May 2011 - FX ARCHIVE...

Barney and Judes

Tim Sanderson leads a café church for 18-30s at St Barnabas and St Jude's, Sandyford, Newcastle. Organisers feel they have been 'running to keep up with God' since Barney and Judes got off the ground in 2010.

One year ago, we were exploring closing our building in this community as the Sunday service had seven regular attenders and building costs were mounting.

Sandyford used to be a family-based community but in recent years has become a place known for cheap student houses, a place where 83% of the local community is aged between 18 and 30. Working with the existing church membership and in partnership with Holy Trinity Church, Jesmond, we converted the building into a cafe space to reach that 83%.

Our aim was to establish a fresh expression of church for those unchurched 18-30s in Sandyford by creating a welcoming and vibrant living space; planting and growing a worshipping community and serving that community.

Renovating the existing facilities has resulted in the cafe-style venue, comprising a warm, relaxing 'lounge' for those in multiple occupancy dwellings. The flexible area, where coffees and cakes are served, is furnished with sofas and offers free Wi-Fi. Students and other young adults are invited to drop in and use the space for chat, performance, art and so on whilst building relationships with the team.

Our café style fresh expression of church runs on Wednesday nights and we have a parallel new work amongst seniors called 'vintage' on Thursdays. The café space itself opens from 4pm to 11pm every weekday evening. We also have teams going door-to-door in the community offering to clear up front gardens and remove graffiti. These teams are drawn from Holy Trinity and Agape student ministries – and a few local residents.

We feel we are running to keep up with God and are delighted at how well the work has started. In a community dominated by multi-occupancy dwellings where no-one has a lounge any more, we are providing one! As part of a community in which seniors and students clash over noise issues and untidy gardens, we are working with both groups and pray that Barney and Judes will become a venue for communication and reconciliation. It's early days, but the first signs are promising.

The Wednesday night fresh expression is intentionally missional and is becoming a new congregation for unchurched and some dechurched. At this stage it's just a small number but they are attracted to the café space and the team who run the fresh expression. We offer many alternative worship opportunities at Holy Trinity in the next parish and have been encouraging any Christians who turn up at Barney and Judes to go there rather than stay with us.

Newcastle has a number of large student/young adult churches which do great work but we are interested in the students and young professionals who are put off by large church initiatives, or who would never think to go near them, even when invited by their friends. These are people who struggle with hierarchies and up-front driven programmes. Taking a café style approach seems to be working; it means we not only come together as a fledgling community but also keep in our small groups around tables. This distinctive and focussed missional approach means that regular use of the venue by other church-based student/young adult groups is not encouraged.

We really want to engage with what is called the 'Urban Intelligent'. That title comes from a socio-economic analysis system known as MOSAIC which classifies UK households by ward or postcode. The April 2010 MOSAIC profile of South Jesmond ward, indicates that 83% of the population are ‘Urban Intelligent’: these are students or young professionals living in multi-occupancy dwellings (42% short term student renters; 29% economically successful singles; 15% well educated singles and childless couples). They are the dominant constituent of the local population and therefore the primary focus of mission.

Some 15% of the population here are active older people. The current inherited churches between them cover an extensive local network of seniors. This is a secondary focus of mission.

The church centre is still faithfully used on a Sunday morning at 9.30am by a small group of older ladies – three of whom have just celebrated their 90th birthdays. That operates as a completely separate congregation. What is fun is overseeing a mixed economy in the same building. I'm also interested in how the two congregations might talk together in future about some of the inevitable tensions between students and seniors in this area.

We want to continue planting and growing a worshipping community within the context of a weekly meal, grouped around small group discussion, creative worship opportunities, and some input from the front. Collaborative working is at the heart of this venture. The congregation of St Barnabas and St Jude's have offered significant finances to help with buildings improvement and the part-employment of a parish assistant, but personnel for this venture has been more widely drawn from two main sources: Holy Trinity Church, and Agape Student Ministries.

I lead the small steering team representing all three partners which reports back to each meeting of the PCC of St Barnabas and St Jude. The wider diocese has offered a level of financial support and is kept informed as the initiative develops. The steering team is committed to work flexibly, holding structures lightly and engage in regular review/assessment of the work. In that way we want to model flexibility and openness – in all that we do.

(CEN) Paying our debts – The Junction

According to St Paul (Romans 1.14) the church owes the gospel to those who have never heard it, including those who are culturally very different from us. Churches have to ask the question, 'Who will never be reached if we only do what we are doing now?' Those who then bear the good news to others have to be good news themselves, recognisable good news to the communities to which they are sent.

The first steps taken to reach the unreached can lead to a long and challenging journey, as can be seen in the story of Hexthorpe Methodist Church, which serves an old railway community of about 4,000 people, close to Doncaster town centre. One of its leaders, Donald Reasbeck, explains.

The area has deteriorated rapidly over the past 14 years or so; we now have all the problems of an inner city area but on a smaller scale. In 1991/92, we drew a line across a map of Hexthorpe and became aware that all of our church members – except one – and all the children, came from one side of the line. Half of Hexthorpe was virtually untouched by the church. We started a drop-in in the church hall on a Thursday morning, but no-one came. So we bought an old butcher's shop to use as premises for a drop-in and appointed a manager in 1993. That's how the Junction started. In 2004 we also bought the nearby Rising Sun pub for use as accommodation for those needing a safe and secure environment and we have still got both premises.

In August 2010 our monitoring and evaluation report included details of numbers using the Junction facilities over the previous year – 1,218 enquiries were dealt with and an average of 36 people a day dropped in. Issues dealt with included benefits, bereavement, housing, crime, addictions, health issues, harassment and bullying, and form filling. Also the challenge in serving local residents of a wide range of nationalities – including Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe – is a constant one. Forty per cent of the children here do not have English as a first language and some 26 different languages are spoken at home.

In a Government survey of three years ago, Hexthorpe was 23rd out of 34,000 so-called Super Output Areas in the whole country. These measure deprivation by certain indices. Therefore we are convinced that it is essential for us to continue to provide the day-to-day facilities – a safe place to sit and meet with others and talk or just be quiet, a drink of tea/coffee, a prayer.

Our work with young people has been very challenging. Some are excluded from school and are at a loose end most days. Others when not at school would sooner be outside rather than at home. On occasions violence has been threatened against staff or property but generally they respect our discipline, although there are moments! The Junction is not a youth centre, but the need for provision for these youngsters shouts out at us because there is no provision at all in the community for young people.

We will continue to support all initiatives that seek to help the community and bring lasting benefits. The Junction endeavours to see that the community is consulted and involved from the beginning. Local people don't like to be told what they need by the experts!

Money from the Doncaster New Deal for Communities has come to an end after a decade of support. We must continue to seek funding over the next year from both private and statutory sectors. We have two paid posts, a full time manager, and – for the last four years – a managerial administrator, shared by two people. In addition there are nine volunteers. We cannot sustain the salaries without support.

We are not a branch of the social services, we have a Christian distinctiveness and that distinctiveness has become increasingly less of a barrier to the accessing of secular funding. Relationships and trust are so important in this area. The spending of grants for their designated purpose and the diligent keeping of records and accounts are appreciated by outside funding agencies.

An exciting new development for 2010 saw the starting of a weekly lunchtime service with an average of 15 of us sitting around a table. We will have a song, a reading, a talk and discussion followed by sandwiches and a cake. This complements the weekly Bible study and the occasional celebration evenings. The Junction also hosts a Christianity Explored group for men. Our aim is to continue to develop the sense of Christian community and to present the gospel in words as well as in actions. Eighteen years ago our vision was that the Junction could be a new kind of church that we found hard to describe at the time.

Some people do regard it as their church – though we are very much part of the local church. We would say it's essential to be part of the local church. We are not separate; it's not the Junction and the church. We lay great emphasis as a church on teaching and preaching but we have learned that you can't make assumptions. We learned that when after a service somebody asked, 'Who is this bloke Paul that you keep talking about?' We are not quite certain who is going to be there and we are never quite certain what is going to happen.

It would be marvellous if all of those who come to the Junction became Christians but it's not conditional. We love and serve them all. Sometimes we're asked how many people have come from the Junction into the life of the church and how many have become members. In terms of outlay has it been 'successful'? Has there been a good return on the investment in them? Thankfully we don't think in those terms. It's great when people do come to faith, but we are just called to do what we do. We can do no other. If God has called us to a work then we have to be faithful to that calling. Yes, monitoring and evaluation is important but in the end the question is, 'Have we been faithful?'

Presence – update May11

Presence, based in Leicester, has been operating as Bishop's Mission Order since December 2009. How is it getting on? David Cundill, Presence leader and City Centre Pioneer Minister, outlines the story so far.

Presence continues to be a CofE church doing things differently. It is primarily a church for people who don't go to church and focuses on friendship, community and finding God in the ordinary.

In our work with students we are working in partnership with De Montfort University Chaplaincy to create fresh approaches to encountering and following Jesus around the city campus.

We've just started a monthly Cafe Church event – a relaxed way for people who do or don’t go to church to meet up, share life and explore spiritual things at their own pace. We offer 'cake, coffee, great company and spiritual stuff' and our next café church will be on 19 June at St Andrew's Hall.

We're also trying a fresh approach to worship in public spaces through a calendar of festivals and celebrations. These take place about once a month and have a definite alternative flavour. Our grass roots worship is designed around the people we meet and we are currently exploring more regular events in homes and flats, coffee shops and in a blues club. We're also making friends through meeting local people's needs, providing special events, short term lifeskills courses and support groups, social action projects and getting involved in longer-term social action through our links with people like Christians Against Poverty.

What we call our Life Groups are the building blocks of our church. These are authentic mission shaped communities meeting midweek in people's homes. for friendship, food, worship, talks and discussions, prayer and ministry.

Site Meetings are meetings for the planting team in the area to dream, explore and pray, develop vision and action and to keep mission at the heart of our lives. We usually use these to plan cafe church events.

We're involved in a lot of activities including Presence in the Pub, meeting in a local pub for Tuesday quiz nights; film nights at the Showcase Cinema in Highcross – usually on the second Saturday of the month. Often we get something to eat, then watch a film and talk about it afterwards over a drink.

We also organise men's events such as activity weekends in the Peak District with walks, pub lunch and games into the night, or helping to kit out a community centre using our DIY skills. Sometimes we get involved in local environmental or compassionate issues such as helping people with debt and money management.

A major development for us has been our involvement in festivals as well as staging one of our own. This year we have an 'extra' Presence Festival from 29th to 30th May at Launde Abbey, Leicestershire, which is an overnight taster of the full festival in June. On Bank Holiday Monday more than 3,000 people are due at Launde for a farmers' market, entertainment, car boot sale, fresh food and beer tent, free access to the retreat house grounds and so on. Presence will be providing fun and spiritual installations for everyone.

The full festival, from 10th to 12th June is also at Launde Abbey with shared feasts, live music, sports, crafts and workshops. We aim to have a family feel and for all to feel part of a unique community that gathers for a weekend.

We have organised it to add a spiritual stream of optional activities and experiences alongside all the usual festival fun. Workshops and activities range from foot massage to dancing, story circles to crafts, music, family fun, games and sports for people of all ages, meditation, discussions, spiritual installations, a labyrinth, shared worship experiences and space for silence, contemplation and personal spiritual exploration and much more.

In the weekend before the main festival Presence will also be hosting a shared community ritual as part of Leicester's Riverside Festival on 4th June. We will be making a memory garden for people to enjoy and contribute to and we're hoping that people will add their recollections to a Memory Tree on the day. We'll also have our chillout gazebo and pub quizzes.

Last year we hosted a floating lantern ceremony when there were 1,000 lanterns on the canal as the festival finale. Hundreds of people took part during the day making free lanterns for themselves or writing a message for a friend or loved one. Others made statements about climate change. The ceremony was a moving and deeply spiritual moment for those who enjoyed the spectacle and allowed the spiritual to be at the heart of the festival.

In August at Castle Park Festival, Leicester, we will provide a labyrinth and barbecue on 24th August. We typically set up two labyrinths; one on the grass outside and one inside the church for people to walk at some point in the evening.

St George’s, Deal

St George's, Deal, faced a major challenge in 2002. Shiela Porter – who shares oversight and leadership of the church with Chris Spencer – looks back at how they dealt with that challenge and looks forward to new opportunities through the development of missional communities.

We were looking at how to shape a church that could keep on growing – not dependent on the size of the building or how many professional leaders we had. St George's was full but we wanted to engage with those who would not step over the threshold of a church building at all.

So much has changed in recent years and now we have missional communities comprising mission-focused networks of anything from 15 to 60 people.

It is about mobilising everyone to be missionary disciples and we've got a whole variety of diverse networks that are being reached through these communities. People who previously were sitting in the pews – along the lines of a 'provider client' type of model – are now doing all kinds of things that they never dreamed they would be doing. As they've gone out and taken on these new roles with new responsibilities, they’ve discovered the need to depend upon God. As a result they've grown spiritually and in their discipleship as well. This has brought about a release of 40 new missional leaders – a real treasure trove of talent.

One of our missional communities has already multiplied and we have gained a lot of insight from doing it. It came about when they were growing to such an extent that they thought, 'we are going to lose our sense of community if we continue in this way. What do we do about it?' This was the first community that got going and had a vision for reaching young families but, as time went on, the children of those families obviously got older so the community wasn't quite fulfilling their original vision.

They took the decision to become two communities, and one of those communities comprised those who held the original vision. They decided to develop their vision in a way that would connect into families with older children using a 'sporting' emphasis for active families. They have been involved in doing fun runs and half marathons together, serving as stewards as well as running, and are now looking into starting a family exercise afternoon to reach new families. New leaders stepped up for the second community which held on to the original vision but in a more incarnational way.

These two slightly different visions meant that they did 'lose' some people along the way but those people have been able to come back into the centre – the main church base – enabling them to become part of other missional communities when they are ready.

Another important new community to evolve has been at the Church Centre. As the centre continues to be an 'attractional model' with newcomers regularly arriving, this central community called 'Shoreline' is able to invite new people into it and give new people time to experience and understand the concept of missional communities before stepping into one that is meeting outside. Shoreline is also there to support the work of the other missional communities, being on the 'shoreline' to support them in their mission events and as they come back into the centre.

In the past, St George's has engaged in church planting with the Carpenters Arms, which became an extra-parochial place in Deal and which then transplanted into a Sandwich school. This was positively entrepreneurial for those who had the vision to plant. However, there are lessons to be learnt as we look back 15 years on. The current situation is that Carpenters Arms Deal are now an independent church and Carpenters Arms Sandwich are the size of one of our missional communities but are saddled with churchwardens, deanery reps and parish share – a burden that has taken its toll. Their future is now being reviewed.

As we engage in conversation with those involved, including Diocesan personnel, we are hoping our experience will be of value as plans are put into place for them. We note that this is a danger that what is a fresh expression, can be seen as a 'church plant' by the Diocese with the requirement for church structures that can take their eye off mission and cause them to falter. It is therefore vital to have those with experience around them who can stand in the gap and 'translate' what it means to be a fresh expression – not always an easy task.

The Junction

The Junction, drawn from the work of Hexthorpe Methodist Church, has much to celebrate but it faces many challenges too. Donald Reasbeck explains.

Hexthorpe is an evangelical Methodist church in an area close to Doncaster town centre, and is in the Doncaster Circuit and Sheffield District. We also have strong links with Methodist Evangelicals Together (MET). Hexthorpe is an old railway community of about 4,000 people.

The area has deteriorated rapidly over the past 14 years or so; we now have all the problems of an inner city area but on a smaller scale. In 1991/92, we drew a line across a map of Hexthorpe and became aware that all of our church members – except one – and all the children, came from one side of the line. Half of Hexthorpe was virtually untouched by the church. We started a drop-in in the church hall on a Thursday morning. Surprise, surprise, no-one came. A church building is threatening to many people. So we bought an old butcher's shop to use as premises for a drop-in and appointed a manager in 1993. That's how the Junction started.

In 2004 we opened the Rising Sun pub nearby and we have still got both premises. Previously we did try to go out and about; after Hexthorpe's evening service we'd sing in the streets and one of us would speak. Very rarely did we see anybody. Then we started knocking on doors and asking if people would like us to pray for any problems they might have. We got various responses and then we thought, 'It's alright praying, but what are we doing?' We knew the message was getting through when the Junction manager opened the door to a woman with two children, who was clutching a carrier bag containing all her worldly possessions. She had been given a house to stay in which was no more than a hovel and she said, 'Can you do anything for me?'

In August 2010 our monitoring and evaluation report included details of numbers using the Junction facilities over the previous year – 1,218 enquiries were dealt with and an average of 36 people a day dropped in. Issues dealt with included benefits, bereavement, housing, crime, addictions, health issues, harassment and bullying, form filling, relationships, domestic violence, child protection, unemployment, letter writing, homelessness, work permits, CVs, education, food, debt, anti-social behaviour, violence, utility supplies, asylum matters and bogus callers.

The challenge in serving local residents of a wide range of nationalities – including Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe – is a constant one. We have good links through one of our volunteers, who also works with the church's Farsi congregation, and our Careforce worker, who has a weekly session in the local school. Forty percent of the children do not have English as a first language and some 26 different languages are spoken at home.

An exciting new development for 2010 saw the starting of a weekly lunchtime service which complements the weekly bible study and the occasional celebration evenings. The Junction also hosts a Christianity Explored group for men. Our aim is to continue to develop the sense of Christian community and to present the gospel in words as well as in actions.

We have been strongly supported by the Doncaster Circuit. They are most generous in the grant they give towards the salary of our operational manager's salary.

Our funding raft continues to consist of contributions from the Methodist Church – local, town and district level, the private charitable sector and the statutory sector. We still draw in an income from the rents of flats above the Rising Sun pub, in which we provide accommodation for those needing a secure environment. For the foreseeable future we have to look for external funding to help with salaries for staff. Therefore the continuing support from the Methodist funds is essential if our work is to have a firm financial base.

Money from the Doncaster New Deal for Communities has come to an end after a decade of support. An initial grant towards renovation costs of the Rising Sun has since been followed by financial support towards the provision of computers, various goods and, vitally for us, two contributions towards the manager's salary.

We must continue to seek funding over the next year from both private and statutory sectors. We have two paid posts, a full time manager, and – for the last four years – a managerial administrator, shared by two people. In addition there are nine volunteers. We cannot sustain the salaries without support.

We will continue to keep the provision for young people under constant review because resources – human and material – are limited and we must be careful not to overreach ourselves by spreading too thinly. However, the situation is really critical.

During the coming year the Hexthorpe Methodist Church hopefully will have begun their major scheme for building new premises. We must develop our thinking so that the Junction can fully utilise the new facilities.

People should beware of using terms such as success or failure. If God has called us to a work then we have to be faithful to that calling. Yes, monitoring and evaluation is important but in the end the question is, 'Have we been faithful?' What is success or failure? The world thinks in such terms. Jesus healed 10 men with leprosy and only one came back to praise God. Was there then only a 10% success rate? Obviously that can't be the case. There was a 100% compassionate heart. Encouragement is essential. Yes, talk about encouraging signs, but if none is forthcoming, still be faithful. Headline success stories have a habit of coming back to bite you. If one is asked to talk about the work, tell it as it is – warts and all.

Planning is essential. Working towards objectives is helpful and necessary, but there has to be flexibility. New challenges emerge and we have to be prepared to take them on board. If necessary we have to be willing to change course. Care must be taken not to overstretch; resist the temptation to get involved in empire building.

Catch the vision first. Don't say at the outset we can't afford it. Dream the dream, put flesh on it, and then consider the costs and possible sources of finance. If you begin with finance then that could be the end of the dream. If it is of God then the way will open up; but only after much prayer, thought and hard work.

Any project must be an integral part of the life and ministry of the church. The prayer and support of the whole church is essential. It is not just for a few enthusiasts.

Leadership must be anchored in and responsible to the local church. We have learned that what we do must have a scriptural base and that many times events drive us to reflect in Scripture. There are many social schemes around. The church should not provide yet another one. Any outreach must be part of the life of the church. We are not just another project but we are the living body of Jesus; we offer life in all its fullness.

You have to listen and respond but we have learned from our mistakes. Our belief in the gospel and the power of Jesus to change lives has not changed whatsoever, but we have discovered that there are various ways in which people come into that truth.

Over the last 18 months we have developed a regular lunchtime service with an average of 15 of us sitting around a table. We will have a song, a reading, a talk and discussion followed by sandwiches and a cake.

Eighteen years ago our vision was that the Junction could be a new kind of church that we found hard to describe at the time. Some people do regard it as their church – though we are very much part of the local church. We would say it's essential to be part of the local church. We are not separate; it's not the Junction and the church. We lay great emphasis as a church on teaching and preaching but we have learned that you can't make assumptions. We learned that when after a service somebody asked, 'Who is this bloke Paul that you keep talking about?' We are not quite certain who is going to be there and we are never quite certain what is going to happen.

We should never stand still. Once you do that you become institutionalised, then fossilised, then closed. We are constantly looking to see the direction we should be taking.

Bare Soul

David Barker spent three years as a fresh expressions enabler in the West Yorkshire District. While in post, he launched a variety of different things including youth cell groups, all-age church and church in sheltered housing accommodation. He is still involved in a church in a bar, known as Bare Soul.

Church in a bar works like a spiritual open mic night. There's a different theme each time and people are encouraged to bring along songs, poems, a piece of art or something that they have made (especially if it is cake!). These sometimes have very tenuous links with what we're thinking about in that session but everything is welcome! Among the themes we've explored so far are peace, hope and joy. These can be interpreted in a number of different ways, in an attempt to engage people who are not regular churchgoers – though many are spiritual seekers. I also run a gospel choir and there is a lot of cross over between the two communities.

The bar is based in the Bare Arts Gallery in Todmorden in what are off-sales premises for a micro brewery. The brewer is the owner and his wife is an artist who specialises in painting nudes, hence the gallery name.

The brewer heard about us doing church in another pub and said, 'can you come here and do that?' He and his wife love it and like to tell their customers that 'church comes to us once a month'. They are really supportive and get people to come along: they are our best evangelists. The numbers vary because it's in the main bar area which means that some people just happen to be in the room when it happens and get subjected to it, many asking when it is happening again!

We have been going since December 2009 and usually have between 15 and 25 people coming along. A team of us, who play in a band together, help to set it up each time. We act as the house band on the night with me generally acting as MC, though it tends to be with a very light touch – we don't make a big thing of setting up 'church' on the premises or anything like that. It can be a little nerve-wracking at times as you never know if anyone is going to bring anything or what they might bring. There have been quite a few opportunities for discussions but we haven't got to the point of interesting people in Alpha or anything – mainly because the people who come are in a different place to that. They are starting much further back.

It's all about building relationships and introducing Christian spirituality because this context is one in which there is a very arty community and a very spiritual community. They're interested in all sorts of things and we're delighted to have the chance to be part of that.

(Christian Today) Many churches, one purpose – Archbishop contemplates fresh expressions

Fresh Expressions pioneers and practitioners from across the UK explore the mixed economy of church.

Whether traditional in form or an innovative fresh expression, the common task of the church is to help people to see God, themselves and the world as never before.

So said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, at a Fresh Expressions conference held in Oxford on Friday to explore the question of how the 'mixed economy' of church might work in practice.

Mixed economy is a term first coined by Dr Williams referring to the coexistence of fresh expressions and 'inherited' forms of church.

Addressing Fresh Expressions practitioners from across the UK, the Archbishop explained his vision of the mixed economy as one in which churches in their various forms work alongside one another in helping people encounter Jesus, and discipling them at whatever stage in their faith journeys they may be at.

The future for Britain's churches, he suggested, lies in striking a balance between "regular and demanding" church cell groups, community-wide gatherings with a capacity for "nudging others towards new vision", and large-scale festivals and events that give people a glimpse of what the church is trying to create in the world.

Whether in inherited models of church or in fresh expressions, the Archbishop said that the "real heart" for the next generation would inevitably be bound up in the small group – or cell group – where people are able to form bonds of trust in one another.

Building personal, face-to-face relationships is one of the things that will make the relationship between inherited patterns of church and new ones viable,

he said.

Although the hallmark of the mixed economy is a diversity of styles, the Archbishop stressed that the mixed economy was not about churches working in isolation.

We are (not) looking for a church which is a sort of Balkan map of little independent, autonomous, self-serving groups doing what they fancy, finding the style that suits them, which is always a danger,

he said.

(We are looking for) a context within which there is a flow of communication, good news and challenge between different styles of church life, which may respond to different personalities in different stages along the journey. What holds them together is Jesus, and what Jesus helps you see, and (through that) the landscape is transformed.

The Archbishop suggested that the starting point for every church and every fresh expression was the encounter between Jesus and others.

The landscape gets to look different when Jesus is around. People see things in a new way, themselves and one another, God and God's world,

he said.

Isn't part of what we are about in mission trying to be the sort of people or communities around which people can see things differently? And that's not abstract theory because when you see God and yourself differently things really do happen. You become a different person.

He added:

When we talk about fresh expressions, I would like to think we are talking about countless local enterprises of vision where people are being encouraged and nourished and enabled to see what they hadn't seen before.

Fresh Expressions is a joint venture between the Church of England, Methodist Church and United Reformed Church, launched in 2004 to huge success.

The idea behind the initiative is to reach those untouched by existing forms of churches. To date, more than 2,100 people have taken part in a Fresh Expressions training course and Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Teams have been established in 30 different locations.

Also speaking at the conference was Archbishops' Missioner and Fresh Expressions Team Leader Bishop Graham Cray, who urged even more churches to start up their own fresh expressions.

The great majority of fresh expressions are new fledgling congregations meeting in a welcoming place and at a convenient time for those who previously did not go to church or follow Christ, and they are well within the capability of the average local church,

he said.

We need to see thousands and thousands more average local churches becoming mixed economy.

Bishop Cray said a "three-part ecology" of church was starting to emerge, with "new imagination" in relation to possible forms of church at the grassroots level, a "climate of permission and encouragement" at the leadership level, and the development of nationally available resources for mission and training.

As we engage with a missionary God in a multi-choice world where the impact of Christendom is rapidly fading, we are being reshaped by the Holy Spirit as we learn again how to be missionary in our own land,

he said.

Key to the mixed economy working, he added, was the recognition that traditional and innovative forms of church work together.

He said:

Mixed economy is not intended to be a device to allow two separate things to happen at the same time. It requires partnership where traditional churches and fresh expressions of church pray for one another, support one another, and learn from one another.

(Christian Today) Reaching Britain with the mixed economy of church

Bishop Graham Cray is Archbishops' Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, the highly successful joint initiative of the Church of England and Methodist Church pioneering new ways of being church. He talks to Christian Today about the 'mixed economy' of church and why both traditional and innovative forms are needed for effective mission today.

CT: What is a mixed economy of church?

Bishop Graham: 'Mixed economy' is an expression that originates from Archbishop Rowan Williams when he was a Bishop in Wales. The thinking behind it is that new congregations and church plants are not to replace existing churches with their approach, but complement them.

There is much good work to be done by traditional churches and they need to be supplemented and complemented by new forms of church to reach those that remain untouched by existing churches.

It is a partnership between the two and not a competition. The intention is not to replace one another, and neither is it to operate in isolation from one another but rather supplement with mutual prayer, recognition and learning from one another.

The great majority of Fresh Expressions planted in the last five or six years are new congregations of existing churches so it helps lots of local parish churches and Methodist circuits to become mixed economy.

CT: You meet a lot of people in the traditional churches. Do they feel threatened by new expressions or pressured to change at all?

Bishop Graham: It's a varied picture but I don't think there is much of that. If there is pressure to change, it's indirect, because no one is saying stop doing church traditionally and 'everybody's got to do these new things'. The other aspect of the mixed economy is an understanding that the whole church is missionary and that traditional churches need to be missionary in their traditional forms.

There is a challenge that way, but I find that more traditional worshippers are grateful that something is being done and I find it even more with the older generation who say that they are worried that their grandchildren don't go to church at all. So if they see something happening that isn't church the way they are used to but it's helping their grandchildren engage with the church, then they are excited about it and not necessarily threatened by it.

CT: The mixed economy means many different styles of church and different traditions and denominations working together. Is there a tension between the inevitable diversity and unity?

Bishop Graham: I had a meeting recently with David Cornick, General Secretary of Churches Together in England and a former colleague of mine. I think we are both clear that unity and mission are equally important and you can't simply go for one and not the other. But the way it is working out is beginning to change. We had a long period of time when there was considerable hard work about formal unity for the sake of mission and to give a united witness. That's still very important but what's tending to happen now is that more progress is being made with unity when churches in an area are acting together or coordinating in mission.

Fresh Expressions is one of the ways they can do that. Doing mission is the best route to unity, many of us are discovering. Diversity is fine as long as there is real communication locally. Some churches have gathered together as a result of the Hope08 initiatives and have kept working together and a lot of the Street Pastor initiatives have been made possible by that.

We have a regional organisation called FEAST through which the Fresh Expressions strategy team leaders of different denomination in an area coordinate together. It allows them to know what the other is trying to do and that way, you don't have six churches working on one estate, for example, and no one working on the estate next door.

In lots of parts of the country, rural and urban, we are encouraging churches to plan together and to pray together and, if you like, coordinate the diversity. So it helps with unity rather than undermines.

CT: When we talk about the church today, a word we often hear is decline, but Fresh Expressions seems to be experiencing a lot of growth.

Bishop Graham: Yes it is. It's hard to know exactly how much but the Methodist Church has fairly robust figures now and there are something like 1,200 Methodist churches that are planting a fresh expression. Now a lot of them will be quite small and inevitably lots of them will be young because this is a young movement but that amounts to a lot of people.

Some of them will be people who had a background in church but stopped going. Others will be people who have never had any real contact with church. But certainly one of the ways the church is growing and evangelising in Britain is through the planting of fresh expressions.

CT: Would you go as far as saying that it is the key to the church's long term survival?

Bishop Graham: Well, I think it is one of the keys. If we continue with this mixed economy approach where the whole church is realising that it is called to mission, and that there is a place and partnership, and for the traditional and the fresh expression, then we might become quite a different sort of church, much more engaged as a whole with its community and not needing words like 'traditional' or 'fresh expression'.

So I think fresh expressions are one part but it will never be the whole of the future. It really does need this dynamic relationship between the more traditional and the more innovative.

CT: The royal wedding was traditional. Was the Church of England not tempted to go for a fresh expression?!

Bishop Graham: [laughs] Well, I believe the choice was down to the couple and they wanted it like that! But one of the mistakes we can make is just assuming that fresh expressions are for the young and the traditional is for the old.

I have a lot to do with youth ministry, I chair the Soul Survivor Trust, so I know that large numbers of young people like it very contemporary and lively, but others love the chants of Taizé, for example, and something more structured.

You have to remember that this current generation of pensioners includes people like Rod Steward and Mick Jagger. There is a rock 'n' roll generation that has reached pension age now. So the mixed economy is for all generations.

CT: You've just partnered with 24/7 Prayer. Why have you decided to move Fresh Expressions forward with them?

Bishop Graham: They came to us because they were coming to the conclusion that the core values that they had and the core values that we have are very similar. Our core values are about prayer and spirituality and all our practical training is founded on the principle that you need to discern, you need to pray, you need to listen to God, you need to help him to show you how to engage with your community, your area, your network.

That ties in so well with their prayer houses that get involved with mission, and we are a missionary organisation that is rooted in prayer and discernment. Andy Freeman, who co-wrote Punk Monk, is also training to be a pioneer minister in the Church of England and so came more fully in touch with the work we are doing with Fresh Expressions through his training.

We are absolutely delighted to have them as partners. It will strengthen us in terms of the prayer base involved in local mission strategies and the planting of fresh expressions, and developing patterns of prayer and worship within fresh expressions as they start to grow.

CT: Is a fresh expression something any church could do?

Bishop Graham: More or less, yes. We would like the mixed economy to be the default setting for the church in the UK, so that it becomes the norm for any church both to develop its established patterns as much as it possibly can and at the same time ask: who will we never reach if we only do this? What else could we do? And ask the Holy Spirit to inspire their imagination and show them.

CT: Is there a secret to a successful church plant?

Bishop Graham: There's an expression in mission we use a lot: see what God is doing and join in. The two key ingredients are, one, that it comes out of prayerful listening to God about the opportunities he is preparing in an area, and, two, that it comes from what the Mission-shaped Church report points to: dying to live.

That is, you don't plant a fresh expression or do a church plant through establishing just the sort of church you believe churches ought to be like and that you personally would love to have! Rather, it is about being willing to sacrifice what you would like to have for what is appropriate for those you are trying to reach and that becomes the shape of the church you are helping establish.

It's got to be for others, not you, and it's got to start with listening to God's wisdom and not just your local good idea or cloning something someone else has done elsewhere!

CT: You must hear all the time about exciting fresh expressions being developed all around the UK.

Bishop Graham: Well, the trickiness about that story is that most of them aren't wonderfully exciting! They are just really locally appropriate and people are being reached for Jesus in a way that they weren't being reached before.

We are releasing a DVD this month with 28 stories and among my favourite is one Methodist church on the edge of a beach that was down to two members aged 90 and 85 and is now a thriving church that majors on, although not exclusively, ministering to the surfing community.

In the borderlands of Scotland, a Church Army evangelist is leading a fresh expression that is working with people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Sorted in Bradford started with relational work in skate parks and is now involved in schools and the Diocese of Bradford has formally recognised this as a church through what we call a Bishop's Mission Order and it is working very effectively with unchurched young people.

The exciting thing about all of these is that they are local, they are appropriate and people who didn't know Jesus before are getting to know him.

(CEN) We don’t want mavericks or lone wolves

Today (6th May), the Fresh Expressions national day conference in Oxford will welcome the Archbishop of Canterbury as a keynote speaker to consider the theme of 'making the mixed economy work'. Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops' Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, writes about why it is time to 'stop talking mixed economy and start acting mixed economy'.

Our aspiration is to see the church reshaped, not by a church initiative, but by sharing in the Mission of God. We are all learning: that the mission of the Church is to share in the mission of God and that mission is not an activity of some Christians, but of the very essence of what it means to be the Church. Baptism is into Christ and into his body and into his mission.

Roman Catholic missiologists Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder wrote that

the church is missionary by its very nature and it becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself.

The Mission-shaped Church report was about 'fresh expressions of church in a changing context'. As we engage with the missionary God in a multi-choice world, where the impact of Christendom is rapidly fading, so we will be reshaped by the Spirit, as we learn again how to be missionary here.

Our context requires more than fresh expressions of church. It requires a week-by-week partnership, which Archbishop Rowan has called 'a mixed economy church'. In such a church, every parish church and chapel, every deanery, circuit, synod and presbytery knows that it is called to mission through word and need – finding ways to give local expression to the five marks of mission. Existing churches extend their reach beyond their current attendance, and fresh expressions of church are planted to reach those who still remain untouched by existing churches.

It is time to stop talking mixed economy and time to start acting mixed economy. This requires a partnership where traditional churches and fresh expressions of church pray for one another, support one another, and learn from one another. It requires growing relationships of trust between those pioneers who plant fresh expressions and those to whom they are accountable. Such trust is properly based on integrity of character and not necessarily on supervisors and pioneers' understanding of one another's ministries. Each needs to respect the other for the things they themselves cannot do.

We do not truly act mixed economy unless we act ecumenically as well. The denominations are not competitors but partners in mission. Their shared task is to engage the whole of society in their part of the country with Christ and his kingdom. According to Paul Avis, general secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity,

Mission is the whole Church bringing the whole Christ to the whole world.

That understanding needs embodying locally, in every locality. We can't be properly missionary, and we can't fully embody the mixed economy, without one another. This is not so much unity for the sake of mission, as partnership in mission, which will reshape the church.

We have to take seriously the scale of the task: 34% of adults in England have had no significant contact with any church and the proportion of young people and children will be much higher. In my view it will not prove to be enough to encourage the majority of churches to plant fresh expressions of church. I am thrilled that so many are doing so. I work hard so that many, many more will do so. But I also believe we need to find ways to reach beyond the reach of the churches in this nation, even beyond the reach of those which plant fresh expressions of church.

I believe we need a new breed of self-supporting missionaries, mostly lay people, whose vocation from God is to plant fresh expressions of church in the locations of their life circumstances, in the work place and the leisure centre, wherever they are, or wherever God sends them. I'm not looking for mavericks or lone wolves, but disciplined people, called by God, equipped by the church, who are prepared to be accountable to one another and to the church's senior leaders, and who will reach more deeply into our increasingly post Christian society than most local churches can reasonably be expected to go. We need regional and national orders of missionaries in life to re-evangelize our land.

With a mixed economy, ecumenical partnership and a new missionary movement we really could see the landscape changed, not just in the church, but in the nation.

This is not about reversing decline! The scale of church attendance in previous times is almost irrelevant to the case I am arguing. It is about learning to be the church in our current context. It is about a church which is missionary by nature learning how to be missionary in its current context. And it is about grace. According to St Paul, those who have been encountered by the grace of God in Jesus Christ owe it to those who have not. We are 'debtors' to them (Romans 1:14), because we are debtors to grace. Mission is not a duty, it is a reflex in response to the love of God.

Changing the landscape: making the mixed economy work will also host the launch of the next Fresh Expressions DVD, expressions: making a difference. Comprising 28 stories, the DVD (£15) is available from the Fresh Expressions shop. Look onsite too for details of the newly-produced Share booklets, the first seven in an ongoing series – ideal for anybody considering, or involved in, growing a fresh expression of church.

Zone2

Two worship services now run in parallel at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral on Sunday mornings. Alongside the traditional choral service, a new, informal worship zone takes place in the building’s Concert Room. Canon Richard White explains more about Zone2.

The 10.30am Sunday Eucharist takes place in two 'zones' simultaneously. People can choose whether to attend the choral service in the main cathedral space, or Zone2.

This development comes out of considerable prayer, discussion and reflection by the Chapter over the past eight months and is enthusiastically supported by them as central to our cathedral's commitment to mission and evangelism.

We are committed to creating ways to worship that are culturally accessible for a wide range of people. Many find our existing worship immediately attractive, beautiful and moving. It is 'mission-shaped' worship for those people. It is growing in numbers and we aim to attract many more to it. Others though, especially those without a church background who aren't used to classical music and formality, can find it somewhat intimidating and uncomfortable. For many people today, finding their way into our worship is as foreign and threatening as going into a betting shop to place a bet would be for some traditional churchgoers.

Visitors to the new 'zone' make their way down to the Concert Room where we set out large, round tables in café style. Good filter coffee, soft drinks, croissants, and fresh fruit are served so that everyone feels welcome as soon as they arrive. Many of the components of a more traditional Sunday morning service are found in the new 'zone' with Bible reading, teaching, confession and prayer being expressed in an informal and interactive style with all ages worshipping together.

People at Zone2 have the opportunity to go up to the main cathedral service to celebrate Communion for the last part of our time together but others prefer to stay with us and continue to be part of what's happening in the Concert Room. People can chop and change between the two, as suits them. All are welcome to either.The new format, which has been running for about the last six weeks, takes place every Sunday during school term times.

Parents attending the choral service can leave their children at the new 'zone' where recognised adult hosts supervise and care for them. Others come to Zone2 as a family unit.

I've been impressed that our cathedral statement, 'A safe place to do risky things in Christ's service' is referred to frequently in discussions and decisions. Sometimes our tendency to shorten phrases leads to the last three words being dropped but, of course, they are the reason the cathedral exists. In Christ's service we meet, give, work, plan, spend and make decisions about risky opportunities. By definition, risk sometimes go wrong. If we never fail then we're just pretending – which is why the risks are only worth taking if they are genuinely in Christ's service.

Zone2 is a new and exciting venture and will need a period of experimentation. No doubt there will be teething issues and practicalities we hadn't anticipated as we enter this risky thing in Christ's service but, although it's early days as yet, it has been very encouraging to see an average of 60 people coming along. Some people have already said they see it as their church; others have spoken about being able to relax in this environment rather than feeling quite stressed about how their children are reacting to what's going on around them in a more traditional setting.

We are not trying to abolish traditional choral formal worship because the cathedral does that superbly well but in a cathedral building you have got the space to make a choice. It's wonderful that people here now have that choice.