Author: ben-clymo

How might a call to fresh expressions come: Riverforce

This story illustrates the principles of How might a call to fresh expressions come? in the Guide.

Riverforce - meetingEarly in 2006, Peter Owens, Chief Inspector of the Occupational Health Unit at Merseyside police and a leading member of the Merseyside Christian Police Association, planted a church at work, known as Riverforce.

From the initial suggestion made by his vicar, it took a year to set up the first cell, which consists of four high ranking police officers.

All of a sudden, God started putting people in strategic places,

Peter says. Christians were filling key roles in the force.

Peter and his colleagues meet once a week, late on Friday afternoons in an office. Their meeting covers three stages:

    • presence, in which God’s presence is recognised through worship;
    • pressures, in which members share and pray through concerns, whether domestic or work related;
    • purpose, during which they reflect on their roles as Christians in the force, both individually and collectively.
‘God started putting people in strategic places’

Since Riverforce started, four other cells have sprung up across the Merseyside police force. Most of the cells take place at lunchtimes or after work. Peter attends one of these as well, a cell formed by middle managers.

It is important that these small groups are separate, given the different kinds of pressures faced at work by each group and the confidential nature of some of the matters discussed.

The sudden growth in the number of cells is partly down to Peter’s one-to-one invitations to members.

Everyone seemed to appreciate the need for it,

he says.

Members are all Christians, but, for family or work-related reasons, are not necessarily in a church. Those who do attend church are not usually in a small group and find the cell at work adds an extra dimension to their faith.

It is hoped that an Alpha course due to be run by the Merseyside Association of Christian Police, which Peter also oversees, will encourage newcomers to the Christian faith to join the emerging cell network.

Peter is also talking to the National Association of Christian Police about spreading cell church among the police nationwide.

New Creations

A Church of England reader and bereavement coordinator in Merseyside, Janet Cross, became aware of the need for some kind of support group for the bereaved.

She had the idea of a craft session as 'occupational therapy' and opened it up to anyone who wanted to come. Around ten churchgoers took advantage of the group, New Creations, which began in 1998, always opening with a prayer.

At first they focused on general crafts but soon gravitated towards making cards. A monthly 'God slot' centred on the theme of the cards being created that week – for example, 'leaves' and the idea of falling.

Through Janet's invitations to those she met in the course of her lay ministry in the parish, and through members telling their friends about it, the group grew. Now around 50 people are registered at New Creations, with up to 35 attending at any one time.

New Creations meets on Tuesdays. Since summer 2006, the sessions have started with two 'clusters' and thus become part of the cell format used by Janet's church.

The clusters are led by one woman each, with Janet mentoring and assisting. Both clusters meet at 11am in the church building, one made up of twelve previously unchurched people and the other of seven churchgoers.

'The people who weren't going to church would come to me with prayer requests, so I could see they were warming'

Just over an hour later they join for lunch in the restaurant attached to their church, after which the card making session begins.

Janet describes the 'unchurched' cluster as

a support group

in which members are beginning to open up to each other.

The people who weren't going to church would come to me with prayer requests, so I could see they were warming,

she says. A monthly cluster was offered at first, but this developed quickly into a weekly meeting in response to the enthusiasm of members.

We're looking for a vision to develop more,

Janet adds. A breaking of bread just before Christmas 2006

went down beautifully

and members have begun to pray out loud together.

Janet cites one lady who has openly expressed a sense that she now considers New Creations to be her church.

She is also considering an away day combining a morning of meditation and an afternoon of card making.

New people are coming each week,

Janet says.

If we carry on like this we'll need another cluster.

The OUT dimension of church: Sunningdale sheltered housing

This story illustrates the principles of The OUT dimension of church in the Guide.

None of the residents of Sunningdale sheltered housing block for the elderly find themselves able or willing to attend their parish church in Moreton, Wirral.

So now around 20 residents enjoy a monthly worship meeting held on the third Wednesday of the month, encouraged by a Church of England reader, Lesley Bailey, and led by the residents themselves.

Lesley, who in 2004 was studying for a PhD in Ministry, began looking at ways to reach out to her local community. After the annual carol service at Sunningdale, led by Lesley’s parish church, the rector encouraged her to make a start with a Sunningdale based initiative.

Leafleting the 108 apartments is now part of Lesley’s monthly preparations for the service. She also spends at least one afternoon a month in Sunningdale, a tower block in one of Moreton’s most deprived areas, visiting residents whether or not they attend services.

Of those who do attend, most have had church connections (not necessarily Church of England) but are too disabled to go to church on Sundays, while some have no church background.

She has noticed a growing sense of community among members, who now ‘look out’ for one another

After the first year, Lesley handed over the service to the residents, who organise the prayers and deliver the reading. She has noticed a growing sense of community among members, who now ‘look out’ for one another, while some have experienced a renewal in personal faith.

All this has developed despite initial difficulties. Publicity material was removed within the tower block, and over half the start-up team from the parish church left early on. Two of the original core team now attend Sunningdale services regularly, instead of the family orientated services usually held in the parish church on a Sunday morning.

Lesley hopes that a Bible study group will develop out of the monthly services, while a craft and chat afternoon open to anyone is planned for 2007.

What began as an offshoot of the annual carol service has grown into a supportive fellowship in a previously disregarded corner of a parish.

Sunningdale sheltered housing

Sunningdale is a community of 108 self-contained, warden-assisted flats all occupied by elderly people. Lesley Bailey, a lay-reader at Christchurch, with four others began church services here eighteen months ago.

Lesley says she is well known now among the residents. Some will join in for the end of worship cup of tea even though they don’t attend the rest of the worship. Others will ask for prayer.

There is much to give thanks for at this stage:

  • over ten percent of the community are already in the congregation;

  • members are fully involved in the worship;

  • the entire community being personally invited to each service.

Some members of the congregation are able to lead prayers and others feel comfortable reading the Bible. They may not have done this in a larger church.

Several have rediscovered their faith since services began at Sunningdale. One struggled for several months to overcome her agoraphobia so she could attend the services that are held in the residents' lounge. Now she reads the lesson with enthusiasm and commitment.

Lesley is very excited about how the church is developing. She hopes the next step will be a more in-depth study of the Bible for those who are interested.

Easton Methodist Church

If the doors of the imposing Grade II listed Easton Methodist Church were kept closed, passers-by on the local high street would miss all that goes on inside throughout the week.

So, says minister Chris Briggs,

We have the doors open.

That way, the residents of Easton, a semi-rural town on the Portland peninsula, can know that the church is there for them, whether it is open for a service on Sundays or a coffee morning during the week.

An event on Friday mornings has integrated the church’s offering of both community and gentle evangelism since early 2005. A café opens for one and a half hours from ten o’clock in an alcove in the large church premises. It serves speciality drinks and simple food at waited tables laid with cloths and flowers. Background music is Christian, but – Chris says – this probably helps to create ambience more than carrying a deep message.

Because we are waiting on people, they are greeted, and so are gathered up in a welcome,

Chris explains.

We try to make it obvious – there is a big banner outside reading ‘Café Church’.

The idea is to indicate that elements of both ‘church’ and ‘café’ are present at the same time.

‘We have the doors open’ – that way, people can know that the church is there for them

Those who visit Café Church come from a variety of churches on the island and from none. Up to a quarter of those attending can be from no church.

Team members sit at the café tables ready to chat and talk, and Christian literature is on each table, including perhaps a short printed liturgy for one of the ‘God slots’ which punctuate the morning.

Everyone quietens and listens,

says Chris.

The idea is to provide food for thought.

Alongside the café is a chapel area created by use of screens. Within is a candle gate, a prayer board and an open Bible.

Spontaneously people go off in twos and threes and pray for one another,

says Chris.

Sometimes the chapel area is well used, sometimes we wonder whether anyone has been in there at all, but there is usually evidence that someone has.

Lighting candles and pinning notes on a prayer board can be a non-threatening way of offering prayer. Both churchgoers and non-churchgoers use the chapel area. 

Chris describes Café Church as containing

elements of church in itself. For many it is a time of fellowship,

he says.

Once in the doors, people find a warm and welcoming community, while the Christian element, though obvious, is not heavy.

By drawing its separate offerings of coffee mornings and church services together in one weekly ‘Café Church’, up to 40 local people are finding that the doors of the church are open for them.

The OUT dimension of church: Eden

This story illustrates the principles of The OUT dimension of church in the Guide.

EdenIt was the vision of a youth worker turned bishop that saw the appointment of Derek Spencer to Deanery Youth Missioner in the largely rural Horsham area of Sussex.

In 2001, Derek was given the simple remit to ‘invest time in the hotspots’. For Derek and Bishop Lindsay Urwin that meant the largest school in the Diocese of Chichester.

Right from the start, Derek hoped that what emerged would become a deanery-wide venture. He began to talk to local churches and found that there was next to nothing happening for young people in their parishes.

It took five months to get something going,

he says. He began two groups for the young people already connected with church, each fortnightly at different ends of the deanery to enable everyone who could to attend.

I emphasised the social aspect: bowling; pizzas,

Derek says. Around twelve young people came from the 20 surrounding village churches, to either a local grammar school or a Methodist village hall, depending on which venue was nearest to their own home.

As time passed, Derek found that the new groups were so popular, members would come weekly regardless of the distance. Around 35 teenagers were meeting to socialise and ask questions.

This youth worker gave them a place to belong, provided them with a means to become church and enabled them to demonstrate church to the wider community.

In the meantime, Derek had been taking lessons and assemblies in local schools. He began to think of holding a regular service in the drama hall of one: the largest, Steyning Grammar. By now more familiar with the people of the deanery, he approached a number of deanery members, including some parents, to pray and plan. The result was Eden, a multimedia service held on Sunday evenings once month.

The pilot in 2003 attracted 130 people, 30 per cent of whom were interested adults. Three months later Eden established itself as a regular event with its own blog and website. It now meets fortnightly with a regular gathering of about 75-100, while the original groups also continue.

For a good number of the young people, Eden is their church,

Derek says. He hopes it will eventually meet every week.

Eden’s influence is felt beyond the deanery, across the whole diocese.

It is seen as a big thing so people bring their youth groups. It’s great for resourcing other groups,

Derek says. A service at which Matt Redman (who lives locally) led worship attracted 400 people.

Derek believes that Eden’s ability to break the boundaries of its locality is due to its strong connection with its roots.

Other deaneries tried but failed, because they didn’t involve the whole deanery,

he says.

Starting with a vision to seek out local young people, this youth worker gave them a place to belong, provided them with a means to become church and enabled them to demonstrate church to the wider community.

The Community of Aidan and Hilda

The Community of Aidan and Hilda is an internationally dispersed community of Christians following a Way of Life and a Rule of Prayer.

Sixty members, described as Voyagers, and over 100 Explorers, who are testing out their membership, keep in touch with Community Guardians in places such as Lindisfarne and London from their homes in the UK and around the world. A sister community in the US has over 100 Voyagers.

Founded in 1994, the Community is the fruit of regular meetings and prayer between seven church workers who discovered a shared vision for

a new way of being church,

says the Community's International Guardian, Ray Simpson.

Meeting overnight once every three months at a Christian centre in central England, they developed a Way of Life. After three years, this was presented at a symposium where they attracted their first 27 members.

Annual gatherings in central England continue. Voyagers also take an annual retreat together at Whitby. Regional groups are developing, with a particularly thriving group in Zimbabwe. Community houses in Birmingham and Lindisfarne provide 'spiritual homes'.

They're very important as places anybody feels they can come to,

says Ray. There can also be linked ministries, cells and churches.

Aside from face-to-face meetings such as these, the community stays in touch through the internet, a magazine, prayer, and hospitality in members' homes

A quarterly magazine and prayer diary lists every Voyager and Explorer, while detailed prayer requests are received at the Lindisfarne home of the community, the Open Gate, where they are offered at the midday and night prayer services each day.

Ray describes these daily prayer patterns as

most important.

Members know that there is prayer at midday and 9pm at the Open Gate,

he says.

The daily rhythm of prayer is not prescribed; it is encouraged. The liturgical use the daily pattern; the non-liturgical use it as a resource.

'Aidan and Hilda is a bridge for a lot of people who are very New Age or neo-pagan and have a vision of Jesus or are inspired by contact with the community'

Voyagers have access to PALM on the community's website, a prayer and listening ministry where Voyagers can post prophetic words, insights and prayers.

As a mark of identification, every new Voyager receives a wooden Celtic cross inscribed with A and H, and a handbook. Each Voyager is accompanied by a 'soul friend' to help them on their faith journey. Ray keeps in touch with members individually by telephone and email. Each member works with a soul friend, and the community seeks to resource soul friends.

This close communication from the heart of the community means that people all over the world are finding a way to be part of church. Ray tells of a heavy metal band leader in Australia whose band is now a link ministry with the community, and of a cell church in Oxfordshire made up of members of different churches, which finds a coherence through membership of Aidan and Hilda.

And it is not just church members who find a spiritual home in the community.

Aidan and Hilda is a bridge for a lot of people who are very New Age or neo-pagan and have a vision of Jesus or are inspired by contact with the community,

says Ray.

One such woman was baptised in the sea after discussing the nature of church with Ray. Unable to commit to the church as she viewed it, she felt she could commit to the 'family and friends of Jesus' and even worship with them in places she might find difficult.

Until fresh expressions we would have said we were not a church, but I think now we realise that the universal Body of Christ is bigger than any one part,

says Ray.

Feltwell Chapel

When Matt Finch became co-minister of ten Norfolk Methodist chapels in 2002, he inherited a fortnightly Bible study among the largely elderly congregation of Feltwell Chapel. It was well attended by six members of the church and several others from neighbouring villages.

Matt describes the 15 members of Feltwell as having

a passion to do things differently.

The Bible studies provided helpful fellowship, but while undertaking a CPAS course on evangelism, 'Lost for Words', Matt became aware of a deep dissatisfaction among the chapel members. The course helped highlight the despondency people felt about the state of their church.

They asked, 'What can we do with this?'

he says.

'We can't do a mission course and not change.' There were lots of mumblings about church not being right.

What needs to change? 'We can't do a mission course and not change'

Matt took a big sheet of paper to a Bible study and brainstormed with the chapel members how they would like church to look in the future. He typed up the results, brought them along to the next meeting and presented the chapel members with a clear picture of their 'desire to be connected'.

They were there every Sunday but never connected,

he says.

They wanted to know who sat in church with one another.

At that time a building project was under discussion. Now it was scaled down – bar essential changes such as disabled access – in favour of instituting a new way of being together on Sunday mornings.

Feltwell Chapel - membersSuch was the enthusiasm that the new model of church began the very next Sunday with each member offering to take responsibility for certain elements. They each agreed to play their part in arranging coffee before the service, to sit around tables and to have an interactive sermon and shared prayer time. To meet all needs, traditional services happen on occasion, still around the café tables.

'They were saying they had always had baptisms and communion but not community. Now they are sharing each others' lives.'

Because I wasn't there every week it was hard, but a real understanding developed,

Matt says.

They were saying they had always had baptisms and communion but not community. Now they are sharing each others' lives. Some of the members pray together regularly, and they are in pastoral circles in which they each take responsibility for one another.

This recognition of a congregation's responsibility to care for one another without reliance on the minister is especially important in a rural setting where clergy are spread over several locations. A key lay worker has also undertaken a commitment to Feltwell to assist when the ministers are unavailable.

Matt describes the chapel as still

a long way from being truly missional,

but since its changes in 2005 several non-churchgoers have become interested. A baptism family was so 'blown away' by how the chapel had changed that the parents now want to marry at Feltwell and even, if possible, have a café style wedding.

Matt puts down Feltwell's growing success in building community to a new freedom on the part of chapel members to question and disagree with the preacher, and to a new involvement with one another.

They weren't happy with what happened on Sundays, but they still wanted to worship on Sunday mornings,

he says.

Feltwell's worship is culturally specific, but the underlying principle is of something that connected with them and helped them to love one another.

The UP dimension of church: The Bridge

This story illustrates the principles of The UP dimension of church in the Guide.

The Bridge, a community church of 65 adults and children in Leicestershire, began as the initiative of a Methodist minister in 1995. In 2002, the care of The Bridge was handed over to lay leader, Tim Lea, who works part-time.

The presentation of the Christian gospel has always been a central part of The Bridge’s Sunday teatime gatherings, held in a school. Until recently, communion was held just once a year on Easter Day. Now it happens four times a year. On occasions it has been an extended communion, meaning that beforehand the bread and wine are blessed elsewhere by an authorised minister.

The communion services are conducted in a variety of ways, some along all-age lines which, says Tim Lea,

the kids love,

others with an all-adult congregation. Four stations are offered around the venue (The Bridge meets in a school hall), and worshippers have the option to serve themselves or to receive from another person.

At Easter 2006,

we created a picnic atmosphere and re-enacted the feeding of the 5,000, including communion as part of it,

Tim says.

We had fresh cooked bread, Ribena and Schloer. You should have seen the twelve baskets left over!

The practice of communion is an ongoing discussion. We are still working out how it happens, who does it and what it looks like, but that is the beauty of being part of a creative, dynamic community.

The UP dimension of church: Heyford Chapel

This story illustrates the principles of The UP dimension of church in the Guide.

Heyford ChapelWhen an Alpha course on a north Oxfordshire housing estate came to an end during 2003, the 24 members wanted to carry on with their Thursday evening meetings, led by pioneer minister to the estate, Ian Biscoe.

Ian began to explain to the new Christian community – residents on an estate formed out of a former US air base – ‘what church means’, including communion.

The first time we talked about communion, I put out the chalice, patten, bread and wine,

Ian recalls. The community had been used to the Alpha tradition of eating together each week and rounding off with After Eights. Ian added a plate of After Eights to the display to demonstrate how communion would be a development of the sharing they had already experienced.

Everyone just sat and looked at the stuff on the table,

Ian recalls. The ensuing discussion showed that the significance of the display had not been lost on the new church community, but also that there was a strong feeling of unworthiness.

On a later occasion, the community was planning a celebratory meal. One member, a New Age seeker, suggested passing round bread and wine. Since Ian, a Church Army officer, is not ordained, he discussed the possibility with the ordained minister with whom he shares responsibility for the estate. They decided to turn the meal into an agape supper, which Ian describes as

a biblical re-enactment rather than communion.

Communion was a development of the sharing they had already experienced

I am very careful not to do what I’m not licensed to do within the Anglican church,

Ian explains.

So in the agapes I pointed out that we were exploring together what Christ meant.

On a later date, a clip of the Last Supper from the film Jesus of Nazareth was shown, after which bread and wine was passed, without liturgy, round a circle.

Both events were

hugely powerful,

Ian says.

They were clearly something very very important for people.

This ‘long period of time exploring together’ developed into a monthly service of communion which continues to be experimental. The ordained minister comes to preside, taking the service in a variety of Christian traditions – for example, fully robed, using Ignatian meditation, or in the Brethren style of approaching the table when ready.

This variety is important, Ian says, because of the mix of people within this new worshipping community (which meet in a former military chapel). Some of the 40-plus members have no church background, others a Church of England or Roman Catholic background, others a free church experience.

By developing its understanding of the significance of communion, this pioneering church is finding a way to become a sacramental community without a full-time ordained minister.