June 2014 - FX ARCHIVE...

New Song Network Church commissioning

New Song Network, Warrington, became Methodism's newest church in Britain on Sunday (22nd June 2014) at a commissioning service featuring praise, worship – and much celebratory cake!

Sankey Valley Methodist Circuit Superintendent Lucille Rogers commissioned the church and Jackie Bellfield as its minister. Using a combination of text from the Methodist Worship Book and new material written specifically for the occasion, Lucille prayed for blessing on the new church and for 'fresh ventures in faith, greater commitment in worship, and new acts of service.'

Stephen Lindridge, Fresh Expressions Connexional Missioner for the Methodist Church, spoke of how New Song Network was helping people to hear of God and the journey in faith in a way that was clearly understandable to them. Reflecting on Pentecost and how people from all over the known world heard God speak to them in their native languages, Stephen said New Song Network Church was a

beautiful coming together of the espoused Methodist values of John Wesley's day, singing the faith… and sharing faith in relevant ways. You have captured the very essence of what it means to be Methodists and translated it into a language that people can understand. My simple prayer for you, as the newest Methodist Church in Britain, is that you keep on encouraging others to do the same.

Liverpool Methodist District Chair, Jim Booth, said,

This church, its life, gives me hope.

He encouraged everyone involved at New Song Network Church, including the 43 new members welcomed on the evening,

This is just the beginning, the start of the journey.

Jackie Bellfield, writing of the latest developments in New Song Network, said,

We have walked together and have supported one another on a journey of faith and pilgrimage which continues as we are renewed and challenged to serve God in relevant ways. We seek to be a fresh church community, constantly wanting to find new and vibrant ways to live out and communicate the love of God to others. This begins in our own lives as we grow in our own discipleship.

Introducing Phil Potter

Five summertime ‘experiments’ (Kris Beckert)

Kris Beckert suggests five things to try this summer if you're looking to discern where a fresh expression of church might be appropriate.

Before being called into ministry, I was an environmental scientist by trade. Much of my job consisted of asking questions, forming hypotheses, designing how I'd test them, and coming up with results.

Entering into the Church world didn't change the way my brain works – it merely changed the mission and subject of the experiments. Maybe that's why I see this whole idea of starting fresh expressions of church as an experiment in listening and serving the people in our own context—and letting the need and environment dictate the form and structure instead of the other way around. And although these experiments may not demand our standing knee-deep in waders all day in the middle of a marsh, it does require us to step out and serve, try new things, and experiment in our neighbourhoods and communities. You only learn by doing it, not thinking about it.

As an environmental scientist, the summer was always the most opportune time in our research season, and I think it might also be the case when we're talking about starting fresh expressions of church. If you're looking for a chance to see what God might do through a potential fresh expression of church this summer, think about experimenting in one or more of the following areas.

1) Festivals, fairs, and 5K runs

Every town has them; do you know what they are? Even if an art exhibition or pet show don't happen to be 'your thing', it might be a learning and listening experience that God uses in your own spiritual formation. Why not get your family and friends to volunteer together to serve? Street markets and fairs are the perfect chance to do some listening in your community too. Sit on a bench and watch who turns up – and who doesn't. Ask God to reveal who you might be called to reach while you are handing out water or walking from one stall to another.

2) Prayer walking

Now that it's nice enough to be outside and light until late, why not gather a group or go by yourself to prayer walk your community? Pray for the places you pass; the schools, businesses, shops, homes. The Holy Spirit might urge you to chat with someone on your path with whom you might not have otherwise spoken. What do you notice? Who and what cries out to you in your community? Take the time to listen.

3) Go outside

Jesus spent a lot of time in the great outdoors and met a lot of people there, even on his way from place to place. Creating opportunities for people to gather can be anything from organising a street party to flying a kite at a local park. Or, if fishing is your thing, share in it with some youngsters – and their families – and invite them all to share in a cooking session afterwards. Jesus found potential disciples in fishermen, maybe you will too. If you don't have a garden, throw together an urban picnic at a school playground or provide the ice creams at a neighbours' get-together; God might open your eyes to a new group of people when you use the good weather as an excuse to get to know them!

4) Holidays for the family-less

Father's Day, August Bank Holiday, or special events like the World Cup – these are times when families get together for barbecues and picnics. However, there will be lots of people in your community who don't have family in the area. Who are these people? What could you do? On Mother's Day this year, a woman in my church invited me to share in a picnic with others from her block of flats who didn't have mothers to visit. She was the person of peace, introducing me to everyone as we shared our food together and had a great time. It occurred to me that we could do this for every holiday and probably make some new friends too. After all, Jesus spent time with those nobody else wanted to spend time with – and that's where he grew His Kingdom too. Are you willing to do the same?

5) Teachers and students

It's the end of the school year so how can you serve weary teachers and students at this time? Could you drop off some pastries and free coffee for teaching staff in the last, long, week of school? Are there children who might need healthy lunches and companionship with other youngsters in your community over the summer? Or do you live near a university where students and professors will be on campus for a summer school? How could you share the Good News there?

These are just a sample of potential 'experiments' you might try as you see if God leads you to start a fresh expression of church. Here comes summer… what are you going to do with it?

Please note that commenting has been temporarily disabled on this post. We hope to reinstate it soon.

Cortonwood

Lieutenant Catherine Dodd is leader of The Salvation Army in Cortonwood, South Yorkshire. She tells how their mission to 'go, gather and grow' has developed in the past six months.

I've been in church leadership for the past 10 years and had been serving part-time at Cortonwood since 2010 – alongside being the Officer (Minister) at an established Salvation Army church locally. In October 2013 I was appointed as the full-time leader here and Cortonwood was recognised by The Salvation Army as a new Church plant. We are situated right at the heart of our community, in a neutral venue above the Cortonwood Miners' Welfare Club.

Cortonwood was deeply affected by the miners' strike 30 years ago and the subsequent demise of the UK coal industry. Cortonwood Colliery closed and, as the biggest employer locally, this meant that life was changed forever for most of the families here. As a miner's daughter, I understand the culture and have a heart for the people of ex-mining communities.

It had been felt for some time that God wanted to do a new thing in the Dearne Valley, and so began the process of discerning the 'what' and 'where'. Since 2010, The Salvation Army had been experimenting with different ministries through the formation of a Dearne Valley Planting Team, which I was blessed to part of. Confirmation soon came that Cortonwood was the place where God wanted us to be.

There was no physical Church presence in Cortonwood – the Methodist Chapel closed a few years back, and the parish church is situated in a neighbouring village, but I always believed that God wanted to build a church here in Cortonwood. Furthermore, I discerned that it was never his intention to plant a Church by parachuting in a group of Christians. He made it clear to me that this new plant was to be formed from people within the community who, for whatever reason, were not engaging with a traditional, attractional model of church. He wanted it to emerge from us 'journeying out' and coming alongside the community, working with them and seeing what would develop – without being prescriptive as to what it would look like or what shape it would be. To have the freedom to be part of that from the very early days, and then go on to lead that, is a great blessing.

Initially, we did not have a base of our own and so we used various community venues as gathering places, which is something that we still do and are keen to maintain– we didn't want to go down the route of having one place that would be regarded as 'Church'. We have been blessed with the provision of our base at the Miners' Welfare Club, which provides us with office space, a community prayer room and multipurpose room – it's an accessible place where people can come along without it being a traditional Church building, which can sometimes be a barrier to people. We use it for some of our events, but by no means all.

One of the venues that we use is Costa Coffee. We have always had a good relationship with the manager there, and so when we were looking for a venue for worship we made an approach and we were delighted to be allowed to use this space. Since June 2012, we have used Costa as the venue for our now monthly worship event 'The Gathering', where we meet after hours on a Sunday evening. It's an event which is aimed at unchurched people, where there is good coffee, conversation, live music and opportunity to pause for thought.

We were very keen to have multiple connection points with our church. Some of the activities that we are currently delivering include weekly school's ministry, Toddlersong, food drop-in (with budgeting advice on offer too) and a Community Choir. Since January 2014, a weekly informal and conversational cell group has commenced which we call 'Time & Space', giving people an opportunity to ask the difficult questions as they explore faith. It's beautiful to see how God brings that together. The people are shaping that time of worship themselves through partnering with the Spirit; that's the way it's got to be. We have some powerful prayer times and it's very raw; it's allowing people to 'be' where they are. We have got a lot of needs in this area and some people feel downtrodden; when they start to see their value in the eyes of God, it's quite a special moment.

The key to relevance, is, for me, all about being willing to be experimental and acknowledging that this is a valid form of church. It has to be fluid. Whatever we start, we are not going to put it on tablets of stone and continue with something ad infinitum; we view things in seasons, and we just go with it. I believe this missional community, this fresh expression, is not a 'stepping stone' to traditional church – it is certainly church in its own right; yes it's firmly rooted in Salvationist doctrine but we are not frightened to be quite pioneering in the ways we go and reach out to the community.

We want this to a place where people feel safe, welcomed and loved, where we can work out together what it means to be disciples of Jesus today as we serve the community of Cortonwood.

It's wonderful to see individual's lives being changed as God’s work develops. One of the guys, who is coming to food bank, wants to start to get involved in volunteering; we are also establishing a community allotment as a means of creating community, tackling food poverty by growing fresh fruit and veg for our food drop-in and caring for creation, and we are also seeing people from our local community get involved with this.

It's still very early days but it's a wonderfully energising thing to be involved in – you know that when you get up in the morning you are going to see evidence of what God's doing in people's lives. I have always had a heart for the unchurched and a real concern that people need to hear the gospel but can't – or won't – come to established church. At Cortonwood, we are seeing people engaging with our way of being Church who would not otherwise do so. It's so important to come alongside people in relevant ways as part of their community and leave it to God to engineer the conversation. We've seen that happening in all sorts of ways, including through the local school, where I have been involved for the past four years, and have recently taken on the role as School Chaplain. We did a whole school, in-school Messy Nativity and most recently a Messy Easter for all children and their parents.

Our next priorities will be serving people in practical ways by offering 'eating on a budget' (cook 'n' eat) sessions, and setting up as an Employment Plus Centre, where people can come along and receive help in their job searching. It's all part of discerning the current needs within our community and responding accordingly.

In January, Vicky Hughes joined our team as a part-time Community Development Coordinator. Her role is to develop the food bank and get our community allotment up and running. She will also ascertain community needs and put plans in place to ensure that we can, in the name of Jesus, do something to help towards meeting those needs.

Life can seem very busy at times as I seek to balance ministry and family life. As well as leading this church plant, I'm also doing a MA in Aspects of Biblical Interpretation through London School of Theology. Distance learning can be difficult and the 10 hours of study per week can be tricky to fit in but I carry on with what God has set before me; I always find that he gives me the time I need to do what he wants me to do. I never feel overwhelmed in any way, and firmly believe that Cortonwood is where God has called me to be.

Church has got to be accessible for people. We need to be available to our communities, to love them and be prepared to journey with them in an authentic way. When we move away from our perceptions of how church should look and abandon ourselves to the Spirit, then we see God do amazing things. It is a joy to behold. Lord, may your Kingdom come, your will be done in Cortonwood, as it is in heaven.

Celebrating the mixed economy Church at Pentecost (Phil Potter)

Phil Potter celebrates the mixed economy church.

The Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, the Congregational Federation in Bristol, the Methodist Church in Birmingham, the United Reformed Church in Cardiff and the Church of England in York… the season of synods and assemblies has begun, and a great opportunity to check in with our partner denominations and feel the pulse of the Church.

As usual, many things are on the agenda and the challenges increase, but in every case I'm finding that the missionary arm of the Church is in good heart and good form, and that the fresh expressions agenda is breathing ever new life into the institutions we love.

Of course, the very concept of a 'mixed economy' of Church brings with it its own tensions, but the Church is at its very best when it celebrates its diversity, works on its unity and learns to partner in creative and generous ways. Mixed economy was never meant to mean 'either or' thinking where Christians make black and white choices, either to commit to traditional Church and all things familiar, or to new ways of doing Church and all things pioneer. On the contrary, the vision for a mixed economy is about the whole Church embracing 'both and' thinking, and wherever God may call us to serve and belong on a personal and practical level, we should all embrace the need for a rich variety of approaches to evangelism, worship and the challenge of making disciples in the twenty first century.

I know from my own experience that the church I was vicar of was at its most vibrant and effective when it was equally committed to and energized by what we creatively nicknamed 'the lake' (traditional attractional church) and 'the river' (flowing out into fresh expressions of church in very different contexts). Indeed, the recent research on fresh expressions in ten different Church of England dioceses confirms that the majority are being envisioned and created out of established local church contexts, and that even churches with very limited resources are discovering new life and energy as they find the courage to plant the tiniest seed of a new kind of church.

However we look at this, the acid test for me is in how un-churched people respond to all that we offer them. Again in my own context we found that again and again the Holy Spirit would confound our expectations of how a person seeking faith responded to 'doing church'. We committed ourselves to planting a whole range of fresh expressions to reach the thousands in our community who had never experienced church, and we convinced ourselves at first that the people who might respond to a fresh expression were the sort of people who would never darken the door of our church building. How wrong could we be! So many of those who came to faith began to put together the richest of diets when it came to belonging. Yes some remained in a single expression or congregation, but most ended up blending their experience of church and worship, and some who belonged to the most radical of fresh expressions might also turn up at the traditional Eucharist once a month! As they started to vote with their feet, they began to model mixed economy for us in the most creative of ways.

Writing this on Pentecost Sunday, I'm reminded that we serve a 'mixed economy' God, who deliberately created a Church of rich diversity and variety, and as the wind of his Spirit 'blows where it wills', let's learn to celebrate the way in which he is creating many different kinds of fresh expressions alongside inherited expressions, across several different traditions and within a colourful array of different denominations. And most of all, may we never lose sight of the fact that the God of Pentecost not only enables people to hear and receive in 'their own language', but draws them together in unity in a way that then draws many others to be 'added to their number'.

Phil Potter

msm Kent and South East – Maidstone

You are invited to share a learning journey in a supportive community to be equipped for a lifetime of good practice and learning in growing fresh expressions of church.

Your local course

The Salvation Army, Rochester and Canterbury Dioceses, South East District of the Methodist Church, United Reformed Church and South Eastern Baptist Association are delighted to make msm available locally. We believe it will be a significant resource for building the Kingdom of God in this area.

Individuals are most welcome, but we particularly hope that small groups from a church or fresh expression will come as this will deepen the impact of the course.

Course timetable and venue

Saturday 27th September 2014

Monday 13th October 2014

Monday 10th November 2014

Monday 8th December 2014

Monday 12th January 2015

Monday 9th February 2015

Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd March 2015

Monday 13th April 2015

Saturday 9th May 2015

Monday 8th June 2015

Monday 6th July 2015

Saturdays run from 09.30 to 15.30, weekdays from 19.45 to 21.45, both at St Luke's, Maidstone, ME14 5AW.

The residential weekend is at Aylesford Priory, ME20 7BX.

Cost

£250 per person, which covers all materials, refreshments and the weekend away. Support grants may be available from your church or denomination.

Book

Download the flier and booking form at the foot of the page or book online.

Contact

Carol Evans

Course Administrator

carol.evans@rochester.anglican.org

01634 844508

Recommendations

The mission shaped ministry course provides ordinary parishes with an excellent tool to help people to review the mission in their local situation and to discern where God might be calling them to engage with the many thousands of people who do not yet encounter the Christian faith. It helps Christians to start up and develop further appropriate fresh expressions of church in their locality. I highly commend this course, which is being delivered in partnership with other denominations. I encourage you to take the opportunities provided by this course: send people on it, attend yourself, discern where God’s Spirit is working and join in.

Rt Rev Dr Brian Castle, Bishop of Tonbridge

View mission shaped ministry in a larger map

Life Church – Jun14

Flying with two wings (Michael Moynagh)

Michael Moynagh asks why the church is flying with only one wing.

The church has been flying with one wing when it comes to making disciples. It is high time it flew with two.

Withdrawal

The traditional wing has involved withdrawing from the world for short periods. Believers have withdrawn into God's family in Sunday worship, small groups, conferences and retreats to be immersed in the Christian story. With their faith deepened and invigorated, they have re-entered the world to serve God.

This model has deep roots in the Christian tradition. Indeed, it's what Jesus did. At times he withdrew from the crowds and instructed his disciples privately, as in Matthew 13.36-43. Christians need special times together to be formed in the faith.

But what happens if the church flies with this withdrawal wing alone? Christians gather to be spiritually nourished, but then they scatter to live out their faith as individuals. Practising the faith on your own can be difficult.

Engaged

Alongside the withdrawal model of making disciples, fresh expressions of church are showing how believers can take the church with them when they engage with the world. As they join fellow Christians in serving others in a segment of their lives, they learn discipleship where life happens.

Discipleship through communities that are engaged with life makes sense for all sorts of reasons. Here are just three of them:

it is what Jesus did. Jesus taught his followers not only in private, but in public – at the frontiers of life. In Luke 6.20, for example, he deliberately turned to his disciples to teach them, even though a large crowd was standing by (verse 17);

relying solely on the withdrawal model ignores how personal identities are shaped by families, networks, neighbourhoods, workplaces and other relationships outside the church. These identities frequently come to the fore at the expense of our Christian identities. Belonging to a Christian group in the midst of life can remind us that, important though these other identities are, our supreme identity is in Christ. This will affect how we live;

withdrawal into the church brings together Christians from a variety of backgrounds – a big plus – but often churchgoers do not fully understand one another's everyday lives. 'Their situation is so different to mine' someone might think. So it becomes difficult to help each person apply the faith to the specifics of their context. Application tends to focus on principles rather than 'how to' in a particular situation. By contrast, Christian communities in life contain people from the same setting. Individuals are better placed to support each other in applying the faith to their shared circumstances.

A challenge

One danger for fresh expressions is that they lapse back into the inherited mode of flying with one wing.

A community formed in a café might witness effectively to the café's hinterland. People discover Jesus. They turn to the community for teaching, worship and other resources that will deepen their faith.

Relying on a withdrawal model of Christian formation, the community gradually evolves into an ordinary 'church' that happens to meet in a café.

To avoid this, new believers can be encouraged where possible to join with one or two other Christians and start further communities among their friends and contacts. Through these new communities they can learn how to engage in faithful Christian practice in another part of their lives. At the same time, they might periodically withdraw into the café community to be soaked in God's story.

They would fly with two wings, which must be better than one!

Deeper Network Church

Andy Poultney is minister-in-charge of Deeper Network Church, based in what was a restaurant on Romford High Street.

Deeper Network Church originated as 'Deeper' six years ago at St James', Collier Row, with St John's, Havering-Atte-Bower. Deeper, a fresh expression of church, came together as I began serving as curate with a bunch of young adults; my plan was simply to see what God was doing and join in with it.

Following much discussion and prayer, we decided that we wanted to focus on other young adults in the pub and club culture of central Romford. Night-time economy is important here; about 10,000 to 12,000 people descend on the local pubs and clubs every weekend.

We had great support from the community of St James' and St John's and the result was that we launched The Deeper Lounge as a safe space, in Romford's market place, on Friday nights. It started in December 2009 and it has continued to run most weeks; we have served many hundreds of cups of tea and coffee since then and – more importantly – met some great people and had some great chats.

Working alongside Street Pastors, we set up under one of the market stalls and operated from there. After a while, the local authority recognised that we were providing a valuable service and wanted to help us a little more so they bought us a large, pop-up gazebo. It was about a year ago that we moved to a prime spot and now we regularly see about 100 people a night.

I'm part of The Order of Mission and, using missional community 'language', I was – by this stage – beginning to think about what was to happen next because the end of my curacy was on the horizon. The Friday nights were going well and there was also a youth project called DIY (Deeply Impacting Youth) which was engaging with about 60-70 young people.

There was a very strong sense that if we moved away, the work was not yet strong enough to be led by anybody else, and in 2012 we felt God was calling us to become a permanent presence in central Romford rather than just dipping in and out.

In April 2013, ten of us were released from St James' and St John's in order to establish a new worshipping community known as Deeper Network Church. Our office base, and home to lots of what we do now, is called The Deeper Lounge and it's on the high street in Romford.

It's owned by the London Borough of Havering and we rent it from them. It used to be an Afro-Caribbean restaurant but the building has been gutted at a cost of £50,000. It's always incredible to see what God can do, time and time again I've been in the building while work has been going on and as people walk past, one in five will stop and ask what is going on. It offers a natural opportunity to get into conversations with all sorts of people. We applied to the Mission Opportunities Fund to cover our salary costs but money is tight and we are living by faith beyond 2014.

The Diocese of Chelmsford granted us a Bishop's Mission Order and this has been important in how we, and others, view the work. When talking about The Deeper Lounge I like to say, 'this is not a youth centre, it's not a community centre, I want to start calling it home – to us that home is a church'. It's a venue and the idea is that we will continue to do a lot of outward focused work and to engage with mission with different community groups.

We have got a reception area, a coffee shop-sized space, a small kitchen, an office and a prayer room. The plan after Easter is to do a bit of everything in this space, including activities for young people, homeless people and parents. Deeper Network Church will develop for all these different people groups.

Part of my previous role was to act as youth adviser to the bishop but I am now stopping that work as my wife and I will be moving into a community house because I'm becoming Young Vocations Champion for the diocese. This will involve mentoring interns and four guys will live with us and take on placements.

Basically, everything that we do begins with service. When we're out under the gazebo speaking to young people late at night at Friday, we'll say, 'would you like a free tea or coffee?' Generally the third or fourth question people ask is, 'why are you doing this?' You tell them and we get varying responses: from complete disbelief to 'oh, that's cute' or similar.

Everything we do is to move on conversations and relationships from 'Oh cute' to our vision of deepening life together as disciples of Jesus Christ. That can be a real challenge but there's nothing else I'd rather do.

The Church of Scotland: sharing in an adventure story (David McCarthy)

David McCarthy challenges reservations about fresh expressions of church.

There is much to thank God for in the story of the Church of Scotland. From its origin and traditions a good case can be made for it to be a natural leader in the development of fresh expressions of church because it:

intentionally aims to organise its resources and structures so that everyone in Scotland has an opportunity to meet with Jesus and receive the care of the church;

actively engages with the realities of life in Scottish communities;

has a strong record of missionary outreach (both within Scotland and cross-culturally).

However, its history is complex and the ideal has not always been lived out.

The need for individuals and communities to meet with the risen Jesus is obvious and there is a great heart across the church for this to happen, so why might there be reservations about fresh expressions of church? I suggest there are three areas to think about: experiential, relational and theological. Here are some examples from those areas.

Experiential

Previous bad experiences of emerging ministries/church initiatives.

Weariness; individual and corporate (particularly given current changes).

Relational

Suspicion that Fresh Expressions is perceived as too evangelical, too liberal, too English or too influenced by other denominations.

A negative reaction to yet another initiative from a central body within the church.

We do not understand the present cultural kaleidoscope of Scotland, or we want these cultures to reconfigure to our preferred culture.

Theological

Fresh expressions of church are church and theology lite; they might better be described as 'froth' expressions of church;

Fresh expressions of church take the easy option: they are too stratified and not representative.

These are real concerns, perceptions and reactions which we must not minimise, arrogantly dismiss or ignore; everyone has lessons to learn, but, I firmly believe, we also have an adventure to share and fresh expressions of church are a part of this.

If this is a work of the Holy Spirit then we must not step back; together God calls us to forward the conversation and the action. Serious reflection doesn't and mustn't mean that we ask the Spirit to submit to our insecurities and anxious double and treble checking. If I'm going on a long journey my fear could so devour attention and energy that, in checking my luggage and if the house I am leaving is secure, I lose track of time and literally miss the boat. We don't want to do the same. As a church we have taken decisions to explore and develop pioneer ministry, to develop fresh expressions of church; to hesitate or falter would be to bow the knee to fear rather than follow where we have discerned Christ and faith are calling us.