Transforming Wigan seeks to engage 1-in-10 people on a discipleship journey with Jesus and looks to do so, intentionally and resolutely, through the making and growing of disciples. Its three principal goals are to Renew Discipleship, Re-orientate the Church and Revive the Community.

Started in 2015, Transforming Wigan’ was one of the first SDF projects in the Church of England The original bid document set out a 7-year project to turn around the mission and financial strength of the deanery of Wigan, the biggest deanery in Liverpool diocese (30 parishes, 21 incumbents, population of 180,000).Revd Tim Montgomery was appointed as Project Director in 2015 and led the team through to 2020 when the Benefice of Church Wigan was officially formed.

Transforming Wigan has focussed on growing a new culture of church to connect with the 99% of people in the deanery who had very little or no engagement with the church.

From the outset the project was established on a strong foundation of prayer and a Wigan Order of Prayer has been at the heart of the project throughout.  A ‘Guiding Coalition’ of leaders helped the Project Director to steer the project through the key stages of forming the vision and strategy, gathering the early adopters and establishing a robust pathway for leading the necessary change and seeing that change through.

What Transforming Wigan has achieved so far

• A programme to ‘refresh’ inherited worship communities and plant many ‘fresh’ new ones.
• A new ‘hub-and-spokes’ growth structure to best serve this programme.
• Strengthening the unity of lay and ordained leaders to work together as one Team Wigan.
• Growing a new mission work through schools and colleges reaching over 2,000 students each year.
• Establishing a ‘Brighter School of Discipleship’ for young Christians to learn and engage in mission.
• Raising up and nurturing over 150 lay local missional leaders.
• Developing key growth tools of ‘Cultivate,’ ‘Pyramid Review,’ ‘Planting Pipeline,’ and ‘Hub Growth Strategy.’
• Pastoral re-organisation of the whole deanery into one benefice with 7 hub-parishes (January 2020)
• More than 1500 new people engaged in new Worship Communities
• Creating a new central infrastructure to provide management of finance, buildings, funerals, administration, HR, safeguarding and communications.

‘I am convinced that the royal road to church growth, across the whole diversity of our Church of England, is the multiplication of congregations within our neighbourhoods and networks.’ Bishop Paul

The Joshua Centre was created by the Diocese of Liverpool and Liverpool Cathedral as the focus for our vision of launching new congregations to reach new neighbourhood and networks.

We offer support to parishes and deaneries to make multiplying congregations doable.

If your church is engaged in mission activities where you see potential to start a new congregation, we are here to:

• encourage you
• explore ways of moving forward together
• pray with you
• support you
• cheer you on.

Some new congregations will meet in a church building on Sundays while others gather in a variety of spaces and at different times of the day or week. All are worshipping communities seeking to follow Jesus while playing their part in growing ‘a bigger church to make a bigger difference’.

Our diocese received a £1m grant from the Archbishop’s Council to develop our innovative, practical plans to grow the church through multiplying congregations. This enabled The Joshua Centre to support multiplying congregations.

To find out more about the Joshua Centre and its work, visit their website  and you can contact Anthony Clowes at anthony.clowes@liverpool.anglican.org who continues to offer support to existing congregations but is also available to share his experience of starting new congregations.

The ‘Transforming North West’ project was begun in 2018 to develop a Resource Church project in the diocese with a specific focus on reaching the missing generations the deaneries of Widnes, St Helens and Warrington.

In 2020 the project was carefully re-set with Revd Tim Montgomery helping to galvanise the leadership and form a workable strategy in liaison with each Area Dean, chapter and synod so that the intended outcome might be realised.  Each deanery now has a plan to grow a Resource Church to scale and then plant out again thus embedding the planting culture in each of the deaneries.

You can find out more about the project in Widnes here: www.transformwidnes.church

You can find out more about the project in St Helens here: www.themountsthelens.co.uk

You can find out more about the project in Warrington here www.churchcollective.uk

The churches work alongside Missional Chaplains, working evangelistically in partner schools and the city’s universities. This outreach is coordinated through the Liverpool Next Generation (LNG) network.

The Missing Generations project includes:

• The Next Generation Network of School and University chaplains in Liverpool and Wigan
• St Barnabas Penny Lane
• St James in the City

To complete the project, we are currently developing plans to invest in the Everton area of Liverpool with St George’s Everton and St Peter’s with St John Chrysostom.

“We have long been concerned that we are missing a generation. A generation which, if we don’t try to reach, will be lost forever. It’s vital that we do this now for the good of the church. I pray that, as God is teaching us to be church in a new way, this funding will help us all learn to reach a generation afresh.” Bishop Beverley – Chair of The Missing Generations Project Board.