November 2011 - FX ARCHIVE...

Dream – update Nov11

Dream came into being when a group of young adults in the North West began to 'experiment' with worship and discuss what church might look like for their peers. Richard White, pioneer minister of Dream and now Canon for Mission and Evangelism at Liverpool Cathedral, charts its most recent development to go Deeper.

This year we identified a growing need for more specifically adult-oriented teaching and discipleship to encourage those being nurtured in their faith and potential new leaders. This came about through the growth of zone 2 – the informal worship zone which runs alongside the cathedral's traditional Sunday morning choral service.

Zone 2 was planted in March 2011 with a team of nine adults and seven children who were already committed members of the cathedral and/or Dream – as well as a further three adults who were connecting with Dream but were otherwise un-churched or de-churched. This has grown in the first five months to a regular congregation of between 40 and 60 people across the age spectrum.

Roughly half of those were previously either fringe members or not church goers. We are committed to zone 2 being regarded as fully 'church' but this commitment highlights the importance of providing teaching and discipleship to the adults now coming along on a regular basis.

As a result we have reshaped the monthly Sunday evening Dream service at the cathedral to take much more of a teaching and discussion focus. Now known as 'Deeper', the teaching, worship and discussion dovetail with small groups which meet during the alternating weeks for further discussion, support and prayer. This 'pastorate' model has been very effective elsewhere and will, we believe, become an effective base for practical discipleship teaching and leadership development.

Our recent experience of specific pioneer initiatives at the cathedral gives us confidence that there is tremendous potential here to enable new models of church planting that are more achievable and more sustainable than has often been experienced, particularly in parishes with few resources of their own. We believe that the model we are developing – when combined with an online library of effective and high quality resources – gives this an interest and applicability well beyond the Diocese.

Archbishop Rowan has championed a 'mixed economy' where traditional churches and fresh expressions work alongside each other in mission. Our experience is increasingly that there is indeed significant mission potential in this mixed economy approach.

Zone2 – update Nov11

Launched in March 2011, the Zone 2 informal worship zone runs simultaneously with Liverpool Cathedral's traditional Sunday morning choral service. Richard White, the Cathedral's Canon for Mission and Evangelism, tells how Zone 2 now attracts between 40 and 60 people to the cathedral's Concert Room.

We started with a team of nine adults and seven children who were already committed members of the cathedral and/or the Dream network – as well as a further three adults who were connecting with Dream but were otherwise un-churched or de-churched.

Roughly half of those coming along were previously fringe members or not churchgoers at all. We are committed to zone 2 being regarded as fully 'church' but this commitment highlights a growing need for more specifically adult-oriented teaching and discipleship to develop those being nurtured in their faith as well as potential new leaders.

As a result we have reshaped the cathedral's monthly Sunday evening Dream service to take much more of a teaching and discussion focus. Now known as 'Deeper', the teaching, worship and discussion dovetail with small groups which meet during the alternating weeks for further discussion, support and prayer.

Fuzz Kitto’s Church of England miracle

International youth worker, minister, writer and consultant Fuzz Kitto sees Fresh Expressions as a prophetic movement, helping to achieve a 'miracle' in the Church of England. Travelling from his home in Sydney, Fuzz meets many people involved in fresh expressions of church across the world. In a specially recorded interview (which you can listen to in full below), Fuzz says,

What hits me continuously with Fresh Expressions is that it's such a wonderful faith journey; it's not a matter of, 'we know what to do', it’s 'we just sense this is the right way to go.' It's the great love of God to never leave the Church alone and to never let it lag but continuously to raise up prophets and I think Fresh Expressions is a prophetic movement, trying to help the church. It's begging the most wonderful questions.

What has happened in the Church of England is nothing short of miracle. Now I've seen God do some amazing miracles… but I still think the greatest miracle I ever see is when God can work from the council of the church. It is the phenomenal miracle when we know all the politics, we know all the dynamics are there, and yet – in the midst of that – God is saying, 'I want to take a church on a journey.'

He cites the Mission-shaped Church report as a true turning point in the life of the church, saying that no-one would have believed the changes that have come about since its findings were translated into action.

The wonderful thing is it's so God like – the impossible made possible, the invisible made visible and I think Fresh Expressions is a whole part of that tradition of God working in cultures and peoples.

St Paul’s Café Church, Dorking

It all started when St Paul's Church, Dorking, opened up its doors to a new 'audience'. As vicar Paul Bryer explains, the result is 'Café Church – church with a twist'.

Our monthly Café Church has been running for two years and it has had an enormous impact as it reaches so many people who would not otherwise come into St Paul's.

Members of our weekly congregation make up about half of those who come along but the rest just come to Café Church. Children's attendance figures have doubled as a result; we normally have about 40 children on a Sunday but at a recent Café Church we welcomed in the region of 80 with 175 adults.

The church building itself is on the way to a school so many parents walk past St Paul's during the week. Many mums and dads also drop their children off at our church nursery and, for quite a long time, we had seen people standing outside the church in the cold and the rain while on the school and nursery 'run'.

The thought came to us. Maybe we could give them coffee in the church instead of them having to wait outside? So we opened up the church doors, served coffee in one of our aisles and called it the Earlybird Café. People very quickly started to come in every morning.

The result was that we thought about how we could involve them a little more and invite them to our services. We also knew that if they came into church on a Sunday morning, it was possibly something they had never experienced before – we knew we needed to make it much more user-friendly. That's when we thought about making it a café based service, launched the Café Church on the first Sunday of the month and things have grown from there.

When people walk in they can go and get a tea or coffee, pick up something to eat from bacon rolls and croissants to waffles and homemade cake and take a look at the Sunday papers. Everything is set up around small tables, there's music in the background and it's all very informal. For the first 15 minutes, we just let them come in and 'be' and I then welcome them from the front – but it takes a while for people to settle down!

I explain the theme and tell them that everyone is free to come and go when they want and join in with everything or nothing. Our worship group then lead us in one or two songs which we try to ensure are familiar to those visiting us maybe for the first time.

Each Café Church is themed to run in parallel with the general teaching in the church that week but we make it accessible for this particular congregation. We have found that the only way to gather people together to focus on one thing is to use something highly visual so we usually make the most of a really powerful video clip to illustrate the teaching points.

I then explain that people can explore the theme in more detail in various ways. We have various 'stations' set up around the church to help people to do this. A small team got the whole idea of the different stations up and running but they have now grown their own teams to develop the work.

There are:

creation stations – to make or create something as an act of worship in response to the main key point for that particular session;

painting station – contributors paint an entire work of art during Café Church to have it ready by the end of the service;

exploration station – to engage with people in greater depth. That may involve looking at some questions around the theme of the day or getting together in buzz groups;

prayer station – to encourage various creative ways of praying such as a prayer graffiti wall and 'postcard' prayers as well as having a person available to pray with;

giving station – highlighting different ways in which people can give, whether time, money, talents, resources or whatever.

That all happens for about a quarter of an hour and at the end of that time we then gather everyone together again. Children who have made something show it on our big video screen and we have a final song and then a prayer. It runs from 10.30am for an hour though lots of people do hang around to chat. The response has been huge and it's teaching us a lot about church and being church because it really does attract people who wouldn't come along to the other services.

A big issue now for us is what do we do the week after a Café Church Sunday? Is it enough for these people to double our congregation on the first Sunday of the month and then disappear? If they come to one of our traditional services, they can feel like fish out of water. What about ongoing discipleship? We are dealing with all ages from little ones to teenagers as part of this and it's the kids who are bringing their parents in.

For some people in our main congregation it has been a bit of a challenge but they can see the difference it is making. Thinking about the popularity of this form of service with families made me wonder about our context. We are in a commuter belt and many parents work really hard during the week and don't get to see their children very much because they're travelling. If they came to a standard service they would be split up again after 40 minutes when the children go off to their own activities but to have church where the family can all be together within a loving worshipful environment is a different model that seems to fit more comfortably with them.

The introduction of Café Church was a bit of a shock to some in the church but from day one it had an impact on everyone. It's incredibly rewarding how people have been touched with some finding their first expression of faith as a family together. We are always aware of trying to reach those who wouldn't be reached through traditional ways of doing things but it's not something you would undertake lightly. For instance, it was very different for all of us when Café Church fell on Easter Day but we thought, 'Well this is great because it means we can tell more people than usual about Jesus rising from the dead!' We offered an opportunity for people to receive Communion at the prayer station and there was a very warm response to that. Interestingly, they didn't wait in a 'churchy' sort of line for Communion; they just drifted up to the prayer station at different times.

None of what we have done is rocket science; most churches have run holiday clubs where they have creative activities and we have done that sort of thing too. It's just putting some of these things together and creating an environment where you are willing to take risks. It's also about being prepared to have 'holy disorder' while keeping that dignity of worship somewhere in the midst of it because there is an element of control that is right and godly.

We are just at the point as a church of envisioning what we could look like in a couple of years time and the feeling is that we need to become a lot more like Café Church in our outlook if we are to continue to be missional.

(Reader) New monasticism and fresh expressions of church

Today's changing culture calls for a huge diversity and range of fresh expressions of church. Graham Cray explores one particular flavour of fresh expression in an article from the Reader Magazine, November 2011.

Anglican priests and parishes have the 'cure of souls' of the whole parish, not just of those who go to church. So we at Fresh Expressions are challenging the churches to ask a key question. Who is not being touched or reached by the existing ministry of the local churches, whether that be through a neighbourhood ministry or through engaging with networks of common interest? As churches begin to engage with this question, they hopefully develop a discipline of local prayerful listening as they explore the possibility of establishing a fresh expression – a new congregation or church plant.

The whole point of a fresh expression is that it is appropriate to its context and is particularly for those not being effectively engaged by the churches already. Models that are being used elsewhere may be appropriate, but the most important thing is to work out what is appropriate for where you are. We have to be open to diversity and to imagining new things. You can't simply 'launch' a fresh expression somewhere without any thought as to whether it's the right shape for the context and culture it finds itself in.

A number of things are needed when looking to establish a fresh expression of church and that's where the history of monastic movements can help us. Firstly, we are seeking to establish a community rather than an event. Church is a community of which we are a part, not an event we go to. Biblically of course Christians don't so much go to church as they are Church. Sometimes they are Church gathered together and sometimes they are solitary, scattered as they go about their daily lives, but the Church is the primary community to which they belong. Sadly some people do attend local churches as no more than a regular event in their calendar but, properly understood, a church is a community to help people become lifelong disciples of Jesus, which is far more than attending services or staking their initial claim to faith.

We then have to consider how – in our sophisticated and in some ways novel culture – we form the habits of a way of life that will shape us as followers of Jesus? The evangelical tradition, among others, has put a huge emphasis on personal disciplines of daily prayer and Bible reading. These are vital, but to sustain them today I believe we also need something corporate; regular contexts of mutual encouragement, support and challenge. In our very individualistic society we need community if we are to sustain discipleship in our daily lives. The expression 'one another' appears frequently in the New Testament, 34 times in Paul's letters alone. What a number of us are thinking is that every church member who is serious about being a follower of Jesus might be part of a small, mutually accountable group, where they are real with one another about the areas of their lives where discipleship is hard, and positive in encouraging and praying for each other. What we might particularly learn from the monastic movement is some appropriate rule or rhythm of life.

It is obedience to the Holy Spirit from day to day that grows the fruits of the Spirit, and the local church is the community which supports and fosters that growth.

The primary purpose of these small communities within a local church is to seek to live in daily obedience to Jesus. A group of Christian disciples know they face certain pressures at work, home and in different areas of their lives. By covenanting to meet regularly as part of a shared rhythm of life they can pinpoint, between them, the most challenging areas and support and pray for one another as they identify the personal and corporate disciplines that will strengthen them to make consistent godly choices.

Character formation is the object of disciple making. It is achieved through habit, through godly repetition. It involves spiritual disciplines, but also daily obedience to the way of Christ. This commitment to a rhythm of life is helpful but it needs to be light touch, not legalistic, and should be instinctive rather than dutiful. My interest in new monasticism is, in part, because I am convinced that this sort of character formation has a much greater chance of success in community.

New monasticism is vital for the mission of the church also. Some of the newer missionary orders around today, like The Order of Mission (TOM), have drawn on monastic vows similar to the Rule of Benedict and adopted them into principles of life – hence Poverty becomes Simplicity, Obedience translates as Accountability to one another and so on. Some of our partners in the Fresh Expressions movement, CMS and Church Army, are mission agencies which are becoming Acknowledged Communities within the Church of England for the sake of their missionary calling. Another partner, 24/7 Prayer is a missionary prayer movement with a new monastic character. We shouldn't be surprised at the relevance of this approach and its effectiveness. In the era of the Celtic Church and from the time of Benedict, Europe was evangelised by monks.

I saw the results of this during an earlier period of my ministry as vicar of St Michael le Belfrey in York. York Minster, which was in my parish, was originally a minster, a community of monks who planted and later sustained churches around the area. The ancient-future nature of new monasticism means that there is much to learn from the monastic missionaries of previous eras.

The sheer scale of the mission field in Britain at the moment is immense. In England, Tearfund's 2007 statistics on Churchgoing in the UK show that just over one third of adults aged 16 upwards have never had any significant link with church at all. If we include those of 15 and under we're probably heading towards half of the population. It cries out for every local church to think about a 'mixed economy' approach (a partnership of our existing patterns of church and fresh expressions); planning something different to reach those they are not reaching.

Some of us feel that the Holy Spirit may be raising up some missionary orders again to reach where the churches do not reach. These orders are not to be freelance mavericks but instead operate in a community, investing in their growth and displaying accountability to the local bishop and denominational leaders. They should act as a pool and a resource to put into those leaders' hands for the reevangelisation of our country.

There are orders which have come into existence in response to a call to mission, like TOM; and there are fresh expressions of church which sustain their life and mission by drawing on monastic sources, such as Moot in the City of London led by Ian Mobsby and Safespace in Telford led by Mark Berry. There is undoubtedly something bubbling up from the Holy Spirit and the heart of what fresh expressions is all about is seeing what God is doing locally and joining in.

I was Chairman of the Board of Readers for the Diocese of Canterbury and can see that much Reader ministry is very relevant to this new move of the Spirit, but it will also need to adapt. We need so many fresh expressions planted that the vast majority of them will be lay led. If we are dealing with people who have never been part of a church, the level of understanding of the faith is going to be quite slim – you can't assume that people will know Bible stories any more. Readers' ministry as teachers of the faith is becoming increasingly vital as long as those same Readers are prepared to use methods of teaching that are relevant to their audience. It will certainly be necessary to know how to interact with that audience and engage with their lives.

As 'bridge' people, Readers perform a number of roles. They bridge the text of Scripture and the congregation as teachers of the Faith, and they also bridge the Church and the world. Those with a Reader vocation who remain in employment outside the church have many responsibilities to balance in their daily lives, but thankfully they know what the culture outside church is like from their daily experience and calling; all of which leads to a very real possibility that Readers may be the key people in the planting of fresh expressions of church, perhaps in their parishes, but also in their workplaces. Reader ministry will have to be much more focused around the mission of the church not just in the future, we will also begin to see new Readers emerge from fresh expressions of church; in fact it's already beginning to happen.

A while ago I attended a meeting that the Archbishop of Canterbury had called for bishops who were Visitors to a wide range of religious communities. Three different things could be seen to be happening in the monastic movement in England:

Some Orders with a great history are clearly in their final years. These had become small communities as their members grew older.

Other communities in better health are sometimes overwhelmed by people who want to come on retreats or find spiritual direction. There are very substantial demands within the Church to look at these communities for spiritual guidance.

New monasticism. All sorts of groups are seeking to develop some rule of life. This is being considered at the highest levels within the Church of England and, as I have said, involves agencies working with Fresh Expressions. These include longstanding mission agency CMS which has already made the transition to Acknowledged Community status; Church Army is on the same road; Anglican Church Planting Initiatives (ACPI) is led by Bob and Mary Hopkins, guardians of The Order of Mission; and the 24-7 prayer movement. In Lincolnshire the chairman of the local council of churches, Pete Atkins, is now developing an ecumenical order. This all shows that the connection between discipleship, mission and a community rule is increasingly understood and valued.

Ian Mobsby, priest missioner of the Moot community and an associate missioner with Fresh Expressions, serves on the national CofE Advisory Council for Diocesan Bishops and Religious Communities. The Council is exploring the possibility of formally recognising Anglican new monastic communities as an official subgrouping of Church of England Acknowledged Religious Communities. Soon it may be possible for fresh expressions of church associated with the CofE to explore whether their missional community is of a new monastic form.

New monasticism is not automatically connected to a missional motive, but to the extent that it enables Christians to be authentic disciples in a changing culture, and sustain missionary movements, it can only enhance the mission of God through the Church.

+Graham Cray

Reflections of a Reader in a fresh expression of church

Andy Wain works with Youth With a Mission in Liverpool and has just been licensed as a Reader to the 'Dream Network'. He tells us more, in an article from the Reader, November 2011.

The 'Dream Network' is a network of groups across Merseyside seeking to make church more accessible to the non-churched. Our aim is to help people on their spiritual journey towards Jesus by being Christ-centred, Open, Relational and Experimental; this makes for a unique setting to minister as a Reader.

A typical Dream service incorporates a call to worship, a short talk, reflection zones for personal engagement and response and communion. We have also instigated a Rhythm of Life to help people integrate their faith into everyday life and taken the church on the streets through creative evangelism.

Some might have difficulty reconciling the idea of being a Reader within the context of a fresh expression of church; recognising that a significant part of being a Reader is preaching. Does this conflict with post-modern values of individualism and relative truth? Whilst I appreciate that some would see these as areas of potential incompatibility, the fact is that I see preaching as being a necessary and biblical part of healthy church – both inherited and fresh expression – along with discipleship, pastoral care, mission, worship and communion. The challenge therefore is how to make these elements of church relevant to society today rather than obsolete.

How can preaching be done that facilitates both direct input and personal engagement and response? How do evangelism and discipleship happen in a way that honours the beliefs and views of both parties without compromising the core issues? These are some of the things I have been wrestling with through my training, and will continue to do so for a long time to come I am sure.

Evangelism

My children love walking around one of the large wholesale warehouses in Liverpool – mainly because of the free food samples enticing customers to buy the product! A couple of years ago Dream thought it would be great to take our own worship onto the streets for people in Liverpool to have a little taster of church, so Guerrilla Worship was born; a simple form of evangelism and worship.

One sunny Saturday afternoon a crowd of 30 Christians mingled in the local shopping centre. When a subtle signal was given, we sat down where we were, took off our shoes and socks and walked to a nearby park within the retail area to sit together in the shape of a cross. There we spent five minutes in silent prayer for the city. Intrigued, a number of young people 'hanging around' the area started to ask what we were doing. They were so taken with the idea that a number sat down with us to pray.

Last autumn we gave consideration to Halloween, recognising that a lot of churches do an amazing job of running alternative 'Halloween' parties for children whilst little is done for 16 to 30-year-olds. We ran a worship event in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral entitled 'Night of the Living Dead', inviting people to, 'Come and experience Liverpool Cathedral at its darkest… and meet a Jesus who makes the usual "Halloween Horror" seem tame and boring!'

The 250 people who came heard how Jesus had defeated paralysing fear on the cross so we can 'stare death in the face and not be afraid'. Three prayer stations provided opportunity for personal reflection and response along with the opportunity to receive Communion. Whilst provoking controversy with some people, the overwhelming response was how effectively it made Jesus the focal point of Halloween – as well as being a 'really cool' event.

As we consider running other such initiatives, we have two questions in mind. * Are we being faithful to the Christian faith and the values we hold as a church? With these two values shaping what we do, there are a whole range of exciting, creative and engaging ways we are helping people to discover and explore the Christian faith.

* Are these ways relevant to, and accepting of, people who don't go to church? The acid test would be, 'Would our non-churched friends be welcomed and treated as equal in their thoughts and views?'

Discipleship

Growing in Christ's likeness is an essential part of the Christian faith yet helping others realise that is very challenging. During Lent last year I experimented with posting a daily reflection on the Dream website and via email. These were written by myself and guest contributors. This sought to bring direct input and teaching whilst being an open forum where people could post their own comments and thoughts – both on the reflection and the comments of others. For me these comments were the most exciting part of the Lent reflections as the input was not limited to the one voice. Anyone who contributed had an equal voice which prompted some fantastic and often challenging comments and questions. Peer to peer discipleship was taking place in a very simple accessible way.

Lectio Divina is an ancient way of reflecting on scripture which we adapted for Dream and called Lectio. From 2008 we have sent out various styles of email; sometimes it has simply included a passage of scripture while at other times a reflection has been included. We also have seasons of sending nothing; but as with the Lent reflections, recipients have been invited to write their thoughts and comments on the Dream website. These have often been very personal and insightful and, more importantly, have been from anyone – not just those in church leadership.

We have found this a key way to help people as they discover what it means to be a Christian whilst giving space for them to bring their own thoughts, questions, doubts and ideas. Such ownership is essential to helping people see church as their community and become more Christ like.

Being a Reader From Week to Week

A couple of years ago we ran 'All Age Dream'. Every two weeks, up to 20 people from different backgrounds, ages and groupings – including singles, families with small children and teenagers, and older folks – came together for worship, input and reflection. It was a wonderful time of fellowship but the group was not growing so we brought it to a close to consider the way forward.

In February this year, in partnership with Liverpool Cathedral, we started a weekly 'all age' service called Zone 2. This is a café-style service running alongside the main Cathedral 10:30am Eucharist.

Three of its strongest values are:

Welcome: everyone is welcome to join us no matter what their background, age etc

Hospitality: a table laden with drinks, fruit and pastries with seats laid out in a café style

Worship: a reading from the Lectionary, a talk, prayer stations, communion and opportunity to share back thoughts and reflections. I co-lead this with Canon for Mission and Evangelism Richard White along with a wider team.

However, limited by its need to be all-age we also want to provide opportunity for more in-depth teaching so I am leading Dream in the Cathedral through a period of change to become 'Deeper'. Continuing to meet monthly we will offer more in-depth applied teaching to help people go 'Deeper' with God, with the Bible and in faith.

Reflective Space and Prayer Stations

Symbolism, silence, music, and movement have aided people in their worship for generations and, as many of us know, there is nothing new under the sun. From the desire to provide both direct teaching and personal response in our services, we usually create three or four areas for personal reflection relevant to the theme of the talk; these are often called prayer stations.

If the theme is the parable of the sower for instance, these may include planting a seed whilst giving thought to the type of soil , reflecting on a bunch or thorns and weeds, or having the passage available for meditation.

It is a Journey

Through leading Dream I have learnt that we don't have a fixed image of what the meetings should look like; rather we have some essential elements that should make up any church, along with certain values that bring focus and distinctiveness to all we do.

How these are worked out is constantly evolving and changing as those who come evolve and change; recognising that one service is not going to be everything for everyone. Rather we hope to have a selection of things for people to choose from depending where they are at in their lives; this provides endless opportunities for new ideas and creative ways to help people in their spiritual growth and worship.

Unlimited Church

James Grier explains how the Unlimited youth church begins to be seen in a new light as it becomes a BMO.

I was first appointed by the Diocese of Exeter to pioneer a youth church in the city and advise and encourage other expressions of youth church. Unlimited, which looks to reach young people who have no experience of church at all, tends to reach Sixth Form students – predominantly from Exeter College. It has been a far harder and slower task than I ever envisaged but I have been in post for four-and-a-half years now and it finally feels like we've made some headway.

We were clear from the start that we were not looking for any sort of transfer growth from other youth work in the city or even to reach non-Christian youth with existing church connections. The missional focus was, and is, unchurched youth – though ultimately we are also looking to include people of all ages.

Early in 2009 we started going out on the cathedral green where most Sixth Formers seem to spend their time, get into conversation with them and say, 'We are starting a church. What do you think about church and God?' Prayer is a very important component of what we do and our aim is to offer to pray for everyone we talk to. We ask whether we can pray for them and ask God to tell us about them. We estimate that about 9 out of 10 young people allow us to do this. Anything we sense might be from God is offered lightly and tentatively so that we are not putting anything on people unhelpfully or claiming we get infallible revelation! Nearly all whom we pray for are shocked by the accuracy of God's revelation. It means that the young people know what we're about from the outset; it may have limited the speed of growth of the fresh expression but – on the other hand – we build on relationship and that develops a strong foundation.

Two years ago we began renting an office at the back of Mary Arches church in the city centre to use as a café base. That's where we also have a worship service three Sundays a month now. We had decided that we would only start doing worship when we saw someone come to faith; now we have got two people who have been baptised and two further people also become Christians. Our worship time must be the world's most casual and informal because our aim is always to reach young people that don't do church. It's a 60-minute service, half of which involves eating toasted sandwiches! After that we have a video clip, some songs, an activity, prayer and response.

Our mission statement is 'Unlimited Church – young people encountering the God they've never met and living the difference' but ultimately we need to be church of all ages if we are to be genuinely church rather than some sort of monochrome Christian group. The young people need older people in their lives if we are into discipleship and not just conversion.

In everything we do as a church, we aim to be:

unlimited by church culture and tradition – where it is unhelpful, unnecessary or inappropriate;

unlimited in our openness to and love of people – treating them as unique and as God's made them to be;

unlimited in our faith and expectation of God – living by faith not inhibited by past experience or fears.

Soon we hope to have the freedom of being a Bishop's Mission Order with the continued aim of converting the young people to Christian culture, not church culture. Lots of churches say they want a youth church but what they really mean is a youth congregation. The BMO evolved when our new converts wanted to be baptised. I asked the Bishop, 'How does that work ecclesiastically?' He suggested becoming a BMO which was wonderful – other churches in the area had initially been rather suspicious of our motives; many were also fearful that we would whisk their young people away. They didn't know if we'd parachute in and then disappear without trace as some sort of parachurch organisation or an outreach. The BMO changes that because it establishes the formal structures needed for right leadership and accountability.

Up until now I have been serving as half time team vicar in five parishes as well as spearheading Unlimited. However, from the middle of December I will be going full time in this pioneering role. My prayer is that Unlimited becomes a viable church of people of all ages which exists to reach and disciple youth who've never really had anything to do with church before.

The main challenge has been to develop a team; some started out with us but have moved away or got stuck into established churches. Thankfully others are now coming through. In future, I'd love to see more radical conversions. We have prayed for 400 young people on the streets since we started but we don't see the fruit of that all the time. I don't want to become possessive but it would be great to see more of them. We'd love to see a turning of the tide as more and more young people in Exeter discover God for themselves and are changed by him and the city changed as a result!

Surf’s up for Jesus Longboard Classic at Tubestation – Nov11

Tubestation, the fresh expression of church on the beach at Polzeath, recently hosted the 5th Jesus Longboard Classic surfing competition.

The Christian Surfers UK (CSUK) event in Cornwall attracted more than 70 competitors from across the country to compete in stunning conditions. A gentle offshore breeze and waves of three feet and over gave the long-boarders a perfect opportunity to show off their skills in the waves. The Classic comprised four divisions – juniors, women's, masters and open – with a prize purse of £1,000.

Tubestation has played host to the competition for the past five years and a surfers' blessing has already become a popular tradition at the event. After breakfast one morning, all the surfers were given garlands of flowers as they listened to live music by singer songwriter Gareth Logan and a talk from Rich Balding of surf company Nineplus. Rich told how Jesus has given his life meaning and significance. Kris Lannen of Tubestation then prayed a blessing over the surfers and the competition was back on.

Contest director Johnny Hillman of CSUK thanked God for the Classic, saying it was a highlight of the competition calendar,

The thing that makes this contest is the great vibe and sportsmanship showed by each and every one of the competitors.

CSUK added,

The Tubestation is a fantastic place to hang out between heats. It really shows how a church can serve the community around it.

(Photo credit: 360 Photography)

Springfield Church

Will Cookson is minister of a 'church that was a fresh expression before the term was invented'. He tells how important it is for fresh expressions of church to keep on reinventing themselves.

Watch Will Cookson and Sue Bosley discuss multiplication not duplication (transcript available on the update Oct12 link to the right).

Springfield Church was originally set up by Holy Trinity Wallington in 1992 to reach out to the community. In 2002 it became what is known as an Extra-Parochial Place (EPP) in Southwark Diocese which meant we had no 'official' parish and no church building. Our two key objectives were, and are, mission and worship and we now have about 400 people of whom about 40% are under the age of 18.

Springfield's two congregations meet in different places in Wallington on Sundays at 10.30am. The larger one gets together at Wallington High School for Girls while our second is the Springfield@Roundshaw cafe church which meets at St Paul's church on the Roundshaw estate.

The thing about a fresh expression is that over time it can become regularised in the way it does things so it has to re-discover itself. To an extent, when I came here almost 10 years ago that was what had happened to Springfield; it had got set in its ways. The thing that cried out to me was to go to a cell church model because everything has to be relational if it's going to 'speak' to people outside inherited church.

We are doing this through a whole series of different things, such as a Christian club at a local school (Xplore), Messy Church in the same venue (Footsteps), parent and toddler group transformed into Messy Church format, as well as cell groups and various ministries – such as an English conversation class – planted in the community. When we were asked by the vicar at Roundshaw estate to plant a new congregation in that area, we sent out 25 people and now average about 40 at the café church. Most of those who have joined come from the estate itself.

We have a huge focus on relationships and building events and ministries that reinforce and complement each other. To my mind, too many Messy Churches have focused on trying to get the numbers in and getting the event done efficiently. We concentrate on the relationships that people can make there and – as a result – have seen friendships growing, families joining us for other events, parents getting involved to help and some becoming part of Sunday congregations, cell groups and taking part in Alpha courses. The social events organised by those different cell groups look to encourage community and it may take one, two or three years for people to get involved to that level – but that's OK, it all takes time.

The common problem for many churches is that they have some great ministries but they are stand-alone and don't benefit from the relational overlap. So, for example, children come to Xplore on Mondays after school with their families invited to our monthly Messy Church. Those in Year Six are given invitations to our youth outreach The Mix, again every month, at a local community centre. The larger-scale events we put on are never officially advertised; we prefer to use word of mouth and ask people and families if they'd like to come along. Feast in the Field attracts about 600 people as a community event with laser quest, assault courses, Scalextric and face painting among other things. We also take up to 600 people to the cinema at Christmas. If we advertised I am sure that we could get larger crowds in but we would lose out on relationship building. We find that the more that we overlap and inter-connect what we do, the more that people are interested and able to take the next step in their faith journey.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will be visiting Springfield Church to help us celebrate our 20th anniversary next year by preaching and presiding at our Sunday morning service on 18 March. It's a wonderful recognition that churches such as ours are now integral parts of the Church of England and no longer an oddity! The Archbishop's visit is a practical sign of his enthusiasm for this mixed economy and a huge encouragement for us.

Springfield has always been a different sort of church. We were a fresh expression before the term was invented! The thing with many fresh expressions is that as their communities mature then it's all too easy for them to revert to 'normal' church mode.

We really emphasise to our leaders that the focus shouldn't be on the task but on the people they're seeking to serve and reach for Christ. This has led to a real depth of community with a very high level of participation; about 80% of our congregation is involved in something.

The important thing for anyone involved in a fresh expression to remember is that we're here to reach the unchurched. The disenchanted Christian and dechurched Christian will also come our way but keeping that outward focus is vital if we're going to continue in our true calling.

(Media) Cappuccino and an Ordination please

A Café Church in Leeds will host what is believed to be the country's first ordination service within a fresh expression of church on Sunday (13th November) when Michelle Briggs is ordained priest in the University's Emmanuel Centre.

Michelle has worked as a Senior Research Fellow in the University's School of Healthcare since 2003 following completion of her PhD. She began ordination training in 2005, became a deacon in 2008 at Ripon Cathedral and was licensed in April 2010 to be an assistant chaplain at the University. This included involvement in the leadership team of Emmanuel Café Church which meets on Sundays from 5pm to 6.30pm during term time.

She says,

I wanted to go where I could be with people involved in workplace ministry. The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, Rt Revd John Packer, suggested how to work out my curacy within a chaplaincy framework and Café Church has been a very enriching experience. It's a great way to do church.

The ordination service will be familiar in some ways but very different in others. Instead of an order of service there will be a 'menu' to indicate how and when people can take part in the ordination. It will be streamed as a live webcast with an opportunity for the virtual 'congregation' to join with those at the venue via live chat on Facebook.

The University's Anglican chaplain Matt Ward says,

It's exciting to have such a significant event as part of our fresh expression of church; deacons in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds are ordained in the cathedral but the ordination of priests takes place in the parishes where curates are serving – so in this case, it's Café Church!

We have thought long and hard about how to conduct what is traditionally a formal service in a way that remains true to our Café Church style. It's important that it's done correctly but I also wanted us to be connected to our community's unique culture so we basically broke down the service and put it back together again. It has to be accessible to quite a disparate group of people because there'll be non-Christian friends and colleagues who will want to come along.

Many Leeds graduates, now living away from the city in the UK and abroad, also want to be part of the special occasion. Matt says,

Some people have been with us for three years as members of Café Church. After graduating, they go back home or move on but remain part of the Café Church extended community. They told us they'd like to participate in the service in some way so we decided to do a live stream of the service and facilitate live chat via our Facebook group.

Parts of the service will be quite formal and front led but the Ministry of the Word is going to be done in Café Church style with some resources on tables to explore things there. People will also be able to 'sit' around an online table and when we get to the bit where those of us in Leeds are getting into discussions, one of our leaders will facilitate the online chat. Also, instead of having the litany prayers, people will contribute what they have been working on. This will include someone bringing forward their laptop and offering what the online community have come up with.

Discussion as to the 'dress code' – and many other issues – is continuing. Michelle says,

As is normal for Café Church, we will be having coffee and cake to kick things off from 5pm to 5.30pm so to have a fully robed procession at that stage would be incongruous! I'm having a clerical dress made for me so that I can be quite informal but still wear the collar.

I'm delighted that the service is being held within the Café Church. I know the term café church can certainly be stretched to cover all sorts of expressions of church but, to be honest, I'm not somebody in search of a label. The most important thing for me is never to be a stumbling block for people to come to Christ. Jesus tore the cloth of the Temple in two and we spend a lot of time in church sewing that back up again! If we embraced every way that Christians show Christ's light perhaps we wouldn't see the need to try and do that.

Month: November 2011