Journey into church renewal
From a talk at Multiply 2025
David Lloyd, leader of the Garden Church Network, a family of missional communities in Norfolk, spoke at Multiply 2025 about his experiences of church renewal.
There comes a moment in the Church when old models break. In the 4th and 5th century, people left the Christendom church and headed to desert. They felt the church was too tame or too bureaucratic, not the pure source they were looking for. They went to the desert to pursue prayer, solitude, small communities, taking the Bible and they paved the way for the emergence of an enduring pattern of monasticism. Monasticism that would go on to give us streams of extraordinary cultural spiritual renewal, streams of renewal in literature, in prayer, in art, and moving away from Western civilization in that time.
Then today, you've got the post-Christian church. What is it? Well, we know there's a real hunger for discipleship. We know there's a hunger for authentic, beautiful communities. We know that there is a spiritual curiosity. We know that some people leave church in order to find God. that leads me on to briefly just sharing something of my own story.
I moved to Norwich in 2013 and I was invited up to play a part in revitalising a city centre church with a very small team of about three of us, and it was a great joy to be a part of that. We had a really big vision - to revitalise 10 churches in 10 years. Six or seven years in, things were going well. We had about six churches planted or partnered with, but to be perfectly honest, we were completely exhausted.
Life had become more layered, more complex, more confusing. It seemed like Jesus was buried under a lot of paperwork a lot of the time. In Norfolk, we have 658 church buildings. We'd done six, costing quite a lot of money and effort. I started to wonder, "How long, oh Lord? How much money? What would it take to make a significant difference in a short period of time without lots of lots of effort or money?"
And I also had questions about discipleship. Is the goal of Luke 10 still out there, take nothing from the journey? Am I releasing all the gifts of the people and building the body of Ephesians 4? We have that desire to build the body, to release the treasure there is in every person. Am I releasing that? Is that about helping people to join in and put out chairs and welcoming people really well?
Paul talks about the call to grow the maturity of Christ so they may attain the fullness of the measure of Christ. Is this the fullness that we're all looking for. Am I making disciples of Jesus or loyal members of my church? Is the Ecclesia we see in the early church and in Acts the same thing as a congregation? Or are they different things? Am I keeping people in a state of adolescence, inadvertently through the systems that I put in place?
I have teenage kids, and they're wonderful, it is my desire they will grow up and mature one day. Able to cook their own food, wash their own clothes, feed themselves and leave home, and also maybe fall in love and start a family and maybe reproduce. This is what I want for the fullness of my children. What do I want for the fullness of the disciples that God has entrusted to? Do I want them to keep coming back? Or do I want to send them and see them go?
Theologian, Stefan Paas talks about church funding in the secular West laying out two very distinct pictures. One, you can have limitless resources. You can have incredible people on board and create incredible irrigation systems, trying to create something limitless and fantastic, but it will need to survive in in storms. Or two, you can help create desert gardens. They don't look very impressive, but they find the ancient sources of irrigation. They survive most storms, and they don't need a lot of looking after. They look a bit like a cactus, not the most amazing thing, but remarkable when they're still there, when it hasn't rained for ages. And it struck me that in the landscape of Norfolk, in the context that we're in and with the resources that we don't have financially, we needed to grow desert gardens. And if we are going to grow desert gardens, we need desert disciples.
I had a sabbatical and we had the opportunity to travel around different parts of America and I just went on an ecclesiological quest. I wanted to try everything mega church, micro church, and everything in between. And the thing that was very impactful was the house church movement. I visited Francis Chan's movement in San Francisco. They've given away all of their money, and it made absolutely no difference as to how their church functioned the next day.
Then a couple of things happened. My colleague, a really good friend who I'd planted with over the years, suddenly had to take eight months off work, just narrowly avoiding a burnout. And that gave us a real shock, but it was also a real wake up call. So I began Garden Church secretly in our house on Tuesday nights. We just practised. Fast forward to now and there's over 230 people in 15 missional communities.
Everybody's doing something else with their lives [not full-time church workers], but we've seen sort of fruit come out of it, which is really exciting and really surprising and wonderful. In 2021, I put aside every ministry and church, realising that I was the problem for this thing to become, to grow. Amazingly, God provided in that time, and then I started working for the diocese as a pioneer trying to do some stuff, awesome things. The general sense is that I've gone from what felt like 90% effort and 10% wonder to 10% effort and 90% wonder in my Christian life and pursued mission.
I can honestly say that the network that has emerged has no major logical connection to any programme or plan that we had followed. It was like, "Oh, God, what are you doing?"
What is the garden? We have 15 or so circles, sustainable, sociable and dotted around Norfolk in different places. Our rhythm is based on Acts 2v42-46 , DLESS; Devoted worshippers, Loving Families, Equipped disciple makers, Spirit-filled missionaries, Suffering sojourners. The groups are low-cost, sustainable, and easy to replicate, making them "revival ready." They embody the vision of Ephesians 4 - where everyone’s gifts are nurtured, and everyone has a role to play.
They meet weekly and the gatherings are simple and life-giving, often including; Shared meals, Worship, Reading scripture, Prayer, Space to simply ‘be’. Everyone is welcome to participate at their own pace, regardless of age or stage of life. As communities grow, they naturally multiply.
Once a month, all groups come together for a “pop-up” gathering - a family reunion where we; Worship as one body, Encourage and love one another, Inspire youth and children, Hear teaching, Share food. These gatherings are a great way to connect and learn more.
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From a talk at Multiply 2025, 09/09/2025