Month: December 2013

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

'Fresh expressions' is a shortened form of 'fresh expressions of church', but why all the fuss about church in the first place, isn't it enough just to trust Jesus as Saviour? Or, on the other hand, isn't all the focus on church a distraction from the real business, the work of God's Kingdom in the world? Doesn't church have too bad a public image, with sexual abuse scandals and all the internal and denominational divisions? The answers to these questions, in order, are 'No', 'No' and 'Yes but'.

No, it isn't enough just to believe in Jesus as Saviour. It is essential for each of us, but it is not enough if we have any interest at all in what we have been saved for. The Church is God's redeemed people, not God's redeemed collection of individuals. Nor is belonging to the Church a matter of individual choice or preference. Because we are Christians we are part of the Church. Church is not something we 'go to' or 'don't go to'. It is what we are part of through baptism and it is about the whole of our lives as God's community. Our belonging is 'for better or worse'. We are interdependent within one another, when we don't participate we rob our fellow Christians and lose out ourselves. The privilege of forgiveness, through Christ's cross, includes the privilege and responsibilities of a new community.

No, the Church is not a distraction from the kingdom of God. In both Old and New Testaments the people of God have a central role in God's action to restore his rebellious and broken creation. We are restored in Christ to our calling as stewards of creation. In the language used in formal theological agreements between some denominations, the church is 'a sign, instrument and foretaste' of God's kingdom. It is a sign – it points beyond itself to God's kingdom (the Church is never just about the Church). It is an instrument or agent of God's kingdom. God works through the Church, and people enter God's kingdom through it. It is to be the community where people see an imperfect taste of that kingdom in advance, both in its life as a Christian community, and in its ministry to the surrounding community.

Yes, some aspects of the history and current life of the Church are a scandal. It has always been so, requiring repentance and change. But God never gives up on his people, because he never gives up on his world, and he has no alternative plan. It began with twelve unpromising people and so it continues. There are scandals of division and disagreement, just as there are scandals of disgraceful behaviour. But there is also the scandal of churches that have lost touch with their communities, and with their missionary calling; churches with amnesia who have forgotten what, and therefore who they are for. To address that scandal we need fresh expressions of church within a mixed economy.

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

The task we face is the re-evangelisation of Britain. More and more Brits know less and less about the Bible, the gospel and the church. Hence the importance of initiatives like Back to Church Sunday and BibleFresh. The task is huge and the planting of fresh expressions of church will have a vital part to play, if we are to make a substantial impact. 'Come to us' mission will continue to have a substantial part to play, but 'go to them' mission is essential if we are to reach a large part of the population. Nor will it be enough to serve our communities in the hope that we will also build new relationships so that people come to church with us. We serve because it is what Christians do, rather than to achieve something else. The challenge is to plant congregations where we serve. We will need many, many, more than we have so far.

None of this is new, but what I want to emphasize at the start of the year is the necessity of acting together. Competitive, uncoordinated planting of churches and fresh expressions of church could cause as much harm as it does growth. Professor Robin Gill has argued convincingly that competitive planting between denominations was one of the factors that triggered numerical decline in the 19th century. Making our own local or denominational plans without reference to others is habitual in the Church, but very unwise.

I am not suggesting that all church plants and fresh expressions have to be planned and delivered ecumenically. Fresh expressions are best planted by local churches, as an extension of their ministry. But I am saying we should consult one another, coordinate our plans and seek to complement one another's ministry. Sometimes this will mean planting together, as a sign of the reconciling power of the gospel, or simply because together we have the resources and apart we do not. Nor am I suggesting a 'master plan'. The task needs discernment in context, not large scale strategic planning, but why can't we listen to God together, enrich one another's processes of discernment, and at very least, keep one another informed.

There are a number of ways to do this. It could become part of the rhythm of life of local Churches Together groups or minsters' fraternals. Where there is a FEAST (Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Team) a county or area could be sub-divided into smaller areas of mapping, listening and cooperation. Churches sharing in Hope Together have a natural opportunity to extend their shared ministry, of word and deed mission, with a relational and coordinated approach to planting.

The pressing question remains, 'Who will never be reached if we only do what we do now?' It is better to ask it together, but it's crazy to ask it apart.

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

What happens when a founding leader moves on? When we were researching Mission-Shaped Church we discovered that one of the most vulnerable points in the life of a fresh expression or church plant is at that transition. Since the Fresh Expressions initiative began there have been enough examples to confirm that this is a matter needing great care.

In many cases, the moment a leader announces their departure, it may already be too late. Fresh expressions of church need to develop leadership growing cultures. Where there is a main founding leader it is part of their responsibility to empower members and invest in their leadership potential. It is vital that a team is created which shares real responsibility as soon as that is viable. Those pioneers whose primary gift is to found the new, have the responsibility to leave behind a community which can carry on without them. Leaders are better grown for a community rather than for an event. When a leader is very creative it is important that they use their creative gifts to involve others rather than to deskill others.

When a fresh expression is planted cross culturally the development of indigenous leadership is a priority, although this may also take time. The gospel is a seed which when planted grows into church, a gifted Christian community with its own leaders. When Paul and his team planted churches in Acts they were able to return later and appoint the elders. We need to have similar expectations. Very often the person or persons who proved to be the door keepers into a community who may well become leaders of the fresh expression.

At times the appointment of a new leader from outside will be unavoidable. In that case both the fresh expression and the appointing authority have a responsibility. Most denominations have thorough, if not perfect appointment procedures which involve careful consultation. We need to develop similar rigour and discernment – especially for fresh expressions with full time leaders.

The fresh expression with the 'vacancy' needs to understand its distinctive calling or 'charism'. What lies at the heart of its calling and should be non-negotiable? What does it believe it needs for the next step in being faithful to its calling? No leader should be appointed, let alone imposed, who cannot own that. At the same time there needs to be openness to new gifts that would enrich, rather than contradict the original vision. Denominational authorities need to recognise that it is the 'charism' of a fresh expression and not just the pioneering ability of a new leader, which is key to a successful appointment.

Finally, like all churches, fresh expressions of church need at times to be willing to give away their 'best' leaders because the Holy Spirit is calling them on. This happened in Antioch with Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13). At those times we may trust the same Holy Spirit to raise up new leaders. I have seen this at The Carpenter's Arms, Sandwich, a network congregation near the huge UK manufacturing site of pharmaceutical company Pfizer Global, which has more employees than the population of the town. Over the years most of the leaders have been Pfizer employees. Time after time they were redeployed to the USA by Pfizer and the fresh expression was beheaded again. Time after time, and not without anxiety and difficulty, God brought new leaders through from the congregation. It is possible to survive a beheading.

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

A long term aim of any fresh expression of church must be to engage people with the story of what God has done in Christ. Christians are not just people who know the story, they are people who have a place in the story. Because of what Christ has done they have become members of God's family, with their part to play in Christ, as the story works itself out in human history until Christ comes again. Many non-churched people have minimal knowledge of the story and very little understanding of the Christian origins of the public holidays they enjoy. For many younger people, in particular, the 'chain of memory' by which knowledge of the faith is passed from one generation to another, is very thin. For some de-churched people, or once a year churchgoers, it is the public festivals, particularly Christmas which form their strongest connection to Christian faith.

So fresh expressions need to take the opportunity of Christmas to help people to a deeper understanding of God's gift in Christ. But as God's story is for life and not just for Christmas, I want to commend the pattern of the Church's year to everyone who is planting a fresh expression of church, not just those from denominations which use a liturgical calendar. As people begin to attend a fresh expression of church they need to learn how the story of God in Christ fits together, not just to learn it in individual chunks. You can't find your place in a 'chunk' but you can find it in a story line. There is plenty of room in a year to address other things, but take the chance to celebrate the key moments in the story of our salvation, help people to reconnect the faith with everyday life, by reconnecting it to key public holidays. The annual calendar of our rather secular society is still a gift for mission.

Fresh expressions of church come into being through discernment and incarnational or contextual mission. 'The Church's Year' may not sound very contextual, but the whole point of incarnational mission is to take the message of the incarnation and to live and share it through the life of the church so that people discover it as their story to. I am not suggesting cutting and pasting traditional church practices into a fresh expression. You don't have to copy the way in which traditional churches follow the year – with special colours etc. You can work out your own way for your context. But what better way to share the good news of this story than by following it month by month, in a way which involves you in it, gives you a feel for it and invites you to find the place that God has prepared for you in it?.

We dare not underestimate how little people know about the joined up story of our faith. Tell the story again this Christmas, but remember the story is for life not just for Christmas.

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

Establishing a fresh expression involves a risk of faith. It does not come with a cast iron guarantee of success. Learning comes through action and reflection, not so much through having a good grasp of the theory in advance. First attempts at anything new often result in lessons about doing it better next time and that is no failure. Sometimes fresh expressions seem to have failed when they have simply run their course. A project, perhaps with young people, was seasonal, it was never meant to be long term sustainable. If it has had a time of fruitful mission that is no failure.

But the important thing about risks of faith is that they are not about blind faith. They are about trusting God from a clear view of the realities of your situation, not about seeming to trust while you are not facing the realities of your situation. 308 Nailsea was an imaginative attempt to reach families on one of the more distant estates in the parish. Plenty was learned for future events with families, but in the end it mainly attracted visitors from other churches wanting to learn how to do something similar. It did not attract the people on the estate, despite being in the school that many of the children attended. The lesson being 'If it's not working, stop.'

There is no science which helps us know exactly when we have crossed the line between faithfully waiting for something to work and acknowledging that our much loved fresh expression is not reaching unchurched people. However the moment we realise that we are putting in lots of creative energy month by month for no effective missional purpose, it is certainly time to review.

Perhaps the key lesson is that fresh expressions are more likely to be fruitful if they grow out of relationships, than if they use an event to establish relationships.

We need to be more concerned about helping unchurched people find faith and Christian community and less concerned about the success of much loved projects in which we have invested our hopes and energies. This is not so much a time for 'heroic failures' as for learning from previous experience and trying again, under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

At the heart of the fresh expressions movement lies the question 'who will never be reached if our church only does what we do now?' Fresh expressions of church are one part of the UK churches' desire to engage with the majority – those who have never been involved in church, or who lost contact long ago. We are seeking to reach the people who are unlikely to come to our present services.

A fresh expression of church is not designed as a halfway house or a stepping stone to attendance at an existing service. These may be good and right things to do but we should not confuse them with fresh expressions of church. Fresh expressions are new congregations, or church plants. Of course plans can change. There are projects which were set up for one purpose – such as a bridge to existing church – which later morphed into a fresh expression (people have a habit of getting on to one end of a bridge and refusing to cross!). But fresh expressions work better if the clear intention, at the outset, is to plant a new congregation.

It is important to start any mission initiative as you mean to go on, because your methodology will depend on your intentions. Bridge projects tend to be events set up to deepen relationships with people already in touch with a particular church's ministry, perhaps through toddler work or a senior citizens lunch. Experience may eventually show that your event needs to develop into a regular congregation and become church for its members, but It is more likely that the aim is to draw as many as possible into Sunday worship.

A fresh expression of church starts with a desire to reach those with whom the local church has no significant contact as yet. It normally involves a process of listening, serving and relationship building before any public event of act of worship can be established. It has to be done this way round because otherwise you have no idea who your event would be for, because you don't know to whom you are called. Designing an event like that is designing blindfolded. But following the listening process, it is likely that you not only know who it is for, but you know them personally. There is also a significant difference between staging a regular event for people and forming community with them. Church is community around Christ not just an event staged by Christians for those who might be interested. If there is to be community and discipleship, prayer and worship, word and sacrament and outreach to others, these all need all to be in the founding DNA of the fresh expression, even if they unfold over a period of time. It is always best to start as you mean to go on.

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

I recently spent two weeks in New Zealand, teaching about fresh expressions of church, at the invitation of the Anglican dioceses of Christ Church (South Island) and Wellington (North Island). The experience I brought from the UK was well received, but, as happens when the international body of Christ is functioning healthily, I brought back insights relevant for back home. I will mention two.

The first was a commitment to develop young leaders. In both cities I spoke at gatherings of young adults who had a capacity for leadership and a heart for mission. Like the church in the UK, the church in New Zealand is ageing and many churches have only a handful of young adults, if any. In Christ Church they are being gathered together regularly for food, teaching and encouragement and to create networks of friendship and mutual support. This has been made possible by the recruitment of able (nearly as) young leaders to head up the initiative. It was very impressive and will prove to be a vital investment in both the present and the future. In England we face the same issue and are beginning to respond. For example, the diocese of Carlisle has a ‘Younger Diocese’ initiative, involving interns and the development of a youth congregation in each deanery. Fresh Expressions has just established a Young Adult roundtable, convened by Zoe Hart. The strength of the Christ Church initiative is that young leaders do not have to cluster in a few larger churches to survive. They can be networked, supported and developed as leaders and gradually impact the whole diocese.

This is an Anglican example, as I was the guest of Anglicans, but the same principles are applicable to all traditions. My other experience was of the willingness of different denominations to work together to establish a Fresh Expressions Initiative for New Zealand. This was partly a matter of size – a smaller population makes 'go it alone' approaches less viable. But primarily it was the sense of a shared opportunity and that it would be crazy not to work as partners. Anglican, Methodist, Weslyan, Presbyterian, Baptist and Salvationist met around the table and discussed how, rather than whether they could do this together. In the UK also the ecumenism with a future is partnership in mission. It brings us together with a shared and acknowledged weakness: ageing congregations and a changing culture, with a common rediscovery that the church is missional, rather than some Christians do mission, and with a shared sense of the Holy Spirit's initiative and call. It would be as crazy not to be partners in mission in the UK as in New Zealand. Thank God for down under!

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

It is sometimes assumed that big (for the UK) churches have no need to engage with fresh expressions. But that is not the case for a number of reasons.

Some large churches are already very ably involved in fresh expressions. My old parish, St Michael le Belfrey York, has both Visions and G2 (very different models) in addition to its range of Sunday congregations.

We need to recognize that big does not necessarily mean growing or missional. Large churches can have plateaued or can be in substantial decline, or just be recycling Christians from other churches. Size can cloak decline, reasonable Sunday numbers can make the church seem healthier than it really is, and a demanding program of activities can so consume a congregation's energies and attention, that no one notices that the congregation is ageing and no longer reaching new people.

In recent years some larger churches have realized that their well established patterns of mission and evangelism were no longer fruitful. As a result they have transitioned to new models of ministry – often a cell approach or mid-size communities (sometimes called missional clusters) which are fresh expressions strategies being used on a larger scale.

Many larger churches have targeted congregations anyway. Different services are geared to different age groups or sections of society. The idea is not to segment the congregation, but to make its ministry available to a wider range of people.

It is only a short step to realize that fresh expressions can further expand that range. Appropriate fresh expressions planted in different locations and meeting at different times can help a church to reach people it would not otherwise reach.

Leaders of large churches know that part of their task is to break larger congregations down into smaller pastoral units, so why not make the core structure smaller mission focused units instead?

The real challenge is the same for large churches as for small. The question is who would we never reach by just doing things the way we do? And do we have a gospel responsibility to those who are never likely to be part of our church as it is now? Large churches are used to persuading people to come, but the command of Jesus is still to go, and more and more people will remain unreached if we only use an attractional approach.

When large churches get full they often multiply or duplicate services, but instead of doing two or more the same, why not plant a whole range of fresh expressions. In this way large churches are uniquely equipped to embody the mixed economy.

But there is a bigger and potentially more strategic challenge. Large churches can either become a drain on the ministry of the churches around them, because they draw in such a substantial proportion of local or commuting Christians, or they can be resource churches, helping smaller churches around them to plant fresh expressions as well.

Fresh expressions is a way of bringing the gospel to communities and networks we are other wise failing to reach – size of church has little to do with it – the missionary challenge remains the same for us all.

+Graham

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

One of the most common misunderstandings about fresh expressions is the belief that they are new types of worship service. It is an understandable mistake as worship lies at the heart of the life of the church, and fresh expressions are new congregations or churches, (not rebranded or experimental church services). There is also an honourable stream within, and pre-dating, the Fresh Expressions initiative, called ‘alternative worship’. However, our recommendation is that the shaping of an act of worship normally lies near the end, rather than at the beginning, of the planting process.

There are a number of reasons for this. Ideally fresh expressions are planted following a process of prayerful listening, and making relationships through acts of service. But if the initial point of contact is a worship event it can only be one which it is hoped the relevant people will like, rather than one which they are involved in shaping, or which we can shape for them with greater care, because we know them. There is also a danger of self indulgence, of creating an event which suits us, or which relieves the frustrations we have with the worship in our own church. 'I like it so they will as well' is not the way to plant. What Mission-shaped Church called 'dying to live' challenges us to sacrifice our preferences for the sake of what is appropriate for others. Finally it is likely that the result will be an event to attend rather than a church community to which to belong. If there is no intention to form a new congregation, it is not a fresh expression 'of church'.

To begin with worship may be feasible for the de-churched, who retain a memory of what church was like (up to the point they decided to leave!), but it is less likely to be appropriate for the largest part of our adult mission field, those who have never been involved before. For many worship is culturally strange. They don't have the toolkit for worship. They don't know the Biblical story. They only community sing at football matches and they don't understand our vocabulary. With them we have to start much further back.

Of course, if a fresh expression is planted by transitioning an existing piece of work in the community, then the listening, serving, community forming and witnessing have probably already taken place. In which case you are not starting with worship, but introducing it at the right time. A culturally appropriate, recognisably Christian practice of worship, including baptism and holy communion, is the aim for all fresh expressions that hope to endure, bit mostly it is a later development, not the starting point.

+Graham

You can read another perspective on this in David Muir's post on the Share blog. The Guide also has more on the fresh expressions journey and the up dimension of church.

Graham Cray's monthly e-xpressions column.

The fresh expressions initiative is not about fresh expressions of church alone. It is about a mixed economy church.

In February, the General Synod of the Church of England voted unanimously to 'affirm the mixed economy of traditional churches and fresh expressions of church, working in partnership, as the most promising mission strategy in a fast changing culture.'

The key word is 'partnership'. The mixed economy is not a strategic device to allow the newer to coexist with the older. It is a commitment to maintain the unity and common life of the Spirit across an increasingly diverse and fast-changing mission field.

'Economy' is an appropriate word to apply to the Church, as long as we draw its content from Scripture and not from the global economic crisis! In Ephesians 1:10 Paul speaks of God's 'plan' to gather all things up in Christ. The word translated as 'plan' gives us our word 'economy'. It is a word about the proper running of a large Roman household, applied to God's restoring of the universe through his Son. In the next chapter the church is called God's 'household' (2:19), from the same family of words, and has a vital part to play in the 'plan'.

But this also is a mixed economy church. The household of God is established through the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in Christ. In Judea the churches were predominantly Jewish. Elsewhere in the Roman Empire they varied from a mixture of Jews and Gentiles to some that were predominantly Gentile – depending on the mission field. But they were all part of the one household playing their part in the one economy of God.

It was not always an easy relationship. The problems it caused resonate through Acts and Paul's letters. Paul's churches sent generous aid to the Jerusalem church, which contained their sternest critics. It was what Christians did!

In the same way fresh expressions of church and more traditional forms are to honour, support and pray for one another. They are to recognise each other's integrity and distinctive gifts. The younger can learn from the older without having to use the same cultural forms. The older can have faith, for their own mission, renewed through seeing what God is doing among the younger. The older will need to exercise patience while the newer finds its own shape and identity. While the newer recognizes that the older gave it birth. Above all the mixed economy is about mutual generosity.

When Visions began in York, its primary mission field was the dance and nightclub culture, and the new community immersed itself in their mission and created appropriate forms of meeting and worship for their calling. But when the parish church's children's work was short of musicians, members of Visions, who had been in the clubs just hours before, led the children's worship, in a style they no longer used for themselves, because that was what you did in God's economy of grace. The mixed economy is about diversity and mutual generosity – for the plan of God. I conclude with a quotation from Archbishop Rowan's speech to the Synod.

The mixed economy takes both elements seriously, both traditional forms of church and emerging forms of church… and when we think about how partnership best works, we must surely realise that it's when both elements are taking each other seriously and gratefully and interacting with each other. Working together creatively in partnership is indeed the most promising mission strategy.

+Graham

You can read another perspective on the mixed economy on Malcolm Herbert's post on the Share blog.