Roger and Angie's involvement with Bristol Networks
and then Together4Bristol since 2007
(helping the WHOLE Christian community transform
the WHOLE of life in the Bristol region)
Below are most of the activities Roger has been involved with, many with Angie, across the Bristol region since 2007!
2007 1st April!
Started to network across the Christian community to help bring positive change to the Bristol region (without a salary)
2008 (to 2013)
Set up Chrysalis grants, working with a national trust, and gave £5k grants to over 100 projects, involving Christians from different churches.
2009 October
Start of Bristol Prayer Networks. Helped bring together prayer networks, facilitated by Paul Thompson. Now there are about 75 people praying daily on the Bristol Prayer Wall WhatsApp, facilitated by Derick Mulubwa.
2010 March
Set up Forum for Change in Bristol, with gatherings twice a year until 2013, of Christians involved in the different spheres of life (originally Arts, Business, Education, Media and Politics)
2010 Autumn
Launch of Faith Audit
Overview of work by churches and Christian organisations for the good of Bristol.
2010 October
Employed ten hours a week by Churches Together in Greater Bristol (CTGB), as Enabler of Mission and Unity (EMU), for example, bringing together twice a year, the senior regional Church Leaders (or “Presidents”), including the new and black-led churches, to decide overall strategy.
2011 March
Trip to Florida with members of the prayer networks for training with John Mulinde and World Trumpet Mission.
First “Spectrum” gathering at Bristol Cathedral, including the launch of the Bristol Networks website. There were 50 exhibition stands, a celebration service, and about 500 visitors.
2011 December
Launch of networks of Christians in the 8 spheres of life: Arts, Business and workplace, Education, Family, Health, Media, Politics and Social Action, and Sport. For example, Roger facilitates across the spheres and with Angie hosts `gatherings of the sphere facilitators three times a year.
2012 March
Second “Spectrum” gathering at Bristol Cathedral, with 55 stands, a celebration service and over 500 visitors
2012 Pentecost (May)
Helped set up the Arise Bristol! city-wide gathering at Ashton Gate stadium, with over
5000 people. Church and sphere leaders prayed repentance and declarations together.
Roger and Angie involved in regular gatherings and prayer actions beforehand and with the SPARK core team for the Prayer Networks.
2013 Pentecost (May)
Helped set up the Party in the Park city-wide gathering at Castle Park, with about 5000 people and church, sphere and prayer leaders.
2013 Summer
Wider gatherings across all the spheres
2013 August
Going Deeper at the Colston Hall (now Bristol Beacon). 60 exhibition stands, 16 seminars on issues about the spheres of life, performances and an evening celebration.
2014 March
Helped set up an All-Night Prayer Vigil at the Cathedral and St Stephens for about 150 people in the spheres of life.
2014 Pentecost (May)
City-wide gathering at College Green and in a packed Bristol Cathedral
2014 Autumn
Lunch gatherings for some of the leaders of about 25 Churches Together groups twice each year, before the COVID pandemic.
2014 November
Launch of Together4Bristol (T4B), with Roger Sutton of Gather Movement. With senior regional Church Leaders, plus 50 key church, prayer and sphere leaders
2015 Autumn?
Launch of Cinnamon Faith Audit
Overview of work by churches and Christian organisations for the good of Bristol.
2016 February
Helped set up Business and Workplace conference, “Love Work” for 350 attendees
2016 March
Launch of “Lets Work Together” Manifesto by the Christian community, which Roger helped write, for the Mayoral Election
2016 April
Helped set up Hustings for Mayorial Candidates with 200 attendees
Launch of the T4B website. Monthly meetings with Adam Hudson, to oversee the updating of the website and Facebook group (with over 1000 members) and other social media (X and Instagram)
2016 October
Set up first gathering of Keyboard. Lunches every two months with key black church leaders, with eventual network of 40 black-led churches.
2017 to 2024
Three Prayer Breakfasts a year with Mayor Marvin Rees, attended by between 40 and 100 church leaders, from a list of 230 invited
Monthly prayer breakfasts for between 12 and 15, which Roger attended, to pray with Mayor Marvin
2017 January
Response to Mayor Marvin's “Offers and Asks”. First Bristol Churches Winter Night Shelter, every winter until 2024, with over 500 volunteers from 50 churches in its peak year. Roger part of Christian Action Bristol (CAB)'s core group (2015 to 2022), led by Andy Street, which helped oversee the responses to seven different “Offers and Asks”
2017 Easter
Helped set up The Turning, evangelistic mission involving 70 churches, with 650 first time commitments.
2017 Autumn?
Went to New York for Movement Day, with 3000 delegates from unity for mission movements, such as T4B, from 90 countries
2017 October
Spoke at Gather's Movement Day in London, with Mayor Marvin, Andy Street and ST. Introduced spheres work to 1,000 Christians from 130 unity for mission movements in the UK. Part of Gather Movement's wider team.
2017 to 2020
Angie part of Burn 24/7 core team, with monthly worship gatherings in different churches across Bristol.
2017 Autumn
Church leaders' Learning Hub to help eleven churches explore LICCs Whole Life Missional Discipleship
2017 November
Set up Reformation 500 gathering for 70 attendees, at Clifton Cathedral, with Bishop Declan speaking, as a Catholic, about the Reformation in 1517.
2018 January
Launch of Bristol Churches City Fund, which raised £42k for 5 projects in 2018 and £130k, in its peak year (2020), for poverty during the COVID pandemic. Roger part of CAB's core group, led by Andy Street, which helped oversee this.
2018 May
Helped set up CAB's City of Hope gathering at City Hall, for 200, including Mayor, Cabinet members, businesses, charities and churches. Involved in the City Office gatherings, set up by the Mayor.
2019
Launch of CAB's website, linking to networks in 14 categories of social action
2019 Autumn
Roger spoke at the unity movement gatherings in Exeter and Plymouth about T4B
2019 November
Roger set up the Gather Collective in Bristol, with 50 key Christians from across the UK, to discuss the Bristol story, including at City Hall with Mayor Marvin.
2019 November
Helped set up T4B's Annual Gathering for 70 attendees, with Keyboard and Asher Craig.
2019
Transforming Lives for Good (TLG), with volunteers mentoring a selected primary pupil often in danger of exclusion, set up in 8 deprived schools, through CAB and the Education sphere. Roger and Angie both involved as mentors in Knowle West.
2020 March
National Day of Prayer Zoom concerning the COVID pandemic, with 160 attending from Bristol. Roger and Angie involved with regular prayer on the hills. Helped set up WhatsApp groups for prayer, including in several spheres.
2020 March to May
Study leave to start researching the pioneering work in Bristol, especially a biblical worldview being expressed in the spheres of life
2020
As part of CAB's core team, Roger helped respond to the demand for food during the pandemic, with the Bristol Churches City Fund raising £130k to help Foodbanks and Foodclubs feed 20k. Angie's involved at the Knowle West Foodclub.
2020 September
Roger involved in Keyboard Zoom for 70 attendees about the Church and racial injustice
2020 November
Set up T4B Annual Gathering for 100, about COVID response and also racial injustice
2021 March
Roger and about 40 from the Christian community involved in a City Office gathering of 400 on Zoom
2021 March
Roger facilitated the Faith community's Manifesto for the Mayorial Election.
2021 June
Roger set up gathering of 70 church, prayer and sphere leaders to discuss the Christian community's 2050 Vision “Building Bristol as a City of Hope”, to engage with Bristol's One City Plan.
2021 November
At T4B's Annual Gathering, Roger stopped being EMU after over 11 years and became a T4B Trustee for the spheres only
From 2022 onwards
As Spheres Trustee of T4B, Roger, as a volunteer for one day a week, is involved with T4B's Enabling group, meeting 3 or 4 times a year, plus other connected activities, such as the Planning group for the future of T4B.
He hosts the Spheres Facilitators, with Angie, three times a year at Lee Abbey, including supper.
He walks closely with some Spheres in particular: the Love Family sphere, the Bristol Media Hub, the Business and Workplace group, with regular gatherings linked to the Upper Reaches barge, as well as the Sport and Education spheres, where he joins their “share and prayer” gatherings 3 or 4 times a year
He joins the Love Family monthly prayer sessions
Roger is interviewed 3 or 4 times a year on Zoom, by other towns or cities about T4B's spheres work and occasionally speaks in churches in Bristol about T4B.
Roger is researching a long-term writing project (at least 5 years) to write a book about pioneering in Bristol in the last 40 years, including in the spheres of life
and is teaching courses to help others be sent out into every area of life, including the Finding Your Purpose course and Empowering you for Purpose! podcasts
In addition, here are some other activities and gatherings:
2022 June
Interviewed at the Gather Movement Summit about the spheres, to encourage more of the unity for mission movements, in 150 cities and towns, to engage across the whole of life.
2022 June
Set up the Whole Life group, meeting 3 times a year, to help church leaders, in particular with links to the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC) to release their congregation to be missional everyday, everywhere.
2022 September
Interviewed at LICC Associates gathering about the spheres in Bristol
2022 November
Spoke at T4B's Annual Gathering about the spheres work over the last year
2022 December
Ffald y Brenin retreat with others across the UK who are releasing Christians into every sphere of life
2023 March
“City of Hope” T4B Gathering for 70 invited people, most involved in the Spheres of life, to share and dream about the next 3 to 5 years.
2023 Spring onwards
Helped set up the ongoing 100 Friends Appeal to raise funds for the updating of T4B's website and social media.
2023 May
Helped set up the Media sphere's gathering for about 50 (collaborating with the Kingdom Creatives' Arts sphere), called the Art of Storytelling
2023 April to July
Study Leave to research Bristol's pioneering work over the last 40 years, including across the spheres of life, as part of a long-term project (at least 5 years) to write a book.
2023 May
Roger made an Ecumenical Canon at Bristol Cathedral
2023 May
Spoke at T4B's Pentecost gathering at Bristol Cathedral about the spheres
2023 Autumn
Interviewed with Andy Flannagan on Gather Movement's Learning Community podcast helping other towns and cities engage with the spheres of life in Bristol
2023 October to September 2024
Roger set up pilot group of monthly Reframe course, with Angie, exploring the Biblical story and seeing how it connects with individuals in the spheres of life. Including three sessions with supper at Lee Abbey.
2023 October
Set up the launch of the Bristol Media Hub at Upper Reaches barge
2023 November
Gathering of T4B's Presidents (senior regional Church Leaders) with Knowle West church leaders, at Lee Abbey, including lunch.
2024 January
Final prayer breakfast with Mayor Marvin for about 40
2024 January and February
Helped the Christian community in Knowle West and across Bristol respond to the killings of teenagers, including a Zoom prayer call for 120 and a gathering about Knife Crime, with Steve Chalke at a full Cathedral
2024 March
Involved in a Zoom call and a gathering at the Cathedral, both with about 200, about Knife Crime in Bristol
2024 March
Wrote a brief paper (with Andy Flannagan) for Churches Together in England about the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Spheres in Bristol, to help others in UK to engage.
2024 April to start of September
Study Leave to research Bristol's pioneering work over the last 40 years, including across the spheres of life, as part of a long-term project (at least 5 years) to write a book.
2024 May
Final monthly prayer gathering with Mayor Marvin, involving about 12 of us
Involved in the final May Bank holiday, of The Noise, especially in Knowle West
Involved in T4B's Pentecost gathering at Woodlands church
2024 June
Took Small group from Bristol to Gather Movement's summit in Derby
Ffald y Brenin retreat with others across the UK who are releasing Christians into every sphere of life
Comments