I’ve mentioned often enough that Mike Frost is coming to the UK between 3-11 October 2008 to talk about the future of the church. Well, the update is that the programme and workshop details have been released for the Southampton event [tickets here].

The programme looks like this…

Track 1: Training people to live as exiles – facilitator: Mike Frost
‘Exilio‘ is a new course based on Mike Frost’s book ‘Exiles: living missionally in a post-Christian culture.’ In this workshop, Mike introduces the course and talks about how you can get the most out of it in your church setting.

Track 2: Mission shaped communities – facilitator: Billy Kennedy
What do missional churches look like in the context of Southampton? Billy Kennedy is Team Leader at New Community Church and has a national leadership and advisory role with 24-7 Prayer and other ministries.

Track 3: Church from scratch – facilitator: Phil Kingsley
What are the encouragements and pitfalls of planting a new missional church? Phil Kingsley is a missional church-planter in Dublin, and is a Europe-wide missional resource strategist for Greater Europe Mission.

Track 4: Get missional or die trying – facilitator: John Ayrton
“What speed bumps do you hit on the road to becoming a more missional church?” John Ayrton Portswood Evangelical Church. Before that he spent twenty years working in international missions with Interserve. is minister of

Track 5: Yes, but… do we have to abandon ‘attractional church’ if we want to be ‘missional’? – Facilitator: John Risbridger
An opportunity for those of us committed to more conventional models of church to explore both what we can learn from, and what may trouble us about ‘missional’ models. John Risbridger is one of the ministers at Above Bar Church, and spent ten years working with students with UCCF
Track 6: Movies for God’s sake – Facilitator: Tony Watkins
The movies give us one of our greatest opportunities to connect with our culture – but how? Tony Watkins is the author of ‘Focus: the art and soul of cinema,’ and is widely known as a writer and speaker on engaging with contemporary culture. He has lost count of how many movies he has watched.

Tickets for the Friday evening and Saturday cost £15 and can be purchased from the Facing the Challenge website.