Join a Team

Urban Expression recruits team leaders and deploys them in inner city contexts where church planting is appropriate. Then, in partnership with these leaders, we recruit team members. Teams can start work at any point during the year.

There are normally between 4 and 10 members of each team, each of whom commits themselves to a minimum of 3 years as a team member. Team members may be invited either to join existing teams or to participate in a new team.

What are we looking for in team members?

1. Faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to follow and serve him in mission
2. Enthusiastic endorsement of the values and strategy of Urban Expression
3. Willingness to live, work and witness in an inner city community
4. Commitment to holistic mission that is concerned about the whole person
5. Patience, determination and humility in learning from others
6. Experience, skills and abilities to contribute to pioneer mission work
7. Capacity to work well within a team
8. Courage and creativity in a high-risk situation
9. Readiness to make a minimum 3-year commitment to Urban Expression

What are we looking for in team leaders?

As well as the qualities we look for in all team members, we also expect that team leaders will:

1. Have experience in relevant areas of Christian leadership
2. Have the necessary skills to lead a mission team
3. Be willing to make a longer term commitment to Urban Expression

Those who are interested in leading or joining a team

Those who are interested in leading or joining a team are:

1. Provided with an information pack and encouraged to read it thoroughly
2. Encouraged to reflect carefully on the Urban Expression values and convictions
3. Invited to come to an introductory information day in East London
4. Asked to complete an application form and provide references
5. Invited to an interview to explore the way forward

What are self-funding teams?

One of the distinctive features of Urban Expression is that the teams are self-funding. What does this mean?

1. It is the team that is self-funding, rather than the individual team member. Teams are responsible for working out how to support their members. This will require a counter-cultural level of openness and trust in the area of personal finances.
2. Some team members will work full-time in paid jobs and will be involved in the team outside of work hours.
3. Some team members will work full-time as church planters, drawing support from friends, sending churches and other supporters in the way that missionaries do.
4. Some team members will work part-time in paid jobs, earning enough to support themselves as part-time church planters.

Some team members who are earning will help to support others who are either not earning or only in part-time paid work. Team members will also be responsible for finding housing in the community where their team will work. This is not easy to find in some inner city areas. We will do all we can to assist, but we recognise that this is a key issue for prayer and patience.

Receive News

Urban Expression newsletters are sent out free of charge three times a year (February, June and October). You can request these by post or as email attachments. These give updated news of the teams and some wider developments. The current newsletter can be found on this website. If you are logged in as an associate, you can also browse the newsletter archive. Some team members also send out their own newsletters periodically.

If you are interested in receiving newsletters, please contact us with your details.

Offer Financial Support

Urban Expression is a very low-cost mission agency. We are working in areas that have very limited financial resources and we do all we can to operate in appropriate ways for these contexts.

We do not provide funding for our church planting teams, which are self-financing. Members of the teams share resources together, find various ways of obtaining support and live simply.

But we do need some financial support to enable us to maintain and develop our work. Our expenditure covers the following areas:

* Producing brochures and other material.
* Promoting Urban Expression at various events.
* Underwriting new initiatives.
* Subsidising training for team members.

We have valued the support of a number of Trusts over the past few years, but many Trusts prefer not to provide ongoing support for existing agencies so that they can fund new initiatives. We are, therefore, looking for regular support from those who believe in what we are doing and can offer ongoing funding.

Our annual budget for general expenditure at present is only about £12,000. A hundred supporters giving £10 per month would supply all we need. Is this something you might consider?

In 2007 the Baptist Union of Great Britain awarded us a grant to enable us to employ Jim & Juliet Kilpin as Urban Expression co-ordinators. We are very grateful for this and hope this grant will be available again in future years.

We are also hoping to develop links with partner churches in areas of the country with greater financial resources, offering in return opportunities for their members to participate short-term in urban church planting contexts. Would your church be interested in this?

If you (or your church) may be interested in offering financial support – either a single gift or regular support – please contact us with your details and we will be in touch.

Sign up for the Root and Branch bulletin

A monthly email bulletin called "Root and Branch" has been launched by a network of organisations committed to similar values and vision. This email bulletin contains articles, information and details of forthcoming events from members of the Root and Branch network, including Urban Expression. Other members of the Root and Branch network include the Anabaptist Network, the London Mennonite Centre, the campaign group Speak, the training course Workshop, Wood Green Mennonite Church, Christian Peacemaker Teams and the theological think tank Ekklesia. If you would like to receive the monthly bulletin, please sign up for it using the form below:

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