This year's Breakout Pioneer Gathering looked at the theme of discipleship, with a particular focus on moving from a community gathering to discipling. You can watch or read keynote speaker Stuart Murray Williams' first address below, or watch or read his second address.
The Breakout Pioneer Gathering is an annual gathering organised by seven different mission agencies including Fresh Expressions.
This year's Breakout Pioneer Gathering looked at the theme of discipleship, with a particular focus on moving from a community gathering to discipling. You can watch or read keynote speaker Stuart Murray Williams' second address below, or watch or read his first address.
The Breakout Pioneer Gathering is an annual gathering organised by seven different mission agencies including Fresh Expressions.
Jon Curtis tells how he is working to pull the strands together of his ministry in Exeter.
This is my home city and it was really important for me, and my wife Beth, to stay in a place that we know really well. The VentureFX aim is to reach those who wouldn't ordinarily dream of setting foot inside a traditional church building. I've always known what it's like to be part of a church, but also know how weird the whole thing can seem; I was brought up an Anglican though I later became a Methodist and trained as a lay preacher.
I was accepted as a VentureFX pioneer minister three years ago at selection conference. I've always been part of the punkrock scene here – as well as the area's political and artistic communities. It was a natural fit for me because music has also played a huge part in life and I still tour with a punk band called The Cut Ups. All my friends are involved somehow and we get together toput on shows, book tours, write and publish ideas and art.
Our particular project in Exeter started in December 2010 so it's a good time to take stock of what has happened since then – and what hasn't happened since then.
At first, we had a year of running discussion groups based around a theological question. We'd call them Average Life Discussions, saying there were so many questions to ask, and so little time to ask them. Those sessions took place every month at The X Centre – a conference venue we hired on the quay. It has all been stimulating and well worth doing but there have been a few failed attempts to try and tie these discussions in with other stuff.
The venue has just been sold so we'll probably have to find somewhere else but we are going to relaunch the discussion groups and see how that works out this time round. The key thing about these discussions, and the reason people tell us they keep coming, is because there is no agenda. Not 'no visible agenda', but actually no agenda. This is not a conversion factory. A guy I know who runs a church had a conversation with a mutual friend. The mutual friend told the church leader that I 'had never forced anything on him', and the leader said 'just wait!' But that's complete rubbish from the church leader! My friend could wait his whole life, and nothing will be forced. There is no agenda. I'm part of a community already, and if anyone ever wants to learn about Jesus, I’m very happy to share what I think I know, but I'm never going to 'reveal' my true colours of evangelism, because I have none!
The idea is that we would form part of a 'collective'. Everyone who's interested, including a core group of about 10 of us, might get involved in:
To me, the food redistribution is one of the strongest examples of the Methodist Church being right at the heart of a much-needed social concern and it is really brilliant when church members just want to be involved alongside other volunteers (aged from 20 to 30) who they would never otherwise meet. There's a growing mutual respect. There's engagement, and joining in with, rather than observation. When someone just wants to 'look in the window' but does not do anything to help; that's not understanding the spirit of the thing I think. I wouldn't want anyone to think that what we do is just a 'ruse' to get people in; it is not to trap them into the beginnings of a church but it does reflect what it truly means to work together in our differences. The punks that I know, just like many Christians I know, don't find doing something for free very hard to understand because there tends to be no money in punk music; they do it for the love of it. It has been really brilliant to see these parallels!
I have waited longer than I would have done normally to form this 'collective' because I've made a lot of mistakes and false starts. It's ended up that I've been able to see what core themes grew from the things I was linked to and involved in. This collective is going to have lots of 'spider legs' to it; everything we do is going to be part of that. If a group does emerge, which meets for Communion or prayer or whatever, it will have a shared status with any of the other groups forming part of the collective.
I don't even think of myselfbeing a pioneer, but if anyone is interested, there are several hundreds of people I know in various ways across the city. Maybe there will be a possible cell church grouping but maybe there won't. It's just as important to be involved with the greater number who want to give their time and energy and commitment to something that makes the world a bit easier.
We have set up a management group made up of:
I'm still part of a local church on a Sunday morning and I have some really good friends who understand the different worlds I'm involved in. The support of Methodists locally and nationally in this scheme is amazing, and gives a really great impression to people who previous thought nothing good of the church.
A partnership between the Church of Scotland and Fresh Expressions, which encourages and supports the development of fresh expressions of church, is officially launched today.
The Fresh Expressions initiative, started in 2004, has seen hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches across the UK and internationally. As an ecumenical movement, its partners include the Church of England, Methodist Church of Great Britain, The Salvation Army and the United Reformed Church.
Plans for the Church of Scotland's partnership with Fresh Expressions had been jointly formulated by the church's Mission and Discipleship Council, and the Ministries Council. They have been working together on this issue since 2008 and the Joint Emerging Church Group (JECG) was formed last year.
Colin Sinclair, Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council, said,
There is a need for fresh thinking and trying things that are different because over 90% of folks in Scotland are just not connecting with the church. Not all are hostile to the church and some have had a church background but they need fresh ways to reimagine what they think the church is to be, what the Christian faith is all about and how it could link to their own lives and context.
The report from JECG, discussed at this year's General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, highlighted a vision to address the 'many years of decline across the life of the Church.' It included an invitation to every parish to explore the possibilities of establishing a new expression of church – appropriate to the local context – by 2020.
The formal partnership with Fresh Expressions is seen as one of the ways to help congregations 'fully benefit from the movement's experience in training for, and support of, new expressions of church life.'
Welcoming news of the partnership and appointment, Bishop Graham Cray, leader of the Fresh Expressions team, commented,
We have been working informally, and very fruitfully, with the Church of Scotland for some time now so I am delighted to see our partnership formalised. I look forward to many years of creative and effective mission through the planting of fresh expressions of church.
David Cameron, former Convener of the Joint Emerging Church Group, added,
One of the great things about being part of a Christian church is that we have much to learn from our brothers and sisters in many different denominations across the world. One of the things we've been impressed with over the years is the support that we've had from Fresh Expressions as we've begun to dip our toe in the water and attempt to turn the tide here in Scotland.
We've been grateful for the experience thus far in journeying alongside Fresh Expressions, for the support and encouragement they've given us. It's our hope that in entering into that partnership we'll be able to glean from them, and learn from them, the lessons that will help us in this context as we move forward.
A Fresh Expressions vision day will take place at St Andrew's and St George's West Church, 13 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PA, on Saturday, November 2, from 10am to 4pm.
The ecumenical exploration and celebration of fresh expressions of church will include creative worship and prayer; stories of fresh expressions in Scotland and beyond; and input from Scottish church leaders plus Bishop Graham Cray and Andrew Roberts from Fresh Expressions, John Drane and Olive Fleming-Drane.
There will also be a commissioning service from 4.30pm to 5.15pm for the soon-to-be-announced Church of Scotland Fresh Expressions Development Worker.
Tickets are £12 including refreshments and lunch. To book places, please visit www.resourcingmission.org.uk.
