How are fresh expressions funded?

This varies from place to place.

Some fresh expressions of church are funded by the diocese, district, benefice, parish or circuit. Often where this is the case a sliding scale of support has been agreed (100% in year 1; 75% in year 2; 50% in year 3 and so on).

A few are self funding (through the giving of members) and one or two have developed clever commercial ways of helping with funding (such as the proceeds from a coffee shop, skate park, training course and so on).

Our eleventh Share booklet, Self-supporting ministry, explores ways of being self-supporting as a pioneer.

You can read about the funding of the Fresh Expressions core team on our partners and the organisation page.

Hasn’t the church always done this kind of thing? It’s not particularly new is it?

Some of the things we call fresh expressions have been around somewhere for a long time (such as midweek services for parents and toddlers or an additional all age service). However, they may be fresh and different in a particular benefice, parish, circuit or church.

Others are a different approach to things that churches have done for a long time. Many traditional midweek activities have been seen as stepping stones into a Sunday congregation. They are now being seen more and more as expressions of church in their own right. Therefore they need to build and grow in community, discipleship, worship and mission.

Still others – such as the internet communities or network churches – really are very new. We are still learning how to do them well.

The new thing that seems to be happening is that Christians are beginning to see that the attractional model ('come to us') needs to work alongside an emerging model ('go to them, stay with them and see what kind of church emerges').

Fresh expressions of mission, or fresh expressions of church?

They are both. In the past we have had a 'come to us' approach to mission – 'let's set up church the way we like it and then invite others to join us'. We now realize that for the bulk of society this doesn't work. Many people ignore the Christian faith because the church seems so alien to them.

Fresh expressions are about a 'we'll come to you' approach to mission, which involves allowing new converts and the Spirit to shape the form of church – when, where and how it meets. As we follow the prompts and leading of the Spirit, we may start with a fresh expression of mission, but this will become a fresh expression of church as it develops the marks of church.

There clearly are many different fresh expressions of mission. These are new forms of outreach that aim to draw people into existing Christian communities.  However if the aim is to be or create a new Christian community, the venture is more likely to be or become a fresh expression of church.

Do fresh expressions work better in suburban, rather than rural or urban areas?

Not necessarily. If you look at our website stories or our DVDs you will see a whole range of fresh expressions – some in rural areas and others in the inner city. They meet in village halls, city centre flats, old chapels, and stately homes!

Recent research from Church Army suggests Anglican fresh expressions work in all kinds of areas.

The important thing is that a fresh expression needs to be relevant to the context it finds itself in and that involves a lot of listening and research before you begin to serve the local community and establish a new church.

Do fresh expressions really reach out to people across the social spectrum?

Yes, they do. To pick just a few examples:

  • In one Lancashire town there is a fresh expression for former prisoners and others living on the edge.
  • In Hampshire there is a fresh expression reaching out mainly to wealthy people living in the countryside.
  • In Manchester there is a fresh expression reaching those who live in the newly developed city centre.
  • In Grimsby there is a fresh expression which works with young people in an area of significant social deprivation.

God's vision is to reach all people, regardless of social status, age, gender or any other division.

Can fresh expressions just do their own thing or are they accountable?

Some fresh expressions of church begin as independent churches. However, the majority belong to and are accountable to one denomination (or sometimes to more than one if they are an ecumenical partnership).

  • In the Church of England, fresh expressions may be accountable to a parish or benefice just as any other congregation. They may also be accountable to a deanery or to a diocese. Where this is the case, that accountability will increasingly be expressed through a Bishop's Mission Order.
  • In the Methodist Church, accountability will normally be through the local circuit. One or two districts are experimenting with accountability to the district.
  • Other denominations are developing similar structures and ways of relating.

All the denominations that take fresh expressions seriously recognise the need for great flexibility, dialogue and support in terms of working out this accountability in practice. It is meant to safeguard rather than restrict what God is doing.

Aren’t the numbers involved very small? Is this really a significant movement?

Many fresh expressions of church are small – but so are many traditional congregations. But we have the capacity to develop many thousands of these fresh expressions and that means reaching out to many people.

The numbers involved across the country are significant.

The Church of England's provisional attendance figures for 2012 (released in March 2014) show at least 1,922 fresh expressions and new forms of church. More than 1,100 of these were designed to be particularly accessible to families.

Parallel Methodist Church research for 2012 shows an estimated 1,550 fresh expressions, attended by roughly 46,000 people and supported by around 8,000 volunteers. The large majority are led by local preachers and lay officers rather than ministers or paid employees. Three quarters of them have begun in the last four years. There are fresh expressions of church registered from every district in the Connexion, representing over 80% of circuits.

60,000 attend fresh expressions in England. The greatest growth of Anglican fresh expressions has been in the last three years. 25% of Methodist churches have started a fresh expression. So far around 1 in 10 Anglican parishes has started a fresh expression. (Source: CofE and Methodist Church attendance figures 2010).

Aren’t fresh expressions really just pandering to a consumer society?

Some people fear that encouraging forms of church that fit the culture of people who attend is pandering to choice and consumer attitudes. But it is very scriptural. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit did not equip all the visitors in Jerusalem to speak the same language: the Spirit enabled the apostles to speak in different languages. This was a massive affirmation of cultural diversity. The church has respected cultural differences ever since.

The key challenge is for Christian communities to follow the example of Jesus, who both immersed himself in the culture of his day and challenged it. This is what holiness is really about.

Are there any dangers? Haven’t there been scandals in the past?

There are always dangers for the life of the church and one of them is doing nothing at all. There have been scandals in cathedrals and traditional churches over the last twenty years as well as in newer forms of church. We need to be as wise as we can about oversight and structures – but we are called to move forward.

Risks are nothing new for the church. Look at the church in Corinth! What is striking about Paul's missionary work is how the Spirit led him away from the churches he had planted at a very early stage. He left the new believers with the basics of the Gospel, the Old Testament, the sacraments and leadership, and trusted the Spirit to work with these resources to bring the believers into mature faith.

Lack of trust rather than too many dangers may be the biggest problem facing the church.

Are fresh expressions trying to build church or kingdom?

Jesus asks us all to pray daily for God's kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is the shorthand phrase in the Gospels for the reign of God or the rule of God on earth. All Christians are called to work and pray for the kingdom: that involves working for justice and integrity in our own lives, in the whole of society and in the whole of God's creation.

The call to engage in God's mission is the call to engage in building the kingdom of God in its entirety. Helping people find faith and form fresh expressions of church is part of that work:  we are doing what Jesus did and what he commands his disciples to do. However growing fresh expressions of church is not simply about increasing church attendance for its own sake or even an end in itself; the aim must be that God's will is done and the kingdom comes in individual lives, in families and in the whole of society.

Further reading

Mission-Shaped Church: A Theological Response

John M. Hull, SCM Press, 2005, 978-0334040576.