of Manchester in our Scholars programme and has just been announced as Co-CEO of Newbigin Community Trust. Together with NCT local staff and volunteers Louise will work with thousands of other residents each week in Winson Green releasing their potential for change from their four community hubs. We have Louise’s story and many others available for you to view on our Seedbeds YouTube channel. These are just a few of the many hundreds of local leaders we have invested in since we started in Winson Green in 2014 and who are now taking up unique, community-based, leadership responsibilities around the world.
Drama happens when we connect ourselves with local people and places. Last year was no exception and some required extra attention from us that we couldn’t walk away from. The ‘forgotten war’ in Burma spilled over into Thailand and, in response to our partners in the National Unity Government requests, we doubled the number of participants in our Change Incubators cohort to over 100 with over 80 pitching desperately needed income generating enterprises, education and health projects. Our UETS friends in Kyiv kept offering leadership programmes despite Russia’s continued invasion too and so we kept supporting their MA programmes. An organisational leadership crisis with our MA alumni in Germany also required intentional support with transitions, including how Seedbeds could support the growth of local leaders there. This was on top of what we have been preparing to do for years, like launching my new book, “No Wastelands” in 13 cities, as well as piloting Seedbeds Change Makers in Victoria and Queensland in Australia. We also continued our fruitful UK based programmes too like Change Makers, Pioneers, Pilgrims and Scholars.
In the end we concluded that very little of our time and resources was wasted. We did bite off more than we could chew, but just had to chew like mad! Jesus’ parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-21) has been so influential for me in this season in life. Sometimes we have to ‘broadcast’ on all kinds of terrain and wait to see where and when growth comes. Our promise here is that if we sow faithfully then fruitfulness will emerge in the future, often far more than we can ever expect. Persistence and perseverance in the right actions matters more than cleverness.
Colour our World: KIA and PX visited Winson Green to help our Summer Schemes in August 2024
We do need to refocus for the year ahead and discern where best to invest our time and resources. I have become especially conscious that I need to travel less, run fewer Seedbeds programmes directly myself and have fewer costs drawn centrally from our Seedbeds office if we are to sustain this work. Anji too is in a time of transition moving from leading Newbigin Community Trust for the last seven years and will be with our Seedbeds Myanmar partners from late September until late January.
Three priorities have therefore emerged for us and this requires changes in focus from me.
- Invest more in Winson Green as a Base: If people can come and visit us, having a lived experience of what is possible in place-making, then that is far better than me just talking about it. Renewal is happening in remarkable ways that are hard to explain! We also now have four great venues in Winson Green with Newbigin Community Trust and Lodge Road Community Church that Seedbeds can host groups and run programmes from. This includes our Seedbeds office, yurt, library/seminar room and mini bus! Seedbeds Programmes such as Change Makers, Pioneers, Scholars and Pilgrims all lend themselves to live contexts and can be supplemented with online connections. This requires that I become more a Host and Guide in Winson Green.
- Invest more in Seedbeds at Regional and National levels: If local Seedbeds entities can be developed to host their own local leaders programmes with global connections then they can better adapt to local conditions and keep growing their capacities. This will include Seedbeds in London, West Midlands and Scotland as well as teams developed with Seedbeds Myanmar and Seedbeds Australia. Anji will have a special role strengthening Seedbeds Myanmar and developing channels for their handicrafts. Our Seedbeds Equippers programme to train the trainers, coach the coaches and prepare the panelists becomes crucial. This requires that I become more an Inspirer and Capacity Builder with Seedbeds leadership.
- Invest more in Place-making Pioneers: If more local Christian leaders can grow more local leaders then new opportunities will be created to experience God’s love and shalom together. New community projects and worshipping communities can grow from inside the life of a neighbourhood and become transformative. Seedbeds can focus on recognising and resourcing Pioneers (even regional ‘clusters of Pioneering congregations’) with the United Reformed Church, Congregational Federation, Church Mission Society and Red Letter Christians-UK. Offers will include Certificate in Pioneering, Seedbeds Centre (East London) , Pioneers Collective, Newbigin Public Lecture, Pioneers Conference on Community Development and Midlands Pioneering Cluster. This requires that I become more an Advocate and Mobiliser with Pioneers and Partners.
The quote from Groucho Marx (above) sums up so much wrong with prioritising today. Costly decisions for long term sustainability too often lose out to short term squeals for self-interest and self preservation. In his remarkable book The Good Ancestors, Roman Krznaric writes: ‘In a story from the Jewish Talmud, a man is asked why he is planting a carob tree that will not produce fruit within his lifetime and replies, “Just as my ancestors planted for me, I too am planting for my descendants.”’ I am grateful for the heritage I have inherited in my life, but I don’t want these life giving resources to end with my generation. Can we invest the best we have for future descendants to reap in the decades and even centuries ahead? Even if we are not there to benefit personally ourselves?
I am thrilled that diverse Seedbeds programmes will focus again on investing in the growth of local community leaders and therefore in the future of the neighbourhoods they are committed to. We believe change best comes from within local communities who work with what’s strong in them to address what they see as wrong. We may not see all the fruit of this investment ourselves, but we can know we are planting seeds of hope for a preferred future. One where love, joy and shalom can flourish. What legacy could be worth more than that?
We would love you to join us in 2024-25 as our Seedbeds journey unfolds. So much can be possible if together we invest in the flourishing of those yet to come.
Shalom,
Ash Barker seedbeds.org
Highlights and Next Steps for Seedbeds
The legendary Dave Andrews investing in the first Queensland (Australia) Cohort of Change Makers
Highlights 2023-24
– Seedbeds West Midlands Cohort 9 Graduated 12 new Change Makers
– Seedbeds Victoria and Queensland Graduated 22 new Change Makers
– Passion and Purpose Days gave tasters of what’s possible in East London, Glasgow, Brisbane, Melbourne and Frankfurt.
Next Steps 2024-25
– Seedbeds Australia to be launched in May 2025.
– New Change Makers cohorts in West Midlands and Scotland.
– Passion and Purpose Days
Could you nominate a Change Maker from your local community?
Ash with the ‘Eco Print and Go’ team who are Alumni of Change Incubators Cohort 2
Highlights 2023-24
– Cohort 3 Graduated in June 2024 with over 80 participants.
– Enterprises, Education and Health projects saved lives in Burma and Thailand including “Eco Print and Go‘.
– Anji visited Mae Sot in March, 2024.
Next Steps 2024-25
– Online Forums in English, Enterprise, Development and Environment in the second half of 2024.
– Anji supports the development of Seedbeds Myanmar and Seedbeds Marketplace from late September 2024 to January 2025.
Could you support the next Change Makers cohort or enterprise?
Sam Poursain graduates from Pioneers and prepares a new ministry in Weoley Castle estate, Birmingham, where he lives
Highlights 2023-24
– Pioneers Cohort 2 Graduated 6 new Pioneers.
– Wendy Hall Recognised as URC Pioneer.
– Dave Mann and Sam Poursain commissioned as Pioneers as part of Seedbeds/URC partnerships in East Ham and Wesley Castle respectively.
– Newbigin Public Lecture 2024 with Deirdre Brower Latz inspired and informed!
– Ash was honoured to give the 25th Annual Tinsley Public Lecture in Sydney.
Next Steps 2024-25
– Pioneers Cohort 3 starts September 6th, 2024
– Pioneers Collective Retreat on Holy Island, 27-29 September, 2024
– Pioneers Conference on Community Development (7-9 March 2025)
– Newbigin Public Lecture 2025 with Prof Anthony Reddie, 11th June, 2025
– Pioneering Cluster begins in Midlands, February 2025
Could you take up one of our Pioneering offerings?
Mr Singh is baptised at the end of the St Cuthbert’s Way pilgrimage in May 2024
Highlights 2023-24
– St Cuthbert’s Way Pilgrimages in September 2023 and May 2024 included Baptisms on Holy Island
Next Steps 2024-25
– St Cuthbert’s Way Pilgrimages (23-28 September 2024 and 16-21 June 2025)
– Winter Camino (November 24-30, 2024)
– Tours of Hope in Winson Green (as requested)
Could you join us for a pilgrimage of a lifetime?
“Scholars” Jess Craig, Ally Rooms and Stacey Cordery from East London graduate with an MA in theology (social justice and humanitarian development) from the University of Manchester
Highlights 2023-24
– 3 ‘Scholars’ Graduated with MAs and serve their local communities in East London
– MA units offered in ‘Social Justice’ and ‘Resilient Discipleship’ influenced influential local leaders
– PhD supervision of Gabriel Marquez on the role of White Christian Nationalism and its impact on local churches in Michigan.
– Dave Mann and Ash lead an online MA unit in Community Organising with UETS.
Next Steps 2024-25
– MA in Theology (Humanitarian Development and Social Justice) units for “Christian Approaches to Humanitarian/Development Practices” and “Community Engagement: Building Communities of Shalom”
– Seedbeds designed NCFE Qualification in “Sustainable Community Leadership” to be offered with Birmingham Christian College once approved.
– Dave Mann and Ash will go in person to Kyiv for an MA unit in Holistic Mission in November with UETS and minister in churches.
Do you have an MA or a PhD in you? We’d love to talk with you!
Karen Ferguson has been such a gift to us with Coaching our Coaches, Learning Circles and setting up Equippers
Highlights 2023-24
– Karen Ferguson (from The Maven Club) helped Seedbeds develop our train the trainers, coach the coaches and prepare the panelists.
– Luke Craig set us up with Google Classroom to grow and track the educational experiences of our Seedbeds Programmes for Tutors and Participants.
– Seedbeds Myanmar piloted the Seedbeds Equippers programme with 8 leaders from the Ministry of Labour, National Unity Government.
Next Steps 2024-25
– Seedbeds offers Equippers connections and capacity building.
– Seedbeds Australia launches in May
Could you invest in local leaders with Seedbeds as a recognised tutor, coach or panelists?
Ash reads “No Wastelands” for the audio version
Highlights 2023-24
– No Wastelands book launched in 13 cities and gets to Amazon Number in its category in UK and Australia.
– Speaking in churches, conferences and colleges inspired many in Ireland, USA, UK, Ukraine and Australia.
– Seedbeds Social Media helps informed and inspired many thousands.
Next Steps 2024-25
– No Wastelands ‘audio book’ to be launched
– No Wastelands online course to be offered by Nazarene Theological College.
Ash and Anji will speak at ‘Hope into Action Conference’ (12 March, 2025)
Could you buy a copy of No Wasteland, share in Seedbeds social media or invite a Seedbeds speaker to your church, event or college?
Resourcing
Sharon Fraser our amazing Operations Manager with our Seedbeds publications and Deirdre Brower Latz (Principal of NTC) on the night of the Newbigin Public Lecture
Highlights 2023-24
– Our Seedbeds team in the UK now includes 5 CIC Directors with 4 paid staff (none full-time). Staff includes: Executive Director (Ash Barker, 4 days), Operations Manager (Sharon Fraser, 4 days), Bookkeeper (Hev, 1 day) and Pioneer East Ham (Dave Mann, 3 days) and with many tutors, coaches and panelists around the world.
– Financially just over £157K was raised for Seedbeds and that proved enough for us this year to do all we needed to do, including £10k to send Anji to Asia with the capacity to set up Seedbeds Marketplace with alumni there! We are so grateful! See pie charts below.
– Duncan Brown and the team from Seedbeds Australia also raised money not only to pay for their own two Change Makers Cohorts, but to invest in developing the Seedbeds Equippers. Australian partners Catalyst Care was crucial and this was separate to what finances came into Seedbeds centrally. Over £30k was given by Australians to Seedbeds internationally via Global Mission Partners, most going to Myanmar’s Change Incubator programmes and pitches.
– Our Seedbeds assets in Winson Green now include: a Yurt, a blue Minibus and a 3k book theological library with access to an office, accommodation and meeting rooms. These are shared in Winson Green with local schools, congregations, social enterprises and charities.
Next Steps 2024-25
– Seedbeds will add two more part time, paid “Seedbeds Pioneers” with Sam Porsaine in Weoley Castle estate (Birmingham) and Anji Barker in Mae Sot (Thai-Burma border). We think we may need a kind of Winson Green-based ‘hosting co-ordinator’ to ensure participants enjoy the local hospitality, rooms, library and technology conducive for learning.
– Seedbeds in Australia are putting a board, staffing and volunteer team together too.
With Seedbeds Australia starting and more programmes growing we think we need to raise about £200k altogether.
- Could you help support a Seedbeds Cohort? Most of our Seedbeds programmes cost around £5k per Cohort? Please give, using the details here.
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