ReNew Conference 2024 

On 22-23 September over 400 Anglican leaders, lay and ordained, both those within the Church of England and outside (in the Anglican Mission in England or AMiE) gathered together in Leeds for their annual conference. The theme this year, appropriately, was ‘Lamenting with Hope’.

Many reasons to lament

Those looking at the Anglican Church from outside will see in the established church, just as those serving in the C of E experience, there is much to lament. The state of the current House of Bishops was rehearsed so that no one was under any illusions. There is a tragic lack of Biblical conviction in the leadership of the denomination and so we were helped to lament with honesty and sincerity. It was noted several times that there is too an alarming lack of future leaders coming through, not just in the CofE, but across the country. Who will lead the vulnerable sheep in generations to come?

So we heard models of lament in Psalms 74, 80 and 84. Lament is a discipline just as thanksgiving needs to be a discipline. It is the ‘pressure release valve’ in the life of faith. It is a vital expression of healthy Biblical faith with 67 of the 150 psalms having elements of lament. What would the Christian look like who never lamented? They would be someone whose prayers were either lacking or pretending. We end up with a false faith in an impotent God.

More reasons to hope

The gospel’s unity

We heard updates from the work of the Church of England Evangelical Council (with the Ephesian Fund and the Alternative Spiritual Overseers (ASO’s) and the enormous encouragement in the formation of The Alliance. Going back three years or so, could any of us have imagined such a partnership between the Church of England Evangelical Council, Church Society, the HTB Network, Living Out, Myriad, New Wine, ReNew and Forward in Faith? One platform speaker described it as ‘a miracle of God.’ Regional groups were strengthened in their resolves to meet together, contend together and pray together, as we heard from Daniel 11:32 that the people who know their God will stand fast and take action.

The gospel’s power

The conference programme was littered with success stories of God’s vibrant Word. We heard from refreshingly ‘normal’ churches persevering in bringing the Word of God to bear on people’s lives and how the power of the gospel proves time and again to be wonderfully transformative in a rich variety of people. We heard of plants becoming more established, of AMiE exceeding its goal of 25 churches by 2025, now with about 30 congregations, and we heard of exciting plans to reach unreached areas of towns and cities.

The gospel’s grace

In a thematic talk on 2 Corinthians, we were reminded that God’s grace is sufficient for sin, for suffering and for ministry. Whatever exactly the future holds, and none of us knows, the gospel is less, ‘we’ve got this’, and all about ‘he’s got you’ and ‘he’s got his church’. And so whatever happens to us, we continue to proclaim Christ and contend for Christ, to the glory of Christ.

Wessex Gospel Partnership churches belong to a number of different national networks. We will have a blog post from the FIEC conference in November.
For more information about ReNew and in due course, some of the conference content, see www.renewconference.org.uk