Over the last 15 years the Newfrontiers family has been going through an exciting period of transition. In 2011, having seen exponential growth around the world, Terry Virgo and his team multiplied the work of Newfrontiers to a number of apostolic leaders who took on responsibility for their own teams and churches.

Rather than appointing a single person to continue to lead the work of Newfrontiers, Terry and his team felt led to release multiple apostolic teams instead. Their vision was that by doing this it would release our family of churches to multiply mission across the nations. These multiple teams would continue to strengthen existing churches, plant new churches and raise up new leaders across the globe. One person has described this transition time as: "the sons are beginning to have families of their own!"

Establishing Regional Teams in the UK (1999-2013)

These changes did not happen over night, in fact Newfrontiers had for many years been building a more regional structure which would eventually enable the emergence of these new apostolic teams. One of these 'sons' as described earlier was Jeremy Simpkins, who in 1999 along with his wife Ann, moved from the South Coast, where he had been an Elder at Kings Church Hastings, to the North East of England where he began to lead Jubilee Church Teesside.

The North East Region

Not long after their move, Jeremy started to serve other local churches in the growing North East region. In 2004 these eight churches decided to have a weekend away together called “North”, which attracted 450 people. (This grew to become the North Event, which in 2012 gathered nearly 2,500 people.)

Newfrontiers North UK Team

Since the first "North" weekend, more and more churches across the North of the UK began looking to Jeremy for apostolic leadership, giving birth to the North region of Newfrontiers UK (then known as Newfrontiers North UK). In 2009, Jeremy and Ann moved to lead the new leadership team at Christ Central, Manchester, a Newfrontiers Church in Manchester, which became the base for much of the work of the Newfrontiers North UK team.

ChristCentral

As of August 2012 the Newfrontiers North UK Team became known as ChristCentral (Part of Newfrontiers). After 7 years in Manchester, Jeremy & Ann felt God speak to them about being part of City Church Sheffield and so in 2017 they began to be based more regularly in Sheffield.

In 2018 having worked in partnership with ChristCentral for a number of years Lee Yarbrough brought his team and the churches which they serve into the ChristCentral family.

Then in 2019 having worked in partnership with ChristCentral for a number of years Joseph Mwila brought his team and the churches which they serve into the ChristCentral family.

Jeremy, Lee and Joseph have all been recognised by our wider Newfrontiers family as apostles who serve our family of churches.

Transition

The last couple of years have been a season of change within ChristCentral and at such times it is vital to remind ourselves of our identity. It's important to remember that we are primarily, friends enjoying God together, and a family of churches on mission. This is a journey of faith that shapes how we work together and we are developing new structures which will bring greater flexibility and freedom. Of course, all this need to be empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit. The ChristCentral team now works with over 275 churches in more than 25 nations and is part of the wider Newfrontiers family. We are also working in partnership with other teams in such places as The Middle East and South East Asia.

Other UK Based Newfrontiers Apostolic Teams

ChristCentral is one of 5 UK based Newfrontiers Apostolic Teams. Each of these teams have their own sphere of ministry, both within the UK and in other nations. Steve Tibbert has been invited by the UK based apostles to provide facilitating leadership across the several different teams which now make up our family of churches in the UK. Steve & Deb Tibbert are based at King's Church London. You can read more about these teams by visiting their respective websites:

What is Newfrontiers?

Historically, we have described Newfrontiers as an international family of churches working together, under the apostolic leadership of Terry Virgo. More recently, following a period of transition Newfrontiers can now be described as: a group of apostolic leaders partnering together on global mission, joined by common values and beliefs, shared mission and genuine relationships. There are currently approximately 1,500 churches around the world that work with a number of different Newfrontiers teams. You can find out more about Newfrontiers by visiting: newfrontierstogether.org

The sons are beginning to have families of their own!