June 2012 - Page 3 of 4 - FX ARCHIVE...

River Community Church

Steve Kelly, of River Community Church, is Assistant Rural Dean in Telford Deanery and fresh expressions advisor in the Diocese of Lichfield. He would never have described himself as a pioneer.

My wife Maggie and I have always had a sense of adventure and we like to travel light. That means we've always been willing to 'get up and go' wherever God leads us. After hearing a calling from God in 2003, I left my career in the car industry to train to be a vicar. I have always had a heart for evangelism and outreach and after my training as a curate had been completed in 2008, Bishop Alan Smith approached me with an idea for my first post.

He asked me if he would be interested in drawing on fresh expressions' methodology to explore the possibilities of a church plant in Telford. My main brief was to reach those who weren't connecting with the established church.

My exposure to fresh expressions had been churches doing it on the side. Most of these were expressions of outreach from churches seeking to engage in mission and outreach. The opportunity in Telford was to grow a new church in a new community and it wouldn't be part of any existing church.

I was given a blank sheet of paper to engage with a community of 150 houses that would increase to over 3,500 in the next few years.

In 2008, we moved to Telford and became part of the community. Initially there wasn't a place within the community people could gather – no pubs, no cafes – so we worked with others in the development of a community garden. We slowly began to build relationships with others who also had a heart for community. The garden provided a place for people to meet each other and we ran a series of outdoor family events for those in the neighbourhood.

In Christmas 2008 the neighbours asked if we could organise something called 'carols on the green'. It was an informal outdoor carol service which over 100 people came to. After the popularity of the event, we ran a 'taster event' in the local school and asked people for their views about the timing and style of a community worship event. It was decided that a café-style event at the local primary school would be most welcomed.

A hybrid of café church, Messy Church and charismatic church, we were delighted that people came. It started quite small but that monthly event has remained as an enduring feature of what we do.

Just over a year later, River Community Church was officially launched in June 2010. It is a church community which has a real mixture of people at its heart. The church has drawn some who already have a strong faith, some who have come to faith, some who have returned to their childhood faith and some who have seen what's happened and are thinking about the next step.

Right from the start, the leadership team have been excited by a 'kingdom vision', a vision of the growth, transformation and healing that comes when God's love and power begin to touch people's lives. We have tried to keep the church community focused on incarnational mission. Whilst some aspects of church life are 'attractional' by their very nature, we have continually emphasised the need to be outward-looking, bringing blessing to our neighbours and the local community.

Like Paul, we believe that God is able to do much more than we can dare to ask or imagine. As we have prayed about this, we have been inspired by the vision in Ezekiel chapter 47. In this prophetic vision, the River flows out from the place of worship (the temple) and out into the desert. We read that trees spring up on the banks of the River. These trees remind us of the vision we have of our church – rooted, flourishing and fruitful. We believe that this is also vision of what God can do today – in Telford! The River speaks of the life and power of the Holy Spirit. So we have given our church the name River Community Church. It expresses our desire to be a church OF the River, a community BY the River, a people IN the River… and that's what we're praying for!

3six5

Methodist minister Andrew Pakes began to develop an emerging congregation, called 3six5, in October 2000 – alongside his ministry in a traditional setting. He describes how things have moved on since then.

I became a 'minister without appointment' in September 2004 in order to concentrate on emerging congregation. In 2000, I took a sabbatical to reflect on what the church may look like in the 21st Century.

As I fed back the findings to my congregation, about five people came to me and said they would like to be part of the church I had described. The five then grew to 10 and in a few months we asked our circuit's permission to begin forming the church we imagined.

The small congregation developed through friendship and community involvement. In the beginning we encouraged each other to take an active part in the local community in various ways, such as becoming a school governor, joining the local PTA or attending the local residents' association meetings. If there was a local quiz night, they would enter a team. This helped us to make friends and to get to know and love the community of which we were a part.

As 3six5 we agreed to keep meetings to a minimum and free ourselves to spend time with family, friends and colleagues. Making and building friendships is all important – as is praying that those friendships will go on to see the development of a relationship with Jesus.

There is a real sense of the Spirit of God abroad in the community and we find His Spirit wherever we go. And it isn't just locally; In nearby Kingston-upon-Thames we can see God's creativity all over the place.

Together, 12 years later, we continue to grow in faith and make friends as we meet twice a month. We will firstly get together once a month on a Saturday for food or to take part in an activity together and we frequently share bread and wine. Then the adults also meet for supper at another time during the month at someone's home to share in a discussion about life and faith and important matters of the day.

It has been a difficult journey for me to become a 'minister without appointment' to lead 3six5, but God has been faithful and kept His hand on the work that we are involved in. As a result, 3six5 has become a congregation within the community.

We will never know how many people have become Christians through 3six5, indeed it's not a question we would ask, but – in terms of the number of people with whom we have shared stories, experiences and time – the numbers must run into hundreds.

This is a movement of ordinary people and it's not easy to define or pin down as it is constantly changing. We try to view everyone as being a member of 3six5; it's a matter of opting out rather than opting in!

Championing young leaders (Ben Gardner)

Ben Gardner asks why we jump through hoops to leadership?

I oversee a 260-strong student church at St Thomas Crookes Sheffield. The way in which we run this church is through missional communities: groups of (between 15-30) university students who have a passion for a particular people group, sub-culture or geographical area. Many of these missional communities are reaching people who would never normally be reached by the ‘traditional’ church system and structures that are currently in place.

Some of these missional communities are growing quickly. Therefore, my team's priority is to identify, equip (through an apprenticeship model) and release new young leaders quickly: and I mean quickly… sometimes within weeks and months!

Through this process I have come to realize that many of our young leaders, who are brilliant at what they do, would never stand a chance with the church's current system of ordination. For many, ordination might not be a calling but for some it is. However, my issue is that it takes a long time – up to nine years – of jumping through hoops to get to a point where a young leader can be released to plant and grow missional movements.

Let's look instead at the Apostle Paul's approach. As an incredible coach for new leaders, it seems that he entered a town/city, identified potential leaders, spent time with them and released them to lead and grow new Christian communities. We have to remember that he didn't stay long in these communities so how did he do it?

In 2012, why does it take so long to identify, equip and release young leaders to plant and grow new churches?

Here are some hard questions to set us thinking:

is it due to the fact that many leaders fear giving leadership away?

do we undermine the potential that young people have in leading a missional movement?

are there unnecessary barriers that mean a massive number of young pioneers are not being indentified and acknowledged as church leaders?

is the process of ordination necessary? Is it too slow?

Let the discussions begin!

A different approach to church: B1

This story illustrates the principles of a different approach to church in the Guide.

B1, a church plant begun in 2000, aims to be a network church, serving not a particular area, but appealing across Birmingham through members' personal networks.

Meetings are held three Sundays a month in a central Birmingham location. The fourth is free to enable members to spend time with friends and family who do not go to church.

The first stage was to surf our own networks,

explains leader, Geoff Lanham, a Church of England minister. In the first two years, 150 people attended extra events held by B1, but though enjoyable, it was recognised that these did not help to build community and so they ceased. What has continued is a monthly alternative worship event, Synergy, held in a bar.

B1 now has 50 adult members and some children.

Every year there is a mini exodus and every September some influx,

Geoff says.

A more important figure is those who've belonged to us along the way, which is about 130. It's the transitional nature of emerging church in a city context. We're working with people while we have them and then we hand them on to the next stage of their journey. It's a kingdom mentality. We're described as a twenties-thirties church, but we're now varied and not age-targeted.

'We are trying to see faith-sharing as discerning where God already is and living in a way which causes people to ask questions'

The cross-cultural bit is the hard bit, but it's exciting. Meeting in bars, cafés and pubs prompted questions from those employed there and we saw that God is at work among people who staff these places.

Geoff describes the church itself as having been on a journey as members seek to grow the church through their personal relationships.

One model we find helpful is thinking about sharing faith as a dialogue,

he says.

We value friends for who they are. This is partly why we moved away from events. We are trying to see faith-sharing as discerning where God already is and living in a way which causes people to ask questions.

Welcoming and including newcomers wherever they are on their spiritual journey is a deliberate choice for Geoff and B1. So, for example, one couple who had come only to social events were asked by B1 members to become godparents. As a result, the couple

took the decision to hang out with us.

They are now in a small group and help with children's work.

The belonging thing helped them grow in faith,

Geoff believes, and this is something he has seen in others, too. Holding back on his private opinion about the new relationship of a recent divorcee, he offered an unconditional welcome to B1 to the girlfriend. Now this couple and their new family are 'flourishing', he says.

A different approach: Fellowship @ Grannies

This story illustrates the principles of a different approach to church in the Guide.

Methodists in a former mining town in Nottinghamshire held an Alpha course. When it ended, three quarters of the group – all previously unchurched – wanted to carry on. In 2002 they continued to meet fortnightly on Thursday evenings at a local teashop for coffee, cake, discussion based on material such as Nicky Gumbel's A Life Worth Living, prayer and worship.

When a new Alpha course was proposed, these descendants of the original supported the venture in ways suited to their gifts: praying in the Methodist chapel during Alpha evenings, serving food, or sitting at tables to aid discussion.

After four Alpha courses and their follow-up groups over two years, the final follow-up group developed into a new church in its own right.

Cell group principles: 'Welcome, Worship, Word and Witness'

Still meeting at the teashop – Grannie's – on Thursday evenings, it runs along the cell group principles of 'Welcome, Worship, Word and Witness'. A social time of coffee and cake is followed by modern worship songs and prayer, which is spontaneous and low-key, 'often conversational', says leader of Fellowship@Grannie's and local Methodist minister, Andy Fyall.

Bibles are provided so that everyone can follow the reading, page numbers being announced along with chapter and verse. A time of interactive study follows, with a strong emphasis on encouraging the 25 members to share their own experiences. Outside resources such as Missionary Church, Missionary Journeys by Steven Croft aid this process.

The new church is led by a team of eight. Four leaders come from within the original core team, including Andy and teashop owner, Louise Beaumont, who had a vision for using her business as a place of ministry. Each of the four is paired with a new leader from within the church, so that two people lead each Thursday evening, with members participating in music and readings.

The next time an Alpha course runs at Grannie's teashop, this new church will not only renew its earlier work of resourcing the Alpha meetings, but will also continue its own meetings, in recognition of the fact that Fellowship@Grannie's is, as Andy says, now a church 'in its own right'.

Fresh Expressions in the Mission of the Church

Fresh Expressions in the Mission of the Church is written by the joint Anglican/Methodist working party. Using narrative experience of fresh expressions from both denominations, this new report considers the ecclesiology of fresh expressions of church within the disciplines of scripture, reason and tradition.

The concepts, which are developed latterly, include 'locality', 'intensivity' and 'connectivity', with the key emphasis supporting the need for constant interaction within a mixed economy church.

The conclusions of the report set out a series of specific recommendations building on these conclusions.

Street Church – update Jun12

David Bird gives an update on the ministry of Street Church, reaching homeless and vulnerable people in Northampton.

Things are progressing well and numbers continue to be very positive. It is always hard to know what impact is being made by Street Church but, like many church things, the regular attendance is often an indicator of people's commitment and certainly people are coming along regularly.

Sadly, because of cuts in funding, we have lost the services of our part-time worker and this has meant more pressure on the volunteer leaders of Street Church. Generally, we have a good volunteer base but getting regular volunteer leaders with the necessary skills and adaptability is not always easy.

Firstly, it was agreed in the autumn to try to have a more focused input with prayer and worship and this has been achieved by changing the format slightly. When people arrive there is food, conversation and music; then after about an hour there is an opportunity for input – usually in the way of a short talk or video followed by discussion. Whereas previously this time went on in something of a melee of activity, we now close down the refreshments. This means that if people do not want to stay they have an opportunity to disappear while those who do stay really want to listen.

During this time we offer prayer as well as conversation. This has been a positive move, really helpful in making the worship focus much more marked and, although it is not like a normal church service, there is more of a sense of the community of God gathering with some focus to pray and to be together.

Another factor we have had to deal with is a number of Eastern European people coming along with very little command of English. This provoked some antagonism from those who had been there for a longer period of time. We have managed to find someone who can translate, which has been a help, but this has certainly caused some problems for us.

We hope to be able to register as a charity in our own right in the near future as we have been turned down for a number of grants because – as the Vicar of a large church (St Giles, Northampton) applying for money – it is often considered that we have plenty. Even though Street Church is a separate organisation, people do not see it that way necessarily.

mission shaped ministry: changing the face of training

What happened next? Participants in Fresh Expressions' mission shaped ministry courses faced the question in a survey which looked to find out if msm had made a difference in their lives and ministry.

Since first launched, 75 msm courses have taken place from Plymouth to Inverness and Belfast to Norwich. A further 11 will start in the autumn, including Edinburgh, Wolverhampton, Gloucester and Chelmsford (a full list of courses can be found at missionshapedministry.org).

By September 2012, over 2,600 people will have participated in msm in the UK making the course a major contributor to lay and ordained ministry training.

Internationally, there have been seven msms – in Canada (2), Australia (2), United States (1), Barbados (1) and Germany (1). Looking ahead, a course has now been arranged for New Zealand.

An initial report, for courses running from 2007 to 2010, revealed that msm has marked profound change for more than 90% of those taking part. Respondents said the course produced at least one of the following six outcomes, with msm helping:

26% start a fresh expression of church;

32% develop a fresh expression of church;

58% apply its principles to their present church;

20% clarify a call to pioneer ministry;

66% grow in their own Christian discipleship/ministry;

38% grow in their oversight or support of a fresh expression of church.

Over half of fresh expressions of church (54%) started by msm participants in the three year period are specifically reaching children or children and their parents. The figure includes Messy Churches.

Those fresh expressions already in existence but developed by those attending msm include those for children and parents/guardians (13%); children (8%); youth (13%); Messy Church (26%), adults (23%), all ages (17%).

Andrew Roberts, Director of Training for Fresh Expressions and a co-author of Fresh! – An Introduction to Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry, said,

The outcome data confirms the impression gained from many participants on completing msm that their learning journey has helped them significantly with their next steps in pioneering mission-shaped ministry.

The course inspired Melanie Prince, a team vicar in the Vale of Glamorgan, to start a monthly Messy Church called SPLAT.

I did msm South Wales in 2009-2010. It was timely for us to do it as Llantwit Major Benefice where there are nine churches, three clergy and three Readers! It gave us the kick start to do things, providing a reason to stop delaying and get on with it.

We started a Messy Church fairly early on in the course. This happened because the churchwardens came and said, 'We used to have a thriving church with families. How do we get families back in again?' Their approach coincided with us having started msm and it meant we had some ideas to pull on. In a new atmosphere of optimism, I started the Messy Church at St James, Wick, which I ran for its first 18 months before handing it over. Monthly all-age worship in church now attracts a good number of people as well. The fresh expression has been successful in itself but it has also had an impact on the main church.

(The one-year, part-time msm course takes participants on a learning journey as part of a supportive community, training them for ministry in fresh expressions of church. In May 2011, the questionnaire went out to all course leaders and administrators of courses that had finished at least six months previously. They distributed them to all who had taken part. The outcomes are not mutually exclusive and therefore the outcomes added together total more than 100%.)

Guide

Reconnect – update Jun12

It has been a time of great change for Reconnect. Its leader, Paul Bradbury, describes how the missional community in Poole is now running the café which it previously used as its office base.

The Old Stables Café went out of business in October last year, which was all a bit of a surprise and I was left as a sitting tenant. We prayed a great deal about whether we should take it on or not but it really seemed like a God-given opportunity to use a place to build relationship and form community.

We went on to form a team and took on responsibility for all sorts of things associated with a project of this kind – including refurbishing the premises, recruiting volunteers and sorting out the legal issues. We also raised £17,000, renamed it No34 and transformed the look and feel of the place. We opened to the public at the beginning of February and it has been quite a steep learning curve ever since.

The model that we have started to present is not one that can be taken off the shelf because it isn't 'just' a café; it's a community café with a missional community at its heart. Trying to work out what this might look like as we go along has stretched us enormously.

No34 is open from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10am to 3pm. We also have a first floor lounge available for various events and meetings – and Space for Life, which met in the previous cafe for over a year, is continuing on Tuesday mornings as a group using textile art in creative ways.

At one point I was doing all the marketing for the café as well as trying to lead a fresh expression of church. I have certainly diversified in my work but I just try to follow what I feel God’s Spirit is asking me to do – and do it. Now we are trying to get the right resources to make that work sustainable because there were points in the café's opening few months where I needed those resources a lot quicker. I was getting overwhelmed by it all.

Thankfully, we employed a café manager who had experience in catering and understood the business. This will become all the more important in the summer months because we have some tables out on the street and it's a real attraction. As soon as the sun comes out, it's really busy.

We have a growing, volunteer team but that has its own challenges because volunteers come and go very quickly – much faster than anticipated. As part of our sustainability plans, we are trying to find someone for a part-time role involving fund-raising and communication for Poole Missional Communities.

Diocesan funding came to an end in August 2011 after three years and we are now independent financially. As a result, we need to make some more applications to funders and attempt to increase the numbers of individuals who give to PMC. We are also promoting PMC in the local area, suggesting that people might want to give to PMC as a mission organisation to unchurched people on their doorstep. We highlight the fact that we are very local and deliberately so. In a further development, local churches are encouraged to become partner churches with PMC.

This is all positive but I don't think that's ever going to get us to a point where we might be able to fund a minister's salary and housing costs. We are in the process of applying for funding from various organisations, including the Church Commissioners, but it is very time-consuming.

Taking on the cafe had an interesting impact on Reconnect with four to five people joining us – one way or another – as a result of having the shop. I had shied away from premises right from the start because we didn't want to describe ourselves as, 'the church that meets in a specific place'. Our focus was on the unconventional but now, for three Sundays out of four, Reconnect meets in the café! But things are happening as a result of that. One lady, not from a church background, started coming to Reconnect because she had been in the café during the week, saw our notices and asked about it.

It's great seeing new people but it raises the issue of how we maintain that.

We are not simply another church with a slightly different approach; we are a missional community trying to engage incarnationally wherever we are. Holding on to that vision is proving to be challenging.

Work:space continues in Barclays, RNLI and the local government offices. We are still continuing to offer relaxation and space and stillness with work:space but it's certainly not church as such. We are asking if we are at a point where we could say to people, 'What would discipleship look like for you in your workplace? Could we create something in the offices where we meet?'

It's difficult to see how we can add to work:space in terms of further time together. It's hard enough to get people to leave their desks for a quiet half hour – never mind do anything in addition to that. The work environment is so pressurised now for most people, to meet for another 'thing' would be hugely challenging. As it is, it takes huge commitment and discipline from those really committed to their faith to take 30 minutes out of a busy day.

The need to take a break is something I was reminded of because I got to a point where I was pretty worn out and ministry had stopped being fun. The café added another layer for which I was ultimately responsible and I was suffering from 'decision overload'. My answer was to take a couple of weeks to enjoy time with friends and family and remember that unless you take leisure and friendships seriously, you will wither. The important thing for me is to continue to preserve my role as a pioneer and get the point where others are managing the café and overseeing newer elements of the ministry here.

Conversations are continuing about the way forward but I'm hoping and praying for the support of a skilled, experienced fund-raising/marketing person and the possibility of Poole Missional Communities becoming a training partnership so that we could take on two pioneer curates. There are a couple of specific areas on our patch which need to have focused support and planning; one is a high rise housing block in a deprived estate which needs an Eden Network-style approach in forming church/'doing' church around the community.

There is also big area of new housing stock going up on the other side of a new bridge in Poole. Thinking of what Bart Woodhouse has done at The Beacon in Dartford, we should be looking for someone now to talk to the developers and council about what kind of community there could be in that area. I don't think I'm the person to do that.

Our Wild Spirit series of outdoor events for men is also continuing and we will run a retreat again in the summer. I'm hopeful that it will attract a handful of non-Christian men who nonetheless want to explore some spiritual matters as well as the great outdoors.

I can look at all of these things because we have grown and developed as a community and I think we have a greater confidence as a result of what we have seen God doing here.