Hello!! 👋🏻
We are Matt and Rachel Wright…
We don’t want to go through the motions of following Jesus; we want to actually do it, everyday, and we are always learning. Jesus is the most important thing, and we believe following him is a call to be missional disciples.
The UK historically sent out missionaries to share the good news of Jesus all over the world, and now many nations are sending missionaries back to the UK because as a nation we have turned away from God.
We see ourselves as home-grown missionaries, raised in the UK, shaped by it, and ‘sent’ to it. We believe our ministry is only one small part of what God’s Church in the UK needs, and that it will compliment what God is already doing wherever we go. We love feeding into and supplementing God’s work by stirring up the embers of the Church again.
We have a huge passion for the local Church in the UK! Over the last 15 years we have worked with multiple churches from a variety of denominations and have both the good news stories and the scars to prove it. The last few years in particular have hugely shaped who we are today: the tragic loss of our son Boaz, the world-wide pandemic, working with an international discipleship organisation and the birth of our two daughters have impressed upon us the need to make every day count.
Our journey together has taken us from Israel-Palestine to Romania, Kenya, Southampton, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and many places in between. During that time we believe God has been preparing and training us, and ultimately leading us to ignite ‘Embers’, a UK-based Missional Discipleship platform to help facilitate and encourage church renewal.
Embers is a small organisation with a big dream: the renewal of God’s Church in the UK.
Every Christian church starts with good intentions but life can be hard, and so many things can dim our fire. We long to encourage and equip God’s people in the UK to follow Him as everyday missional disciples.
The name ‘Embers’ came about for a few reasons:
Firstly, when a fire is burning well the hottest part is the embers. However once removed from the fire as a whole an ember will quickly cool off and go out. Similarly we believe when the Church is functioning well the members, or each individual follower of Jesus, will be in an ever deepening relationship with God and living missionally in their everyday context. However if you remove the follower of Jesus from the gathered Church they will quickly ‘cool off’, their devotion to God will wain and their missional living will become less of a priority.
Secondly, each ember in a fire has the potential to start a whole new fire if given the right conditions. We believe each follower of Jesus, given the right conditions, has the potential to begin a whole new church. We believe in the priesthood of all believers and that each and every follower of Jesus, if called, can cultivate a new church community. This isn’t done by their own strength but through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, if a fire lacks oxygen it doesn’t matter how much fuel you add, the fire will die. We believe the oxygen for the Church is the Holy Spirit. You can fuel a church with all the best attractional events, all the best speakers, have the flashiest sound and audiovisual equipment but if the church is trying to function without the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, ultimately it will die.
For those interested in theology, we subscribe to the Evangelical Alliance’s Basis of Faith and the Nicene Creed. We know churches use different labels but we will happily work with anyone who loves Jesus and wants to know him more. We love working with individuals and organisations as well as families. We also enjoy working with those who don’t yet have a faith and want to know Jesus or are exploring faith.
We are Baptists by background, Matt is an ordained elder with the Free Methodist Church and we have big ecumenical outlooks. We have worked with various Churches Together groups, and the material we teach draws from John Wesley among others. We like to learn from the past but are also keen on what God is doing today.
In summary: Embers is here to help people in the UK live for Jesus in such a way that local churches are renewed and many, many lives are changed. We encourage you to explore our website and look forward to hearing from you if you’d like to know more.