How did you come to be passionate about missions?

• It helped that I am a fourth generation “missions person”. My great grandparents, my grand parents and my parents were all missionaries.
• The Lord has also put a passion in me for missions and there is nothing that I am more excited about than missions.

You started a movement called MoveIn.  Can you describe its vision?

• The vision is to see the church living among the poor, among unreached people groups and living in urban locations.
• There are two requirements:
  • You need to move into a small area that we call a patch that is unreached, urban and poor.
  • You need to pray together as a team of regular people for God’s transformation in and through that community.
• Patches are small – many patches are 500×500 metres. When we move into them, we know exactly who we are praying for and where we desire to see God at work.
• These patches are home to new-comers and people who have less. It’s a real privilege to live in these contexts.

When you are looking for people to participate in MoveIn, you are looking for people in North America?

• Yes, but we are also in England, Mexico, Germany, Sweden, the Philippines, and we are starting up in Indonesia.
• One of our newest teams is in a very poor area in Israel.
• Check out the Neighbourhood Finder.

Was the first patch in Toronto?

• The team I am part of is one of the very first teams, located in East Toronto.  It’s a very exciting place!

How many people are involved in MoveIn?

• MoveIn began 7 years ago in 2009. There are 63 teams in 63 different communities, in 27 cities and more than 6 countries around the world. There are about 300 adults in the movement and 40 kids.

What does it look like to become a member of a MoveIn team?

• We often say there is no application form to join us. All you need to do is to move right into one of these patches as a praying team.  We are a movement that believes that people need Jesus and that the Bible is our authority.  So anyone who identifies with the gospel and moves in can be a part of our movement.
• There are no age requirements. We love every age.  Our average age is probably late 20s but we have people in their 70s and everything in between.
• There is a baby being born into the movement almost once a month!

 What are some of the common challenges that MoveIn members face?

• Because we live in poorer communities, we all face issues of poverty and sometimes generations of poverty. It is often a tougher place to live in terms of fresh air and green space and privacy and even hygiene but it is both a privilege and a challenge to share the burdens of our neighbours and so that is something that all MoveIn teams have in common.
• It can be a challenge to strike the right balance in this movement.

Do MoveIn members take a vow of poverty?

• We don’t celebrate poverty except for the poverty of spirit that Jesus speaks about.
• In terms of economic poverty, we do live more simply than some, but we also believe in beauty and hope and enjoyment and so we want to look a little bit different in the patches where we live. We want to take pride in beautifying things.
• While we do live more simply, we also want to be bearers of hope and something different in these communities.
• Because our movement is a movement of regular people, having this seamless way of living where we desire to make a difference, is really very different than carving out time to go somewhere else to minister.
• Our movement is designed for regular people – not people who are in full-time ministry.

Tell us a little bit about the relationship between MoveIn and the local church.

• We refer to ourselves as an inter-church movement. We are a movement that goes to church, we are regular members of church as well.
• Naturally, we are able to work with our churches in the various things they are doing, and as well, the church can view MoveIn-ers as mission workers in their church.
• As a movement, we are part of around 100 churches. Beyond that, we have many more that we partner with in various capacities.
• We are very pro-church as a movement.

Could you describe for us what happens when someone does come to put their trust in Jesus? 

• Some of the teams have planted churches in their communities. However, most MoveIn-ers find their expression of church in an existing local church.
• When someone comes to Christ, the team asks, “How can this person best be discipled?” Often that means starting with Bible studies in the patch.  It may mean introducing them to one of the churches we’re involved in.

How can Christians or church partners be supportive to MoveIn?

• If anybody in your church might be called to MoveIn, please encourage them and stand with them as they make this difficult move.
• If there are any MoveIn-ers in your church, we are so thankful for your support of them.
• In various city initiatives that MoveIn-ers are a part of, there are so many ways that we would love to partner with Christians and churches. Know that we love working with whoever shares the heart for reaching the unreached.
• We want to be a part of what God is doing and we hope you’ll find us present there, where God is working.

If someone is living in a city where there are no patches, what should they do?

• The main way we grow is when people get a call from the Lord asking them to move in to areas of poverty.
• We are happy to research with people as to where a patch could be started. We would love to dialogue with you if you’re interested.

If people want to learn more about MoveIn, or about you, how can they follow you or contact you?

• movein.to
• MoveIn Facebook Page
• MoveIn Twitter Page
• Nigel’s Facebook Page