Month: August 2015

Just a rumour (Susan Bowden-Pickstock)

Susan Bowden-PickstockSusan 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 PicklesJohn 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 BradburyPaul 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 SheriffSue 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.

The world on my doorstep

Sometimes mission involves being sent to the nations, but it may mean welcoming the nations which have been sent to you. Pioneer ministry can require creative projects, designed to engage the imagination of the unchurched, or it can mean some very traditional pastoral care being offered to a community not otherwise touched by its parish church. In the case of Revd Debbie Forman, (Assistant Curate at St John the Evangelist, Innsworth, Gloucestershire, and Pioneer Minister for Innsworth), it involves it all – international hospitality, creativity and pastoral care.

Imjin Barracks in Innsworth welcomed almost 1,000 servicemen and women and their families to join NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps this summer. In all about 520 new families from 15 countries came to Innsworth, some living on the camp itself and others on the estate where Debbie works. People are encouraged to worship outside the camp at churches in the town, there is no provision for church worship on the base itself. This can be difficult for people to access in an unknown place so Debbie, who speaks several languages, sees part of her role as being that of a welcomer.

Pioneer ministry is not about trendy ideas. It is about creatively reaching those whom no-one else is reaching.

Stressed in the city

Approximately one third of adults in Britain have never had any significant involvement with a Christian church in their lives, including as children. This 'non-churched' group is, on average, considerably younger than those who go to church.

Britain needs primary evangelism more than ever, but there can be no 'quick fix'. It requires an imaginative and long term, incarnational, engagement, meeting people where they are. In many cases 'where they are' is the workplace, and Christian congregations have not always had a good track record in connecting discipleship to the stresses and demands of work and career.

Skateboards, BMX and the Gospel in Benfleet

Youth congregations, particularly those based around skate boarding, are sometimes claimed as proof that fresh expressions of church are only about stand alone niche churches. But the Legacy XS youth congregation in Benfleet, which first appeared on expressions: the dvd – 1 is an integrated part of St George's Church, New Thundersley, and has an impact on its community far beyond young skaters.

Often fresh expressions of church begin with a specific local opportunity as their starting point, as with Legacy XS, but Legacy also shows how mission and ministry can unfold in a way that could not be predicted at the start. First small steps of faith can result in a significant impact on a community.

The new from the old

Kairos – previously St Mary's Low Harrogate – was launched when the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, gave his blessing to it being made a Bishop's Mission Order.

This parish was originally established to serve an area of Harrogate from the centre near the Pump Rooms right up to Harlow Hill at the edge of the town. Two worship centres were built, St Mary's as the main parish church and All Saints – a chapel at the top of Harlow Hill for the surrounding area. St Mary's was closed in January 2007 due to severe problems with the building. At almost the same time All Saints had to close its doors, again because of concerns about the building, and it was formally shut down in 2009. The church continued to pray and work towards effective discipleship and mission and St Mary's moved into Harrogate Grammar School for Sunday services until summer 2008.

By then it had started a significant transition from parish church to a fresh expression of church, serving the whole deanery of Harrogate, helping it to develop a mixed economy approach. Pioneer Minister Mark Carey acknowledges that Kairos is 'very much in a transition stage with elements of inherited church in the midst of all the other stuff going on – it’s a classic mixed economy encapsulated into one setting!' Fully part of the Deanery and the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, St Mary's became Kairos Church because Kairos is a Greek word of great significance for Christians as it speaks of the appointed time in the purpose of God.

Kairos demonstrates the mixed economy in a number of ways: it supplements its deanery’s parochial ministry with a network approach. It draws on both inherited and fresh expression elements in its own ministry, and it is itself diverse, allowing the development of smaller missional communities. It is an example of 'making the mixed economy work', which will be the subject of a Fresh Expressions national day conference with Archbishop Rowan in Oxford on May 6th.