Fresh Expressions today announced that Council for World Mission (Europe) has become a partner in the movement.
Watch or read the full interview below.
CWM is a worldwide community of churches, representing 13 million believers, committed to practising partnership in mission. CWM Europe is one of the Council's six regional groupings and its member churches are:
- United Reformed Church;
- Presbyterian Church of Wales;
- Congregational Federation;
- Protestant Church in the Netherlands;
- Union of Welsh Independents.
Shaping the Church for mission is a priority for CWM Europe, including enabling and encouraging people to form new expressions of church and equipping existing congregations for mission.
Wayne Hawkins, Regional Secretary of CWM Europe, commented,
We are really excited about the prospect of working with Fresh Expressions – not least because of our shared priority of equipping missional congregations. Mission doesn't happen in a vacuum but always takes place locally, amongst people and communities. Many CWM-Europe local congregations represent traditional forms of church and whilst this has great value, it does not reach or appeal to everyone with whom we need to share the good news. Therefore, we need to encourage local congregations to explore different expressions of church for today's culture.
Rediscovering the importance of mission inevitably reforms traditional church and as local congregations take their contexts seriously this will give rise to fresh expressions of church that engage with people where they are rather than where we think they should be. The partnership between CWM-Europe and Fresh Expressions is a really important and strategic move as we can share resources, experiences and insights strategically together. We look forward to our partnership as we share in God's mission together.
Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops' Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, added,
One of the great things about the fresh expressions movement is the partnership between denominations and mission agencies as we work for towards the re-evangelisation of our nation. So I am particularly pleased to welcome the European region of the Council for World Mission as a new partner contributing to the work of the core team. CWM will bring their long history of missionary experience to our work.