Partner with us
Partner
Partner with us through joint ventures and strategic giving that grow local leadership well beyond a single season. Together we keep doors open in overlooked places.
The Problem...
A young couple had served their neighbourhood for over a decade. Through a Seedbeds cohort they pitched a new local church and were encouraged to pursue it.
Their denomination had sold its chapel there years before. They met a denominational leader, sent a careful proposal with prayer and hope, and waited.
Two months later. Still no reply.
When the answer came, it was polite, and it was no. The money from the old chapel still sits in an investment portfolio. The couple stayed anyway.
The other ending...
Every local leader needs someone who pulls…
In 1993 two denominational leaders listened to an unconventional 23-year-old with a dream for his neighbourhood. Don Smith found the money and handled the politics. Alan Hirsch interpreted each side to the other. Three decades later, that young man has helped form thousands of local leaders.
His name is Ash Barker.
Local catalysts push from outside. Senior leaders pull from inside. Interpreters build trust between them.
Without all three, scarcity, professionalism and programme-ism win.
“Your role is to make yourself unnecessary within three years by finding and forming local leaders.”
Network learning pathways
A bespoke route from Find to Release, designed with your people
Regional Hubs
Change Makers cohorts, coaching and gatherings in your region
Local Discovery Clinics
One or two days with your churches or schools to find the leaders already there.
Custom Cohorts
Pioneering and Change Makers cohorts formed around your network
National Strategy
Multi-year partnership to shift a denomination from managing decline to backing local leaders. This can include training your trainers, coaching your coaches and preparing your panellists
Invest in the people who stay
The leaders a community needs most already live there. They have skin in the game, and they are not going anywhere.
Invest in them, and the work lasts.
£5000 that grew into 20 cohorts
In 2017 one donor gave £5,000 to pilot the first Seedbeds cohort in Birmingham. Since then, more than 20 Change Makers cohorts have found, formed and released hundreds of local leaders.
One gift started it.
£10,000 hosts a regional cohort
Seed-grants from the panel
At the end of every cohort, local leaders pitch their idea for change to a resource panel. Panellists can back them on the spot with a seed-grant. Over the years, hundreds of these grants have helped local leaders start community projects, campaigns and enterprises. A small grant says something bigger: we believe in you.
Stories
The Newbigin Pioneering Hub
United Reformed Church
Together we launched a pathway for pioneers rooted in their own neighbourhoods. Five cohorts and more than 60 participants later, 14 new local communiIes of faith have begun, and Wendy Hall became the Hub’s first URC Assembly Accredited Lay Pioneer. The Seedbeds Commons now holds these leaders as a community of practice for community life, discipleship and worship.
Change Makers in Schools
United Learning & United Community
United Learning runs one of the largest networks of schools and community hubs in the UK. Together we brought Change Makers to the local leaders around their schools and hubs, so parents, staff and neighbours could find, form and release their own gifts.
Beyond the UK
On the Thai-Burma border, Change Incubators have helped young leaders forced into exile launch enterprises and vocational training for hundreds of young people. We also work alongside partners in Australia, Thailand and Ukraine.
Local work crosses borders.
Renewal begins not with imported programmes, managerial strategies or elite professionals but by presence, patient listening, local agency and shared hope.
Roy Searle, former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain
Let’s design it together
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