Thrive is the new annual gathering for the Salt & Light Advance family of churches. Gathering together as a wider family of churches is important! We catch sight of a bigger picture. We see that he’s called us to be a movement, together impacting our part of the world. We are inspired, taught and equipped and filled afresh with the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity to deepen old friendships and create new ones. We eat, pray and worship together.
Check out our Thrive 2024 resources to get a feel for what we did in 2024.
Who is Thrive for?
Thrive is our annual Advance gathering for all those keen to play their part. That includes leaders (leading within the church), leaders and activists (leading beyond the church) and all those keen to play their part in seeing local churches thriving and helping their communities thrive.
Speakers and hosts
Anderson Moyo is from Zimbabwe but has lived in Sheffield for 20 years since moving to plant Sheffield Community Church, part of the Salt & Light family of churches. He and his wife Lydia are passionate about reaching people with the Gospel and seeing them become devoted disciples of Jesus. Anderson is an excellent communicator who handles the Word of God with skill and humility.
> Main session and seminar (Friday)
Lynn Swart has a wealth of experience as worship leader, church leader and founder/director of NewDay United, serving the most disadvantaged people of her native country of South Africa. She has a significant prophetic gift, is a great speaker, and has trained and coached many in faith and leadership. Lynn is now part of Ivy Church, Manchester.
> Main session and seminar (Saturday)
Jo Hargreaves is a a psychotherapist, writer and speaker, with an approach to therapy that integrates theology and therapy together. She loves working with people, viewing everyone holistically – spirit, soul and body. She is a Location Pastor at Alive Church, a multisite church in and around Lincoln, and is online as The Faith Filled Therapist.
> Seminars (Friday)
David Walker has a passion for equipping God’s people to be fruitful and faithful disciples in their everyday lives. He moved into church leadership 15 years ago, from business, and now leads a church in Reading as well as working for LICC as their Imagine Work Champion. LICC was founded by John Stott to help Christians make a difference in their place of work.
> Seminar (Saturday)
Ben and Michelle have spent the last 20 years living among unreached peoples in Africa. Their passion is to see God’s Kingdom come to the lost as His people step out in faith, crossing barriers and cultures with his love. They now oversee dozens of teams across Africa as well as recruiting, training and discipling others who are committed to seeing the gospel advance where it is not yet known.
> Seminars (Saturday)
Liam Thatcher leads School of the Spirit, is a staff pastor in Oxford Community Church, and was previously a preaching pastor in a large London church. He is passionate about the word and the Spirit together! With wife Helen, he also serves on the Salt & Light Advance Vision Team.
> Main session (Friday)
EVENT HOSTS
Rich and Anna Ellwood are team leaders for the Salt & Light Advance family of churches. They recently returned to the UK from Brussels, where they spent many years establishing a thriving and multicultural local church. As well as now leading Advance, they lead Witney Community Church.
> Main session (Saturday), seminars (Friday)
Programme
*All refreshments are included in the conference ticket. All sessions in Thames Hall, unless noted.
Friday 21st February
10.00am Doors open, refreshments*
10.30am Main session (Anderson Moyo, Thriving leaders)
12.30pm Lunch*
2.00pm Salt & Light Advance vision and updates
3.00pm Choice of seminars (see details below)
Thriving discipleship (Anderson Moyo)
Thriving in leadership (Jo Hargreaves) Cherwell Room
Thriving worship (Rich and Anna Ellwood) Hinksey Room
4.00pm Refreshments*
4.30pm Choice of seminars (see details below)
Thriving in leadership (Jo Hargreaves) Cherwell Room
Thriving worship (Rich and Anna Ellwood) Hinksey Room
Thriving in evangelism (Advance evanglism team)
Thriving as young people (Liam and Helen Thatcher, hosted by Ali Rice) Vale Room
5.30pm Break
5:45pm Dinner* - opportunity to connect with old friends and new, over a spacious meal
7.00pm Delegate arrivals for evening session
7.30pm Main session (Liam Thatcher)
9.30pm End
Saturday 22nd February
9.30am Doors open
9.45am Main session (Lynn Swart, Leaders who advance God’s kingdom)
Mid-morning refreshments*
12.30pm Lunch*
1.45pm Choice of seminars (see details below)
Thriving in the workplace (David Walker) Hinksey Room
Thriving in the prophetic (Lynn Swart)
Thriving in the nations (Ben and Michelle) Cherwell Room
3.00pm Closing session (Rich Ellwood)
4.30pm End
After hours 20s-30s social at the Punter pub – spend time catching up and praying together
Seminars
For more detail on seminars, click on each title!
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Speaker: Anderson Moyo, Pastor Sheffield Community Church and Team Leader Momentum Churches
Seminar description: Among Jesus’ final words before his ascension were ‘Go and make disciples’. Responding to this call is central to our lives as followers of Jesus. How, though, can our disciple-making be done in a way that is strategic, effective and replicable? Anderson will draw out lessons from the life of Jesus, the greatest disciple-maker of all, and show us how fruitful discipleship can offer us a framework for building churches which thrive.
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Speaker: Jo Hargreaves, Psychotherapist, speaker and church leader based in Alive Church, Lincoln
Seminar description: What does it take to lead with emotional health and be regulated and grounded in body, soul, and spirit? Drawing on 1 Thessalonians 5:23, neuroscience, and therapeutic insights, Jo will explore how leaders can cultivate wholeness in themselves and those they lead. This seminar will equip you to lead with clarity, create environments of safety and growth, and reflect God’s heart for emotional health and wholeness.
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Speakers: The S&L Advance Evangelism Team
Seminar description: Many of us long to be more fruitful evangelistically - helping people we know and people we don’t come to faith and become worshippers and followers of Jesus. We also want our churches to be increasingly fruitful evangelistically, seeing many come to faith. Come and hear stories and testimonies that will encourage and inspire as well as tips and pointers for those wanting to get going in evangelism and for those seeking to keep on growing in evangelism.
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Speakers: Rich & Anna Ellwood, Witney Community Church and Salt & Light Advance
Seminar description: Worshipping together as the people of God is a key part of church life. But what are we looking for when we gather? How can we make sure our gathered times of worship are inspiring and full of the life of God? We’ll explore what we’re after in our corporate worship and how to lead meetings in a way that is prophetic, pastoral and practical. If you’re involved in leading worship or hosting meetings, this seminar is for you!
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Speaker: David Walker, Imagine Work Champion, LICC
Seminar description: David will explore a biblical understanding of work and how we are called by God to be fruitful and thrive in our work. From Genesis through to Revelation we see a mandate to work well and to work for the Lord. Expect this seminar to be theological, biblical, practical, missional and interactive!
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Speaker: Lynn Swart, NewDay United
Seminar description: Come and hear Lynn’s story of getting going in the prophetic as she shares on how we can all grow in the gifts of the Spirit and learn to stay sharp in hearing the voice of God. This seminar will be interactive with plenty of space for questions and discussion.
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Speakers: Ben and Michelle, Oxford Community Church
Seminar description: From Cowley to Cairo to Calcutta - a look at the state of missions across the Global Church, and a discussion about our part to play in God’s mission as Salt & Light Advance churches.
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Speakers: Liam and Helen Thatcher used to be young, and can just about remember what it was like!
Seminar description:
What does it look like to thrive in your teenage years? And what role do young people have in this family of churches? In this seminar, Liam and Helen Thatcher will share some of their own journey and lessons they’ve learned along the way, as well as unpacking the vital role young people have in outworking the vision for Salt and Light Advance.
Bio: Liam and Helen Thatcher used to be young, and can just about remember what it was like! They are part of the team at Oxford Community Church, where they lead School of the Spirit and the student ministry. They also serve on the Salt and Light Advance Vision Team.
Offering
God has initiated a new season in our family of churches - a season of working together more closely and more intentionally with a variety of joint initiatives and projects as we seek to journey together with shared vision and purpose. God is calling us into a fresh season of fruitfulness and thriving - it’s a good day!
Please could you pray and reflect on how you could generously contribute to an offering which will be taken during Thrive. The offering will be to aid this fresh season of building together as we seek to train leaders, disciple young people, support churches, impact other nations and see our towns and villages touched with the love of God.
Although each church that’s part of the Advance gives regularly to help cover everyday costs, this fresh season of building together that we’re entering in will need further finances to really give it a boost. Please consider giving generously and joyfully to this offering.
We will receive the offering during the Saturday morning session.
Booking
Bookings for the weekend are closed, but you can join us on Friday evening for our 7:30pm meeting.
Volunteers: Thrive 2025 is going to run slightly differently to previous Thrives, so we’re looking for a good team of volunteers. Would you like to get involved behind the scenes, with a team, and benefit from a 50% or 100% discount? Volunteers will serve drinks and food, clear venues and manage the car park. Full training given. 50% volunteers will work 2-3 hours per day, and otherwise be free to join the event. Look out for volunteering options when you book.
Youth: We welcome Y12/Y13 youth to attend, free of charge, to participate in Thrive main sessions and seminars. More information to follow. (Other than nursing babies, we ask that children are not brought to Thrive. More on this below.)
Car parking: There is an adeqaute amount of free car parking on-site, as long as we all maximize our occupancy by car-sharing. More on this below.
FAQs
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For many years previous Salt & Light leadership conferences ran as Friday to Sunday residential events. However, often leaders had to leave the event on Sunday morning to go back home to run church services, as Advance is a group of smaller churches in which Sunday gatherings often rely on key leaders.
From 2024 we decided to run Friday and Saturday, with the Friday evening and Saturday designed for as wide a group of people as possible. All are welcome to all of the event, but recognising the challenge for some of taking a day off work, we’re expecting greater numbers for the Friday evening/Saturday.
NB. Friday is included in the Day ticket for Day 2 (Saturday)
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We are aware that finances are challenging for many people at the moment, and have kept prices as low as possible for the event to breakeven.
If you need additional financial support, please contact your church leadership. They will be pleased to invest into your development.
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We are offering discounts to those under 30, and free places to those 17-18. Why prioritise these groups and not others who may appreciate a concession?
Recent conferences have been mostly attended by older people, and you will understand that it is vital, for the future of what God is doing among us as a family of churches, that we engage better with younger leaders. Concessionary ticket pricing are only one part of how we are doing that.
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Thrive is one of our four main annual events. We welcome children and youth to the two Celebrations and to Wildfires, but unfortunately it is not feasible for us to offer childcare at Thrive, and we ask that children (other than nursing babies or Y12/13 youth are not brought to the event.
We know that many parents put considerable effort into carving out this child-free time, arranging for family or friends to look after children, or arranging playdates.
We are formalising what some have done in the past – to allow sharing of a parental ticket so that parents attend one at a time on a single conference ticket.
If your child is nursing they may attend. Please be aware that, while we know it can be unavoidable, if there is disruptive noise we may need to ask you to leave a session to allow others to concentrate, and will facilitate a livestream in another room.
We strongly value relationship, and believe that the best experience and learning is to be had in person – the conference is more than just listening to talks. If you really can’t join us in person there will be the option to livestream from home if necessary, available as a ticket for £20 on the booking page from January, and we plan to make all talks freely available in the weeks after the event.
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With 94 spaces on-site we anticipate adequate onsite parking for delegates, however, this is dependent on effective car-sharing. Please help your fellow delegates by car-sharing if at all possible.
Outside of Mon-Fri 8.00am-6.30pm there is also some on-street parking.
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All rooms being used for the event are acccessible by wheelchair, please let us know if you are likely to need to use the lift.
The prayer room will be available as a quieter space and there are a range of seating options throughout the building.
If you have differing capacity or needs which you would like support with please email events@advancechurches.uk
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For general terms and conditions, including discounts and accessibility, please visit https://advancechurches.uk/event-tc
For event-specific T&C please see the ChurchSuite sign up page.