Why we exist
‘Church planting is good. A vision for church multiplication is better.’
Ed Stetzer
‘Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.’
Peter Wagner
The Birmingham Collective (formerly known as ‘2020birmingham’) was birthed back in 2010 out of the conviction that to reach a city with the gospel requires collaboration… and that the scale of the need and the opportunity is too great for any one church or denomination to meet by themselves.
To that end, a group of leaders from the FIEC, Newfrontiers and Acts 29 tentatively agreed to lay aside differences and work together – with the aim of seeing 20 churches planted in Birmingham by the year 2020.
Although we’ve successfully fulfilled the initial goal, the need in our city is greater than ever and there’s much still to be done. We’re believing for a further 30 church plants… but we also want to be more strategic, focussing more intentionally on reaching the people and places that are currently unreached, or harder to reach.
We also want to broaden our scope beyond just planting churches. We’re connected with a flourishing arts network and have also partnered together with a mercy ministry… And would love to see more of these kinds of partnerships spawned in the years to come.
In short, we’re more committed than ever to work together for the good of our city and want to play our part in the cultural, social and spiritual renewal of Birmingham.
‘2020birmingham is one of the most successful ministry projects in all of Europe!’
Tim Keller, Together for the City
Where we are
Birmingham is Europe’s youngest city, with 38% of the population aged under 25. It’s a large city, with a population in excess of one million, with over four million living within an hour’s commute of the city centre. It’s also an extraordinarily diverse city in which 57% of children under eleven are from a variety of ethnic minorities, and over a fifth of the population is Muslim. 94% of people in the city are entirely unchurched or de-churched, yet it has grown into one of the UK’s most religiously diverse conurbations.
The scale of spiritual need demands a size of vision that no single church, network, or denomination can realise alone.
Since 2010 we have partnered in the planting of over 20 churches, and we’re now pushing towards a further 30 by the year 2030.
‘Church planting is not only for frontier regions or pagan societies that we are trying to help to become Christian. Churched societies will have to maintain vigorous, extensive church planting simply to stay Christian. One church, no matter how big, will never be able to serve the needs of such a diverse city.’
Tim Keller