BEHAVIOUR: Developing Leaders for Multiplication – Ric Thorpe

Ric was appointed as Bishop of Islington in 2015 to oversee the Diocese of London’s church planting and church growth work. He also serves the Church of England nationally, supporting bishops, dioceses, church planters and pioneers, to develop church planting strategies and to plant new worshipping communities to reach new people in new places in new ways. He is the director of the Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication which offers church growth and church planting training and support for the full breadth of the church. Ric is chair of the Fresh Expressions Charity and the Gratitude Initiative and is an assistant bishop in Southwark Diocese. He has a doctorate in church planting from Asbury Theological Seminary and is a tutor in church planting at St Mellitus College, London. Before his current role, Ric and his wife Louie led a team from Holy Trinity Brompton to plant into St Paul’s Shadwell in London’s East End. The church went on to send four other planting and revitalisation teams to churches in the local area. Ric trained as a chemical engineer and worked in marketing with Unilever before joining the staff of Holy Trinity Brompton. Ric and Louie have three children.

The rate of church planting – how often you can do it – is not a function of how large your church is before you plant, not how much money you have, not whether there is a building to move into, but leader readiness. The rate of planting is dependent on having enough of the right leaders.