In 1995, Deb and I moved to London to lead a small, struggling church which met in a run-down building in Catford. At that time we could not have imagined the grace, mercy and favour King’s would experience over the following years. What an amazing God we serve.

We are grateful for every person saved, every life transformed over the last 23 years. But as we look to the past and give thanks, we also feel compelled to look ahead and seek God again, asking Him for another move of His power among us. We are trusting and believing that what we have seen so far is just the foundation for an even greater work of God – for our city, the UK, the nations and ultimately His glory!

I believe we have a God-given call to build a church that can serve many thousands in our city and be a blessing to hundreds of churches in this nation and beyond. It will require a massive team effort, faithful and consistent service, and huge financial sacrifice once again.

By the time 2030 is upon us, I expect my time leading King’s will be drawing to an end. However, over the coming decade we have the rare opportunity to be involved in major Kingdom extension. Together we can reach, restore and resource many people.

What an opportunity, what a responsibility! I therefore ask each of you to read this Vision 2030 booklet prayerfully and come prepared to commit with your heart, your prayers, your gifts and your money, as we move into this exciting new season.

Steve Tibbert (Senior Pastor)
September 2018

We believe God is calling us to build a church of 5,000 believers, each of them known by Jesus and precious to Him. We will continue to encourage everyone at King’s to invite friends, family and neighbours to Sunday meetings, especially at key moments such as Christmas and Easter. Hundreds of people have already visited King’s in direct response to an invitation to “come and see” Jesus for themselves; for many this has been the first step in their own journey to faith.

Over the last 20 years, King’s has seen consistent growth. As the number of people attending the church has continued to increase, we have extended our facilities, moved to multiple meetings and opened new sites – a growing family needs more rooms!

As more people come to faith and the church grows, we will need yet more places to meet. We envision starting many new sites across south east London – from Croydon and Bromley in the south, right up to the Thames in the north, Lambeth in the west and Bexley in the east – with multiple meetings at most of our venues.

We want each of us at King’s to play our part in fulfilling Jesus' Great Commission to His church: to "go and make disciples of all nations".

We believe this is a call to the many not the few! With that in mind, we will seek to equip every believer to be able to share their faith. We will encourage people to reach out in their communities, families and workplaces, to initiate other outreach activities, and to take every opportunity to invite people to “come and see”.

We also believe God is calling us to be involved in spreading the Gospel not just in London and the UK, but in the nations beyond. King’s and its members already have links with churches in other nations, including Romania, China, DRC, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In addition to our support of certain specific overseas churches and projects, we want to encourage individuals and groups to get involved in short- and long-term overseas mission, both to provide opportunities for personal growth, and to advance the Gospel in the nations.

Over the years, King’s has seen thousands of people who have come through our doors experience healing and restoration. Many have come to faith here, and as we have grown as disciples, we have had our lives radically transformed by meeting Jesus in the midst of His people. We want this to multiply and to deepen in the future.

There are a number of ways we currently express the Gospel that have been particularly powerful in seeing lives change. Obviously this includes our Sunday meetings, but also settings like Alpha, our groups, and courses such as The Marriage Course, Restored Lives (for anyone separated or divorced) and Freedom in Christ.

However, we want to extend and develop these to help bring restoration in new areas. This will include parenting, helping people find freedom from addictions such as pornography, and numerous other courses.

We have contributed towards restoration in our local community through the Jericho Road Project, which we want to continue. However, we want to broaden what we do in the local community so that our work is not only amongst the most disadvantaged, as vital as that is, but affects other sections of society as well.

Some of these projects will be initiated, financed and overseen through the leadership of the church, whether they are expressed at all sites (like Big Red Box) or only one site. This will include working with young people on the margins of society who are endangered by the threat of serious youth violence. We will partner with charities that have particular expertise, such as the mentoring scheme for children run by Transforming Lives for Good.

In addition, we hope to see many “mini restore projects” develop, led by individuals from King’s, supported by their group. As people sense a call to do something to serve the local community, they will discover others in the church who have the same vision, and then, with the encouragement of the site they attend, begin a group focused on that issue. This will encourage initiatives and enable us to bring increasing restoration in our community.

We believe King’s has an important role to play in the UK. Some of this comes from the fact that we are a large, urban and diverse church, and we can therefore help other churches with our example and our experience (even as we continue to learn ourselves!). Our resources – Sunday teaching, material for groups, courses, articles, books, videos and the like – already reach widely, and we expect this to increase.

We also have a part to play in the wider Newfrontiers family we are part of. This includes the leadership given by Steve Tibbert, our Senior Pastor, and the theological influence of Andrew Wilson, our Teaching Pastor. We believe it goes well beyond this, however, and will include coaching pastors, hosting conferences, training interns, providing financial support, sharing best practice, strengthening churches, and so on.

We believe that the gifts God has given us are there for the benefit of the church nationally, and we want to use them wisely.

The Gospel crosses international boundaries, and so does our responsibility as a church. Again, some of the ways in which we work this out will be very specific. The Newfrontiers family connects us with 1,500 churches worldwide, and we will serve many of them with practical, theological, financial and leadership resources. We are also developing a closer relationship with River of Life Church in Harare, led by Scott Marques and his team. We have a number of things in common with this church – size, influence, urban context, diversity, apostolic base, focus on mercy ministry among the poor, and so on – as well as many historic links with Harare and the Ebenezer Project.

Yet we want to look beyond this. Our calling is not just to the UK, or even our family of churches, but to the nations, and the commission Jesus gave His church to go into all the world and make disciples. At times this will mean sending missionaries, teachers, money and skills overseas, without losing sight of our local church in London. The Antioch church in Acts is a great encouragement here. They were hugely effective at reaching their own city – but they also preached the Gospel, served the poor and planted churches thousands of miles away. May we follow their example.