Month: August 2015

View from a Liverpool lifeboat (Keith Hitchman)

Keith HitchmanKeith Hitchman surveys the view from a Liverpool lifeboat.

Liverpool is a city with a long Christian history and a healthy distrust of institutionalism – religious and otherwise. This makes it, in every sense, a challenging place to pioneer new forms of church.

But as newly-appointed Pioneer Minister for the River in the City initiative, based in Liverpool city centre, I consider it a great privilege to be called by God to serve here at this time in the city's history.

Liverpool was a shipbuilding city for over 200 years. J Bruce Ismay, whose White Star Line company built the ill-fated Titanic cruise liner in Belfast Lough, came originally from Liverpool, as did many of the Titanic's crew, making the sinking of the great ship one of many tragedies suffered by the people and city over the years. Interestingly, Liverpool was also well known as a place where lifeboats were built, most notably the 'Liverpool Class Lifeboat', now a museum piece.

It is no accident that here in the Diocese of Liverpool we have adopted the imagery of 'Lake and River' to help us understand and communicate the relationship between inherited and emergent forms of church.

Lakes tend to form in settled places, where they become an oasis to the life around them. In the same way, our parish churches offer an oasis and source of life to the community around. Rivers are often still connected to lakes but are free to flow wherever the ground gives way into many more and different places. Very often new forms of church flow beyond the neighbourhood and into various networks, from workplaces to schools and hobby-based groups.

According to the 'Lake and River' approach to being church, someone could be part of their local parish church as well as network-based expression. In this way then, rivers flow in and out of lakes, enabling a mutual interflow of resources between the two.

The church of today needs to abandon the 'cruise liner' and take to the sea of our society in 'lifeboats'

At River in the City our aim is to plant and build a cell-based missional community, focused primarily on the workplace setting, in and around Liverpool city centre. The model for this initiative has been the Riverforce initiative in Merseyside Police.

Our intention is to facilitate a small community network of followers, seekers and enquirers in being and expressing 'church' within the four employment sectors of city centre Liverpool: retail, commerce, leisure and service. This would also include the increasing number of people choosing to live in the city centre. To this end we are seeking to work prayerfully and in active partnership with Christians and churches of all flavours and streams across the city.

A few years back I heard a sermon by Mark Stibbe in which he said that the church of today needed to abandon the 'cruise liner' and take to the sea of our society in 'lifeboats'. As a result I was jolted out of my comfort zone to where I am today, to Liverpool and to 'lifeboat church' of River in the City, reaching out with the love of God to those who are struggling to stay afloat in the turbulent waters of 21st century life.

Biblical community is choice not affinity (John Scheepers)

John ScheepersJohn Scheepers states that biblical community is more about choice than affinity.

Two months after the 'official launch' of VOX City Church in Cape Town, and just a few weeks into the start of the Woodstock Missional Community, which I run, I have come to realise a basic mindset shift which most people fail to make concerning biblical community:

Biblical community is more about choice than affinity.

What do I mean?

Most of our relationships are based around affinity. We share common interests, similar personality, background, economic level or personality. Not so with true biblical community.

Biblical community is more like family – we are unable to choose our brothers and sisters. As a result our Christian community may look rather different in terms of affinity, background or personality than that which we would naturally choose.

Where most community breaks down in churches is that we maintain a 'small group' superficiality with those who differ, whilst functionally pursuing relational depth with those like us.

Hence my point: biblical community is more choice than affinity.

We have to choose to 'hang out with', 'share life together with' and 'engage in mission with'. Our mindset must be: yes there are many people out there with whom I enjoy relationship or connect with, but I choose to commit myself to this local group of believers. Sometimes even at the expense of my natural affinity group. There must be an intentionality about our choice of community that overrides our personal preference.

There must be an intentionality about our choice of community that overrides our personal preference

This 'choice over affinity' community is counter-cultural and challenging to the average unbeliever. Why should you choose to hang out with and share life with people with whom you do not share a natural affinity? Why would you choose to share life with a group of people with whom it is more difficult or even awkward to get on with?

The answer must be the gospel. It is in the gospel that we see Jesus spending time with, loving, serving and ultimately dying for those who are 'other' than himself. Not only are we given the example of Jesus to follow, but in believing the gospel we are set free to lay down our rights, preferences and affinities in order to serve others.

Through the gospel, God is busy creating a new community where love of God and neighbour win out over personal comfort and preferences – a community where diversity is not merely conceptually embraced but actually experienced in the daily life of the gospel community. It is a community where black and white, rich and poor, male and female, educated and uneducated are called to walk together in the common life of the gospel. This will not happen simply through natural affinity; the gospel frees us to make the kinds of choices which both run counter to our culture and which ultimately begin to change our natural affections.

Anything less than this simply fails to be biblical community.

Start by having no answers (Laura McAdam)

Laura McAdamLaura McAdam starts by having no answers.

The vision of Nightchurch is to seek to become an inclusive community with Christ at the centre, learn how to be generous with hospitality, creative in spirituality and passionate about justice.

We have a team who meet at Exeter Cathedral on Friday nights for an open space, free café, various spiritual expressions – from a conversation group to meditation, prayers for healing and the occasional time of communal worship. People also meet fortnightly in a pub for a discussion group – the only rule being that there are 'no Sunday School answers'. So Nightchurch is really a family of expressions. The one in the pub with a small group of people is one thing, but to fulfil our vision in a cathedral on a weekly basis? Madness. 

Here are our challenges:

  • Create something which balances building community with being outward looking;

  • Having a team made up of evangelicals, pagans, unchurched, dechurched, traditionalists, different sexual orientations, charismatics, humanitarians, cynics, disillusioned, counsellors, business people, homeless, students, liberals, secular-zenbuddhist-protestant-catholic-orthodox-nature-mystics, and those who don't like to be pigeon-holed;

  • Dealing with several different agendas within the team, from why they are there to what they think Nightchurch should look like and do.

The danger of a new expression of church is that it becomes a bridge from the outside world to 'proper church' rather than a spiritual home in itself.  It's very interesting to spend time in a cathedral working out what the essential elements of 'church' are, and watching how different cultures, experiences and needs shape the interpretations and agendas of all those involved. And then comes the challenge of taking these elements and weaving them naturally into the weekly experience whilst avoiding 'cool' alternative worship gimmicks.

When do people stop being consumers and become partners in our journey?

We want to be outward looking, embracing and inclusive. So do we dilute elements of what we do to cater for all levels of understanding and belief? When do people stop being consumers and become partners in our journey?

Lessons learned along the way include:

  • Spirituality can be interpreted in many different ways;

  • If you leave things to be too 'organic', you're allowing those with the loudest voices shape the whole thing;

  • Get clear why everyone's involved from the start;

  • Be prepared for things that should work to not work in the slightest;

  • Give up on trying to make one size fit all – that's not what 'inclusive' means in this context;

  • Don't become 'church but on a different day with the lights off';

  • Stock up on biscuits.

The most exciting thing about Nightchurch – and fresh expressions – is the number of questions it poses, and how unsettled it makes you feel. It gives you permission to ask all the questions you never thought you'd get away with, and to embrace the old with the new. It's a very uncomfortable way of doing church; it's frontline stuff. It actively engages with the issues the world is tackling, real people and real problems that get up in your face and ruin your carefully made plans. And not once have we talked about what style of music we play.

Working with the homeless and impoverished to find God (Cathy Stone)

Cathy StoneCathy Stone discusses working with the homeless and impoverished to find God.

As human beings and even as Christians, many of us have a tendency to fall 'in love' with our material stuff. One only has to pick up the Anglican edition of the Canadian Church Calendar for 2010 to view beautiful seasonal photographs of church buildings across Canada. The front of the calendar itself quotes Genesis 28.17: 'The house of God… the gate of heaven.'

Don't get me wrong. I can appreciate beautiful architecture and churches as much as the next person. But is the 'house of God' a building? Can God be kept in a box? We who encourage fresh expressions of church don't think so.

We know that Jesus attended synagogue, but we also read that the majority of his work was done outside the synagogue. He walked amongst the people: Jew and Gentile, men and women. He often kept company with those who the Pharisees considered 'sinful' people, prostitutes and tax collectors.

It was Jesus who said: 'Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?… Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.'

For myself, nothing in my life has been more humbling and gratifying than working with homeless and impoverished women at the Cameron House shelter in Peterborough, Ontario. We meet weekly to talk about God, life recovery skills, individual problems and hope. We study the Life Recovery Bible and work on a 12 step programme for victims of abuse and addictions. We pray. We pray because prayer brings us closer to God and can teach us perseverance.

Remember the hymn: 'They will know we are Christians by our love' – it doesn't say they will know we are Christians by our buildings

Many of the adult women in the group have suffered at the hands of dysfunctional, even abusive, parents and life partners who often gave them 'stones' and 'snakes'. As a group we are encouraged to rethink our negative concept of God, to one as a father who gives good gifts to his children. For these women who have been hurt so badly by life circumstance it is a revelation to discover there is a God who truly loves them. They did not find this God in a church building. They find him in the people who through God can offer them unconditional love.

They discover him in Scripture and prayer and discussion in a 'safe' place with people who love them unconditionally. Remember the hymn: 'They will know we are Christians by our love.' It doesn't say they will know we are Christians by our buildings. Finally, God did not say: 'Go and build a church and worship me!' God said: 'Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…'

In our woman's group we have baptised three women, had one apartment blessing, and every Sunday we offer transport to anyone who would like to attend a service. Will this type of fresh expression see the church into the future? I don't know. All I know is that it is reflective of the work of Christ and he is our teacher, mentor and friend.

Becoming missional (Gavin Tyte)

Gavin TyteGavin Tyte explores becoming missional.

For those of us immersed in fresh expressions of church and trained in missional thinking, it can be easy to forget the paradigm shift required by the average member of a standard parish church.

When you say 'mission' it is often understood to mean 'a mission', as in an event at which the church hands out tracts, knocks on doors and gets in a guest speaker. For those a little further down the missional road, if you mention a fresh expression of church, it can be viewed simply as 'alternative worship' – be it messy church, sacred space or snazzy youth praise.

However, I believe that if the Church of England is going to survive and if God has a plan to reach everyone in our communities, then the local parish church is going to have to become missional. It will need to stop its focus on connecting the unchurched to worship services (however relevant they are) and start providing opportunities for the unchurched to join in with the church in the ongoing mission of God.

Every parochial context is different; there is no blueprint, but there are three things we are implementing in our parish church:

Preach the mission

The preaching and communication of the church needs to hold a steady course and be consistent in every area – whether Sunday services, website, weekly newsletter, meetings or conversation.

Make the move from groups to teams

If the Church of England is going to survive and if God has a plan to reach everyone in our communities, then the local parish church is going to have to become missional

Look at the existing groups in the church, such as Mothers' Union, and re-brand them as teams – each with a missional purpose. Start providing training for the team leaders in how to invite people to join in with the mission of God in the world. I want each of these teams to be able to invite people to 'join in' with what God is doing and come to know Jesus. Some of these teams may well grow into fresh expressions of church.

Grow leaders of congregations instead of leaders of services

In many parishes, there is a great emphasis on church services. However, if we are to reach our communities then we are going to need to equip, empower and release people to lead new communities of faith. Rather than planting churches that are clones of the parent, we need to seed new congregations.

At the moment I can identify four separate congregations meeting under the banner of Uplyme Church – each holding gatherings at different times. It is my hope that we grow and develop a leader for each of these congregations; not just to deliver services, but to nurture, teach and develop each congregation as a missional community.

What are the distinctive marks of leadership in fresh expressions? (Sara Savage)

Sara SavageSara Savage asks what the distinctive marks of leadership in fresh expression are.

Visualise a painting by Pablo Picasso showing a subject viewed simultaneously from multiple perspectives.

Leaders in fresh expressions need to be 'Picassos' – able to perceive multiple perspectives on the issue at hand, and draw them together into a picture that makes sense. This doesn't mean leaders will be abandoning their own standpoint, aiming for some muddy middle ground. Leaders need to have their roots down into their own perspective, and their own spiritual tradition. They need to be secure in their own Christian roots. Yet, at the same time, they need to perceive the validity of the viewpoint of the other, who, in all probability, is a newcomer to all things Christian, or is perhaps a returner coming with baggage from previous, perhaps unhealed, church experience.

A good leader will be curious to find out how other people perceive what is going on in the fresh expression. If the leader connects with the way other people perceive and make sense of the world, communication becomes authentic, and two-way.

The psychologist Peter Suedfeld calls this capacity for perceiving multiple perspectives, and integrating them into an overarching framework, Integrative Complexity (IC for short). When people raise their level of IC, new beginnings become possible. Research shows that peaceful solutions to conflicts ensue. New understandings arise.

It's easier to have all the right answers, but it's better to pose the right questions, and then provide the scaffolding and the resources for the journey

In the early church, theologians wrestling with the human and divine natures of Christ needed high IC to be able to make sense of their experience of the risen Jesus while maintaining their commitment to Jewish monotheism. Leaders in fresh expressions also have to be able to weave together diverse, even opposing viewpoints, but without succumbing to a lazy compromise that loses the riches of the Christian revelation. 

Our globalised situation is one of conflicting perspectives, and people are suspicious of anyone claiming a monopoly on the truth. Leaders have the very challenging task of weaving together the Christian narrative into the real life narratives of people. To do this in a way that is not prefabricated, but involves a genuine conversation, is the art of listening. Hard to do. It's easier to have all the right answers. But it's better to pose the right questions, and then provide the scaffolding and the resources for the journey.

What fresh expressions of church means to me (Jackie Davies)

Matthew and Jackie DaviesJackie Davies explains what fresh expressions of church means to her.

I've been going to church for as long as I can remember (I'm 35), and I now work as Children and Families Worker with Altrincham Methodist Circuit,  so church has been, and is, a large part of my life. However, I've never really felt that traditional church services met my need to question things and look beyond what other people told me.

I first went to Café Sundae – held at Timperley Methodist Church – to support the Café's volunteer leader, Will Sudworth. I knew it was aimed at teenagers and assumed it would be painfully 'cool' and prepared myself for a long night. I couldn't have been more surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I loved the informal set up, and any church service where you can eat sweets and drink milkshakes gets my vote.

So after a good start it just got better. Film clips and vox pops kept me interested and engaged in a way I will admit that a sermon often doesn't. I enjoyed the table games because I got to talk to people at church about real issues rather than just saying hello and goodbye. However, the table debates were my favourite part of the evening – at last the chance to talk in church, to play an active rather than a passive role. I was so grateful for the chance to discuss issues that interested me in the context of my faith – I could have kissed the Café Sundae team for that! The mix of people at Café Sundae also resulted in me getting an insight into the views of a variety of ages and backgrounds.

Having enjoyed Café Sundae so much I was really excited when Will told me about Diversity Space. Although I was loving Café Sundae and pretending to be 14 again, I was also looking forward to talking about issues with over 18s.

I've never really felt that traditional church services met my need to question things and look beyond what other people told me

Diversity Space has the same relaxed and informal feel as Café Sundae, but meeting in a local licensed coffee shop means we can have a glass of wine with our discussion too! Diversity Space offers a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about emotive and controversial issues in a safe environment where each of us has the chance to give our opinions without being judged.

I can also talk about my faith if I want to, but I don't feel pressured to have a particular opinion. It's also a space to bring friends without them feeling uncomfortable. In fact, I took my husband Matthew and two friends to the last one – I should get some sort of award!

What does life look like after mixed economy? (Malcolm Herbert)

Malcolm HerbertMalcolm Herbert asks what life looks like after mixed economy.

When the volcanic ash descended and the skies above West London were free of planes, many people found it strange and hoped that things would soon get back to normal.

There's no doubt that people can find change very difficult to handle. Many of us are aware of the definition of culture as ' the way we do things round here'.

As a leader in a variety of contexts, I know that – whether it be church, business, college or family – all have ways of 'doing things round here'. I ignore it at my peril if I have a desire to see change and development.

Christendom has shaped 'the way we do things round here' for a long time, but we know it is on the wane as the prevailing culture. For the church, the change of religious and social contexts presents far reaching implications. I am not sure that a fresh expression of church 'here' and a new service 'there' are enough.

I think there are two key challenges:

1. To look beyond mixed economy

The church has bought 'big time' into the concept of a mixed economy church, as in the traditional or inherited alongside fresh expressions. But I wonder if the 'mixed economy' idea as a shaping culture is creeping towards its sell-by date.

David Muir, in his Share blog of 11th January 2010, uses the analogy of an oil-based economy. Oil has fuelled the way we do things round here, but it is a finite resource so a mixed economy using alternative energy sources enables us to move on. 

The 'mixed economy' idea is creeping towards its sell-by date

As a leader at the local level, it is obvious Christendom, as the 'power source' for 'the way we do things round here' for centuries, is on the way out. Yet to keep assuring existing church communities that they will continue much in the same way because they have an ongoing parallel existence with emerging churches, is surely to give false hope and no real sustainable future. Many congregations already demonstrate an ongoing anxiety and often anger towards leaders who try and develop a culture of responsiveness and flexibility to the developing context.

At the local level we are not always helped by some at regional and national level who for various reasons, tend not to see it this way and even deny it is happening. For example the resistance to the closure or 'mothballing' of unsustainable buildings is a case in point. Some cash-strapped CofE dioceses for instance are already cutting back on resources to further develop and sustain emerging and fresh expressions of church.

2. To select and shape leaders who are deeply rooted in God, in Jesus and are passionate about the primary need to re-shape church culture to serve a developing post-Christian context

Pioneer ministry may be a response to the 'mixed economy' church model, but I know from my days as a Diocesan Director of Ordinands that there is a danger it can be subsumed and even compromised by the culturally inherited model that prevails. Maybe it isn't just pioneer ministry that is being compromised.

We need to accept post-'mixed economy' as the prevailing culture and 'start doing things round here' accordingly.

Helping new leaders take centre stage (Ned Lunn)

Ned LunnNed Lunn wants to help new leaders take centre stage.

Graham Cray's words at Spring Harvest this year made me do some serious thinking.

I went to hear him speak on the long term discipleship of those with no church background, discussing the need for training the second generation leaders in fresh expressions of church. He talked about maturing disciples into leadership roles and the commitment needed for this, describing many fresh expressions as losing their 'DNA' when their pioneer leaves.

As an Anglican ordinand at Cranmer Hall, those words made me think long and hard about my placement next year.

Before training for the ministry, I ran a theatre company, el mono theatre, for six and half years. As well as producing and directing shows, I mentored several young directors, advised on education programmes, tutored, managed youth theatres and an education department and was a front of house manager at several large London venues.

On going forward for ordination I decided to hang up my theatre hat and dedicate myself to study. Now there is a further call – to go back into the theatre world but this time to minister to the people who work there, to 'discover' God in the theatre and to help the student drama community here to discover him too. Next year I will be dedicating some time to get to know those involved in theatre work in Durham and minister God's love to them, build a community and, hopefully, lead that community of artists into deeper relationship with God through the performing arts.

But back to Bishop Graham's talk and the challenges it highlighted about self-sacrificial leadership development…

I need to be prepared to begin the growth of new leaders and model leadership training to them

I can only be present in my community for two years. The students, who may gather into a community, will only be in Durham for a maximum of three years. What is the shelf life for this ministry? It's odd thinking about preparing to leave something before it's even begun. It may seem to be jumping the gun but the truth is that I need to be prepared to begin the growth of new leaders and model leadership training to them so they can train the third generation and them the fourth and fifth, etc.

If I fail to model that good leadership training I could be leading the community into an emotionally damaging situation. If I leave without someone in place to continue the ministry there will be a vacuum of leadership and this will leave young Christians without mature guidance. The transient nature of such a community also means that this issue will continue to occur on a two or three year cycle. The challenge in raising leaders has to be two-fold: to mentor them into a leadership role and to teach them to teach others.

It is the work of Christ, not me. So what do I intend to do? By God's grace, model good discipleship as one of the key aspects of the 'DNA', commit to the relationships and be aware of any potential leaders who are emerging and support them in their growth.

Hope in the midst of the storm (Lorna Koskela)

Lorna KoskelaLorna Koskela sees hope in the midst of the storm.

This year started so well – but about a month ago it started to crumble. Or so I thought. Certainly life took an unexpected detour.

Today I'm wrestling again… and like Jacob I don't want to let go until God blesses me. Shut doors can be an answer from God, I know (though the way they are shut might not be!), but now having finished (and passed!) my MA in theology (Leadership, Renewal and Mission with Emerging Church) at Cliff College, I'm trying to find out what doors are open/opening and what it is that God might be calling me to do.

I'm very excited by the fresh expressions of church that are emerging – even here in Finland – and that we as Christians are wrestling with both theological and ecclesiological questions in our quest to find out what the church means in a 21st century context, and what  it means to be – and make – disciples of Jesus Christ. Indeed it's the whole question of growing as disciples that excites me most.

At the end of 2009 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said that the church needed to 'go through the door' and take its message out to places where it hasn't been before.

It's a real call to be incarnational isn't it? To be interested in people, their lives, their stories, their successes and failures, and to be 'Jesus with skin on' with those with whom our lives intersect.

When we are at a crossroads, it's easy to think that God isn't present or concerned

Right now in me a storm is raging. It's not an angry one but it is significant, I think. It's connected with what it means to be the body of Christ, the church. Mark 4 tells us about the disciples' anguish at Jesus sleeping through the storm. When a storm is raging in our lives – when we are at a crossroads as I am right now – it's easy to think that God isn't present or concerned, though our theology (and previous experience of God) might well tell us otherwise… and to be honest it can be pretty lonely when we wrestle with deep questions can't it?

I really like what Maggi Dawn writes, in her Lenten book Giving it Up, on storms:

Not all stories of suffering have a happy ending; we can't assume that if we have faith in God everything will turn out right. In Job's story, God didn't turn back the clock and restore what Job had lost, but He did restore him to peace and prosperity and a new future. In this story (Mark 4) we do see Jesus restoring peace and bringing His disciples safely to shore. It would be over-reading the story to interpret this as a promise that God will take care of all our troubles for us, but we can learn that He is with us in difficulties, brings peace in the storm and guides us into the future.

That applies not only to me – and you – on a personal level, but also, I think, to the church on the onset of post-Christendom. And it gives me hope in the midst of the storm.