Bookings now open


Come join us for the 2025 ReNew Conference: Growing Leaders from Monday 29th to
Tuesday 30th September at New Dock Hall in Leeds.


FREE PLACES AVAILABLE – FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.
If you are bringing 3 or more people and one of them is an unpaid/lay leader, such as a churchwarden or PCC member/trustee, you can claim an additional free ticket. Click to book for full details.

Book now

ReNew 2025: Growing Leaders

Growing as leaders, growing leaders within a local church, & growing leaders for the wider church.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Recent reports of church growth, including among young adults, are welcome against the widely held perceptions of declining church attendance in the West. What can we be doing as churches to grow the number of men and women labouring in God’s harvest field?

We are very aware of weary and burdened church leaders, both those who are paid and those who serve in voluntary roles. Which of our local churches would not benefit from the Lord sending us a few more godly, teachable, gospel minded servant leaders?

As we pray to the Lord for him to thrust out more workers into his harvest field, how can we play our part in identifying, raising up, and training more disciple-making disciples?

To grow leaders for the wider church of God, we need to grow leaders within our local churches, and keep growing as leaders ourselves. 

Let’s gather as church leadership teams in Leeds from 29th – 30th September 2025 for ReNew’s annual conference ‘Growing Leaders’.

  • Be encouraged by faithful teaching from God’s Word.
  • Be energised in your ministry and discipleship with coaching sessions, interviews, praise and prayer.
  • Be equipped to advance the gospel in our communities so that we might see the salvation of England.

Monday


10:00 – Coffee & Welcome
11:00 – Growing as Leaders 1 – Mark 10:32-45
Bp Tim Davies (Christ Church Central, Sheffield, & AMiE Diocesan Bishop Elect)
11:45 – ReNew Agenda Update
Brian O’Donoghue (ReNew Pioneering and Operations Director)
12:45 – A Time of Prayer
Dave Barnsley (Trinity Church, Buxton)
13:15 – Lunch
14:15 – Growing Leaders – A Noble Task
Alasdair Paine (St Andrew the Great, Cambridge)
15:15 – Growing as Leaders – A Leadership Healthy Practices Panel
Simon Gales (St John’s, Lindow), Kirsten Guthrie (Trinity Church, Islington & The Proclamation Trust), Annabel Heywood (St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford & Bishop of Ebbsfleet’s Pastoral Advisor for Women), Jeremy Hobson (St Matthew’s, Ponders End)
16:00 – Coffee
16:15 – Optional Sessions (see below)
17:15 – Break
18:00 – Drinks
19:00 – Dinner
Plus interview with Phil Colgan (St George North Anglican Church, Sydney)

Tuesday


09:00 – Growing as Leaders 2 – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
Phil Colgan (St George North Anglican Church, Sydney)
09:45 – Chairman’s Address
Kieran Bush (St John’s Walthamstow, Chelmsford)
10:45 – Coffee
11:30 – Growing Leaders Within a Local Church
Robin Sydserff (Director of The Proclamation Trust)
12:30 – A Time of Prayer
13:00 – Lunch
14:00 – Growing as Leaders 3 – 1 Thessalonians 2:13-3:13
Nathan Buttery (All Saints, Preston)
14:40 – Growing Leaders Q&A
15:30 – Close


Comperes: Joe Dent (St Andrew’s, Plymouth) and Liz Jackson (Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle)




Book now

Monday’s Optional Sessions

Growing Leaders – A Historical Perspective

Lee Gatiss (Director of Church Society)

Come along to find out about how Anglicans in the past have gone about growing servant leaders for the church. Someone once said “the past is a foreign country — they do things differently there”, but are there lessons we can learn from the ways in which our forebears sought to call, train, and deploy ministers? This seminar will include examples from several different eras, to give us ideas for today and provoke further thought.

Growing Youth & Children’s Leaders

Chris Anderton (Benefice of the Redeemer, Blackburn) & Shona Hannant (St. Andrew’s Livesey, Blackburn).

In 50 years time children and young people from your congregation will be leading churches, sitting where you are now. How can we grow youth and children’s leaders now to disciple these young people for the future? We will explore the Why? Who? What? and How? of training youth and children’s leaders. Whether you’re from a large church with a big team or are a sole trader we hope this will be thought provoking and helpful.

Growing Lay Leaders (Churchwardens, PCC Members etc.)

Speakers TBA.

Session details coming soon.

Speakers

Chris Anderton (Benefice of the Redeemer Blackburn). Chris has been in Blackburn as Curate then as Vicar since 2018. He also co-leads a Summer Camp called the Vibe with a particular emphasis on training up young leaders. He enjoys going on caravan holidays with his wife and three children as well as the occasional game of tennis.
Dave Barnsley (Trinity Church, Buxton). Dave has been the Associate Minister at Trinity since 2020. Dave is married to Helen and they have three children. In his spare time he can be found enjoying the Peak District and spending time with family and friends.
Kieran Bush (St John’s Walthamstow, Chelmsford). Kieran has been vicar of St John’s Walthamstow since 2015 and chairs the ReNew Planning Team. He has two boys, Isaac and Caleb and is married to Lydia. He has retired from playing hockey (badly) but remains a keen sports fan.
Nathan Buttery (All Saints Preston). Nathan has had the great joy and privilege of being vicar of All Saints church family for eight years. He sometimes enjoys the fact that he is a Preston North End season ticket holder.
Phil Colgan (St George North Anglican Church). Phil is Senior Minister at SGNAC in Sydney, Australia, where he has seen growth to 6 congregations in his 20 years’ service. Phil’s passion is raising people up for ministry so, in addition to seeing SGNAC as a training centre, serves as Chair of the Nexus Ministry Conference, on the Board of Reach Australia and the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Sydney.
Tim Davies (Christ Church Central, Sheffield & AMiE’s Diocesan Bishop Elect). Following work in business and industry, Tim has served churches in a variety of settings in rural Oxfordshire and Sheffield. He is currently the Minister at Christ Church Central Sheffield and is AMiE’s Diocesan Bishop Elect. Tim was married to Tanya on April Fools’ Day 1989 and they have four grown up children.
Joe Dent (St Andrew’s, Plymouth). Joe is the Rector of the Minster Church of St Andrew, Plymouth, where he has served for 12 years. He is married to Catherine and they have four teenaged children.
Simon Gales (St John’s, Lindow). Simon is soon to be retiring after 28 years as vicar of St John’s Lindow, in Cheshire. He and his wife Dede will be moving to Northampton where they look forward to being part of Grace Church, and nearer to a growing number of grandchildren.
Lee Gatiss (Church Society). Lee is the Director of Church Society, Fellow in Church History and Anglicanism for the Greystone Theological Institute, and Adjunct Lecturer in Church History for the Seminari Theoloji in Malaysia. He serves at Christ Church, Cambridge and is the author of a number of books including Living to Please God: Life for a Higher Purpose and Pleasure.
Kirsten Guthrie (Trinity Church Islington & The Proclamation Trust). Kirsten spends half her week as women’s worker at Trinity, and the other half at the Proclamation Trust, as Assistant Director of Women’s Ministry, mostly training and supporting women studying at Cornhill. Besides that, she can often be found cycling with friends, baking or entertaining her godchildren.
Shona Hannant (St. Andrew’s Livesey, Blackburn). Shona is the Children’s and Community Worker at St. Andrew’s Livesey, Blackburn, and previously worked at a church in Dagenham. As well as teaching children on Sundays, Shona visits local schools, runs an after-school group for children in the community, and leads a daytime Bible study. To relax she loves a walk in the countryside and a pub lunch.
Annabel Heywood (Bishop of Ebbsfleet’s Pastoral Advisor for Women). Annabel grew up and worked in London, became a Christian as an adult, and served in ministry roles at St Anne’s, Limehouse and St Ebbe’s, Oxford. Having retired from full-time service at St Ebbe’s, she is one of the Pastoral Advisors to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, seeking to advance positive practices of complementarian ministry.
Jeremy Hobson (St Matthew’s, Ponders End). Jeremy and Dawn moved to Ponders End last Summer to reopen St Matthew’s after a long period of closure. The Lord has provided a gospel-hearted team to help them reach this largely Muslim community, and a new church family has started to come together. They have two grown-up children, two cats, several coffee machines, and one double bass.
Liz Jackson (Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle). Liz is the Women’s Worker and helps with the day-to-day running of church life. She became a Christian in teenage years through her Christian family and CYFA camps. In her spare time, she is a personal uber driver for her teenage kids, loves a scroll on Vinted, and constantly pursues the perfect coffee while pretending to walk the dog.
Brian O’Donoghue (Pioneering and Operations Director, ReNew). Brian started to love and follow Jesus in 1990 at Durham University. He is married to Claire and father to Ella, Tom, Freddie and Will with whom he shares responsibility for Tilly, an Irish Terrier. They enjoy life and church in London but value excuses to get out into the countryside and to the coast.
Alasdair Paine (St Andrew the Great, Cambridge). Alasdair has been Vicar of St Andrew the Great since 2011. Before that, he served at St Leonard’s, Exeter and Christ Church Westbourne, Bournemouth. Alasdair is the author of The First Chapters of Everything on Genesis 1-4, and, this September, of A Noble Task, a book to help men consider serving in pastoral ministry.
Robin Sydserff (The Proclamation Trust). Robin is the Director of The Proclamation Trust and previously the Senior Minister at Chalmers Church, Edinburgh, where a major focus is on training and sending out gospel workers. Robin was the founding Chair of The Bonar Trust and is currently co-authoring a book on training culture. He is married to Sally and they have three grown up children.
Sarah Tett (St Helen’s Bishopsgate).Sarah is a member of the London Diocesan Synod and Bishop’s Council and chair of the Vacancy in See Committee. A trustee also of CEEC and Tyndale House, she has been involved with trustee training in many of these roles, as well as extensive experience serving in her local church, including on the PCC. Professionally she trained as a solicitor.

Partners

Book now

Archive

For details of previous ReNew annual conferences.

Scroll to Top