JLR Conference 2025
The second Christians in the Workplace Conference was held on Saturday March 1st 2025 at the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Gaydon facility with about 240 attendees, up from 160 last year.
The event started with Ana’s testimony on how the Holy Spirit led and guided her through getting a job working with children.
Simon and Diego, the JLR Christian Workplace Group (CWG) co-chairs introduced and compered the conference.
JLR D&I groups have an exec sponsor and Gregor McLachlan gave a short address as the CWG exec sponsor. It was encouraging to see exec sponsorship – a model worth replicating in other companies.
The faith network lead, Elizabeth Hill, spoke about the wider faith networks in JLR, with 4 faiths currently represented with the faith network acting as an umbrella network. As all networks are people led, then hopefully representatives of other faiths will also participate. Networks are seen as a safe place to flourish and also JLR are looking to increase connection between networks. Aim of all networks is to enable JLR employees to bring their whole self to work.
Grant Smith gave a summary of his 2024 talk. Main question he posed was:
“What are you built for?”
Grant reminded us of his work supporting indigenous Christians to respond to poverty. In Kenya, a development on land owned by a church has enabled that church to generate $250k/year income for the church in Kenya. His work has been a real roller coaster whilst seeking to demonstrate Jesus in places people did not expect to find Him.
The missions champion at LICC, Mark Greene, author of books such as “Thank God It’s Monday” is also a workplace conference speaker and commented on this being the largest workplace gathering he had attended.
Mark described how we need to be James Bond, going on a mission. JB is always briefed, trained, resourced, commissioned and supported.
Mark did comment on how teachers can be prayed for to support Sunday school but prayer for their time at school itself is often neglected. An area some churches are starting to realise they can do better at.
Mark asked “How fruitful do we feel we are?”. We need to beware of “Tomato Syndrom” – when we think what we have done is a vegetable but God thinks it is a fruit. John 15:5 – if we are in Jesus, we WILL bear fruit.
Mark shared on the 6 Ms – criteria for work. 1: Model Godly Character; 2: Make good work; 3: Minister grace and love; 4: Mold culture; 5: Mouthpiece for truth & justice; 6: Messenger for the gospel.
Beverley Shepherd asked us to remember 3 things:
1: Who God is
2: Who we are
3: There is an enemy.
One of the keys to fruitfulness is beware scarcity mentality. Be prepared to step into the gap in the workplace. Notice how we are and our energy. Be mindful on what you are agreeing with.
The 2025 prophetic network word is “Release the fighters”. Our weapons are praise & worship, prayer, thanksgiving and joy.
We are all witnesses, so pray for the conversations we have at work. We are pipelines of blessing, so why not bless every meeting you go to and bless everyone who will be there. Do not use the weapons of this world. Confront pride with humility. Take authority over the room you are in; the office you work in; the project you are involved with. Stand in the gap for your organisation. Pray for your leaders. Remember your real boss is God.
Simon and Diego gave an overview of the JLR CWG journey.
Gal 6:9 Do not become weary, but in due time will reap. JLR CWG is part of the wider faith network but maintains its distinctiveness.
Marie Aitken from Alpha shared a personal video from the Gumbels for the conference.
JLR are running Alpha starting May 7th 2025 weekly for one hour. Intention is to open this to online groups in other companies.
The conference sessions started with excellent times of praise and worship and the conference concluded with a time of worship and prayer.
| Rev Andy Moore, Chair of Trustees, gives an insight into what the Christian Ambulance Association is all about. |
| Godspot is a monthly thought for reflection and prayer brought to us by Transform Work Ambassador Andy Smith taken from his monthly recordings with UCB radio. |
| I’ve been working at my company for 23 years, and for most of that time as the only Christian in the workplace and so sourced my workplace support via Chaplaincy Plus in Birmingham but always wished to be able to set up a small group in our company. |
| Godspot is a monthly thought for reflection and prayer brought to us by Transform Work Ambassador Andy Smith taken from his monthly recordings with UCB radio. |
| Can you spare £10 a month to help us achieve our vision of 1000 workplace groups in the UK? |
| Have you ever heard of "Workplace Ministry" in a church? Or wondered what it looks like in action? Let me help you understand. |
| Godspot is a monthly thought for reflection and prayer brought to us by Transform Work Ambassador Andy Smith taken from his monthly recordings with UCB radio. |
| Transform Work is thrilled to be working alongside The Business Connection, Solas and Thrive Scotland to inspire and empower workplace Christians through a concentrated two weeks of connecting, and equipping through Thrive25. |
| Where better to shine your light this Christmas than in your workplace? A number of Christian Workplace Groups are planning to take part in this initiative, why not join them? |
| Transform Work has been promoting our Faith Literacy materials to members of Christian Workplace Groups, ahead of Interfaith Week. |
| Join the midday sector prayer meetings lead by many of our Christian Professional and Sector Group leaders. |
| Transform Work have partnered with our Associate Anne de Lyser from Local Houses of Prayer (LHOP) to bring you a framework she developed for speaking blessings over your workplace or sphere of influence. |
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Have a listen to Transform Work Ambassador Andy Smith share his powerful story with UCB2 presenter Matt Brown about how God healed his son. |
| Transform Work attended David’s Tent, a Christian festival at Charlton Park, Wiltshire. This is a review of how the weekend went. |
| Meet some of the talented new people who are joing the Transform Work team. |
| Transform Work and Local Houses of Prayer are working in partnership to bring you a brand new resource to help you in the workplace. |
| During his entire career, he was an active member of Christian Workplace Groups. In 2016, after a talk by TransformWork, he felt challenged to pursue formal recognition of the Christian Workplace Groups within.... |
| If you are a financial supporter of Transform Work you will hopefully have received a hard copy of our Annual Report and we are excited to present it to you again here. |
| Watch the presentations from our 2024 Annual General Meeting. |
| Listen to Joy share her experience of connecting with Transform Work and how it affected her workplace experience. |
| Meet our Scottish Lead Ambassador |
| Don't give up the habit of meeting together. There are many ways Christians can continue to 'meet' - Christian connection and a Christian presence are two key aspects for Christian Workplace Group survival and impact. |
| I am excited to announce details of our week of prayer to kick off Lent, starting on Monday 12 Feb. The theme will be ‘stretch’, based on three scriptures that God has impressed on us as we have begun praying into this new year. |
| Do you live in Scotland and are you passionate about Jesus and making him known in the workplace? Could you be our new Scottish Lead Ambassador? |
| What an exciting year it was from 2022 to 2023 for Transform Work and there is lots to look forward to in 2023/2024. |
| Do you live in Scotland and are you passionate about Jesus and making him known in the workplace? Could you be our new Scottish Lead Ambassador? |
| For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). |
| Come and join us on Saturday 30th September, 1:30-4:30pm on the site of the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer. Coleshill, Midlands. |
| So many great stories from Paul in this interview. God totally led him from his studies to his career to winning the competition to be the architect for this amazing God ordained project. |
| For Advent 2023 we will have 3 x 45 min early evening zoom prayer meetings spread out during the week beginning 27 November. |
| Come and join us on Saturday 30th September, 1:30-4:30pm on the site of the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer. Coleshill, Midlands. |
| This is a great opportunity to get conversations started simply by wearing your T shirt to work or church. Our Ambassadors have already reported that people have asked them about the T shirt when they are wearing it. |
| As leaders of Christian workplace mission organisations we unite to serve our Heavenly Father in the workplaces of the United Kingdom and the nations. |
| A word from the Chair of the Board of Transform Work who was able to join the Working Party. |
| Delegates from pharma, education, health, local government and business went to Ffald Y Brenin for a weekend of prayer and worship. Read on to see what happened. |
| Periodically have open meetings where the format and content is designed for people who are new to the group, |
| On Monday 16th January 2023, faith representatives from Thames Water, OVO Energy, Rolls-Royce met at the University of Derby Multi-Faith Centre (MFC). |
| We had such a great time at the Faith Literacy launch day last week. What an opportunity for Christians to engage with their HR departments and run a course to explain the Christian faith for all staff. |
| Deadline is extended to April 13th! Please take a couple of minutes to fill out the survey and please also send to the members of your groups. |
| Happy New Year from all of us Transform Work. Feeling tired or anxious about the work that lies ahead? Read on for some New Year encouragement. |