08/12/2015 - Page 3 of 17

Are fresh expressions radical enough? (Matt Stone)

Matt Stone asks whether fresh expressions are radical enough.

Fresh expressions are designed to be fishing nets. They are the central thrust of the church's mission to reach the growing unchurched population – those who are unlikely to just wander through the church doors for an occasional service, and who may not yet be ready for an Alpha Course.

Whilst there are many fresh expressions that are reaching out to the unchurched very well, many others seem to attract more churchgoers and those with a previous church connection. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because we need to close the back door of the church and not just open the front one. But what's the reasoning for why some expressions don't attract those very much outside the church radar? What can we do about it?

Could it be because of their format? Could they still be too much like church services? As Dave Male argues in Evaluating Fresh Expressions (edited by L Nelstrop & M Percy, Canterbury Press, 2008), 'The danger of starting with church worship … is that it works well for those looking to reconnect with church culture but does not hold much attraction for those with no previous experience of church.'

One Eucharistic fresh expression I visited last year still assumes a familiarity with the Eucharist. It still meets in a church, is structured around a liturgy, and is participative only in the sense that one drinks the bread and wine. Another fresh expression is a service that meets on church premises, albeit with food and a contemporary worship style. There is still a sermon, an offertory, and the chairs are arranged in rows around the screen and worship group.

Whilst I believe that worship, scripture and the sacraments are vital ingredients of church life and faith, I wonder whether some fresh expressions could be more radical in the way they present, or engage with, these elements. Yes, they are often more context-driven and missionary in intent than traditional forms of church, but if the unchurched are to be reached, are they radical enough? Are we still thinking in a churchy mindset?

I wonder whether part of the problem is the domestication of fresh expressions. Some fresh expressions are simply former children's work programmes or other outreach or alternative services that have been renamed, restyled or repackaged. They are not always that 'fresh'! Have we adopted a 'mission-flavoured' rather than mission-shaped approach?

Fresh expressions in Liverpool’s Narnia? (Annie Spiers)

Annie Spiers looks for fresh expressions in Liverpool's Narnia.

In Another Place is a group that came together six years ago to take the good news outside church walls through large, creative arts projects – and lots of other things. The name and inspiration came from Anthony Gormley's Another Place installation of iron men statues at Crosby beach, Merseyside, where our first performances were produced.

Today we continue to work in collaboration with community organisations, offering a gospel choir, schools and puppet teams, a group for 18-30s, and a festivals and exhibitions team. This all helps to bring alive our mission statement of 'Christians and community working together, inspired by our love for God and the people around us'.

In 2009 we 'visited' Narnia for the first time, staging a walk-through presentation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in a church hall. During its three week run we were visited by more than 3,000 people – with 25 performers and 40 stewards on duty throughout the three weeks. Over 100 others were involved behind the scenes.

Two years on and we decided to repeat the experience on a somewhat larger scale … the manager of Liverpool city centre landmark, St George's Hall, had been inspired by our previous Narnia and asked us to stage it at the historic venue. The Great Hall is 169 feet long and 74 feet wide!

Hundreds of volunteers from churches across the city, and some from no church background at all, have been involved in making this happen. In fact, the two-week show goes on, running until Saturday (19th February) and bringing in thousands of people to walk through the wardrobe and share in the experience.

So far, so good – and any fresh expressions practitioner would be more than welcome to come and see for themselves how we deal with building, and sustaining, this extraordinary community of people of all abilities and backgrounds. But what happens when we dismantle the false 'sky' we've had to install and one of our team of White Witches goes back to being a teacher? What happens to that community, that team, and those with questions about Aslan?

At the moment we are not a fresh expression of church, but In Another Place could definitely be heading in that direction. The activities we routinely run all year round are open doors for those affected by our large-scale events – which always contain the Christian message – to find out more.

This year 500 people have been involved in Narnia, including some 100 adults with additional needs, all having a go at creative arts, acting, stewarding, construction, and much more. The performance team is also substantial with ten actors for each of the five acting parts and countless Dryads, statues, and general support staff.

What's the next step? It depends entirely on the outcome of this event. But we have already seen clear results from staging such community activities, with people taking on more and more responsibility than they would have done previously. The sheer scale of recreating Narnia in the middle of a major tourist attraction, for instance, has meant that many individuals have had to rise to the challenge – and they have done it brilliantly.

In Another Place is a group that came together six years ago to take the good news outside church walls through large, creative arts projects

Numerous churches provided financial support for this event, and many have provided the catering to keep the team going. Money has also come from various trusts and individuals, and a large amount from ticket sales income. Prayer is vital and an email prayer bulletin goes out daily to people across the city, and beyond, to detail specific prayer requests based on the events of that day.

Many of our helping hands have indicated interest to participate in future events, and we have seen most volunteers – of 'churchy' backgrounds or not – touched by the scale of the project and the determination to make it a success driven by our Christian faith.

Visitors are told of the Aslan/Jesus allegory and they have the opportunity to write a prayer/wish/dream on a snowflake at the end of the experience. A stall also offers CS Lewis books. We do not offer specific opportunities to find out more about the story and its Christian links, but if people were to mention that, we would of course answer them.

We have lots of ideas for future large-scale events, but nothing concrete will be decided until the madness of The Narnia Experience has passed! As for lessons learnt along the way, I would say that detailed planning is essential – even when you think you have done enough, there will almost certainly be something you've missed.

But also we've learnt to trust that God will provide everything we need. This has been a huge leap of faith, but faith comes with reward – as we continue to see day after day through the wardrobe in Liverpool.

A populous church is a healthy church? (Toby Cohen)

Toby Cohen asks whether a populous church is a healthy church.

It is ironic that the fresh expressions movement is used by the church as a fig leaf when attendance figures again reveal declining involvement in 'traditional' forms of church. Fresh expressions would certainly appear to be the answer to the church's predicament, but only if it pays greater attention to the movement's witness.

For a journalist, the fresh expressions movement is both exciting and frustrating. It provides great feature pieces and quirky short news articles but seldom claims the headlines. As a decentralised entity, it does not announce schisms, pronounce on social ills, or denounce distant bishops. When it does register on the news radar, it is usually at the point it becomes tangible with the church body in such matters as debates about funding, underlying ideology, or the work of Bishop Graham Cray. This nature spares the movement from many of the headaches which dog the traditional church, but it also demonstrates what many regard as a highly authentic form of Christianity.

Evangelicals are usually keen to cast off the shackles of institutionalised forms of church in a bid to return to a faith they describe as more biblical. But there is one common habit which seems to be a remnant of the patriarchal established church. That is, to believe that a populous church is a healthy church.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where the number of people involved in church activities isn't of interest. But a church must be suspicious of itself when it simply looks at attendance figures and finds reason to be boastful or anxious. It is particularly dangerous for people who are part of a less well-attended church in one part of the world and want to associate themselves with large groups in another.

A church must be suspicious of itself when it simply looks at attendance figures and finds reason to be boastful or anxious

I remember a talk 18 months ago with The Economist editor John Micklethwait, co-author of God is Back, and Evangelical Alliance theologian Justin Thacker. It seemed they pictured God as a Victorian schoolboy parading his battalions, returning to us at the end of time to do a head count of the different people united by an arbitrary term. Yes, forms of Christianity are thriving in some developing parts of the world. So are intolerance and violence.

Devotion to the mixed economy mantra is a noble characteristic in many fresh expressions people. But what gets so many of us excited is the fresh expressions attitude that it's what you're doing in the first instance that counts, not how many people you're doing it with. And not what you might do next. There is a relationship between those of course, but it seems the church would particularly benefit from adopting more of that fresh expressions ethos at this time.

We need to show what God is like (Ann M Smith)

Ann M Smith reminds us that we need to show what God is like.

One can find out how to do almost anything on the internet. There is actually a site called exactly that. It offers information amongst other things on how to teach an old dog new tricks, service your car, cook, write a will, get a divorce, and – should you ever need to know – raise mealy worms. Now I have not checked out the information, but there are, of course no guarantees that what you might discover on such a website actually works.

In the gospel there is a very simple 'how to' about evangelism that gives a demonstration of what God calls us to do. Two of John's disciples overhear a conversation in which John the Baptist proclaims, 'Look! The Lamb of God!' It is enough to pique their curiosity. They follow Jesus. Jesus talks to them and finally invites them to see where he is staying. It is an invitation they immediately accept. But it does not stop there. Andrew, one of the two disciples, heads off to find his brother. He can hardly wait to share his experience.

What can we learn from these simple 'how to's? Many people are calling for a return to faith in God. They are reeling from the brokenness of the world and ask deep faith questions about life and about life to come.

It makes it a fruitful time for the Christian church, a time of opportunity and one in which we should have increasing relevance. And yet often we don't. We remain stuck in old ways of doing things. We should be reaching out to the seekers and the unchurched in our society and finding ways to meet their spiritual needs.

The gospel does not simply tell us that we are called to discipleship. It demonstrates it for us. It gives us a wonderful model to follow. The first thing, the very first thing that Andrew does when he is introduced to Jesus is to take his brother to see him. How do we make it natural to share our faith in our workplace and in our community?

This is a fruitful time for the Christian church, a time of opportunity and one in which we should have increasing relevance. And yet often we don't. We remain stuck in old ways of doing things.

What really counts is that Jesus Christ calls us to this tradition. Either we are in a terrible rut, or God is calling us to do something about it. We are called to discipleship, to share our faith, to have an impact on society but most of us just say that it is an impossible task. We become so immobilised by anger or fear or insecurity that we cannot do anything to bring about change. But surely if we are creative, we can do something to improve conditions.

But there is more to discipleship, isn't there? We need to show people what God is like. And truly it may not happen as it has in the past. People who have no memory of church or what impact faith can have in one's life will look for fulfillment in other ways. We may need to explore new ways of being church – fresh expressions of church – and it is possible we may discover that those fresh expressions of church are already happening here. Wherever we are.

The question still remains, how do we get across to people what God means in our lives? John knew Jesus because the Spirit remained on him. And that same Spirit is given to us. It remains with us, strengthening, guiding and leading us on to experience more and more of God. We in turn share it with others.

About your own call, you wouldn't be a part of the church if you weren't called. So know that you can make a difference and do something about it – whatever type of church, or fresh expression of church, you are in. Share with others what God is like, what God has done in your life. Live out your calling. And do not worry about how to do it.

Changing the landscape: making the mixed economy work (Ian Adams)

Ian Adams tells us about changing the landscape: making the mixed economy work.

I love it whenever I discover traditional and evolving streams of church

seeing each other as partners in the same amazing calling, diving into the flow of God's reshaping of the world in the way of Jesus;

seeking out insights, imagination and wisdom from the other;

practising generosity in spirit and in resources to each other;

honouring each other's paths and distinctiveness;

recognising our own weaknesses and idiosyncrasies while looking for the best in each other;

and inspiring each other to engagement in mission with the world, as it is, where we are.

So I'm really looking forward to the Fresh Expressions day conference Changing the landscape: making the mixed economy work in Oxford on Friday 6 May. It will be great to hear stories and experiences from people working imaginatively in both conventional and innovative settings – and it's good and appropriate that this is not just a 'from the front' event. There will be spaces for everyone to get involved in the conversation.

I'm also looking forward to hearing how some of those with the widest overview sense the mixed economy is progressing and how it could develop – people like Stephen Lindridge, Fresh Expressions' Connexional Missioner for the Methodist Church; Archbishops' Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, Graham Cray; and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams who – of course – first coined the phrase 'mixed economy'.

I'm hoping that it will be a great opportunity to ask some of the tougher questions of ourselves, like:

This is not just a 'from the front' event – there will be spaces for everyone to get involved in the conversation

can the mixed economy really work on the ground, particularly when financial resources are being squeezed?

how are both streams of church continuing to engage with people from little or no faith background?

can we provide light and freeing frameworks that give lay people the confidence and support to start and sustain new communities and projects?

how is the mixed economy enabling us to make a real difference in society in these demanding times?

Great opportunities, demanding questions. So it's vital that the conference will be not only just (or even mainly) about our words, but also a place of stillness and prayer where we can be open to the presence of God-who-is-close. 24-7 Prayer will facilitate this by providing a continuous prayer environment. Something else to look forward to.

Better isn’t always bigger (Ed Bahler)

Ed Bahler argues that bigger isn't always better.

It's a time for resolutions and fresh starts. But it's more than a new year, it's a new day.

There's fresh thinking everywhere. In our economy in the United States, we have shifted from spending to constraint. And constraint is the buzzword for ministry as well. It's no longer about building bigger church buildings and trusting people will come to them. It's about:

becoming Christ-centered;

life transformation in his image;

planting new, organic faith communities.

It's about growth but not about big.

In fact, the brightest students coming out of college are no longer interested in being mentored by the biggest and fastest growing churches. The talented ones are passionate about planting their own fresh expression of church in cinemas, school cafeterias, coffee shops, pubs, warehouses and retail units in shopping malls.

It's about becoming missionaries in our own communities and going to them rather than expecting them to come to us. And that's why church construction now includes refitting old warehouses, shop fronts, and old, outdated or abandoned church facilities.

In our design and building company, God has laid on our hearts a passion to understand and align the following four ministry dynamics:

evolving culture

relevant ministry

empowering leadership

intentional facilities

It's no longer about building bigger church buildings and trusting people will come to them

What's fuelling this passion? In the USA, church facilities consume 40% of a typical church budget, yet we know very little about how facilities impact ministry or help us connect ministry with the rapidly shifting culture. Furthermore, spending on church facilities has risen from 3.5 billion dollars to over 8 billion dollars in the past 15 years while – in spite of this – church attendance has actually decreased from 49% to 47% of the population.

Alignment of the four ministry dynamics is necessary for changing these statistics because it ensures that a clear message will be provided from the leadership, trust will flow through the congregation, and healthy collaboration will minimise headwind in ministry.

In an effort to further encourage this process of alignment, we are also launching a 'Church Planting Incubator', making our conference and meeting rooms available to budding faith communities. We pray that all the different churches and church projects we're involved in will be places where culture, ministry, leadership and facilities come together.

What is a sprout for? (Paul Dunstan)

Paul Dunstan asks what a sprout is for.

The tinsel has been packed away for another year and I have a confession. I don't wish it could be Christmas every day. One reason is… sprouts. Hardly anybody admits to liking them, but many seem to think they should tackle at least one during the festive season. Perhaps we feel they will counterbalance our overindulgence in nice things. Who knows? Maybe they really are good for us.

I see several parallels between sprouts and church. First, both appeal to a small minority of people. Second, just as some people nevertheless gird their loins and force themselves to indulge in a sprout – maybe even look forward to it as a once-a-year exotic (or quixotic) experience – so some people brace themselves for a Christmas church service. Third, some of those find it wasn't as bad an experience as they expected and decide they might not wait until next Christmas before they try it again. Fourth, some cooks try to lure us to sprouts by adding all sorts of things – bacon, chestnuts, even anchovies – to make them more palatable. You might call them fresh expressions of sprout. Do you see where I'm going?

One of my frustrations (and maybe yours) about fresh expressions of church is that I've seen – as a practitioner and as a companion of several fresh expressions – that we still aren't reaching the unchurched in any substantial way. In many cases we cater for existing churchgoers and Christians who want something that inherited church isn't providing.

Let's be honest: in practice what tends to happen with many fresh expressions is that we take something people like doing and try to sneak church into it. People like drinking coffee and eating pastries so we let them do that and we try to slot in a bit of church. They like walking so we let them do that and we try to slot in a bit of church. They like doing crafts and games so we let them do that and we try to slot in a bit of church.

However, what we don't see clearly enough is that the unchurched people generally want coffee or walking or craft or games and can't see why we want to spoil it by including a religious 'bit'. Cue the sprout analogy … you can make sprouts more appealing by adding bits of bacon, but (the bacon-lover wants to know) why spoil a perfectly good sandwich by putting sprouts in it? Why spoil a nice trip to the café by putting church in it?

And we do know this, I think, though we don't like to admit it. Why else are so many fresh expressions attendees so reluctant or unsuccessful when it comes to inviting unchurched people along?

Let's be honest: in practice what tends to happen with many fresh expressions is that we take something people like doing and try to sneak church into it

I think the basic problem (knowledge of which will help us see a solution) comes if we try to market something that's unmarketable: the church. Unchurched people have already made up their minds about church. They aren't interested. Otherwise they wouldn't be unchurched. They won't change their minds if we add a well brewed coffee into the mix or set up so many craft activities that you can hardly see the religion – any more than I would alter my opinion about sprouts if you slipped just the tiniest sliver of one into my bacon sandwich.

And are we supposed to be in the marketing business anyway? Surely, our first calling is not to draw people into church (fresh or inherited), but to proclaim Jesus Christ and the good news of his kingdom, his life, death and resurrection. Of course, making disciples has a corporate dimension and takes place in community – church – and for that we need fresh expressions of church more than ever.

I don't have a trendy solution to offer. I don't think we need one. I know that when we are being what we are supposed to be, we keep God-in-Jesus as the focus, and not the church, and that we can rely on him to draw people to himself. That means enabling and encouraging disciples to be more Jesus-focused and equipped to share him, in word and deed. It means seeing people as they are in relation to Christ rather than how they are in relation to the church. And it means trusting him to build his church rather than attempting to do it for him. Maybe, when we learn that he created sprouts and loves them, we will learn to love them, too. Wouldn't that be a miracle?

So where are we, ten years on? (David Muir)

David Muir asks where we are, ten years on from the end of the decade of evangelism.

We are already ten years into the new millennium, ten years since the end of the Decade of Evangelism in which church attendance declined at an even faster rate than in the previous decade, ten years since we tried to turn all that around. Fresh Expressions has been a central plank in that, embraced extensively by the mainstream church. So where are we up to?

We seem to have made headway in the debate about 'bums on seats', although the numbers game continues with mid-week attendance figures (as well as Sundays) now coming under the spotlight. But the people being counted are, in many quarters, simply vehicles for counting something else – money, or at least the potential for it.

How can we keep funding the big post-Christendom ship we call The Church, without a humiliating 'restructuring' that radically reappraises what a 21st century British Christian community needs to look like? We in the Anglican Church still have bishops with chauffeurs and clergy in big houses, and there is no appetite for changing much of that. Some of the enthusiasm for fresh expressions of church comes from anxiety about the church's present finances. If we are struggling for money and our present membership is dying out, perhaps we can grow ourselves out of trouble…

The truth is that the 21st Century church has inherited a very expensive model of church life. When the rich and powerful of our land put their money where their mouth was (and they did), this model served us rather well. But with its paid professional leadership and thousands of historic buildings in every corner of the land, it has been creaking at its financial seams for a century and more. We need to explore some very different models, ones that don't rely on the idea of 'Christendom' for their financial viability. Fresh expressions of church must not be regarded as 'saviour siblings'. We must not create them to resolve the sickness of unviable Christendom assumptions about how to be the church. They are new children in the Christian family, and it is not their responsibility to balance the overall family finances.

Can fresh expressions survive without Christendom styles of funding?

The institution of the church is very aware that the whole Fresh Expressions movement continues to be subsidised by inherited forms of church which themselves are struggling to survive. It is important to ask hard economic questions of our newest expressions of corporate Christian faith. In particular, are they significantly 'leaner' than our inherited models and assumptions, and so can they survive without Christendom styles of funding? We could learn lessons from the secular charitable and campaigning sector. The Avaaz movement for instance is a web campaigning community which aims to 'bring people-powered politics to decision-making worldwide'. It has a global membership of 6.6m and is funded through modest online donations with no corporate sponsor or government backer.

The ongoing funding for the British Fresh Expressions movement will be back up for grabs in the next few years. We may not feel ready for it, but perhaps it's time to grow up, leave some of the comforts of home behind, and find independent ways to survive. In campaigning for parity of ministry provision with the rest of the church, we can easily lumber ourselves with the same Christendom assumptions about funding the church that is presently dragging the Titanic down. The danger is that the Fresh Expressions ship will also go down.

Church with boots on (Phil Wood)

Phil Wood discusses church with boots on.

I've always been a keen walker, enjoying hiking, rambling, birdwatching and prayer-walking. I'm sure I never thought when I was a child growing up in Bury as I made my way over Turton, Holcombe Hill and Knowle Moor (now home to a forest of wind turbines) that it might be possible to enjoy a pastime I love – and do church at the same time.

There already are organisations for Christian walkers, but here's an idea with a difference – not an ecumenical 'fellowship' made up of Christians who walk in their spare time but a church that walks! Imagine a congregation where the essential elements of church take place on the move.

Maybe this is a 'fresh expression' but that's not to say it hasn't been done before. As I began to talk to a few people about my crazy idea I found others on the same wavelength. Rebecca Seaton's work on a Cumbrian 'walking church' especially caught my eye.

From the beginning of the biblical story, an often highly creative tension has existed between nomads and settlers. Equally, in the New Testament there is a thrilling picture of disciples at home and on the road linked together by the practice of hospitality. Methodists have always been associated with the image of a rider and not a walker, but there are plenty of relevant examples.

Anyone who knows something of the history of Cliff College will hear clear echoes of Samuel Chadwick's trekking Methodist friars in the present proposal. Within my own Anabaptist setting, a 'walking church' has particular resonance. Five hundred years of martyrdom, migration and marginality have blasted the experience of the open road into the consciousness of the tradition.

Walking church – imagine a congregation where the essential elements of church take place on the move

Around 20% of the UK population is involved in walking as a leisure activity. In large areas of Britain there are more people out walking on a Sunday than going to worship. 'Walking church' offers a way to establish church within walking networks without surgically removing people from their culture.

These are early days for 'walking church' and there are all kinds of practicalities to be considered, not least what to do about the weather, but I'm itching to get my boots on the path in 2011. Right now I'm gathering responses and preparing to relocate to London in January. The aim is to launch 'walking church' next year, but before then there's lots of work to be done and shoe leather to burn.

Give us the skills to be entrepreneurs (Pete Hillman)

Pete Hillman is asking for the skills for us to be entrepreneurs.

We are living through a period of great social upheaval where the church is being asked to engage with the government's Big Society initiative as one of the parts of the community best placed to bring this vision to fruition. We will leave aside the rights and wrongs of this strategy for now. Instead I want to reflect on what training and development should be provided by institutions preparing people for public ministry – and especially ministry in the context of fresh expressions.

The Legacy XS Youth Centre and Skatepark, including the Legacy XS youth congregation, opened its doors to the public in Benfleet six years ago. It is developed and run by a very small team of volunteers and a core group of paid staff. To this extent I think Legacy could be seen as being a prime example of what the Prime Minister would like to see in action throughout every community in the UK. Our youth work provision in the community has grown to outstrip that of the County Youth Service in our borough and is able to deliver this at a fraction of the cost. As such, Legacy is studied as an example of social entrepreneurship in the local specialist Business and Enterprise College.

I have no doubt that the vital role of service provision to the community is one that has always been central to the church's mission to the world. It might perhaps be argued that its loss, through the increasing march of the welfare state, has left the church without a sense of purpose and led to our maintenance models of church life.

But if my assessment of the situation is correct and the church is being called into a much more social entrepreneurial role in this generation, one of the most urgent questions centres on what skills are needed for stepping into this role in the community? We are all aware that finance is an ongoing challenge in any new initiative and so I would argue that – as well as the core skills of pastoral care, Ministry of Word and Sacraments and whichever other things we would wish to see included – we must add to the list some skills essential for the creation of income and the successful operation of a well-run organisation.

If we are going to see genuinely creative initiatives breaking out across the church in the context of the communities we serve, then pioneers with an entrepreneurial flare, equipped with the technical skills to develop these projects, are going to be essential

For example, I am certain that theological college or course syllabuses, and indeed Continuing Ministerial Development programmes, should provide training on writing a business plan and professional presentation skills – not merely 'How to use PowerPoint', but how to ensure well-produced printed documents and the means of best presenting key financial information to lay people or decision makers. There must be workshops on how to complete funding applications, something which would seem to be applicable to those running fresh or traditional expressions of church. Modules covering the creation and management of budgets, providing models and software tools would also be very useful.

Then, of course, there are the more specialist yet generally applicable things such as how to set up a charity and Health and Safety at Work, including risk assessments, safe systems of work and first aid provision. The wider church is seen to be doing reasonably well now in tackling such issues as child protection, but in many of the other areas I have mentioned, our knowledge is woefully inadequate. Anyone who is going to engage in entrepreneurial activity, and I firmly believe that all churches taking the area of mission seriously should be, will need at least an understanding of some of these issues – even if it's just where they can go to obtain advice and support.

I am sure that anyone trying to put together a training programme will ask where the space is to be found in the curriculum for such things, and this is a valid question. However, I have to say that without space being found for their inclusion I am unsure that we will be able to maintain the existing contexts in which we minister – let alone create new initiatives. There seems little doubt that if we are going to see genuinely creative initiatives breaking out across the church in the context of the communities we serve, then pioneers with an entrepreneurial flare, equipped with the technical skills to develop these projects, are going to be essential. As the church, we need to be celebrating the success of these projects as well as making practical provision for the equipping of such individuals – be they lay or ordained.