Month: August 2015

The wheels on the bus (Louise Weller)

Louise WellerLouise Weller tells a story about the wheels on the bus.

The suburb of Rowley, in Christchurch, New Zealand, has always had its challenges, but that did not stop us taking our bus ministry there three years ago. In fact, it was because of the challenges that we went. Since then we have found that families who are struggling – whether financially or in other ways – seem to be much more open and responsive to us and our message.

During the week, the Canterbury Kids Coach moves around the suburb contacting new families, building relationships and breaking down racial barriers. The families were encouraged to come to X-Site on Fridays, but many saw it as a 'kids' thing' and I realised I needed to spend more time getting to know the parents and visiting them in their homes and encouraging them to see that they too could be part of this community of faith.

As soon as two or three parents started to come, others followed. The process of moving from providing a social benefit to becoming a faith community has been bathed in prayer and involves watching for opportunities to show God's love in whatever way we can. Both are necessary and both work hand in hand.

X-Site is an exciting outreach in the centre of this community. It just buzzes with excitement every Friday afternoon, but it has only been in the past four months that parents have started coming regularly. It is so good to see them meeting together and begin to build relationships with each other in an atmosphere that encourages faith. For the families that come, this is church. Together we are learning to serve each other, pray together and grow in faith.

The process of moving from providing a social benefit to becoming a faith community has been bathed in prayer

One of our biggest challenges is the racial disharmony that is so active in this area, even among the children. We are beginning to see some of these walls come down, but we still have a long way to go. We do have a responsibility to address social injustice and the best way to do it is at the coalface. I think that one of the reasons we have been drawn in to the community is because we accept people the way they are. We honour them and help them to see ways they can help others in their area. 

Do we still subconsciously prefer to just reach out to the people like us? I grew up in the same background of those I am working with, so I guess the answer would be yes, but some of our team leaders come from very different backgrounds. At the beginning they found it very hard, but as they have got to know the families and opened their hearts to them, the difficulties evaporated.

Once a month I attend a Community Network Group that meets to look at the social issues that challenge this suburb. School principals, health professionals, social workers, police, government department and council representatives all look at how we can make a difference. Being involved in this group has been a vital link and a way of being able to address many of the problems faced in this area.

It’s all about relationship (Debbie Forman)

Debbie FormanDebbie Forman claims it's all about relationship.

I sometimes wonder whether I am a complete fraud as an Ordained Pioneer Minister in the Church of England! It is true that when I read descriptions of the characteristics of a pioneer, I seem to fit the bill quite well. Yes, I love God and I long with every fibre of my being to take the message of God's saving love to the people whom s/he loves and in whom s/he delights, whether they already know about God or not.

When I visited Innsworth in Gloucestershire for the first time to see whether it might be the right place for me, my incumbent drove me around the estate describing it as needing to be loved, at which point everything in me said, 'please send me'.

I have lots of new ideas and get very excited at seeing what happens to them when they are batted around by others. It's certainly not something you do on your own.

But are not these the qualities of all ordained ministers? Am I not simply doing what any self-respecting curate does? Does not every ordained minister wake up in the morning with that sense of excitement wondering how the Gospel can be re-imagined for a new day and share their vision with others?

I actually spend a great deal of my time doing the most old-fashioned thing in the book, namely good pastoral care and a fair proportion of knocking on doors to ensure that people of any religious affiliation or none know that the church is there for them.

When I first arrived here, I was deeply moved by the number of times people would tell me their life stories on the doorstep. It seemed that nobody had ever listened to them before. I am well known in the community now. As a cyclist, every time I go out on my bike I am greeted by all and sundry and occasionally screech to a halt as I see someone who I know could do with more than a wave.

It is those relationships that have been established which have made a difference

People know to contact me if they want to get married, if they want their children baptised, if they want their new house blessed. Much of these first two years has been about community cohesion. Yes, worship does happen in the Community Hall twice a month, always with a creative twist, I do run lunch club for the elderly – with volunteer helpers I hasten to add – and yes, my pioneer title has given me licence to occasionally do something wacky to take the Gospel story into the community.

But it is those relationships that have been established which have made a difference, and yes, people do talk to me about prayer and forgiveness and God. As I read other stories about fresh expressions it is easy to think, 'Oh that's exciting, why haven't I done that or why does it not work that way here?' And then I reflect that every fresh expression or pioneering enterprise is the result of a conversation between context and theology and that there has to be integrity in that conversation. And alongside the conversation there is the listening and the discernment.

God is always there before us and it's great to come panting on behind and join in. I am confident that the rumour of God is now heard and felt in this place and I wonder what tomorrow might bring!

Beachside stroll to a sacred space (Shena Woolridge)

Shena WoolridgeShena Woolridge takes a beachside stroll to a sacred space.

Would you like to walk along a stunning coastline with the sun warming your every sense and clean blue water to enjoy? Imagine this scene and then picture yourself coming across a fresh expression of church in this most relaxed and beautiful of settings.

Summer nights' sacred space is an initiative to get out and meet people where they are – and in our locality of Scarborough and Filey, that means the beach. Revd Sam Foster, fresh expressions pioneer minister for the CofE's Scarborough Deanery, piloted this initiative last year and we're now in full swing for the 2010 summer season.

People have been invited to come and light a candle to celebrate something or remember someone, some have prayed, many have cried and everyone has had a story to share. We've been so privileged to be the body of Christ together for people who need to be listened to, affirmed, blessed and unburdened. This expression of Christ's love has attracted all ages from the tiniest tot to the most seasoned earth travellers, from the immaculately dressed taking a stroll after a family meal to the bare-footed beach dwellers.

Some have designed images to portray their love and signified their beloved with names and prayers. Most evenings we have welcomed more than 200 people, both individuals and those who come in groups of all sizes and types.

Summer nights' sacred space is an initiative to get out and meet people where they are – and in our locality of Scarborough and Filey, that means the beach

Relationships are slowly developing with regulars and others who are drawn to the shore, like the young man who sand sculpts. We're looking forward to his artistic talent being included in our work soon. Others came in 2009 and remembered us; some came back to thank God for answering their prayer.

We often hear comments about how people who are 'not religious' (their words) have experienced a spiritual encounter of peace and harmony after their time at sacred space.

I have been struck as to how the area seems to have an invisible 'dome' surrounding it. On returning from a paddle most evenings, I've often been moved by the awareness that as I approach the area all other sound and distractions seem to disappear and I walk respectfully past people on their knees or holding hands together around their chosen lantern.

We hope to be able to invite the beach community to explore faith through film or some sort of course. It will be good to see what kind of community may grow, a community drawn together through the long days of summer.

On a skate journey with God (Andy Milne)

Andy MilneAndy Milne is on a skate journey with God.

'Oh, so you wanna go skating!' The invitation comes from professional skateboarder Mike Vallely in skate DVD, Public Domain.

Soon after the call to his dedicated followers, Vallely jumps up and runs out of his house, propelling himself straight into a boardslide down the handrail next to his door. Vallely continues to career down the street, getting ready to skate some of the most famous spots in New York. We follow him in close-up as he encounters banks, blocks, curbs, rails, steps and even a graveyard.

As he meets each obstacle, Vallely throws out his usual selection of skater specialities – big ollies, fast flat ground tricks and huge bonelesses – in his unmistakable big and bold style.

Well, we may not be in New York, but encountering God can seem like going on a fast, adrenaline-pumped skate journey wherever you are – whether that's the Big Apple, or in my case north Bradford, where young people from Sorted meet three nights a week.

Sorted's journey began six years ago as I got to know young skateboarders in the area. Good skate sessions led to conversations about the good news of the Gospel and God started to work in the relationships that were forming.

Loose connections with both skaters and non-skaters then led us to form small groups that would meet to chat about life or Christianity. These in turn resulted in many young people engaging with God. The small groups later merged into three larger groups, each with a different focus.

Encountering God can seem like going on a fast, adrenaline-pumped skate journey wherever you are

Just as a skateboarder senses the moment for a trick as he encounters a street obstacle, so young people often sense the Spirit as they encounter God during Monday's youth congregation when they pray for each other.

After a skate session, skaters like nothing more than to sit back and chat about what just happened. Similarly at Sorted, we like to chat about God encounters – trying to make sense of what they mean in our everyday lives. We do our chatting in small groups with the help of the Bible on Tuesdays.

Skateboarders like to invite skaters from nearby towns and cities to share in huge skate sessions so that the atmosphere is heightened and the tricks flow more freely. Sorted's Friday session brings together many other young people as well as those around earlier in the week, gathering more into the life of the community and often into the life of God.

Telling the story on screen (Andy Kalbfleisch)

Andy KalbfleischAndy Kalbfleisch discusses telling the story on screen in Canada.

In spring 2008 I had my first experience of the Fresh Expressions movement when I travelled from Canada to London to meet Ian Mobsby and Tom Gillum. That experience not only changed the way I think about church, it also changed my life.

I still remember with great clarity my times of worship with the Moot and St Jude's communities. It was worship in a way I had never known; so different from the formality, stuffiness and the 'clubishness' that we often call traditional church. Instead I found warm and caring communities trying to reach people in new and different ways – but then I realised that it was exactly what Jesus had done and what he continues to encourage us to do as we journey with him.

When I got back home, my head spinning with enthusiasm, I knew that I would have to make some changes in my life so that my wife Susan and I could take a new direction. We decided to sell the family business to free up our time and thankfully our daughter and son-in-law decided to take it on. 

Soon after the transfer was made, both Sue and I headed to the UK to gain more experience and meet new people including Bob Franklyn, and Steve Collins at Grace, Ealing, to discuss the exciting prospects of Fresh Expressions in Canada. On our return we got together with Nick Brotherwood, Team Leader for Fresh Expressions Canada, to discuss hosting a Vision Day in the Diocese of Niagara. Also during this time we started to build a small library relating to fresh expressions, emerging church and a variety of related topics.

I found warm and caring communities trying to reach people in new and different ways

Prior to our Vision Day I approached our bishop about doing a short video to help promote the event. He agreed and that was the beginning of another step in the journey – telling people's stories on screen. To date we have completed four videos outlining stories of fresh expressions of church – stories of places that have invited people to meet Jesus where they are, not where we are.

Church on Tap, Skater Church and Cameron House are now featured on a number of websites. We have also created a Canadian video of a Messy Church in our diocese and made a number of films about initiatives that – although not fresh expressions by definition – portray a variety of innovative worship styles and community partnerships that could well become fresh expressions of church over time.

Everything that we video is more or less impromptu. By that, I mean there is no script and no clear thought as to what the end result will be – only a general sense of the story we want to tell.  Strange as it may seem, I like it that way. Sue and I turn up with our equipment and start to film and interview; always hoping in the end that we get the footage we need to tell the story!  This may sound quite amateurish, and in fact it is, but that is the exciting challenge I look forward to each time we get involved in a new project.

Before all this started I wondered if I would be bored when I finally retired. Now I know that the joys of volunteering to share the Gospel story in new and different ways has become the most rewarding time of my life.

Mission is like John Drane’s pullover (David Muir)

David MuirDavid Muir reflects on why mission is like John Drane's pullover.

I went to the Break Out Pioneer Gathering in Northampton and came back with John Drane's old pullover. Well, not the pullover itself, but the pullover as his throwaway illustration at the end of his talk.

It's the old pullover he does his gardening in – it fits him wonderfully because over the years it has become his 'shape'. It is good quality but very frayed at the edges now, through on the elbows, has been darned many times, and although he really likes it he knows it cannot last for ever. He knows that what he really needs to do, if he wants to keep wearing it, is to pull out the wool, unpick the whole thing, wash it in order to straighten all the crinkles in the fibres, add some new wool, and then knit it all into a new pullover.

And I have mused ever since why he doesn't just do it. And why our church leaders are so reticent to allow our present forms of church to be re-knitted into new expressions of church, rather than allowing them to be frayed into oblivion. Of course, it is a lot of work. But more than that, perhaps they just don't know how to knit; the skill got lost in Christendom when the world was stuffed full of pullovers, and now we dare not allow a pullover to unravel because the truth is we haven't a clue how to knit it back together. We only know how to darn the glorious old pullover inherited from the past and pass it down the generations, adjusting it a little for a new kind of wearer.

We then create a theology that covers our embarrassment by affirming that the inheritance of faith is the pullover, gloriously historical and to be treasured by future generations. As a priest I was trained in the art of pullover maintenance and repair. And even now I recognise the weakness of that better than I am able to enter into the spiritual arts we now require.

Why are our church leaders are so reticent to allow our present forms of church to be re-knitted into new expressions of church?

The illustration has helped me articulate for myself that the 'inheritance of faith' which we pass on to others is the skills of spinning and knitting (of helping people into faith and knitting them together into 'churches' that are useful to the Master), creating pullover after pullover, each different but all recognisably from the same 'stable' – a mix of quality, warmth, creative design, a certain 'zest' in its creation such as you can recognise in Dartington Glass and other creative brands.

At this point in British church history, our key calling is to re-knit the pullover. We have quite a number of creative ways of helping individuals into faith (spinning the fibres), but we are struggling to knit them together into churches that serve the purposes of the Master. I am told that up to half of all people who find faith through Alpha courses never become long-term members of any church. Perhaps it's because they don't want to be darned into the old pullover, however cleverly that is done. They are looking for the old pullover to allow itself to be unpicked, and then to be knitted with them into a new one.

How do we find the modern-day parable? (Andy Wain)

Andy WainAndy Wain asks how we find the modern-day parable.

The Sawi tribe of Western New Guinea, Indonesia, revered treachery, thus making Judas Iscariot their hero. Canadian missionary Don Richardson and his wife Carol found this a great obstacle in helping the Sawi relate to Jesus and the Gospel.

The breakthrough came from within the Sawi culture itself. A Sawi father when making peace with an enemy father entrusts one of his children to them – a 'peace child'. The Richardsons used this idea of 'peace child' to explain how Jesus is God's gift of reconciliation to the Sawi with great success as 70% of them now profess faith in Jesus.

This account is from Richardson's book, Peace Child. In this and other works Richardson shares his conviction that all cultures have something in them that can be drawn on when communicating the gospel: a redemptive analogy.

This raises an interesting question: 'What analogies are present in the culture of those we are engaging that might help their understanding of Jesus and grow in their Christian faith?' Examples of this might include a football fan's lifelong dedication to their team through thick and thin being used to illustrate Christ's commitment to us. Those keen on cooking will appreciate the need to balance flavours, an analogy for a balanced lifestyle of spiritual growth, work and family, and so on.

However, looking for these openings in our different contexts can be challenging and so it can be helpful to create analogies…

What analogies are present in the culture of those we are engaging that might help their understanding of Jesus and grow in their Christian faith?

In Liverpool, we are exploring how sailing can be used to engage young people – both churched and non-churched – with the intention of instilling general life skills and spiritual discipleship. As each one comes off the water they have stories they want to tell of what happened and these stories then become the analogy for discipleship.

Take capsizing as an example; this is not considered a failure, rather an inevitable part of sailing – an opportunity to learn from the mistake, get back in the boat and set sail again. This can lead to discussions about how the young people respond when things go wrong in their lives, what they do well, how they might make better choices and what role Jesus can play in that.

Another example is explaining how knots can help us understand prayer; just as there are different types of knots for different circumstances, so there are different ways of praying for different situations. This creates experiences in the lives of the young people which can be used as analogies for discipleship.

Let's be creative; follow in the footsteps of Jesus and his use of parables to help people grow in understanding and faith.

Mainstreaming pioneer ministry (Richard Sudworth)

Richard SudworthRichard Sudworth discusses mainstreaming pioneer ministry.

A recent series of blog posts by Kester Brewin (Has What Emerged Retreated?) wonders whether the radical church engagements with contemporary British culture in the 1980s and 1990s are now being institutionalised. For Kester, pioneer ordination may be a contradiction in terms for those Christians leading a creative revival.

Kester's point is well made but is in danger of making institution per se the bugbear. With all its faults, frustrations, bureaucracies and sheer awkwardness of diversity, church simply has to offer a deep connectivity between the old and the new, the creative and the inherited. Pioneers cannot afford to 'go it alone' without defeating the essence of what church is. Inherited patterns of church cannot afford to ignore the vast gulf between the worshipping community and society without failing the vocation of the church.

My contention, though, is that a far more radical reappraisal of pioneer ministry is required. Jonny Baker has reflected on the approach to training that CMS are offering through their own pioneer stream. Jonny observes that many institutions are providing a pioneer package that is essentially 'priest-plus': the existing ordination route with an added 'mission' extra. The CMS pattern, by contrast, is learning 'on-the-job'. My own experience, too, has been, as with many other pioneers, a 'mixed mode' package of ministry and reflection. Yet, even here, the question repeatedly arises of: 'What extra do we need to give you that supports your pioneer track?'

The truly innovative step would be to offer training that is wholly related to the context of mission. A retired colleague in the world of Christian-Muslim relations attempted to re-order the syllabus for an Anglican theological college some 20 years ago. His ambition was to ensure that whenever students were taught doctrine, church history, liturgy, homiletics, hermeneutics et al, ordinands were asked: 'Now what does this mean for the church as it engages Islam?'

Pioneer ordination is neither institutional enough, nor radical enough

Naturally, this failed ambition was a consequence of his desire to raise the profile of Christian-Muslim relations. We could equally replace Christian-Muslim relations with 'youth' or 'young professionals' or 'sink-estate families'. The proposal reveals a profounder principle of the relational and missional nature of the Christian faith, though. Surely, all ordinands need to learn in a cycle of action-reflection, without compromising the benefits for some of concentrated academic study. Surely, all ordinands need to root their appreciation of church history, for example, in the contemporary relevance of what is to be retrieved from the past. How can the standard offerings of ordination training not be related to missional contexts?

Pioneer ordination is a wonderfully permission-giving step forward for the Church of England. Paradoxically, I would like to assert that it is neither institutional enough, nor radical enough. The motifs of diversity in unity that should characterise the church mean for me that CMS's exciting proposal is as second-best as the current pioneer track offered by dioceses.

The best, surely, is a situation where there is a root-and-branch reappraisal of all ordination training practices. I cannot think of any contemporary church context that does not demand a 'missionary theology', and I would suggest that it is a missionary theology that serves the story of which we are a part. That missionary theology will also be attentive to those parts of the body that will struggle with change and even be dying.

The laudable but incomplete enterprise of pioneer ordination seems to suggest that there is a 'core' learning required for church ministry with 'added extras' for those entrepreneurial specialists. The answer is not to argue for pioneers to be unsullied by the contamination of the institution but to reframe the entirety of the institution around the demands of contemporary mission.

Offer a fresh expression approach to online ministry (Pam Smith)

Pam SmithPam Smith offers a fresh expression approach to online ministry.

When I was on a training course recently, several people asked me about creating an online presence for their churches. There are many static websites out there, but churches are now looking at ways of using the internet more interactively as part of their outreach strategy.

Interactive church websites offer a fantastic opportunity to extend fellowship and discipleship opportunities into digital space. It seems odd, though, to focus our online outreach on bringing people to the virtual equivalent of a church building. Anyone who is considering an online evangelism strategy should consider following the fresh expressions methodology of taking church to where people are.

How Christians behave online is even less talked about than what we do at work, but in fact Christians are as active as their non-Christian peers in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, special interest forums, gaming sites and blogs. The potential for missional activity is huge as we are already in contact with non-Christians online.

The internet has been likened to a fast flowing river. It changes so rapidly that it's hard to grasp what's going on by looking at it from a distance, but jumping in can look risky. Rather than treating 'the internet' as a place and the people who work 'on the internet' as experts to be copied, we need to identify the principles involved in online ministry and encourage people to apply them to their own particular online environment. In fact, we need to apply a fresh expressions methodology.

We need to apply a fresh expressions methodology to online ministry

It is arguable that online ministries offer a perfect environment to see what happens when a fresh expression develops into a contextual maturity away from the pressure to become more recognisably 'church' that many maturing fresh expressions may feel.

Online ministry offers a huge potential for outreach and mission. There is vibrant growth and potential but there is little understanding of the field outside those who are already involved. We need to pay attention to the significance of online relationships in people's lives and how we might connect with them as part of the bigger missional picture, rather than writing online ministry off as 'not proper church'.

Do people ask the ‘big questions’ any more? (Andy Campbell)

Andy CampbellAndy Campbell wonders whether people ask the 'big questions' any more.

St Luke's in the High Street, Walthamstow, runs a community stall at the weekly Farmers' Market where we offer drinks, cakes and conversation to passers-by.

We keep simple records of the conversations we have along the way – conversations which range from the weather to advanced ecclesiology. Specifically, we wanted to record those conversations that touch upon the so-called 'Big Six' (as identified in the book Evangelism in a Spiritual Age: communicating faith in a changing culture).

The Big Six are loosely held under the following headings: Destiny, Purpose, the Universe, God, the Spiritual Realm and Suffering.

I have no doubt that for many people these are important questions that require answers, but our experience appears to paint a different picture. Relatively few people ask us to provide answers to one of the 'big questions'; instead, we have regular conversations with people about general issues of spirituality, relationships, prayer and politics. The people we meet, it seems, are less concerned with intellectual answers to the great issues of life – 'why' they should believe in and follow a God of any kind – and are more interested in 'how' a life lived following the Christian (or any) God may be led in a meaningful way.

Over two-thirds of those we meet with would be classed as de-churched or non-/un-churched. We meet some who describe themselves as atheists, but the majority are those who are not particularly pro- or anti-God. They are usually open to the idea of a higher being and frequently very supportive of us and our work. According to the research behind the Big Six, they are the very people who should be asking us those questions – and yet, so far, this has not been the case…

I find myself wondering which of the following possibilities is more likely:

The people we meet are less concerned with intellectual answers to the great issues of life

  1. the Big Six are wrong – these are no longer the questions people outside the church are principally interested in;

  2. we are having the wrong conversations – perhaps we are still gaining peoples' trust, or they want to explore more general issues and come onto specifics in time;

  3. we are speaking to the wrong people – those who we speak to are somehow not representative of the wider population.

My gut instinct says that most of the deeper conversations we have are about the issues that genuinely concern or interest people. I can recall talking to people for whom intellectual evidence for God, while not a waste of time, is certainly secondary to discussions about the impact of choosing to adopt a religious worldview. I am yet to meet someone who is offended by the beliefs that I own and express, even when they themselves cannot subscribe to the same.

What is your experience of talking to people in a missionary context? Are you compelled to brush up on sound theological answers to the Big Six?

Are there other questions that you find yourself revisiting time and again?

Should we abandon or revise the assumptions that we continue to make about 'where people are' with God?