In 1999, Jeremy and Ann Simpkins moved from the South Coast, where Jeremy had been an Elder at Kings Church Eastbourne, to the North East of England where Jeremy began to lead Jubilee Church Teesside. So began the story of what has developed into one of the new Newfrontiers apostolic teams…

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”, where 450 people camped and raised £4,000 towards mission.

Since then, more and more churches across the North of the UK have begun looking to Jeremy for apostolic leadership, giving birth to the North region of Newfrontiers UK. This currently comprises churches in the north of England, the Midlands, North Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Canada and Norway. In the summer of 2011 around 2,500 people attended the annual camp for a fantastic time of enjoying God, receiving apostolic teaching and being caught up in world mission. Over £132,000 was given in a tremendous offering to support apostolic extension, church planting and reaching nations.

Jeremy has always been very keen to work in team and regularly meets with others involved in trans-local ministry in the North. 

At a meeting in 2011, the team discussed what values shaped their ministry in the North – what it was particularly that God was highlighting as important. Out of this discussion came the North Distinctives which were presented at the North camp that summer.

Our Distinctives
Increasingly the team are stirred about reaching nations and church planting across the globe. This is illustrated by the work in Canada. Only three years ago they were serving just one church in Canada – now there are four churches working together and another four church plants. Although there are others working into this nation, the team feels led to take responsibility for Canada and to see new churches established right across this great country. Opportunities are opening up in other countries too and God is enlarging the vision to see many more nations impacted.

In this time of transition within Newfrontiers, Jeremy has been speaking a great deal about “cross-bracing”. He explains why,

“At a recent time of prayer with our North Team, God spoke to us about “cross-bracing”. This is a technical term used for structures which help to support horizontal and vertical beams in a building. God was encouraging us to support one another in this way, both in our team and in our family of churches. He reminded us that no one person has all the gifts or all the answers to the challenges we face. We need one another, and there is strength to working in team that you don’t get from working alone.

Whilst this applied immediately to us as a team, it also has wider applications. In this time of transition within Newfrontiers as new apostolic leaders are recognised, we also have an opportunity to cross-brace across the different apostolic teams”.

This commitment to cross-bracing is demonstrated by Jeremy’s openness to having other UK-based Newfrontiers apostles working into churches in the North, and his invitation to David Devenish and Dave Holden to be the main speakers at North 2012.  

Currently, the North Team are working with nearly 80 churches and church plants in various countries around the world and are excited to see what God may do next!

Written by Jeremy Simpkins - originally published for the Newfrontiers Connect Magazine in Spring 2012