08/12/2015 - Page 15 of 17

A time for thinking ahead (Andrew Wooding)

Andrew Wooding thinks ahead.

As I write these words, we are nearing the end of Advent, a time of waiting and preparation and looking ahead. Most of my preparation the last few weeks has involved editing, laying out and adding pages to the Starting and growing section. If you've been eagle-eyed recently, you might have seen pages appearing and changing (and sometimes disappearing) each time you visited the site.

I am happy to say that, just days before Advent is over, Starting and growing is now uploaded. But that doesn't mean that preparation and looking ahead is now over. Much of this section is about thinking ahead, something it is always good to do. Yes, it is a major achievement to start a fresh expression, but have you thought ahead to where it might be going? Do you have a plan, with values, actions and goals? As Mike Moynagh writes:

Why not pause and ask yourselves, "What do we hope this venture will look like in six months, a year, two years or five years' time, or perhaps longer?" "What are our hopes and dreams for this vision as it unfolds?" Dreaming dreams for your vision could be one of the most exciting parts of preparing for a fresh expression.

My own thinking ahead involves developing learning networks on Share (more on this in the New Year). If you want to read my current thoughts, as well as further short articles by my colleagues in The Sheffield Centre, have a look at the very first issue of The Sheffield Centre's twice-yearly Research Bulletin.

If it is still Advent when you are reading this, I hope you have a very happy and blessed Christmas. If Christmas is over, and the leftover turkey has long disappeared, may your thinking ahead to 2008 bring you all that you wish and hope for.

What is a church? (Steven Croft)

Steven Croft asks, what is a church?

Here is a game to play with your home group, your PCC or over dinner with some Christian friends. You could even adapt it for a sermon. The aim is to help you think more deeply about what it means to be church.

It's a vital question, whether you are aiming to grow an existing church or develop a fresh expression. Before you can create or develop something you have to have some idea what it is. Imagine building a car without realising that it needs an engine, trying to put up a house without foundations or baking bread without yeast. All of us in some way are involved in building the church as part of our discipleship. Yet many Christians would be more familiar with the essential elements in a victoria sponge than they are with the really essential elements in a church.

You will need to make sure everyone has a copy of the list in the box below and a pen. Ask the group to break into pairs and go through the different attributes. If you have plenty of time, invite people to:

Circle the elements which you would you say are essential to form a church

Underline the elements which are desirable and helpful

Delete the elements which are unhelpful

Leave unmarked the elements which are neutral or depend on context

Feel free to add other essential elements

When you have been through the lists, compare your answers.

If you are short of time then just concentrate on the first task: see if you can reach a short list you can agree on in terms of the essential elements in forming a church.

Pews	A font/baptistry	Sunday worship
Ordained ministers	Communion vessels	Committees
Hymn books	A photocopier	Small groups
People	Guitars	Instant coffee
A building	The risen Christ	The Scriptures
A pulpit	Sacraments	Food
Printed Bibles	Bishops	A choir
An organ	Connection and oversight	Robes
A data projector	Common Worship	Mission to God's world
Prayer meetings	Lay ministers

As I've played this game with different groups over the last six months, I have come to believe that just three elements are part of the essence of what it means to be the church. They come up in every set of responses. My answers are in the box at the bottom of the page. Resist the temptation to read them until you've at least had a go at the game yourself. I may be wrong! I also believe that three other elements are essential to maintain and build a healthy community. Everything else is either desirable, merely convenient or helpful or not according to context.

It is often the non-essential elements of church which take up so much time and energy

You may or may not agree with my answers (and please let me know). However, what often emerges from the exercise is surprising agreement about these elements and a realisation that it is often the non-essential elements which take up so much time and energy.

The second part of the game is to begin to explore more deeply how we decide what is right and wrong about the life of the church. A good way to begin is to invite people to suggest their own key verses for thinking about the life of the Christian community. Where do they go in Scripture and in the Christian tradition for thinking about what it means to be the people of God?

There is no right answer here. In fact, the more places we look, the more our understanding grows. The more we look, the more we discover that our understanding of the church can't be contained by just one proof text or just one summary of Christian teaching (such as the marks of the church in the creed). But here, to finish, is one key passage which I continue to find helpful.

In Mark 3.14 we read of Jesus' call of the twelve disciples. This is a passage which speaks hints of new Israel: it is deliberately about the forming of a new community. Mark has distilled the essential elements of what it means to be the community of disciples – the beginnings of the church. What are the essential elements?

'And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out…'

The essence of being church according to Mark is people being called by Jesus to live in the rhythm of being with Christ and being sent. If you read on in the verse you discover what we are sent to do: to proclaim the good news and to overcome evil in the world.

This is the kind of community we are called to become and to build.

My own answers to the game:

Three essential elements in being the church: people, the risen Christ and mission to God's world.

Three essential elements to sustain the church: the Scriptures; the sacraments and connection and oversight.

When is a Circuit a Mission Circuit? (Martin Keenan)

Martin Keenan asks when a Circuit is a Mission Circuit.

A recent article on Share suggested that pioneers need to move on to allow the new church to stand on its own feet. I agree with this as long as the reasons for moving are God's reasons and not denominational reasons. Having moved on from my previous church almost a year ago, I have been thinking about what that means from a pioneer's viewpoint.

When I was first looking for the next step, I saw several Circuit profiles which stated that the Circuit in question had the beginnings of a fresh expression of church. These looked appealing, but on closer inspection it seemed as though the work was already being done and the potential new minister, while encouraging the fresh expression, was expected to look after the rest of the work on the Circuit.

So I looked for other Circuits.

The result is that I am now in the North of Scotland Mission Circuit looking after six churches. This one appealed because the Circuit name suggests mission. Ten months into it and, to be honest, I'm not sure whether we are breaking advertising standards!

To the west, our only neighbour is the Inverness Circuit which does have a fresh expression. Our Circuit goes as far east as it's possible to go, to Peterhead, where my wife and I have given the church a session on running Messy Church. In the early days of July, the first Messy Church in Peterhead Methodist will begin.

What does it mean to be a Mission Circuit in The Methodist Church?

The 'capital city' of the Circuit is Aberdeen and I have offered to run the mission shaped intro course there, but my six churches are on the Moray Coast and things are different here in what are the most northerly mainland Methodist churches.

Evangelism happens through Alpha. I am running it in two churches and since last September there have been seven converts. An idea still prevails that young people are not interested any more, but we'll leave the light on in case they decide to come in. There is also a general concern about how to 'get people in'.

I have been running a Bible study for the six churches for the past nine months looking at Acts and Paul's letters, tracing the growth of the church at the beginning and giving ideas of how we can change and develop into a Mission Circuit. It is not producing anything yet, but there is a growing sense of optimism.

I have to say that I find it frustrating. I still remember my first service in September, having to prepare by opening Hymns & Psalms and not remembering what to do. And then having to incorporate 'modern' songs from Mission Praise! I nearly gave up in despair before I started.

But I am used to pipe organs and pews now. I'm hoping for a 21st century revival – this is the area that has seen the most revival in Scotland – but I hope when it happens next time that it will be a fresh expression of revival. Here's hoping (and praying).

Why am I here? A pioneering pioneer for URC (Janet Sutton)

Janet Sutton explains what she is doing as the first URC pioneer minister.

I am the URC's first pioneer minister, working in the field of fresh expressions and emerging church. My role is to explore the potential relationship between the reformed tradition and the emerging church, and to facilitate emerging Christian communities in this part of the country.

The South Western Synod of the URC is made up of 130 churches covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Bristol and parts of Dorset, and Gloucestershire. Cullompton already has a vibrant institutional church life, and my mission is certainly not to impact negatively on that. So where does my mission lie?

That mission is to the people who would never think of going to church: who have left church and decided not to go back, or have explored other ways of expressing their spirituality; or have never considered the possibility that church (or even Jesus Christ) might be relevant to them.

On the estate where I live, most of the adult residents get in their car first thing in the morning, drive to work for the day, come home (possibly via Tesco's), go in, shut their doors, and that's it. If church is about community, and there is no sense or understanding of being community, where do we start?

If church is about community, and there is no sense or understanding of being community, where do we start?

It has to be by creating community. The precursor to that is creating relationship – and that is where I have started. It is slow work, and it can be frustrating. Prayers for this ministry are needed more than ever – for our strategy of hospitality in growing community on the estate, for my call to mission among people interested in alternative spiritualities, and for the new shoots of growth developing through community engagement.

I have been accepted to work in the prison at Exeter as a Community Chaplain but the clearance process can take for ever. More prayer! That everything may go smoothly and God will give me patience as I wait.

Things are gradually starting to happen and I'm particularly grateful for the conversations beginning to take place, at Cullompton Film Club, in the pub, on the street and during my endless dog walks. It's very early days but an exciting time. Watch this space!

Just a rumour (Susan Bowden-Pickstock)

Susan Bowden-Pickstock sniffs out a rumour.

For the past two years I have been undergoing ordination training at Ridley Hall Theological College. This was not a direction I expected to take in life, but I found ordination a lot easier to pursue once I had heard of pioneer training.

I have always worked in the secular world and really enjoyed it. I don't come from a Christian background and, despite committing myself to pursuing my own relationship with God from a very early age, as an adult I found a disconnect with the Christian subculture. I wanted to be able to take my faith seriously and live in the world, enjoying most of what human culture was producing – and to me this is what a good fresh expression of church is involved in. However, in the 1970s and early '80s there was no such thing and I was more than content to remain outside full-time Christian work.

Now, 20 years on and with careers in both nursing and broadcasting behind me, I am at the end of my training for ministry. It's still a slightly odd place to find myself, but it is the right place. I find myself reflecting on some of the many things I have learnt over the last two years and I'm more and more convinced that what we need to get away from in the church is dualism – the sort of spirituality that Augustine was surrounded by and unsurprisingly fell into to an extent. By the way, I do love Augustine's 'Confessions' which is one of the freshest and most beautiful pieces of Christian writing in our wider canon.

I wanted to be able to take my faith seriously and live in the world, enjoying most of what human culture was producing – and to me this is what a good fresh expression of church is involved in

What I mean by dualism is the mindset that says what we need to pursue is the spiritual and not the earthly, the sort of thinking that as a teenager I was encouraged to adopt with phrases such as: 'Be in the world but not of it'. That was a great favourite with our youth leaders I remember.

I want to shout back over the years, 'What good is that? How is that thinking going to relate me to my non-churchgoing neighbour? What does that give me in common with anyone except like-minded believers? By adopting it, how much am I missing of God's valid and divinely-loved creation and all that his creatures have done to express their divinely-cherished humanity?'

Clearly I could preach on this!

My final question: Would fresh expressions and pioneer work have even been needed if we had not been so heavenly minded that we were no earthly good? Perhaps I am being harsh but, as good pioneer disciples, one of the mantras we have learnt to chant is: 'Find where God is and join in'. Rumour has it that God enjoys creativity, the outdoors, film and literature and art, human striving for excellence, everything that builds community, laughter, love, adventure…

How to avoid Star Trek pioneering (John Pickles)

John Pickles wants to know how to avoid Star Trek pioneering.

My first idea for a blog subject was to talk about several events that I have organised which brought church and community together – and so begin the train of thought about emerging church. Then I would have moved on to look at the things we need to have in place to move towards fresh expressions. However, subsequent events linked with a project in my area made me think again.

So, new topic:

To not just be good, but to be great, we must be organic. To be organic, time must be our primary concern.

When we talk about being pioneers we can think of people exploring the Wild West, but we imagine it in terms of Westerns on TV – a world of 'life, but with the boring bits cut out'. Or to think of it another way, I like to call it Star Trek Pioneering. This is to boldly go, have lots of activity and crises, and somehow come to a passable resolution despite having lost half the crew – before moving on to the next frantic episode!

Star Trek Pioneering is a danger for:

those of us acting as pioneers in our communities because we can live from moment to moment without breath or reason;

onlookers – because they expect more than we can deliver;

witness – like a funhouse mirror we don't necessarily reflect reality but can become contorted as we try to live out/escape the dream/nightmare (please delete as appropriate)!

The boring bits have to happen. Like a plant growing, we must move at the appropriate pace.

The boring bits have to happen. Time has to be a factor in our efforts. Like a plant growing, we must move at the appropriate pace. In the book by Kosuke Koyama, 3 Mile an Hour God, the author comments that we need to reclaim a faith that moves at walking speed.

In a world filled with cars and planes and time poverty, it is easy for us to run ahead of God. The reality is that many projects have died because people have overstretched themselves, their teams and their resources. This is especially true when we are succeeding. We need to breathe. And our breath needs to be the air of the Holy Spirit. As we grow, like plants, we need to place roots too. For us to be effective pioneers, we need to have support from others who are settlers. And especially as the great pioneer of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, rests on the Father, the great settler, so we too need to rest on him.

When we are not being intentional with our timing we cause others to view us unrealistically. I have seen many youthwork projects become sidelined and then dropped because they have not succeeded in attracting 300 children in their first six months of operation. Likewise, I have seen a number of fledgling groups lose effectiveness because of split focus. They divided and were conquered.

As plants, we have to let Jesus, the ultimate gardener, work on us. This means we have to live with questions that cannot be answered, prune where needed and take time.

When we use time appropriately we can be organic in our approach. We stop being a contorted mirror and begin reflecting the reality of God. In my experience, when this happens everything will still feel incredibly frantic but it will not be a burden, good will become great, sustainability happens and newness is present in the mundane.

It’s time to let go (Paul Bradbury)

Paul Bradbury asks whether it's time to let go.

This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

Mark 4.26-27

I am exploring a language to describe a mission and ministry that is organic. When I go back to the gospels in order to shape my approach to mission I find simple parables filled with organic metaphors. I do not find a Jesus driven by a strategic vision or a plethora of programmes. I find a humble nomad content to carry out his ministry at the edges, amongst the unwanted, and to give his full attention to individuals of little importance.

Tom Wright makes this observation on the organic parable of Mark 4 (verses above) – that the seed and the man are doing the same thing. Organic life starts with a seed. Organic ministry starts by doing the same thing as the seed, namely dying. Abraham, the archetypal missionary of God, dies when he is called to leave everything and venture into the unknown with the promise that God would show him where to go. The missionary people of God only really find their true selves when they willingly let go of the architecture of their own self-importance and look for God in places where they are not in control. True incarnational mission is therefore nomadic in nature. We have no home. We are not at the centre of anywhere. We are drawn by the Spirit of God into the unknown, the desert, the territory of strangers, because that is where God is.

The Mission-shaped Church report was originally titled 'Dying to Live'. Withdrawn for fear of possible headlines about the church's demise, 'Dying to Live' nevertheless does much better in getting to root of how to be a missional people of God. We have to begin by dying. We might worry less about the future of the church and focus instead on the mission of God and where we might be called to participate in it.

Alan Roxburgh talks of the 'ecclesiocentric trap', the myopic approach to mission that starts with church – doing it better, doing it differently, doing it like the churches that are doing it better than we are. Church will shape its mission more authentically when it dies to the church it has become, or the one it wants to be, and stops long enough to really listen to the gospel, to the community around it and to God's Spirit.

We have to begin by dying – we might worry less about the future of the church and focus instead on the mission of God and where we might be called to participate in it

Over the past two years, Reconnect, the missional community I am involved in, have found ourselves hosted in much of what we do by a small independent café. I have an office there. We have been meeting at the café, and lots of other groups and networks use it as a hub for relationship building. I was beginning to think this was our home. We could use it to run all sorts of stuff, and with a worshipping community using the place on Sundays, a strategy for church growth began to emerge in my imagination.

But the café recently went out of business… a small footnote in the story of economic recession and the globalised nature of our coffee culture. We are homeless it seems. All our plans seem to have been put on hold. Except that what we have invested in primarily is not a place, but a set of relationships and a set of values. These are highly portable; they can morph at will and find a new home. The morning after the news of the café's demise went out there was a knock at our door. A lady who comes to one of the groups we run offered to see if it could be housed in the communal lounge of the sheltered housing unit she lives in. Only that would mean we would have to make it open to all the residents there! So out of dying comes the potential for new relationships, new life.

We’ve got the Divine Divas. Now bring on the men! (Sue Sheriff)

Sue Sheriff has got the Divine Divas – now she wants the men!

I am really excited by the way things are going with Divine Divas (as featured on the expressions: making a difference DVD). BUT, even better, the men in our area have now had their first 'Divine Divas' style event!

We'd provided them with lots of suggestions for names – things like Divine Dudes or Heavenly Hunks, etc – but surprise, surprise, they weren't impressed. There are a number of men in their 40s and 50s (and over) in our congregations who we wanted to bring together, but this effort was more about reaching out to the men 'beyond the fringe'.

Tadcaster is a place with lots of 'old-fashioned ways'. For instance, many of our pubs have no entertainment licences and still use old opening hours, so men tend to gather in them for a bit of a chat. My husband Gary and my ex-churchwarden John Wilson often slip into one of the local hostelries so know many of the local characters. I can't say we often see these men in church, except for funerals, so we wanted to work more within their comfort zone.

To organise the men-only event, I invited John and a few others to join Gary and me for pie, peas and prayers one evening. Some were slightly cautious as they had tried to reach out to men before, but there was also a lot of vision and enthusiasm. We invited others to be involved, all of whom had friendly personalities and different gifts, skills and experience to share. These included a newly confirmed and enthusiastic Christian, a man who had a shop in town, good relationship with lots of church people, and someone blessed with technical knowhow.

Principles were similar to Divine Divas, namely a night of fun in a relaxed environment with a little taste of the difference a Christian faith can make. But there were a lot of things that were different. The Divas spend a lot of time on the trimmings, the decoration, making everyone feel special, whereas the men just wanted everything to be simple and down-to-earth. The joke was they reckoned I had written the 'minutes' before our introductory meeting even began. Not true at all; I had merely set a detailed agenda of suggestions after picking my hubby's brain about what the men of 'Tad' might respond to! The fellas also had plenty of ideas of their own.

The men in our area have now had their first 'Divine Divas' style event!

Together we decided a Saturday night would work best. The venue? A small, local social club with its own bar that only usually opened on week nights. We decided to organise a quiz, with corned beef hash 'on the menu' for everyone who came along. A local curate, Rev Andy Grant – who had recently left the army – was lined up to talk for a short time about his faith when in military service and what brought him to the point of ordination.

With no name selected for the group, printing invitations was interesting. In the end they went for something like St Mary's Men's Quiz Night. The only point I insisted on was the making up of an invitation list and naming who was to personally give each invite. Most of the men wanted a casual handing out of the cards, but I felt people would be missed that way.

An unscheduled boost came with the broadcast of the Rugby League Four Nations Cup Final at tea time on Saturday 19 November – our chosen night. As a result of that, we opened the club early and invited the men to come to watch the match before we got started.

We had 60 names on our list and 30 men turned up, some bringing sons or son-in-laws. Half the group were churchgoers and half were not. All in all, not bad for a first attempt and it appears that everybody had a great time. I must admit I did try to persuade them to let me be there on the night, even offering my services as barmaid, but they said no! Probably the right decision in the end.

I hope to be allowed to attend the next planning meeting to help them work through a review and set the next event. After that, they certainly have all the gifts and skills they need to get on and plan things alone. It wasn't our intention to divide the sexes with these events – it has just kind of happened that way. However, we have discovered that it gives people room to talk freely, stops unwilling partners feeling 'dragged along to a church do', makes single people feel fully involved and sorts out babysitting problems.

My hope is that in spring/summer 2012 we will be able to have some kind of all age event; this could involve a barbecue, kids' games and maybe an activity like inflatable sumo wrestling! We would invite St Mary's Men, Divine Divas and Messy Church to come along. We could then get together for occasional integrated events but still allow room for each group to develop in its own way.

Essence

It is sometimes thought that fresh expressions of church are just for small, struggling or even failing churches. But the vision of a mixed economy approach applies to all churches, even those which seem to be doing well. Archbishops' Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, Bishop Graham Cray, has been looking at one church which asked the question: 'Who will we never reach if we carry on as we are?'

St Andrew's, Histon is a charismatic evangelical church in a village just to the north of Cambridge, with an average Sunday attendance of about 250. But the vicar, James Blandford-Baker, realised that they were missing many people who would never come into a Sunday service. So At Andrew's began Essence three years ago in an attempt to offer mothers a space to explore their spirituality alongside the Christian narrative.

Making the mixed economy work

Fresh expressions of church make up one part of a mixed economy church, a creative partnership between inherited models of church in an area and the development of fresh expressions. The Fresh Expressions Initiative is an ecumenical partnership in mission – as churches of many denominations work together to reach those whom existing churches are unlikely to reach. For all of this to be a reality local churches need to be partners in mission. A deanery can be just the right size unit for theory to become practice.

The mixed economy is a working reality. What has happened in one deanery can happen in many.