Standing for [the next] GENeration of EVAngelicals, Andrew Heard and Al Stewart clarify it's vision in a letter sent out recently:
Geneva will be run by a board of Australian church planters which will include Al Stewart, Andrew Heard and Mikey Lynch... The passion of Geneva is to establish not just culturally relevant growing church plants but ones that are grounded deeply in reformed theology and so able to be kept from simple pragmatism and fads. This core value is critical for establishing churches that are best able to pass on a vibrant gospel to future generations.
Geneva will have its first conference in Dec 7-9. It will be for anyone who has just started a church or is interested in planting a church in the next three years. That conference will include our first assessment process...
Planters who are assessed to have the gifts and aptitudes for planting grounded and growing church plants will then be invited to join an ongoing coaching/training and mentoring program. As well as specialist input from our most experienced Australian planters and Bible teachers there will also be input from some of the best OS planters and thinkers such as Mark Driscoll.
Additionally, and perhaps most significantly, each Geneva planter will be linked up with an established planter already a few years down the path of planting with the intention that these planters become personal mentors and coaches to walk with Geneva planters through the early years of planting.
Already the church planters of FIEC network have given Geneva their ringing endorsement and are now intending to use Geneva as their assessment and coaching structure. This ensures others connecting with Geneva will have a wealth of Australian expertise to draw on.
