Month: September 2015

A Bishop's Mission Order is a legal device created as one part of the 'Dioceses Pastoral and Mission Measure' in the Church of England. It creates a means for a bishop to legally recognise a mission initiative that will lead to a new Christian community – a fresh expression of church.

A Bishop’s Mission Order is not needed for every fresh expression but will normally be helpful or required where a fresh expression in the Church of England operates across parish, deanery or diocesan boundaries or in parallel with existing church structures.

The process of granting a BMO can be initiated by the Bishop or by any office holder in the diocese.

Christians in almost every tradition have given a special place in the life of the church to the two signs of God's grace (or sacraments) of baptism and Holy Communion. Both rest on the clear instructions of Jesus to his disciples and the practice of the earliest Christians recorded in the New Testament. Both remain very important for fresh expressions of church.

Some fresh expressions of church begin in a sacramental tradition and are formed around Holy Communion.

However, many other fresh expressions of church take time to reach the point in their journey where they develop an appropriate way of celebrating Holy Communion together and where they begin to baptize new believers. The important thing is to discern the right time and the right way to develop these essential marks of what it means to be the church and grow in grace.

It's important to explore a bit further and find out the reasons. Some ministers are put off by the term or what they see is the latest fad in the church. Has your minister really engaged with the deep biblical and theological roots to fresh expressions of church?

You could pray for your minister, gently encourage them to watch one of our DVDs (below) and discuss it with you. If they need to engage at a deeper level, encourage them to read a robust theological argument for fresh expressions.

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Being Church, Doing Life: Creating gospel communities where life happens

Michael Moynagh, Monarch Books, 2014, 978-085721493-5

Church for every context: An introduction to theology and practice

Michael Moynagh, SCM Press, 2012, 978-033404369-0

Resourcing renewal: shaping churches for the emerging future

Martyn Atkins, Inspire, 2007, 978-1905958108

Exiles: living missionally in a post-Christian culture

Michael Frost, Hendrikson Publishers Inc, 2006, 978-1565636705

The Future of the Parish System: Shaping the Church of England in the 21st Century

Steven Croft (ed.), CHP, 2006, 978-071514034-5

Mission-shaped Questions: Defining issues for today's church

Steven Croft (ed.), CHP, 2008, 978-071514153-3

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Some ministers are hesitant about fresh expressions of church because they don't feel equipped for this kind of ministry themselves. Seeing where their own ministry fits into the mixed economy church will be important. Taking part in mission shaped ministry can be a real help here.

In some places it is, but our research shows that only 40% of the population is willing to engage with the more traditional way of being church. So there is an urgent need to find new ways of reaching the 60% – who also tend to be younger.

Yes – lots, but you can see the pattern most clearly in the Acts of the Apostles. The church takes many different forms as it moves from culture to culture in the ancient world. In Acts 11, one kind of community forms as the persecuted Christians preach only to Jews. However when others begin to preach to Gentiles as well and they come to faith there is a new group with its own culture and traditions. Turn to the early chapters of Galatians and you discover that there were real tensions between these different cultural communities.

In Philippi, where there is no synagogue, the Gospel takes root in a community gathered in the house of the first convert, Lydia. In Ephesus, the Gospel is preached first to the synagogue community but after that in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Many different groups emerge with their own cultural traditions as the Gospel crosses boundaries.

The New Testament letters were largely written to help these new communities address real issues of diversity and unity: try looking at 1 Corinthians as a text written to people who were guiding fresh expressions of church in a pagan and very different context – that was its original purpose.

The Mission-shaped Church report coined the term 'fresh expressions of church.' In pages 29 to 33 it explained the relationship between church planting and fresh expressions of church. Planting is the missionary process which, if carried out in an appropriate contextual way in our varied cultures, should result in fresh expressions of church. Church planting is the verb and the noun, fresh expressions, are the outcome.

However, the report makes two qualifications to this organic link between the two.

First, some existing churches may engage in mission to a new culture and in so doing change to become a fresh expression. It involves a process of transitioning rather than planting and there is no multiplication of a second church. An example would be an existing congregation becoming cell-based.

Secondly, the report recognised that the noun church plant was used throughout the 80's and 90's and was sometimes applied to the reproduction of a form of church not dissimilar from inherited churches. The authors termed these 'traditional church plants' and made this one category among many fresh expressions. The report concluded that:

both planting and fresh expressions of church can arise out of similar motivation and experiences and both can overlap in what they seek to achieve… they are different but connected realities. (page 34)

No. At the other end of the spectrum from fresh expressions is 'inherited church'. Inherited churches are what exist already. Fresh expressions are new or different forms of church that connect with people who are not reached by inherited churches.

There is still plenty of life in traditional or inherited forms of church. Traditional does not necessarily equal stale. Many inherited churches are full of vitality and growing. Our aim is not to grow fresh expressions instead of inherited churches but alongside them: a mixed economy.

The Jerusalem church in Acts was a bit like inherited church. It had a traditional mindset and emerged from a 'you come to us' context: Jews from the known world had come to Jerusalem at Pentecost. The Antioch church was more like a fresh expression. It launched 'we'll come to you' mission and had a more radical approach to theology and church practice.

But despite tensions between them, they were interdependent. Paul, who headed up the missionary work launched from Antioch, felt himself to be accountable to the leaders at Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church had the spiritual maturity to recognise the Holy Spirit at work. Here is a splendid example of the mixed economy church.

This is a question in many people's mind and is sometimes referred to as the 'Homogenous Unit Principle', that is churches made up of all the same kind of people. Some people have argued that in the church we should be fully mixed and varied because, 'There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female' (Galatians 3.28), and that when we are in heaven there will be no divisions. Every tribe tongue and nation will be united around the throne (Revelation 5.9-13, 7.9 & 15.4).

However, this misses the point. Culture doesn't exist unless it's socially expressed. So every tribe and tongue will be present and preserved in its cultural identity (homogenous) whilst also being perfectly at one with each other (heterogeneous).

So we believe it is biblical to have both homogenous congregations (made up of similar kinds of people) and heterogeneous congregations (made up of differing kinds of people) in the same church. Homogenous congregations are not new of course. Sadly, many churches are already made up of one age group, race and social class (white, largely female, over 55) which can make everyone else feel shut out. Think of the average congregation at an 8am communion service!

Sometimes we need to start again for new sections of the community. However, every fresh expression of church needs to be linked into the wider body of Christ in a whole range of ways. No local church can ever be complete by itself. When we have the links, we have unity and also diversity.

Not at all. There are now fresh expressions of church in every tradition. Have a look at our DVD on fresh expressions in the sacramental and contemplative tradition.

DVD: Sanctus: fresh expressions of church in the sacramental tradition

If, as we believe, the whole church in this country is being called and drawn into relevant mission in their local communities, then all sorts of fresh expressions of those churches will develop. Each tradition will have gifts and experience to offer the common whole. Social action, contemplation, meditation, sacramental, biblical, Spirit-empowered and Spirit-led mission is a multi-faceted move of God.

It's vital to build strong bonds of connection and to work out how a fresh expression will belong. Sometimes that 'belonging' is to a local church. Sometimes it is to a circuit or deanery, occasionally to a diocese or district or a stream.

The belonging is worked out in structures for ministry and governance; in fellowship; in different kinds of partnerships of support and in mutual giving and receiving.