Month: August 2015

The fantasy cycle and fresh expressions – 2 (Ben Edson)

Ben EdsonBen Edson completes his look at the fantasy cycle and fresh expressions. You can read part 1 here.

I have previously considered the Anticipation, Dream and Frustration elements in a framework called the fantasy cycle of: Anticipation – Dream – Frustration – Nightmare – Death wish. Now I'm looking at the remaining stages in relation to fresh expressions of church.

Nightmare

The nightmare doesn't necessarily lead to death wish. The cycle is still breakable and death is not predestined. Nightmare comes on the back of frustration and I think it is a stage that we need to go through.

It's hard to qualify what makes for a nightmare. My experience was that it involved a variety of factors until, one day, the realisation hit me that things were tough. There may have been suspicions about it for a while, but all of a sudden you're firefighting and those hopeful dreams seem so far away. I feel the nightmare is the hardest stage to break because usually there will be associated pastoral crises that need dealing with as well. 

It's not simply a case of re-ordering, as that only serves to paper over the cracks. It's doing the hard work with your community that exposes you to the brokenness of the cross. It's the time that you cry with people in their brokenness and your brokenness; it's the time that you realise that it's not all easy. Yet, perhaps the hardest thing about this stage is that you still get the 'tourists': those looking to see the dream and not finding it.

Death wish

I'm all for death – I think that it can be liberating for a fresh expression – but we should not assume that death means there will be a resurrection. Death is death.

My leaving Sanctus1 involved the death of my life in that community, yet the community carries on – the community is bigger than the pioneer

I also think that the death wish may be something that different people go through at different times, in part depending on their role within the community. For example, my leaving Sanctus1 involved the death of my life in that community – yet the community carries on. The community is bigger than the pioneer. The death wish was individual rather than corporate; the danger is making a personal death wish corporate.

However, there is also a time when a personal death wish needs to be worked through for the sake of the community; a time when we put our struggles and frustrations to one side as we're in a different place to the rest of the community. If we don't, we'll drag the community down with us.

When the death wish is corporate I think that is when it needs to die. The cycle has come to a close and the community ceases to be. Death is death.

At risk of repeating myself, I think that the cycle can be broken but the key piece of discernment is when to break that cycle and what to move into afterwards.

The fantasy cycle and fresh expressions – 1 (Ben Edson)

Ben EdsonBen Edson begins a look at the fantasy cycle and fresh expressions.

Recently I've been thinking about life cycle and fresh expressions of church, with specific reference to a framework called the fantasy cycle. The cycle (though not very cyclical at all) is: Anticipation – Dream – Frustration – Nightmare – Death wish.

Anticipation

I think there is the danger that we front-load with anticipation. Typically, a person, if training to be an Ordained Pioneer Minister, will do two or three years of theological training before they actually start something. This is all about anticipation; they're dreaming about what will be and what will happen … anticipating. At the same time, a permission giver is dreaming up possibilities. Anticipating.

One obvious problem with this is that when the pioneer arrives they are immediately in a goldfish bowl of their own expectancy and the local expectancies. When I was first employed as a pioneer in the city centre of Manchester, there was no Mission-shaped Church, no Fresh Expressions and no expectations! Just realistic hopes.

If the community is indigenous, then this anticipation is part of the formation of the church, happening as it does in the birthing community. If anticipation is part of the cycle, then I think that it should be done in context. It is a time of dreaming in community and of working out the possibilities, but it is predominantly about trying to live that anticipated dream.

Dream

The dream stage is not when you're dreaming about all the possibilities; it's when you're living the dream. The fresh expression is flourishing; there is energy and excitement about what the future holds and all that you seem to touch turns to gold. Please note … it doesn't last!

The problem with the dream stage is that it creates unrealistic expectations as to what the fresh expression will be like in the long term

However, the problem with the dream stage is that it creates unrealistic expectations as to what the fresh expression will be like in the long term. People start to think that it will always be like this, always be easy, and hence when things change – as they will – the memory of what has been becomes a powerful comparison to the present. The dream is an unsustainable phase; it attracts the consumer rather than the disciple and hence the dream needs to be a phase of high cost discipleship.

Frustration

I think it's no surprise that Frustration comes straight after Dream. In many ways the dream opens our eyes to the possibility of what could be, perhaps in a somewhat utopian way, but nevertheless once the eyes have been opened there is no turning back. Frustrations come because the dream will not last for ever, and hence I think that the first point of learning is to let people know that!

The challenge is negotiating a pathway through the frustration that does not necessarily lead to death. We accomplished this a few times when I was with Sanctus1 by reinventing ourselves; this would happen through a change in group set-up or venue. This seemed to re-energise people and bring the Dream stage back. However, this was temporary and we still remained in the cycle, the real challenge being to break it and move into something more permanent.

I'm becoming more convinced that the way in which the cycle will be broken is by a process of aggregation with the wider church. It will be an aggregation process that involves both parties learning together so that the fresh expression of church can move out of this cycle and move towards something more permanent. In the Anglican Church, ways in which the fresh expression can break the cycle may involve a Bishop's Mission Order or paying into the parish share. Without this reference to something 'other', I think that the fresh expression may become too self-absorbed and concerned about reclaiming the dream.

Next week, Nightmare and Death wish…

Church Unplugged or Pimp My Church (Dave Male)

Dave MaleDavid Male tries pimping his church – but settles for unplugging it.

Pimp My Church was my first choice for the title of my book Church Unplugged, but music TV channel MTV were not happy with me using it. (I did also wonder how I would explain that particular title to my mother and mother-in-law!)

For those unaware of the MTV programme, Pimp My Ride takes a conventional car and gives it a total makeover plus! There are very few limits, so your boring family car could end up with a water fountain and a DJ's sound system. The programme makers say, 'We turn lemons into lemonade so that you can drive down the street with your head held high.'

Part of the attraction of the title for me was the tension between totally transforming something on the outside to every conceivable extreme, but in terms of its engine, transmission, etc, it stays a conventional car. Everything changes and yet somehow nothing really changes.

My worry sometimes with all that is happening under the banner of fresh expressions of church/church planting is the danger that it can be simultaneously spectacular and superficial. I am by nature an optimist, but I worry we are too easily entranced by what seems to be spectacular. Often people tell me about some amazing church plant that now has 300 people within a year, but then when you start to ask some hard questions of how many of those are truly unchurched people who are now becoming disciples of Jesus the answers look far less convincing. The growth, I am afraid, is often the success of the marketplace, attracting Christians from other churches and the de-churched back.

My worry with all that is happening under the banner of fresh expressions of church/church planting is the danger that it can be simultaneously spectacular and superficial

My plea is: let's not just pimp the church but let's consider the greater work of what it might mean for us to do the harder labour of working with the engine, the gear box, the brakes and the transmission! The danger is we are too easily wowed by the shining exterior and clever gadgets!

Maybe the alternative book title was, in the end, more challenging: to do the hard work of taking what we are doing in this thing we call 'church' and to attempt to strip it back to first principles before proceeding to rebuild. That's what happened with the writing of my book as I simply offer ten principles that need to be considered in engineering something new. The principles are nothing new but simply come out of seven years of experience of working with some amazing people to create a church that connected with unchurched people in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

One of the reasons I wrote the book is because ours is a very ordinary story in a very ordinary town. It may not seem  spectacular, but it's not superficial and I hope will play a small part in helping the church not just to work on the chassis but get under the bonnet.

Working the edges (Thomas Brauer)

Thomas BrauerThomas Brauer is working the edges.

I'm involved in a mixed economy church setting in Alberta, Canada, and am working to plant a fresh expression of church called the Project. This is currently based out of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Edmonton.

Two years ago, members of Holy Trinity and I began plotting how we might be of service to the Fringe Theatre Festival – the world's second largest such event. Holy Trinity is located within blocks of the festival grounds and for years the church has served as a venue for Fringe productions.

I made the announcement on a Sunday morning that I would be leading a project to serve the festival, and would welcome as much input and support as possible from the congregation. Together, we discerned who was involved in the festival – we used the language of 'stakeholders'. We knew there were artists (foreign and domestic), festival staff and volunteers, vendors, commercial service providers, neighbourhood residents, and patrons. In all, this was several hundreds of thousands of people (the 2010 Fringe served well over 400,000 patrons, with another 1,400 volunteers, several hundred performers and artists, and several dozen staff, not to mention the 20,000 people who live or work in the festival area).

It was clear that we couldn't serve them all, but it was necessary to now discern the needs of the various stakeholders. Through long discussion, we settled on serving first the artists and patrons that would be coming to Holy Trinity as a venue. We also thought we could manage serving festival patrons who might need a place of rest and peace.

We began plotting how we might be of service to the Fringe Theatre Festival – the world's second largest such event

In the end, we decided we had resources and opportunity enough to offer the artists volunteer support during shows, thereby relieving them of the onerous task of finding their own volunteers for box office and ushering duties. We provided clean and comfortable green-room space for the artists (a green-room is a room for actors to relax in before and after a show), as well as food and drinks for them. And we simply went out of our way to be as welcoming as possible to both artists and patrons.

Over and above show time support, we also offered the Green Room Teahouse where we served tea and fresh scones with clotted cream and jam. In setting up something called Father Tom's Lemonade Stand, we found a wonderful way to meet people in the community. Our third offering was 'solace' – a contemplative arts installation in the nave and chancel of the church which provided a place of rest and peace, and an opportunity to (re)engage with Christian spirituality.

One of the most gratifying results of these activities was seeing how many people made one or more of them a daily part of their life for the ten days of the Fringe. This year, our second year, we saw almost all of last year's visitors return, and they brought friends. We ended up serving over 400 scones in ten days. A lot of work, but well worth it.

Radicals not rebels (Beth Honey)

Beth HoneyBeth Honey explains why she's a radical, not a rebel.

I am a pioneer minister and a curate in the Church of England, serving in a parish church. I seek to be part of our church's journey towards connecting with our community beyond our fringe. If we are working in this way with the local church, I think we have the opportunity to start from, rather than work towards, a mixed economy model of church.

It is through local relationships and partnerships in mission that the mixed economy may most easily flourish. My church has a stated aim: to develop diverse congregations across our local area. As yet, this is an aim rather than a reality, but I have a dream of a family of congregations that bear a likeness, but who are mature enough to accept their mutual diversity.

In my present role, I am into my second year of curacy, having spent a year learning the basics of leading worship and preaching, and the 'how to' of hatch, match, dispatch. I have done a lot of listening and waiting and it has at times been frustrating if I am totally honest. But the fruit of that is beginning to show.

I am now proposing a new role to our church's governing body, which I hope will last beyond me, of Community Mission Leader. I see this role in two ways: leading and enabling others who the Holy Spirit is challenging to connect with unchurched people in our local area, and also following this radical call myself. 

We need to ask deep and challenging questions of church while we remain in relationship with other Christians and with church structures

I am not a rebel, wanting to throw out the discipleship, prayer life, and wisdom of the local church that has been on the ground for many, many decades. I need that life to support me, and others who move into uncharted territory will need the same. I am learning from those people who have lived and served Jesus in the area for many years. This is a humbling and privileged place to be.

As pioneers, I am not sure we need to rebel, but we do need to be radical, asking deep and challenging questions of church while we remain in relationship with other Christians and with church structures. A call to radical discipleship in past decades needs to become a call to radical mission in our own. If we build great relationships with inherited church, then this call will be heard by more and more people – and don't we, and this world, need them all?

Living with the wobbles (Anne Crosthwait)

Ann CrosthwaitAnn Crosthwait discusses living with the wobbles.

A few days ago, in my yoga class, the teacher spoke about how we wobble when trying to balance. He said to not resist the wobbles but learn to live with them, and then they'll go away. The term, 'living with the wobbles' struck a familiar spiritual note for me.  As Contemplative Fire grows into a mature expression of church there are 'wobbles'. Do I resist them or live into them?

Contemplative Fire began in the UK around 2003 as a fresh expression of church under Revd Philip Roderick. Drawing on Celtic and Orthodox traditions, it is a dispersed community that lives with a rhythm of life involving prayer, study and action. Wrestling with theological questions, creativity, playfulness and delight in creation are some of its distinguishing marks. I'm now overseeing the seeding of this eclectic community in Canada.

In June 2009 I left a staff position in a corporate church in downtown Toronto and took this step of faith. 'Mad' some say – 'not counting the cost' others might say – but for me it seemed like the next step if I was to remain true to myself and my relationship with Christ. The first year has been a rich time of learning and wobbling.

I wonder if others in the fresh expressions community experience this one. Each time I make a plan, develop a budget, set some strategies, and make projections – something else happens. I can show people the plans, but despite our good intentions and reasonably responsible planning, our growth, our community life, and my life just doesn't fit into the prescribed plan.

I want to lean into the freshness, the spontaneity and playfulness of the Spirit, following more closely the unpredictable Spirit-led adventure

Instead – now this doesn't sound radical, but when confronted by institutional demands for plans, feels radical – we are called to trust the Spirit leading one step at a time. Right now I've made plans to lead an exploration in contemplative living in four locations in Toronto during the autumn. This was neither part of the projection or 2010 plan, nor is it part of usual Contemplative Fire life or 'normal' fresh expressions-type ministry. This was a surprise that developed in May.

Have you seen the sign that says something like, 'Man plans and God laughs'? After this last year I think we must look like a stand-up comedy routine to heaven-dwellers! Slowly I've begun to realise that if something is to be a fresh expression, surely it is to be fresh – fresh from the heart of the Spirit in the tone of John 3.8.

It's a wobbly place to live. I feel the pressure to be responsible and organise and fit into the requirements asked of me by the institutional church, but oh, how I want to lean into the freshness, the spontaneity and playfulness of the Spirit, following more closely the unpredictable Spirit-led adventure. I wonder, isn't that what the world yearns for: a fresh scent of God?

Apparently the secret of a balance pose is to get past the tension, live into the wobbles. I find it challenging. Do you?

Exploring mission-shaped evangelism (Steve Hollinghurst)

Steve HollinghurstSteve Hollinghurst explores mission-shaped evangelism.

Several people when I was writing the book Mission Shaped Evangelism asked why I had chosen that title. I was well aware of a growing tendency to label everything as 'mission-shaped' and certainly didn't want to add to that trend.

However, I did want to expressly link the book to the Mission-shaped Church report. This had highlighted the need to learn from foreign mission practice in creating fresh expressions of church and I felt we needed to do the same in our evangelism. This had not been the case for over 1,000 years of Christendom in which we could take for granted that those we communicated faith amongst shared a Christian background. By the end of the 20th century this was only the case for a minority of people. In the new situation traditional evangelism was increasingly like tourists who can't speak the language and so speak louder and slower in the hope of being understood.

This is why, as John Finney showed in Finding Faith Today 1992, most people who come to faith as adults were raised in church; they are the ones who understand its language and message. With the increasing numbers of people with no such background, we are in effect foreign missionaries and need to discover a mission-shaped evangelism.

Mission-shaped Church offered a useful approach to the task: double listening. This meant entering into the culture of others, learning from it and assuming God would be found speaking within it. Then it was important to listen to the Christian tradition and finally seek the places the two connected as the place to explore what the gospel was in that context, what it affirmed or could adopt and what it needed to question and challenge. The three sections of Mission-shaped Evangelism reflect the three stages of that approach.

With the increasing numbers of people with no church background, we are in effect foreign missionaries and need to discover a mission-shaped evangelism

The first section draws on statistical and sociological analysis with theological reflection. Amongst the key points this raises are that secularism does seem to be a global phenomenon, but it behaves differently from country to country due to the context. The things that seem to prevent the process are slow economic development, limited contact with globalisation, and conflict in which religion is a factor. However, the end of this process appears to be a secular consumer religiosity, not atheism. Religion increasingly operates as a consumer process and is thus based on providers and clients, not leaders and members. Also post-modernity – or whatever that is becoming – not only brings a consumer logic to religion but to everything else. Truth becomes personal, not universal, and in response the question 'Is it true?' is increasingly irrelevant, a challenge for our traditional apologetics.

The second section explores the history of cross-cultural mission. This begins with the way early Jews adopted the language of local Paganism but realised it applied to one God, not many. It goes on to explore how Paul used this insight to make the transition from evangelising his fellow Jews to evangelising Gentile Pagans.

This approach was continued in the early church in the East and the West. In this manner Celtic and Saxon missionaries created expressions of faith that built on the Pagan religions the missionaries found.  Yet as Christendom became established, a desire to have common patterns across the western church and the increasing linkage of military conquest and foreign mission led to this cross-cultural approach dying out with a few exceptions until the 20th century.

Finally, with reference to the lessons of on-the-ground examples, an approach to evangelism for a multi-faith multi-cultural world is fleshed out. One in which we seek to show why faith is attractive rather than true and which offers a vision for our diverse and often fragmented societies against a background of ecological damage. That argues evangelism should be viewed as a processes of lifelong discipleship, not instant conversion. That views its end not primarily as church growth or getting people into heaven but transforming creation so that the kingdom of God comes on earth as it is in heaven.

Time for a change (Paul Whittle)

Paul WhittlePaul Whittle thinks it might be time for a change.

Lesslie Newbigin once said: 'The nature of the church is never to be finally defined in static terms, but only in terms of that to which it is going.' Part of church is to be changing – and fresh expressions of church are currently offering exciting examples of how that is happening.

This is nothing new. The mid seventeenth century early independents (or congregationalists) were developing relevant ways of being church. In the first half of the eighteenth century, John Wesley responded to the need to find new ways (not instead of the old ones, but to go alongside them) and so began Methodism. Just two examples.

Through most of the 1980s I was minister at a former Central Mission of Congregationalism which, in the first half of the twentieth century, had offered such services as the poor man's (sic) lawyer, public baths (preferred to the municipal version as the plug didn't pop up after a given period), and limited medical services.

But things move on. The Church Related Community Work programme is a small but important and innovative element in United Reformed Church life. Church Related Community Workers offer a parallel ministry to that of more conventional Ministers of Word and Sacrament, seeking to enable churches to engage in and with their communities and so creating change and bringing possibility.

This, for me, is one form of pioneer ministry. Not all the programme does would be identifiable as 'fresh expressions' – but much would be. In Nechells, Birmingham we developed a breakfast club, under fives work, girls' club, credit union, nearly new shop, internet café, etc, alongside alternative worship and Bible study. That particular project now takes a different form, and may close, but for twenty years made a significant difference in a vulnerable community. Fresh expressions are probably not for ever!

Much mission falters because we jump straight from encounter to discipling – we have missed out the need to build relationship

Reading Steve Hollinghurst's book Mission Shaped Evangelism, I was struck by his suggestion that effective projects tend to operate on three levels.

First: 'build relationships in the wider community on their territory'. Second: 'create or find places where Christians and non-Christians build relationships and explore issues'. Third: 'establish discipleship groups explicitly aimed at those who want to explore and deepen Christian faith'.

Hollinghurst suggests that much mission falters because we jump straight from stage one to three. We move from encounter to discipling – and it doesn't work because we have missed out the need to build relationship. Perhaps another problem for some of us is getting stuck at stage two. Good fresh expressions of church don't make either mistake.

Looking at the church’s ‘pipeline’ (Paul Reily)

Paul ReilyPaul Reily looks down the church's 'pipeline'.

Outside the house where I live in Leytonstone, East London, we have been treated to several weeks of the road being dug up to renew the gas main. The existing piping, in some cases almost 100 years old, is beginning to show its age. In its place, bright new yellow plastic piping is being placed in the ground, and, because the bore is so much smaller, is being pushed through the old piping into the houses of the people down the road. As I have daily seen these pipes, I have become aware that that they can be seen as a prophetic picture of the church today.

After all, they are bright and new, they are modern, they are flexible, they are replacing something that is ageing and no longer able to do its job, and as a result, London will be safer. They are also going to be buried in the ground! Well, is that a prophetic picture or not?

Whilst it is true that many of those things can be said about fresh expressions of church / New Church / emerging church (whatever you want to call it) compared to some of our experiences of the past, is this true and fair? Are we just about being new, sparkly and shiny, flexible and creating a safer place? 

As I have been in prayer over these past weeks, I have become aware that the pipes can be a picture of the church. But for me, the significance of that picture is that these pipes, whatever they are like, are there to be carriers of gas. 

There were problems with the connection to our house, and as a consequence we were without gas for almost four days. I didn't realise the source of the problem at first, and so was trying to discover the reason why the boiler wasn't working! I felt rather a plonker when I realised that it wasn't working because it was disconnected from the supply of power!

And that is for me precisely where this prophetic picture comes into play. In all of our brightness, snazziness, flexibility … are we truly carriers of the source of power?

Despite all our initiatives, are we carriers of the power and the love of God?

The other day, one of my friends from another church who has been in the area all his life, reminded me of the Jeffreys brothers' meetings in the Royal Albert Hall 55 years ago. As George Jeffreys walked from the back of the auditorium, the power of God was so present that people all around him were healed. This isn't unique to London 60 years ago; there are places around the world where this happens today.

I guess my challenge to myself, as much as it is to you, is: 'Despite all our initiatives, are we carriers of the power and the love of God? Do we carry the truth, supernatural power, and love through service, which is at the heart of the Godhead?'

Of course we need to be relevant, we need to be connected, we need to get away from the obscure – many have been saying this for years. But as we strain for the relevant connectedness of the presentation of the Good News of Jesus today, for which many stand in the fresh expressions of church movement, let us not lose sight of the fact that we are carriers of the power and love of God, unless we become rapidly irrelevant in our own way.

We need to be generous in our spirituality (Sarah Agnew)

Sarah AgnewSarah Agnew says we need to be generous in our spirituality.

I'm enjoying the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert at the moment and I have just read of her reflections at the end of her time in India.

She's talking about the need she sees her friends have for ritual, for a sacred place. These are friends for whom the religious/spiritual tradition of their childhood or family no longer holds meaning, or who have no such tradition.

When life takes us to the depth of experiences like joy and grief, we are provoked to want to make meaning of those experiences, of life. Many seek help in this, some sort of ritual or a sacred space, something to mark the moment, to honour the connection with the sacred/divine/God they've discovered.

This – this – is why I am so passionate about fresh expressions of church. Because the Christian church is one such tradition that can (and should) offer rituals and sacred spaces in which to make meaning of the human experience, of our encounters with the Holy.

But in my context (the west) more often than not people don't know about Christian spirituality, they have no experience of the church, or have bad experiences, see unhelpful stereotyped images in media or the arts, and don't feel they can go to the Christian church in their spiritual need.

The Christian church can (and should) offer rituals and sacred spaces in which to make meaning of the human experience

So people of Christian spirituality must venture forth out of the confines of the complacent 'church' in order to be present where people are being human, where the sacred is breaking through into their lives, in order to offer the gift of our tradition in these moments.

Interesting in Liz Gilbert's reflections is the generosity and humility of eastern spirituality, which doesn't presume to offer the one and only true path to God, but acknowledges and affirms that there are many paths, and each of us must find the path most authentic for who we are. I find that so beautiful, it warms my heart. I wish Christian spirituality was this generous more often.

Oh, the other thing that struck me in these two or three chapters was about the need for reform. 'Inevitably even the most original new ideas will eventually harden into dogma or stop working for everybody' Gilbert says at one point.

I wonder if this describes the Christian church? What was once an original idea about how to live out our Christian spirituality has now hardened and stopped working for a lot of people…

Before the above comment, Gilbert says, 'Religious rituals often develop out of mystical experimentation. Some brave scout goes looking for a new path to the divine, has a transcendental experience and returns home a prophet.' Others follow this path, but inevitably, a new path must be found.

I wonder if what we're looking for isn't quite a new path; for Christians, Jesus Christ is the path we follow to the Divine. I wonder if it is the way we're living on that path that we haven't changed in a while and which no longer works.