Stage 0: Hub Formation
Welcome to Myriad! We are delighted that you are launching a hub.
Your journey will likely have started long before you start talking to anyone about joining the hub as a planter, but we use the Kick Off meeting as a point when we officially launch your partnership with Myriad.
This page is designed for Hub Leaders, Hub Administrators and Myriad Partners and provides the resources needed to get your hub up and running. Therefore we ask all parties to familiarize themselves with the content on this page.
Kick off Meeting Slides
Kick Off Starter Pack
Jump to
Jump to Pathway Content
Your Hub Formation Timeline
We anticipate that it will take roughly 6 months from the Kick Off meeting until your first gathering. This timeline shows you the key areas to cover in the build up to G1, whilst you will also be building the local hub team and recruiting/enrolling planters and their teams.
Sometimes though we need to compress the timescale but we'll ensure you get all the information you need before the first gathering.
Getting Started
The best way to get started is to contact church leaders in the area and invite them for a coffee. Share the vision with them, and help them identify those in their congregations who could start something new. This process takes time and investment in relationships.
It may also be worthwhile reaching out to network leaders to see if you can contribute to any denominational vocation days coming up.
It's also helpful to reach out to Christian networks in the area, particularly the prayer networks
Helpful Resources
The following resources might be helpful for a planter or church leader in discerning if someone is called to form a new Christian community.
Am I called? is a short resource designed to help people discern if they are being called by God to go and form a new Christian community. This resource should be used by the team leader along with their sending church leader, who becomes their Oversight Minister.
Designed for church leaders, Who Plants Churches? is a short resource detailing the typical gifts, skills and experiences that we observe in most church planters.
Send Me is a collection of 14 stories of church planters, including how they came to discern God's call, the support they received and how their journeys started.
The research report Listening to the Voice of the Lay Planter was conducted in 2022 and has been the foundation of much of our team's work since then to create a purpose-built training pathway for non-ordained church planters.
Looking for resources to help with publicity and social media? You can find many items here.
Although our experience is that one-to-one conversations with other church leaders will yield the best outcomes for recruitment, some media coverage can be very helpful.
Running Taster Event
A Taster Event is a great opportunity to bring together those people who are exploring options on how best to form or establish a new church community. Their church leaders may want to attend as well. Each Hub Leader will be supported by their Hub Partner to deliver this event.
Over the course of 1h30 to 2hrs (either online or in person), you'll share the vision of Myriad and church planting, share a local story and give people a taste of what it will be like to journey together. There will be stories, explanation and interaction. By the end, we hope that many people will feel they understand what Myriad offers them and will then decide to go ahead.
Here's a suggested email you can use to send to a person recommended by their church leader.
Dear {First Name},
Across the country, we are seeing people stepping up to go and form new churches so that more people can be reached with the good news of Jesus. Some of them were very driven in what they were doing and others started off quite hesitantly. The results show that new people are coming to know Jesus and the church is growing in new places.
In response to this, we are starting our own training programme for people like this in our area and we would love you to consider being part of this. We have been in contact with (CHURCH LEADER NAME) and they have put your name forward so we would love to talk to you.
We believe that the best way for the church to reach new people in our area is to form new church communities where people are. But we know that this isn't a straightforward process and so we are partnering with Myriad to provide a new pathway for people such as yourself to go and form these new church communities.
You'll journey alongside other people and their teams as you work your way from the early stages of discernment (where, who, when) to planting to growth & multiplication. You don't need to have everything worked out up front or any particular qualification, but simply a willingness to prayerfully explore what the options are for you.
We would really welcome a conversation with you to explain more about this, and you may want to attend an upcoming "taster" event on XXXXX that will help explain more of what we are trying to do.
Every blessing,
Here's a suggested email you can use to send to other church leaders. This should be used after you've had at least one interaction with them about Myriad so they have an idea what it is and what's involved.
Dear friends,
I am following up with further news and instruction about the new Myriad Hub that is due to start XXXX @ YYYY.
As a church leader, my hope is that you will already see the gifts and skills of the people in your church and will be talking to those who are sensing the call of God to go on a missional adventure and form a new church community. Please find a couple of really helpful downloadable documents that may enable your discernment conversations.
- Am I called? - intended for you to share with those exploring a call to start a new church community
- Who Plants Churches? - intended for church leaders like you to help identify the call and gifting in others to start new church communities.
Myriad’s enrolment criteria is as simple as someone who:
- Can articulate something of the call of God to go and form a new church community;
- Is committed to the Myriad Pathway over 2 years as part of a team; and
- Is supported by you as their church leader (and who will provide ongoing support as their Oversight Minster).
Once you’ve identified such a person, you will “send them” to join a Myriad Pathway and you become their “Oversight Minister” within this context. It’s possible that this new church community will be formed under the umbrella of your own church. In this case, you are also responsible for ensuring your safer recruitment practices are followed. If this doesn’t work in your context please let me know and we can work out together what needs to happen.
To enrol on the Myriad Pathway, please ask your candidate to complete this application form. I will then write to you (assuming you are listed as their referee) and ask for a simple reference. With all of these details we will ensure together that they meet the enrolment criteria for Myriad and we can enrol them. I’ll also send you some induction materials, so that you are clearer on your role in the process as oversight minister. Myriad also runs regular training sessions in this area so you’ll hear about that too.
In the run up to the first gathering, your candidate will also need to start to gather their team; they will need at least one other person with them initially, with a view to having up to 6 people attend together as a team from gathering 3 onwards. If your candidate has already started to gather a team, that’s excellent. Please do help your candidate identify suitable people to join them in their call to start a new church community. They can’t do this work alone, so we want to emphasise the principle of ‘going with others’ and ‘working as a team’, right from the outset. You will also need to work through and apply your safer recruitment practices here too.
Lastly if you or your prospective candidates are interested in sampling a bit more of Myriad before committing, then we are running an online taster event on XXXX. We would love to see many people there to encourage each other and to get a flavour as to how Myriad Pathway will support them.
Do let me know if you have any questions…
Enrolment
The Hub Leader is responsible for enrolling team leaders to the Myriad Pathway. (Safer) Recruitment of the Leader and team for the new church community, is normally the responsibility of the sending church leader (Oversight Minister) on the assumption that in most cases, the new church community will operate under the umbrella of the sending church, at least to begin with.
Where a potential team is not operating under the umbrella of an existing organisation, the Hub Leader should encourage them to align with a church or network, such as the Kairos Connexion's Microchurch Network and/or Thirtyone:Eight, for support and good governance.
Team leaders, with the support of their sending church leader, are then responsible for the safer recruitment of team members. This is normally a lighter process for those teams who are at a very early stage of discernment.
An Oversight Minister does not need to complete an application form because they are not enrolling themselves onto the Myriad Pathway.
All of the information on this page can be found in the resource Enrolling New Participants on a Myriad Pathway.
Vocabulary
A Myriad Pathway is run by a Hub. Participants on the same pathway are collectively referred to as a cohort. A cohort is made up of a number of teams, each reflecting the leadership group of a new church community. Each team has a team leader, who is the person who is enrolled onto the Myriad Pathway. Whilst we expect the team leader to be consistent throughout the pathway (as they are the ones who primarily hold the vision of the new church community), team members may change more often. Each team should be between 2 and 6 people.
A cohort with 8 teams on a Pathway might look like this:
The Team Leaders (in dark purple) are the only ones who are enrolled onto the Pathway.
It is good practice though to register every attendee for in-person gatherings so you can collect important information such as accessibility and dietary requirements.
Online Forms for Enrolment and References
Myriad is pleased to make available the following forms that can be used across all Hubs. These capture the essential information from participants to aid the discernment process.
Team Leader Application Form - to be completed by team leaders only.
Once you have received a completed Application Form, please proceed to getting a reference.
Team Leader Reference Form - to be completed by all sending church leaders in response to an application.
Team Leader Confirmation Form - to be used by the Hub Leader once the participant is confirmed as being on the Pathway.
Mentor Application Form - to be used by all those approached to become mentors for your team leaders.
Mentor Reference Form - to be used by the two identified and qualified referees from the application form.
Discernment
The Hub Leader must be confident that each team leader:
- Has a verified sense of call from God to form a new church community;
- Is committed to the Myriad Pathway and forming a team to participate in it;
- Has the support of an oversight minister, who is normally their sending church leader
- Is committed to principles of safeguarding within the new church community
Additionally, the sending church leader must also commit to:
- Ensuring safeguarding principles are upheld and reviewed regularly
- Ensuring the team are fully aware of how they are expected to operate under the umbrella of the church/network/organisation
- Providing regular supervision meetings
- Engaging with the Hub Leader at different points of the Pathway for the benefit of the new church community
- Provide support for wider stakeholder engagement, including other churches, PCCs, etc.
You may want to meet with the Participant and Sending Church Leader to discern together if Myriad is right for them. In this case you can use the Myriad resource Hub Leader - Discernment Conversation.pdf.
Confirmation
Once the Hub Leader is satisfied that the Participant will join the Myriad Pathway, please complete the Participant Confirmation Form. This information will be shared in the Hub’s Google Drive folder.
Message Template for Church Leaders
This template can be used to circulate to church leaders during the process of finding Team Leader candidates for a Myriad Pathway. It assumes that church leaders are already aware and supportive of a Myriad Hub starting and the objective is to give clarity on their role and the enrolment process.
Dear friends,
I am following up with further news and instruction about the new Myriad Hub that is due to start XXXX @ YYYY.
As a church leader, my hope is that you will already see the gifts and skills of the people in your church and will be talking to those who are sensing the call of God to go on a missional adventure and form a new church community. Please find a couple of really helpful downloadable documents that may enable your discernment conversations.
- Am I called? - intended for you to share with those exploring a call to start a new church community
- Who Plants Churches? - intended for church leaders like you to help identify the call and gifting in others to start new church communities.
Myriad’s enrolment criteria is as simple as someone who:
- Can articulate something of the call of God to go and form a new church community;
- Is committed to the Myriad Pathway over 2 years as part of a team; and
- Is supported by you as their church leader (and who will provide ongoing support as their Oversight Minster).
Once you’ve identified such a person, you will “send them” to join a Myriad Pathway and you become their “Oversight Minister” within this context. It’s possible that this new church community will be formed under the umbrella of your own church. In this case, you are also responsible for ensuring your safer recruitment practices are followed. If this doesn’t work in your context please let me know and we can work out together what needs to happen.
To enrol on the Myriad Pathway, please ask your candidate to complete this application form. I will then write to you (assuming you are listed as their referee) and ask for a simple reference. With all of these details we will ensure together that they meet the enrolment criteria for Myriad and we can enrol them. I’ll also send you some induction materials, so that you are clearer on your role in the process as oversight minister. Myriad also runs regular training sessions in this area so you’ll hear about that too.
In the run up to the first gathering, your candidate will also need to start to gather their team; they will need at least one other person with them initially, with a view to having up to 6 people attend together as a team from gathering 3 onwards. If your candidate has already started to gather a team, that’s excellent. Please do help your candidate identify suitable people to join them in their call to start a new church community. They can’t do this work alone, so we want to emphasise the principle of ‘going with others’ and ‘working as a team’, right from the outset. You will also need to work through and apply your safer recruitment practices here too.
Lastly if you or your prospective candidates are interested in sampling a bit more of Myriad before committing, then we are running an online taster event on XXXX. We would love to see many people there to encourage each other and to get a flavour as to how Myriad Pathway will support them.
Do let me know if you have any questions…
Message Template for Potential Mentors
This template can be used to send to potential mentors. It assumes that readers are already aware and supportive of the vision of planting new churches using Myriad trai and the objective is to give clarity on their role and the enrolment process.
Dear xxxx,
Thank you for your interest in becoming a mentor for XXXXX Myriad Hub.
To complete your application please could you complete this application form giving us some basic information about your experience and includes a request for a referee we can contact.
We ask all mentors to demonstrate Safeguarding Awareness so please would you either send me your up to date certificate or complete the Church of England's Basic Awareness safeguarding training.
Finally here is a link to the Mentor Handbook that includes the Mentor Induction which we ask all mentors to complete.
Please can you contact me to confirm this when this is completed. Once we have all the information we need we will be looking at the Team Leaders in our Hub and will be in touch again if we have a suitable contact for you. This is likely to happen after the hub begins <insert date>
Thank you for taking time to offer to support our Hub as a mentor.
Building your Hub Team - Role Descriptions
The Prayer Champion serves as the spiritual guardian, intentionally seeking guidance and interceding for the hub’s needs, keeping the mission rooted in faith.
Facilitators act as the relational engine, guiding conversations and ensuring that the hub remains a safe, engaging environment for everyone to contribute. They are key in helping teams process input and making relevant action plans that will make a difference. A typical gathering will need 3-5 facilitators.
The Administrator is the logistical architect, managing the "how" and "when" so that the hub functions smoothly without the friction of disorganized details.
Mentors
By the first Mid Stage meeting, you should have identified and safely recruited one mentor per lead planter (one person can mentor as many people as they have capacity for). Follow this link for more information about mentoring, including a person specification, induction materials and training. The second document is the role description.
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