X-Site – update May12

Captain Louise Weller, of Church Army New Zealand, tells how the X-site community continues to develop in the wake of natural disaster.

Five years ago we began an outreach into a suburb in Christchurch with high unemployment, many single families and huge needs. We began by taking our bus into the streets and followed that up three years ago by starting an afterschool programme in a local venue with the expectation that parents would come along and become involved as well.

X-Site - groupThis programme, with a strong Christian emphasis, was geared for families and encouraged the building up of the local community in a caring environment. Sadly we have lost touch with some families because of the earthquakes we suffered here in September 2010 and February 2011. Many people left Christchurch as a result and others went because of housing problems.

It was been extremely challenging with many families struggling. There has also been an increase in marriage breakdowns – partly due to the stress of the quakes' ongoing aftershocks.

The good news is that we are becoming a community of faith and it is exciting; it is just not developing at the speed I thought it might. One of the keys to growth has been our visiting programme and our dependence on God in prayer. We know that there will be challenges and this is good because we see these challenges as opportunities to see God at work among us.

Church @ Community

Nic Williams, leader of Church@Community, tells of its development in St Ann's, Nottingham. Launched in October 2010, it meets in a local primary school.

Before getting involved with Church@Community, I had been part of a local Methodist church where we were completely reviewing our practices. From that review in 2007 we realised that we were doing loads of work inside the building and lots of people were doing good work in the community as individuals but the two things didn’t really marry up at all.

Church @ Community - policeWe worked on a plan and a vision as how to improve that because the church building itself wasn't situated particularly well as a community venue. One of the most deprived estates in the country was on the doorstep, at one point St Ann's was branded the gun capital of Britain, and yet there wasn't a Methodist presence at all. However, I had a good knowledge of the area because of my job as Director of Business and Community at a school there.

Unfortunately, time went by and the church's vision and plan for the area was put to one side. A group of about 12 of us spent a summer considering the way forward in prayer and, from that, we went to the (Nottingham East) Circuit to say we still believed the time was right to do something new for this area. The Circuit agreed and we spent some time refining the plan.

Seeing the needs of local families at first hand, I knew there was a real calling because a very limited amount of community work was going on. There were lots of faith organisations around but they were not necessarily engaging with the community. We knew that we didn't want our project to be about 'signing people up' to come to church; instead its focus was to be part of that community. We wanted to find out how we could be involved in, and support, what was already there.

At the same time there were other churches in Nottingham where God was calling people to move out and be part of the St Ann's community. It was a different vision but the same principles – God was putting all these things in place for us.

Church @ Community - teamOne of our key challenges stemmed from the fact that our leadership team had been part of an established leadership of a church but we hadn't got a 'sending' church to support us in what we were doing. We looked to our Superintendent and our Circuit and received their backing – not in financial terms but their support was crucial.

There were also issues around money and membership because we were still members of the original church but we weren't attending it. We realised that this was a faith exercise because other people in the Circuit were saying of the new venture, 'When will they start paying into the Methodist Church?'

In my daily work, I deal with some of the most challenging families in the city so it is very satisfying to see how Church @ Community has gone from being a church-based initiative – with the original team – to it actually reflecting the community. That turnaround has happened as a result of the people who have turned up; I know the background of many of those who are now part of what's happening – and God is clearly in it.

Church @ Community - balloon launchThis is great but it can also be very hard work. Easter Sunday morning, for instance, was very challenging. A new family came along with four children, all of whom ran riot. But this is what we are here for, so that a family like that can come and feel they can be as they really are. It may be uncomfortable for the rest of us but that's the way it is when you really begin to deal with people outside the communities we're familiar with.

We meet in the main hall of the school where I work, Blue Bell Hill Primary School, on the second, fourth and fifth Sundays of the month. It all starts from about 10am to 12noon and it's very relaxed. Tea, coffee and cake are served all the time and everyone sits around tables. We have a live worship band which includes a singer, two guitarists and a five-year-old drummer on a full-sized kit!

Church @ Community - balloons in the skyI lead the worship and we sometimes have a local preacher or it's just led by the team. We usually have 15 minutes of singing which lead into a time where children (and adults) act out a Bible story all based around a theme. Then we have a ten minute break – a sort of 'interval' – and we always have a craft activity to create something to take home. The following week we always ask, 'What have you done with what you made? Have you used it for prayer? If so, how?'

It's not everyone's cup of tea but we range between 50 and 70 in number and at Christmas we reached 95. Our oldest member is 90. We get a community grant so are classified as a community organisation and this can bring about a different attitude to what we do. In our first year the Lord Mayor came to our civic carol service during his Christmas round of events. The community police officers, if they are on the beat that day, will also sit in the school hall with us during our time together, be part of it all and have their surgeries there. The hall is very big so people can just mingle at the back.

Church @ Community - bandWe're very clearly identifiable now as Church @ Community because we all wear blue polo shirts; the community call us the Blue Shirt Brigade! At first it was just the leaders wearing the shirts or badges; now I'd say nearly 70% of our regulars have got Church @ Community hoodies or polo shirts. When we started I suggested that every time there was any sort of local event we needed to be there. We spent a long time 'investing' in things and, as a result, the local councillors got to know who we were.

We have been greatly helped by Rob Cotton of the Bible Society who has worked alongside us to ask difficult questions along the way, such as, 'Where are the people at Church @ Community getting their spirituality?' I believe people are getting that spirituality from being part of a community, by being part of a group, because there is a lot of spirituality there. At some stage the time will be right for us to do the small group thing; it will come if people ask for it but we will not set up a group just for the sake of it. That is not going to happen.

There are 11 of us in the leadership team, all non-ministerial. Our support comes from the Superintendent, I meet with him every month for accountability and once a quarter we hold a team leadership meeting; we also have mini meetings.

Church @ Community - hallWe recently got to the point of asking, 'How is this going to go forward?' I told the whole church that the vision needs to be everybody's, I am happy to play my part but I can't do it all, I can only do so much. They needed to know that it now needs to be them taking it forward. We are encouraging everyone to contribute to it in some way and we have already seen a men's breakfast being started in a local pub and cake and coffee mornings.

Great things have happened at Church @ Community. We have had a baptism and one of the governors of the school has also asked for her child to be baptised – and will be bringing 80 people along to the occasion. Twice a quarter we have a communion service when the elements are blessed by a minister. Then people come up to collect the bread and wine and share it with their own table.

A key challenge at the moment is the financial implications of all of this. From day one the church has been totally funded by the leadership team but we don't have the finance to keep on bankrolling the church. Not having premises to uphold means we have got the freedom to do things differently; that's great but there are lots of other things to consider.

Church @ Community - craftWe have just had quite wide-ranging discussions with our Superintendent about this and agreed that we will explore the possibility of becoming a bona-fide, 'official', church in September. The fear is, 'Are we going to become the same as a traditional church?'

That's why we will go back to the Circuit to discuss things like, 'What will our financial commitment be as we have one of the biggest congregations in the Circuit? This is a fresh expression, how is the Circuit going to support this?' So far it is all looking positive and if God wants it to be this way, all will be well. It is a leap of faith. If people choose to become a member of the Methodist Church with us they can – but they don't have to.

If local preachers start to become involved, they need to be briefed really well. They won't be 'leading' full services as such; they will have a five minute slot to give a short sermon, working alongside the worship team to deliver the rest of the service. For a lot of people that's hard. We have to explain that it's important to be prepared to change everything at the last minute because flexibility is key here.

Church @ Community - pensI think there is an understanding of fresh expressions within Church @ Community but I presently don't put the Methodist stamp on it. I know I'm Methodist but does it really matter? Me putting up a big sign is not going to make people in our community come to us. Methodism was originally all about going out and starting new things and that's what I see with Church@Community. It's also important to remain flexible in approach. We keep on asking what people in the community want, and we have changed as a result.

Does it really matter? We know as an organisation that we are Methodist, that's our background, but we don't need to shout about it. It is important for me to work alongside other denominations in the area.

Church @ Community - tableIf we stick to our values of being part of the community and not just keep focusing on Sunday services and work with other organisations, things will happen. Two things stand out for me:

  • Street Pastors in Nottingham City Centre were looking at where to expand their programme and we were one of the first organisations they came to;
  • Citizens UK have just come to Nottingham; they approached us to ask if I could go on their community team. That wouldn’t have happened for St Ann's if I wasn't there.

The danger is that people may think of us as just another branch of the social services rather than a church but we couldn’t be clearer about the roots of all we do. Even our Family Funday had a service as part of what was a Pentecost event, I was amazed so many people came to it but it's all part of God's plan.

Anglicanism must die? (Tim Carter)

Tim CarterTim Carter asks whether Anglicanism must die.

Recently I was leading a training session for a group of curates on discerning God's call in a fresh expression context. As part of the session I emphasised the importance of the principle of dying to self and asserted that those called to engage in fresh expressions ministry must be willing to die to their own preferences. We are not called to create a church for ourselves, but to enable the people to whom we have been sent to become church. The question came back at me, 'How does that square with it being an Anglican fresh expression? Are you willing to die to being Anglican?'

I've been reflecting on that question ever since. I do believe that the Anglican tradition lends itself well to finding local expression. It has a heritage of self reformation and it is a broad church that has worked hard to maintain unity in diversity. Having said that, I think that this question is worth engaging with. What of its own core identity is the Church of England willing to allow to die in order that the Church might live?

It seems to me that this question might be expressed in different ways at different levels. At each level there are elements of what might be considered Anglican identity that might have to die.

What must die in the national institution?

Common liturgy and forms of worship? Ordering of bishops, priests, and deacons? Geographical coverage of the country?

What must die in the local church?

Is it necessary for inherited churches to die if new churches are to live? Is support for fresh expressions an optional extra from surplus resources, or a core ministry that will be prioritised?

What must die at the personal level for ministers?

Do ministers have to allow ministries that we find personally fulfilling to die? Is it right to kill off branches of church life in the face of the pain of those who live amongst those branches?

I pose these questions without knowing the answers, but to provoke conversation. As we engage with them and others like them, I invite you to join with me in prayer.

I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I find it easy to suggest things that need to die when others will face bereavement or the work of consolation. May God forgive me and give me the grace to die well and the courage to console others in their grief. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Amen.

Norwich Christian Meditation Centre – update May12

Nicholas Vesey, vicar of St Luke's with St Augustine's, Norwich, tells of the steps being taken by Norwich Christian Meditation Centre to explore the Christian message from a contemplative perspective.

We come out of an Anglican Church, St Luke's with St Augustine's, and membership of our website at www.norwichmeditation.co.uk now stands at over 1,400. These members participate with us in a number of ways by:

Norwich Christian Meditation CentreAttending the introductory 'Developing Consciousness Course'.

The eight week course is an introduction to Christianity from a contemplative perspective and includes a review of the nature of consciousness, the part that our minds play in that, and how we each develop our own understanding of the nature of spirituality. In 2012 we are running three courses throughout the year and I have now written a book of the material we use; Developing Consciousness – A Roadmap of the Journey to Enlightenment.

Coming along to one of our conferences.

We hold three or four conferences every year. In 2011 we hosted Robert Beckford, Dave Tomlinson, Jesuit Priest Robert Kennedy and the Merton scholar James Finley. About 100 attend each event.

Being a part of our Soul Brothers' Men's Group.

About 40 men participate in this. Three small groups meet monthly and, every two months, there is a big meeting on a specific topic. This year we have covered: Men and Sex, Men and Money, Men and Power. We are linked into Richard Rohr's Rites of Passage initiative.

Joining our informal communion for non-churchgoers.

More recently we have decided to create this event specifically for people who have a more contemplative perspective. The informal communion for non-churchgoers happens once a month at the moment, however we hope to go weekly next year.

About 30 people range around one huge long table and we begin with everyone drumming for about five minutes before going into silence. This is followed by the Collect for purity and the Lord's Prayer. From there the pattern changes monthly. There is a theme – such as fertility, resurrection or connection – and what happens depends on that theme; we might have a guided meditation, some chanting, or a reflection. There is always a Scripture reading, a short homily, and a chance for anyone to respond.

We then move into a communion based upon the story of the Christ through scripture that culminates in everyone moving to the table and offering each other the bread and the wine across six stations. We end with a meditation as three flaming torches are lit.

Finally, as a response to the communion, we enable people to talk about their own projects and enrol others in their ideas over coffee. So far the events are well attended, and we are looking forward to a community developing that could form a new type of church.

Mighty Shed

Irve Davis-Griffiths, youth minister at Uplyme Church, near Lyme Regis, tells of the Mighty Shed youth and creative fresh expression project.

My own journey starts in music, I'm not from a Christian family background and I came to faith in my early 20s in the back of a guitar shop! I was a musician then, and have returned to it now, and it was always the case that 'normal church' never made sense to me because it was so far removed from everything I knew and understood and loved.

Mighty Shed - musicI often struggled to find the Jesus I'd met in the guitar shop when I was in a church; the worlds seemed so far apart. I've been involved youth work and youth ministry training for about 14 years but I've always been more interested in the people 'out there' rather than those on the 'inside'.

I'd been youth minister for Uplyme for about nine years and I'd achieved many goals for the ministry, but the real push came in early 2011 when the church was looking at what we wanted to do with youth ministry and longer-term sustainability. So, after a year of prayer and deliberation, various things led us to look at developing community youth church. The question that kept coming back to me was, 'How are we serving young people who aren't involved in regular church at all?'

Over half my life is spent as a musician and music teacher and I'm very much a networker. I have made the strongest links with people through creative activities and the setting-up of small group youth-work, community youth groups, schools' work and regional rockschool camps for budding musicians. I started to think what a local version of a rock camp would look like in our local context and Mighty Shed was born.

Mighty Shed - insideThe name, Mighty Shed, comes from my home studio, which is housed… in a shed. The Bible says that 'people look at the outside of a person but God looks at the heart' and we know that significant things can come out of something that looks very small and understated, like a shed. In the same way, we believe people are full of potential – we are all mighty sheds!

When we talked to those in our existing youth groups, about 50% of them said they already thought of the respective groups as 'their' church. As a result, we decided to move away from the idea of young people growing up in groups and hoping they would then go on to 'real' church. Instead, we say they are going to grow up in the youth church together and own it as their 'church'. It doesn’t look much different on the surface to your average community youth group in action but the end goal is very different.

The project has two main strands:

Mighty Shed - prayer room1. A community church for young people, made up of two groups – Xplosion (for school years 6-9) and the Big Bang (for school years 10 and upwards). The Big Bang, as the older group, 'owns' and runs the Xplosion younger group; it also has an investment in maintaining itself and the younger group through participation and empowerment which helps to develop young leaders. At the moment, the total turnout is around 35-45 plus 'grown-ups'. Alongside this I have spent a lot of time in primary school work and found it invaluable in investing in local community and young people – particularly if you are looking to set up something for the long-term.

2. The music and creative 'arm' which is Mighty Shed. In turn, this has two main aims as part of its further development:

  • short to medium term. To have events run by young people for young people;
  • longer term. Building up a creative community, exploring faith and encouraging participation in creative activities that 'bless' others. We're trying to build a youth music 'scene'.

Mighty Shed - logoWe've been meeting with a small bunch of young people in a local coffee house to plan, pray and lay the foundations for all of this. In March, we had an amazing launch gig with an internationally renowned musician performing and running workshops. Off the back of that we've set-up Facebook pages and a website and run workshops. We are now planning more gigs that look to raise money for local causes and give creative opportunities for other young people.

Each event so far has been a way of giving back to our wider community – and that's the point; we're not just there to take or be an inward looking group but to bring good things to others. We are looking for relationship building. Our strapline is 'blessing the community through creativity', so all events have to be outward looking in some way – either by serving others or raising money. Next up is a big fundraising gig on the seafront and some rockschool workshops.

The project has a strong ecumenical backing. We have a reference group made up of people from several churches in the area and I report back on activities to the local church leaders' meetings. I've also come up with five indicators of growth to help us track our progress, which is always difficult with new projects, but at least they give us some areas to focus on:

  1. language: are people beginning to develop and own a language of belief?
  2. activities: how are people showing signs of being outward-looking?
  3. community: are there signs of commitment to one another?
  4. spirituality: are there signs of spiritual growth and formation?
  5. empowerment: how are we empowering people to act for themselves?

Mighty Shed - beachIn terms of context, Uplyme and Lyme Regis have a huge population in the summer and a comparatively small one in the winter. There is quite a lot of seasonal work so, if you are a young person, available employment is often through service industries. In general it's a very prosperous area but, like all places, there's more to it if you dig a little deeper.

There are quite a lot of younger families but also a large, older demographic in the area. People generally are quite socially mobile and there are excellent schools, which means many young people go on to university – but there are a significant number who don't. Some are happy enough to go to church-run things but I hope Mighty Shed activities will be a good experience for those who don't normally cross the threshold of a traditional church. That's why it's so important to be where people are. My hope and dream is that eventually some sort of community will grow from out of where young people gather, out of their passion for music, art, all things creative and from their faith journey – shaped and owned by themselves. It's all very open and not pinned-down at present! There are many challenges ahead, both in sustainability, finances and keeping the heart of the project central.

Mighty Shed - The CobbAt the moment, there is a meeting at least once a week of youth church or Mighty Shed in some form or another. Over time I would like to draw together these two strands so that they can feed each other.

Do people understand fresh expressions? Many people understand it in terms of words but most don't appreciate what it means practically. Church is full of people who know how to do church as it is; I want to tap into a different layer of people who want to do church in a whole new way.

The Bridge – update May12

It is has been over 6 years since The Bridge was featured on expressions the dvd – 1. Tim Lea, its leader for nine years, explains what's happening now.

We are still here! We have seen a number of people come to faith from a mixture of unchurched and de-churched backgrounds. Some of them have moved onto other churches, others have stayed with us; some have struggled to keep a faith at all. Ongoing discipleship is not easy, we live a cold climate for seed to grow and bear fruit. We have not been immune from disagreements and misunderstandings.

We got to the point where our growth led us to seek further funding to invest in additional staffing. 'People not buildings' became a common phrase in our vocabulary. As people came to faith we have had to adapt and change, desiring to see people grow and mature as well as to continue reaching unchurched people. It is not an easy path to tread. We are now three years into a five-year funding agreement with the Methodist Circuit, District and Connexion. We have recruited a part-time youth worker who is growing The Bridge organically. We have also just recruited a part-time assistant leader after the previous one left under difficult circumstances for all involved. As a community we have discovered we have a verbal, rather than written, culture based on trust, story and relationships. We only realised this when needing to formalise our values and culture in job descriptions, person specs, etc. It has been challenging.

We have joined a learning community with Lead Academy. Several of The Bridge leadership team have been on a couple of excellent 48-hour sessions led by the Academy and I have been on retreat with them as well. That has been really, really good in helping us focus on the role and functions of our core team and look at changing our leadership structure. But it has also provided us with a language to talk about some of the deeper issues we face.

Bridge - market stall

The Bridge has been going for 17 years in total so we are facing many questions along the lines of, What does maturity look like?, How do you carry on being fresh?, Do you ever get to the point where you stop? I'm its second generation leader so what happens to The Bridge when it comes to the second generation leader moving on? What does it look like when people begin to get comfortable? How do you carry on reaching out to people as well as mature those who have come to faith?

At the moment I don't think we have answers to those questions. The past six to eight months have involved quite a lot of soul searching and a re-analysis of, Are we doing what it says on the tin?

Part of the reason for The Bridge being set up originally was because a lot of people identify with liking Jesus but not the Church. That's why we try to do things differently, including what it means to be church. We see ourselves as a bridge between the community and the church and also between people and God.

It's interesting with The Bridge because we've not been at this stage of the journey before so we don't know what’s going to happen! The danger is that, because traditional forms of church support fresh expressions, there is pressure from these supporting organizations to put us in a 'box' of one kind or another. That pressure can be so overwhelming and, as a result, it can be quite draining.

I wonder whether there is a 'revolution within the revolution' that's happening. That secondary revolution will come about when the unchurched people who become Christians within a fresh expression then reach out to others and form fresh expressions themselves. Unchurched or dechurched people who become committed and missional will develop fresh expressions of church that will break the mould of what's gone before. It raises some massive issues, but is very exciting.

My question would be, How do we help the unchurched people that we see being converted now become missional and set them free to set up fresh expressions? What would that look like? We are still in the place of trying to work that out.

We ran 40 days of prayers and fasting before Christmas to ask, Are we doing anything wrong because we are not being fruitful in terms of reaching unchurched people? Is there anything we need to change?' Our experience has been that it's very important to keep on asking those questions. To keep on being open to what God has to say about it. Never easy, but maybe that is what maturity is.

The Bridge

When Christians in Hinckley decided they needed a viable alternative to traditional church, they decided to try something completely different. Now a school and a local pub are the places where people come to worship and to learn. Tim Lea explains more.

The sort of people who come to The Bridge and are attracted by what we do and the way we do The Bridge, are folks who perhaps don't have any contact with church at all. There's a growing percentage of the population which fit that category.

The Bridge - groupThe Bridge's worship time does take place on a Sunday, between the hours of 5 and 7. People will often come and they are surprised by how traditional it can be. We do make use of worship songs and we make use of what we call performance or presentation songs – it will involve the children right at the very beginning which often can be pretty wacky and pretty lively, they then leave for their own activities and we go into a time where we begin to look at a particular issue and focus on what the bible might be saying about something.

That is only the tip of the iceberg and what goes on underneath, the remaining 90% of the iceberg, is really important.

The Bridge started off by doing some research, some door to door work right at the very beginning, to actually find out what people thought, what they expected. So one of the reasons we meet on a Sunday, in a school, at 5pm, is that people in the local community thought that that would be a better time to meet.

The Bridge - speakingWe have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams by the Hinckley Methodist Circuit and its commitment to The Bridge, not only in terms of finances but also in terms of staffing.

We've been involved in running an Alpha course at the local pub and I've always dreamed of standing at the start of an Alpha course with a pint in my hand and saying it's good to see you here, I hope that over the next few weeks we will begin to explore some of the things that we believe about Christianity and what it has to say about the world we live in. So for me it was perfectly natural!

It's not possible for everybody to get to know what they need to know in 40-50 minutes on a Sunday, I think that's just unrealistic and an unhelpful model of what church is. I think it's far more realistic to begin to form a small group and to begin to thrash out some of the ideas, some of the teachings which Christ gave to us.

The danger is that we live with a model of church that means it runs parallel to society and the way society runs, whereas actually I would rather encourage people to be involved in society and be part of society and to live out their Christian faith in society.

Bridge - pintPeople sometimes ask, where does your church meet? When people now ask me that question I will think about the social worker who perhaps will be dealing with a very difficult child on a Wednesday afternoon, the person who is a gardener… there is no divide between what we claim to practice on a Sunday and what we live out during the rest of the week.

For anyone who wanted to set up something like The Bridge in their town, I would say just keep it simple and laid back and eat together, talk together, pray together… I would encourage people to dream because I think that God is a God of adventure and he loves to see people who are Christians, who are followers of him, taking a risk and daring to do something different – because I'm sure that in many ways he's got a smile on his face when he sees us. OK we've made mistakes, we've got dirty, muddy, disillusioned and fed up, but I know that I'd rather stand before God when the final day comes and say 'I tried', than to have sat and been comfortable and to have never tried in the first place.

X-treme – update May12

Four members of the X-treme fresh expression of church in Seascale recently braved the Irish Sea for baptism.

More than 50 people gathered at Cumbria's Seascale Beach on Easter Sunday to see the foursome face full immersion as part of a service led by Philip Peacock, Superintendent of Whitehaven Methodist Circuit. After singing 'Here for You' and making a public declaration of faith, those being baptised ran into the sea and battled against the waves to go under the water one by one.

X-treme - cakeThe crowd then sang 'To God be the Glory' and prayers were said with the laying on of hands for a fresh outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. The newly-drenched quartet rushed home to shower and change as everyone else made their way to the Methodist Church Hall for hot drinks and cake.

Lyn Edwards, leader of the Shackles Off youth project and X-treme, said,

I think we may be the first church in Seascale to have had baptisms in the sea. It brought the village out to see what was happening. Of the 50 people who gathered to watch from the beach, only about 20 of them were church people.

X-treme - circleThose being baptised were two 18-year-olds who gave their lives to the Lord at Soul Survivor last year and the other two adults are also closely involved in what we do with X-treme. I was thrilled to be part of it and amazed to see what God had done. At one point it all seemed very different because, after three years of doing the project, no-one had been saved. I told God that I longed to see just one person come to faith and then we went to Soul Survivor and nine people made commitments!

It was so wonderful to be in the water with these people who had never previously thought about baptism. We deal with a lot of tragedy here and there are horrendous things going on so to have these blessings was very special; like diamonds in the dust.