Jacqui & Marie (Fakenham, UK)

My phone thrummed quietly on the desk.

‘We're going out in Fakenham this Saturday, read the message popping up on screen. ‘You'd be very welcome to come up Friday evening and come out with us Saturday day time. If you want to, bring your camera and take some photos of us ‘in action’ in Fakenham.’

A quick double-tap on the keyboard and my calendar was in front of me, confirming what I already knew. I keyed in my reply: “This weekend could actually work - what's the best train station for me to come to?”

Jacqui (left) and Marie have been pioneering in Fakenham since January 2021

That’s how I ended up on a train two days later, making my way through Cambridge, Ely and then King’s Lynn before arriving in a small market town in North Norfolk that, until a year ago, I had never heard of.

Despite the name, Fakenham (pronounced ‘fake-en-um’) is very real. Many of us learned that last month at our most recent RM Together online when we watched a video that Marie and Jacqui had put together in 2021. Since then, the two women had been ministering in the town by themselves and were now looking to add people to their team.

Introducing something a little different

Traditionally, church planting in the West follows a pattern: a visionary leader will gather a group of people and, supported by an established church, transplant to a new location. Once there, they begin to gather with the hope of becoming numerically and economically stable enough to sustain a physical presence in the community, put a formal leadership structure into place and cultivate their own unique culture and identity.

It has both strengths and weaknesses, as pointed out by Stef Liston when he shared his thoughts on the subject in an article.

It relies heavily on support from churches. It relies on particularly gifted leaders. It requires a lot of people. If not careful, it can become more about gathering in than reaching out - but it has also led to hundreds of fruitful church families across the UK over the years. My own church family - Revelation Church London - has its roots in this planting method.

Jacqui and Marie however, have a very different strategy when it comes to seeing a flourishing church community in Fakenham.

Galvanising the multitudes

In that 2021 article I quoted Stef on a new approach to UK church planting:

For Relational Mission to see 100 multiplying church families established in the next 20 years, we need to consider other ways…there are literally thousands in our family of churches who are able to lead godly lives, shine the light of Christ and reach out with the gospel; who are able to lead people to Christ, make disciples of them and build from there.
- Stef Liston (Plant UK: Rethinking the re-evangelism of the UK)

Jacqui and Marie are two of these faithful men and women who were stirred by the need in Fakenham. In January 2021, they began going out regularly to meet local residents, offer prayer and share the gospel. These were the small steps towards a much larger pioneering vision: to see a ‘DMM’ (Disciple Making Movement) - established.

A… what kind of movement?

There are several variations, but at their core, every kind of DMM encourages multiplication to be central in the life of followers of Christ from the outset - to be a reproducing disciple, not merely a convert¹. As a result, rapid multiplication is established as every individual is encouraged and equipped to share the gospel, as reflected in Acts 8:4, “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

Whilst being a well-used approach for making disciples in the wider world, Disciple-Making Movements have not gained a lot of traction or recognition in the West. Examples in the UK are few and far between, but Marie and Jacqui have sensed that this was the model that God is calling them to pursue in Fakenham.

Postcard-perfect houses can hide great spiritual need

Church attendance in Fakenham is very low, despite over 50% identifying as Christian

Ground ripe for harvest

Fakenham is a market town dating back to the 1200s. The 2021 census yields interesting findings: in the town of roughly 9,000, around 40% claim no religion, and of the rest, nearly 52% identify as Christians² - yet church attendance is not reflected in those numbers. In conversation with Jacqui and Marie I learned that past church planting endeavours have struggled. Street preachers received positively elsewhere have been booed out of the town. During my own time there I was taken aback by how cold people became at the mention of anything spiritual.

Given the context it’s obvious why so much of Jacqui and Marie’s approach is grounded in prayer, fasting and worship. They are convinced that, apart from a great move of God in Fakenham, there will not be a harvest - and when God does move, there will be an incredible harvest of reproducing souls!

Faith and action

In my time with them, I was deeply impacted by their faith, humility and hunger for God.

They are not convinced that any measure of giftedness, zeal or work will bring forth any worthwhile results; instead they have sowed diligently in the unseen realms through prayer and fasting. But lest you think of them as so “heavenly minded, that they’re no earthly good” (!), for the past few years Jacqui and Marie have spent their free weekends in the town, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them in their interactions with the people they meet.

These times of outreach have borne some fruit; friendships have formed with several individuals, there has been answered prayer and healing and they have been able to share the gospel with many.

It’s first taste of a bigger harvest.

They’re believing God for so much more.

New horizons

They’ve come to a season where they are calling for increased investment from others.

Can you join them?

Would you be willing to partner with them in prayer? Join with other faithful men and women who are praying for salvation, particularly for disciple-making disciples, in the town of Fakenham.
If you would also like to be kept aware of more immediate prayer needs, contact them (details below) and they’ll be in touch.
Can you join their team? Jacqui and Marie are looking for men and women to join them regularly in their times of prayer and in their outreach.