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(Youthwork) Youth congregations: right or wrong?

Should we have distinctive congregations for young people or not? Is it better to have all ages together in the local church at worship? Bishop Graham Cray – Archbishops' Missioner, leader of the Fresh Expressions team and Chair of the Soul Survivor Trust – explores the often thorny subject.

What is the logic of youth congregations? Does it mean that we end up with children's church, youth church, 20-30s church (with no-one there…), middle-aged church and elderly church?

To make matters worse, should there be black church, white church, Chinese church, rich church, poor church and computer nerd church? (The fact that some of these actually exist does not answer the question about God's will and the purpose of his Church.) What does each generation lose if it is cut off from the others? How is the reconciling, barrier breaking work of Christ's cross to be experienced and demonstrated?

The answer lies in mission, unity and diversity.

Underlying this very practical issue are a number of important principles about the nature of the Gospel, the relationship between mission and unity, and the nature of unity and diversity in the local church. The danger is that an emphasis on mission alone can result in a fragmented church where no one has significant relationships with any Christians from a different generation or fragment of society. Equally, an emphasis on unity alone can restrict mission to 'people like us' or 'people we can cope with'. Or it can lead to disaster because no one had thought how young people, or young people from a different background, could be integrated into existing church life and culture.

I once asked a youth minister if his middle class youth fellowship and the members of his estate youth club ever met one another? His reply was that they did – and when they did they threw cups and plates at one another! If we want unity we will also need to have diversity, whether it be within a congregation, between linked congregations or between sister churches. I will take a look at these apparently competing principles later.

Reaching and keeping

In 2002, in a Grove booklet about Youth Congregations and the Emerging Church, I pointed out that they had emerged as a new feature on the Church's landscape for two main reasons:

As a practical way to keep young people we might otherwise lose. This was not paranoia. In the last two decades of the twentieth century the number of children and teenagers in the UK churches halved. It was not easy to keep existing young people in the churches and it seemed far easier to win young people to Christ than to integrate them into church;

A missional motive, as well as this pragmatic 'survival' one. Young people were on the cutting edge of the massive shift in culture, which many people have called modern to postmodern. Western culture was changing and the gospel needed to be preached and the church planted into the new world, which was emerging. Inevitably the first fully integrated inhabitants of that new world were young people, hence youth congregations. Those youth congregations whose members did not all leave the area for higher education at 18 could be expected to develop into all age congregations within the new culture. Some – notably Soul Survivor Watford – have done precisely that, while retaining the priority of winning teenagers for Christ.

But what about today? There are still, sadly, churches which still have not been able to integrate young people into their weekly life and worship. In my previous role as a bishop in Kent I sometimes met congregations who wanted young people to attend, but entirely on their own terms and without any will for change. It is a fundamental principle about the body of Christ that new members, whatever their age, automatically imply change. New people have to be considered as decisions are made, and space made for new gifts and insights. So when it comes to the eternal salvation of teenagers I am a pragmatist. I would rather have young people meeting and worshipping separately than be lost to the church and possibly to Christ.

On the other hand the recent study on The Faith of Generation Y – by Bob Mayo, Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Sally Nash and Christopher Cocksworth – shows that many of today's teenagers are not put off the church. They don't know much about it and are not at all adverse to intergenerational activity, partly because family is so important to them. If church is really functioning as the family of God there are good reasons to believe that more local churches should now be able to integrate young people than was the case a decade ago. The gospel of reconciliation to God is mean to be demonstrated by visible local reconciliation with one another.

The 'distinctive' argument

I would also caution against too much use of the idea that each generation is distinctive, and thus needs its own version of church. It is one thing to point out that, when there is a culture shift of the sort that occurs every few centuries, innovative mission will be needed among the first generation to be shaped by the new world. It is another thing altogether to imply that the distinctive features of each generation are more influential than features held in common, and is such that each generation needs its own church! There are always generational distinctives, but that alone is not the basis for segregated congregations.

Some youth workers make the mistake of assuming that the young people they serve must see things the same way that they did, when they were in their teens. They had angst about the church so their young people must as well. That is not necessarily so. Beware of generational theory. It was developed as a marketing tool and should not be used uncritically by the Church.

A third way

Despite all that I have said so far, I still believe there is still a vital role for youth congregations today. They should not just be a last resort for churches that can't keep their young people any other way. They are appropriate mission initiatives in their own right. Many churches in the UK use a cluster of approaches for mission. They make their churches as welcoming and hospitable as possible and invite friends to events and courses, aiming to help them to both believe and belong. This is just as appropriate for young people as for any other age group. But churches also involve themselves in their communities to demonstrate the gospel through loving service, and thus make new friends to invite. Various forms of youth work can act as one of these bridging projects. There is a third strategy complementary to the first two. It begins by asking the question 'Who will never be reached if we only do what we are doing now?' and results in the planting of new congregations, with a different ethos, designed to reach those untouched by existing local patterns of church life. We call these fresh expressions of church and it is my role nationally to resource the Church to plant them.

Youth congregations are one of many examples of fresh expressions of church – as was made clear in the Mission-shaped Church report in 2004. The underlying principle here is not generational. It is a God given passion to reach those with no connection to church and little knowledge of the gospel. Fresh expressions of church might be identified with an activity (such as the surfers of Tubestation in Cornwall); a vocation, an institution – maybe a workplace, school or college; a particular neighbourhood or any other way in which human beings form community these days. There are plenty of intergenerational fresh expressions but there are also, and need to be, youth specific ones as well. Sorted, a youth congregation in Bradford is a good example. It began with relational evangelism at skate parks, is now involved in two secondary schools, and is recognised as a church by the diocese.

Teenagers can and should be integrated into multi generational churches. But some churches are not anything like multi-generational. They have ageing congregations into which it would be extremely difficult to integrate younger people. It may be too late. It might be better to plant something younger, and begin again! We should work for an active partnership between existing patterns of church life and fresh expressions of church in each area. This combination is often called 'the mixed economy' church. All dimensions of this mixed economy need to win and disciple young people. It is not either or, it is both and.

The theological rationale for this is found in the relationship between mission and unity. Christ died for 'all' so that 'all things' could be reconciled to God and forgiven people to one another. Those who have received the gospel of reconciliation are in debt; they owe the gospel to those who have not heard it. As a result there can be two equal problems about unity in the Church. One is that those who are already Christians may not be united. They may be more content to live and worship in groups defined by their particular culture, rather than by their shared identity in Christ. But there is an equal problem.

Even if all the Christians in a place were united across the generations and all other cultural differences, that unity might not be broad enough, because of all the groups who remain completely untouched by the gospel. The first problem would be solved by finding appropriate ways to express unity and interdependence, the second can only be solved by outreaches to untouched groups – sometimes by an appropriate fresh expression of church. So innovative mission is meant to create problems for unity, and unity is meant to challenge fragmented mission. Youth specific congregations are one of the tools we need to re-evangelize a nation in which the vast majority of young people have little meaningful connection to the Church, but all cultural specific congregations – including the elderly ones worshipping with the Book of Common Prayer need to have a real connection to the rest of the local church or churches.

Up, in, out, of

Every congregation needs four dimensions – up to God in worship, in to one another in community, out to the world in mission and of the rest of the church in partnership. Unity can be embodied in many more ways than all being in the same worship service. It might mean joint service to the local community. Soul Survivor's 'Noise' weekends were designed for young people but in many places all generations now share in what the young people began. It might mean a prayer evening or 24/7 prayer week in which all generations join. It might mean having a really good intergenerational party sometimes! It sometimes means young people being mentored by older members of another congregation of the same church. It might equally mean members of a youth congregation visiting elderly or housebound members of a sister congregation. Unity is about real relationships, not about always being together in the same time and space.

There are a wide variety of possible models. A youth congregation can be one of a number of interlinked congregations of one church, A secondary school based youth congregation can have strong links to churches in the communities and youth ministries where the students live. An Anglican deanery, Methodist circuit, or ecumenical group of nearby churches can run a combined youth celebration with youth cells within each participating church. A youth church plant can sometimes grow into an all age congregation. A multigenerational church can have, as its primary calling, the winning of unchurched teenagers for Christ – such as St Laurence's, Reading.

There is no simple one size fits all, answer to 'Youth congregations – right or wrong?' In some contexts they are vital – or whole groups of young people will remain untouched by the gospel! The mission of the church requires them. In other places they are unnecessary as intergenerational unity is achievable, and disunity would impede the mission of the church.

All mission requires discernment – listening to and following the missionary, uniting, Holy Spirit in the local context is the only safe way to decide.

Hope Theatre Café – update Mar11

'Quite a lot has changed since our story was first told to Fresh Expressions,' says Anne Middleton. But the Hope Theatre Café organiser and her minister husband, Revd Darren Middleton, are delighted that the major difference comes in the shape of their 13-month-old daughter Grace…

This year we have a limited season of events in March, June and July; partly because it is just so difficult to organise anything with a baby! But also because Darren and I are putting on a Passion Play in the circuit in the week leading up to Good Friday.

Our first event this year will be on March 5 with Silhouette Theatre Company. We'll then have a break in April and May for the Passion; then we welcome Lantern Theatre Company in June to perform The Hiding Place. Gospel illusionist Steve Price will be our guest in July.

We are still at Christchurch URC/Methodist in Fairwater, Cardiff, and the URC have been brilliant at funding us as a mission group. They gave us quite a large grant to set up the café in the first place and then we had another grant to help us get, amongst other things, a projector; this will also mean that we can offer film afternoons for older people in the community.

We have had two successful seasons of Hope Theatre Cafe. We continue to see it very much as a place where people can bring friends and family. For instance, a lot of husbands come along who don't go to church because Hope Theatre Café is very 'neutral' territory. Someone has even said, ironically, 'you wouldn't get me in a church'. We are in a community hall building so they don't think of us as being 'church-y' at all.

A few of those who have been to a performance then come into the church but it's a very gradual process. The local Churches Together group is very supportive of what we do and see it as a local resource.

It's encouraging that the Hope Theatre cafe team is growing. It's good that two couples from the church have committed to helping to run it, along with the faithful woman who organises the refreshments. Darren is training the two men up to do the technical side of things. At the moment no-one wants to take on the organising of the theatre bookings but it is good to see these other leaders coming through at this stage. I really hope that they will step up even more this year as it's possible that Darren and I will be moving on in two years. It is our hope that Hope Theatre Café will continue without us.

Hope Theatre Café

On the first Saturday evening of each month from February to July, Christchurch URC/Methodist Church is transformed into a café style performance venue. Revd Darren and Anne Middleton explain more.

The audience will be seated around small tables and treated to free tea, coffee and home made cakes! The café will open at 7pm and the performance will start at 7.30pm.

Each month there will be a different professional Christian performer – theatre company, singer, musician or mime artist to name a few – who will share their message of the hope that they have in knowing Jesus, through their chosen art form. The performance will last for about an hour and a half and will be followed by a prayer and an opportunity to stay to chat or pray with someone if they wish.

The reason for Hope Theatre Café is that we want to provide a non-threatening venue to invite the local community to hear a message of hope through the accessible medium of theatre and the arts. The arts have a way of transcending barriers, of reaching the bits of us that other mediums just cannot reach. We have nothing against preaching a good gospel message but we have both been involved in theatre and the arts for many years and have experienced how powerful they can be.

If this article or our interview on the podcast has excited you or left you wondering what on earth we are on about, then come and visit Hope Theatre Café at Christchurch URC/Methodist Church. Come and engage ALL your senses: smell the coffee, taste the wonderful baking, see the transformation of the building, and feel the stress of the week drain away, as you engage with the hope we have in a wonderful saviour.

Xpressions Café

Xpressions Cafe in Norfolk aims to offer church for those who don't do church. Richard Seel explains how that happens through a number of different 'zones'…

Our safe space is provided by our café, Xpresso, which we hold downstairs in the church centre attached to All Saints, Chedgrave. We have made a deliberate decision that we don't 'do religion' in Xpresso, instead we offer a warm welcome with free tea and coffee, home made cakes and Sunday papers. In this way it becomes a place where anyone can feel comfortable and at home.

Xpresso is open from 9:30am to 12noon on the first Sunday of the month and people come and go as they please. A menu on each table gives details of the events and activities going on in what we call our different 'zones' – namely Xpressions, Xplore and sometimes Xperience. People choose when, or if, they want to find out more about these areas:

Xpressions, upstairs in our church centre, offers activities and worship for children and families. With story, song, craft, activity prayers and much more it provides an environment which appeals to many unchurched families;

Xplore, in the church people building, offers different acts of worship, reflection, discussion around the theme for that day's café. Everything in Xpressions Café is lay led and devised. The clergy act as 'chaplains' to the teams which do the work.

Some come only to Xpresso but, of those, a number are now prepared to venture upstairs with their children to sample Xpressions or to go into the medieval church building for an Xplore session. We are particularly successful in attracting young families, most of whom are unchurched, the rest being dechurched.

Although at first sight, Xpressions Café might seem to be attractional since we use church premises, its aim is missional. We do not see Xpressions Café as a stepping stone to 'proper church' but rather we are looking for ways to develop it as church for those who come and for ways in which we can help people along a road of discipleship.

One way that we are looking to do this is by challenging those who come to the café to get involved in some community action. In other words, we are looking to juggle the believing/belonging/behaving schema a little further by suggesting that some people may start behaving before they belong or believe; others will take a different route.

It all started in December 2007 and at one of the very early meetings we had about Xpressions Café – when I was trying to explain what it was and the vision for it – one of our church members said, 'That's all very well but where is the Gospel in it?' What they meant to say was, 'Where is the preaching of the Word in this?' My answer was, and is, that all of it is the Gospel.

There has been discussion also about whether our worship sessions are more 'seeker' than 'alternative' in approach. The fact is that they are a bit of both though not attracting the 'typical' kind of alternative worship age group or set of people. We do use a lot of video and interactive stuff but, on the other hand, we do lead from the front which is sort of 'seeker' in style.

That is partly due to environment, we have to work with what we've got – which is not necessarily what we want. It's no good for us to say, 'I wish we didn't have any sort of pews in our medieval church' – even though they are actually Victorian interlopers in the space. We just have to get on with it. There is a 'front' to the church and there are pews and we have to work within that context.

However, people don't have to stay in the pews of course. For instance, we asked people at an Xplore session to write down their favourite section of the Bible. There is a mixture of Christians and non-Christians in this group so it's interesting. We stretched out a washing line and pegged their Bible 'bits' onto it in chronological order to give an idea of development so Creation was down by the font and Revelation ended up near the Altar! It was a great visual aid.

We now have a core congregation building up, mainly made up of young families. The café is part of a much wider strategy which sees us building connections and deepening and enriching them all the time.

We have a group called Noah's Ark, for pre-school children and their parents and carers, running in Loddon – the next village to Chedgrave. They are getting upwards of 50 there on Wednesday mornings and, for the last six months or so, there has been a time of worship in an adjoining room. More and more people are starting to go through to that. As a result Noah's Ark is on its way to becoming a fresh expression of church too.

One of my visions is to take the principles of Xpressions Café outside the church. When I first started investigating the idea of a café church it seemed to me that many so-called examples were in fact 'ordinary' church with the only difference being that the congregation sat at tables with refreshments for the service but we were looking for dechurched and unchurched.

That's when the notion of different 'zones' came up with Café Xpresso as a 'neutral' place where God's presence is demonstrated by extravagant hospitality. We have now extended that idea once a month after Noah's Ark by having Xpresso 'Souper' Lunches with great soup, great bread and home-baked biscuits. A lot of the parents and carers – and their children – are staying on for that.

There are so many things I'd like to develop further, like doing Xplore on a Thursday evening in a pub or developing the contemplative side of things in Xperience. There are lots of people for whom contemplative spirituality is their thing but they don't realise that the Church has 2,000 years of it to share.

However to develop all these things, leadership is key. Some of our participants are just starting to become leaders or take leadership roles. It is a slow process but encouraging to see it happening at all.

Somewhere Else – update Mar11

Ian Hu is Methodist minister at Somewhere Else – Liverpool City Centre Methodist Church. Ian tells how the 'bread church' has developed since being featured in expressions: the dvd – 1.

I was Superintendent Minister in the Liverpool South Circuit when Barbara Glasson, the founder of Somewhere Else, was moving on. I was in the third year of a five year post so was not able to be considered for the 'bread church' but, in the end, the community was unable – through the normal Methodist procedures – to secure a minister and the church got permission to advertise the post nationally.

When that happened, I could throw my hat into the ring. I did, went through the process, and eventually was asked if I would become the minister here.

I'm a long way from home in that I'm originally from San Francisco, California, but was recruited by the British Methodist Church to come to England. After serving as an Intern in the Preston Circuit, Lancashire, I was asked if I would take on a full post.

Following discussions with my family and church authorities, I made the move to Merseyside. Things have moved on quite a lot at Somewhere Else since it was first filmed for the DVD; I would say the main difference is in the community's overall maturity. The team of volunteers here have really gelled together and it's kind of a well-oiled machine. There was proof of that last summer when I took my sabbatical leave and, while we had ministers from all over the region coming in and assisting on bread-making days, it was really the core of volunteers who held everything together and kept it running – something they did so very, very admirably.

There is a really strong core team of volunteers and we hold regular training sessions on all kinds of areas, from food hygiene to troubleshooting in the bread-making process and group dynamics to health and safety. What is interesting to me is the make-up of the team; I would say that probably at least 75% of people who volunteer here are aged 25 and younger.

They come from all sorts of backgrounds. Some of them are Christians and there are lots of denominations represented; others have had exposure in their childhood to the church with some people coming into Somewhere Else who are at the very early stages of identifying and being able to talk about their faith and to really understand what makes them tick.

We continue to gather as a faith community around the making and sharing of bread. We have the bread-making every Tuesday and Thursday and it is very rare that we don't have at least one person who has never been here before. The session is open to the public and anyone and everyone is welcome to come up the stairs and join us. We've got single mums, single dads with kids during school holidays, job seekers, the homeless, all sorts of people.

We also have retired people who come in and help and there are a lot of regular care groups. Care agencies helping people with learning or emotional difficulties bring their clients because there's a great opportunity for them to develop social skills and they really like what happens here.

Our worship time – for someone traditionally churched – does not resemble standard 'preaching from the front' church worship. It's scripturally based but is very much more in a discussion format; as a result we try to ensure that everyone feels safe within the worship space so they can express what they're feeling or how they're responding to the scripture.

This community sees it as important that people don't debate points within the worship. We are here to share and to feel safe rather than to argue a point home. This community likes to light candles when lifting up intercessions, joys, concerns and celebrations – it's just part of the personality here. Some people among us like to light a candle but prefer not to put their intercessions into words and that's perfectly fine too.

A large group of the regular bread makers will participate in worship though some people choose not to. They prefer to stay in the bread-making room and help those setting up for lunch at one o'clock.

A question that comes up quite often centres on whether we are an ecclesial community or another social agency? First and foremost I think this community places its priority on being a church. It would see the entire process of community building and faith sharing and story telling that happens around the bread making table to be an all encompassing Christian experience – including the sitting down for a communal meal together.

We make great efforts to ensure that those selling the Big Issue along Bold Street and a regular core of homeless persons and rough sleepers in the city are aware of us and know that they can come up at one o'clock and get a really warm welcome and a hot meal. We let them know that it's their choice to come up when they choose; some people we see quite regularly, others we will see occasionally and there are those who come in cycles. One thing's for sure, if they haven't been here for a while and they do come back they are instantly recognised and given what we like to term 'outrageous hospitality'.

Each Tuesday and Thursday sees a different community because we never know who's going to be here during the day and I would say probably one of the most exciting things about my post is being able to witness that and to see the dynamic as to how that plays out.

We do regard our communal lunch to be quite special because we have people sitting together around our table who wouldn't normally be together at all. We always have home made soup and fresh bread rolls made by us that morning. It's a wonderful, wonderful time. We also continue to meet on the third Sunday of the month to worship in fresh and creative ways.

As to what happens next within this community, we are actively looking ahead by taking the opportunity to look at where we have been and what challenges are in store for the future. One of the key issues is location. I would say that every square inch of space is utilised and there are times when we do get a large group visiting us and it can be quite a challenge to make sure that everyone's accommodated appropriately.

There is a very, very synergistic relationship that was established from the beginning with the News from Nowhere bookshop which is the owner of this building. They are fabulous but basically the ministry and the mission of this place is evolving and we have to seriously consider what happens next. Another factor is our working closely with ecumenical partners – the Church of England and the United Reformed Church in particular. There are some very close ties now and this community is looking at how those ties can help us to strengthen the Christian witness in Liverpool city centre.

It's exciting for me as the minister that the entire community is taking that on board because it just feels like we're listening to the Spirit and intently praying for guidance.

I'm here for a five year post but at the end of my fourth year the community and I will talk about whether or not that post would be renewed – that's the normal process in the Methodist church. There's no doubt that it is a challenge and it's an entirely different dynamic working in the city centre but it is great and I feel like I've quickly become part of the furniture around here.

We get a lot of visitors from all over the country. They have read about Somewhere Else – in Barbara Glasson's books and elsewhere – seen the Fresh Expressions DVD or heard about us through word of mouth. We also do a lot of training and we have had placements here for people training for ministry in the United Reformed Church, the Methodist Church and the Church of England.

We are aware of several other communities who like to use the 'bread church type of ethos' – there's one in Ellesmere Port and another in the city centre of Chester. They're both doing quite well so it's good to know that Somewhere Else is inspiring similar initiatives along the way.

Immanuel Church

Graylingwell Chapel, in the centre of an 85-acre former hospital site in Sussex, had been derelict for years when Steve and Sarah Flashman first saw it. Now – as home to Immanuel Church – it's on course to be the spiritual heart of a landmark eco-friendly housing development. Ministers Steve and Sarah discuss the turnaround in fortune.

Immanuel Church was actually born fifteen years ago, long before we were on the scene, when a group of people in Chichester started meeting in someone's home. The church soon grew and people felt that God was calling them to work in partnership with St Paul's Church in the Winterbourne Road area of the city. Meeting at St Michael's Hall, the church outgrew the facilities there and after a long period of consultation and negotiation moved into Graylingwell Chapel. The idea was to create a vibrant new community base open to all.

Immanuel Church at Graylingwell Chapel is not a Parish Church. We are in the parish of St Paul's, Chichester but we are becoming a Bishop's Mission Order and have been given a special brief as a 'network church' and 'missional community' to live out our Christian faith in ways that connect with people in this area. This means we can develop new forms of church whilst respecting Anglican traditions.

Seven hundred homes will be built on this site over the next seven years. Graylingwell Chapel had been disused for eleven years by the time we first saw it; previously this late Victorian building had only been used by staff and patients of the NHS hospital here.

We came to Immanuel Church as ministers four years ago to live on the Winterbourne estate which is a mix of social housing and student lets. We chose to live on the estate because we felt it was really important for us to be incarnational and live with the people we serve, our home is right by what is currently a fence surrounding the Graylingwell site. It is possible to see the Chapel from where we live – though it was a bit difficult to do that initially.

When we first drove up to Graylingwell, the whole area was a mess and you couldn't really access the chapel building at all but we managed to make our way through the foliage to get to it and we could see the vision even then.

As a result we started to establish a relationship with the developers, Linden Homes, and also got in touch with the architects and the site's owner English Partnerships (which became part of the Homes and Communities Agency in December 2008). A public consultation was held before moving forward with the development and some 200 people came to the site's old theatre building.

Plans were outlined for what will be the UK's largest carbon neutral development. All the homes are planned as energy efficient with heating supplied by a central heating and power plant as part of an on-site energy centre. The idea is that it would be a benchmark for future sustainable developments across the country.

The architects put up big sheets of paper and they asked us all to write our own dreams and visions for this site. We wrote that our dream was that Graylingwell Chapel would become the community's spiritual heart.

Later, during the consultation, the development team stood up in front of this packed crowd and said that when first researching their design ideas, they came to Chichester and could see the centre of the city was in the shape of a cross with roads from north, south, east and west meeting at the Market Cross near the cathedral. They had then drawn a line through the centre of a map showing the Graylingwell site and discovered – from aerial photos – that the Chapel building was at the centre of it all. They then said they hoped it would become the spiritual heart of Graylingwell and they drew a heart around the Chapel on their PowerPoint map.

We were astounded that they used the same phrase as we had written down a little while earlier! The image of the heart has since become the church's logo.

The developers and architects also emphasised that they wanted to connect Graylingwell with Winterbourne, saying the communities needed to be interwoven. To illustrate this they drew a line to show where the cycle paths were scheduled to run – one was a direct route through what had been an old orchard from our front door directly to the chapel door. We took it as such an encouragement that this was definitely where God had called us and wanted us to be.

It helped us in developing relationship with all of these key people that we could point to the community work we were already involved in. Our Winterbourne Wonderland event on the streets of the estate involves games for the children, refreshments, food, a live band and a specially built grotto for Father Christmas.

And in the middle of the summer, we bring the seaside to Winterbourne Road with our Summersdale Seaside Special. We bring in sand, a huge Hawaiian backdrop and 'beachside' cocktails. Apart from the street parties, we also run a fellowship group in an elderly care home; have a social outreach clear-up group, and lots of other things.

There is no focus to the community around here. We only have one shop on the estate and it's the place where people meet – and kids loiter outside. At the time of building relationship we knew we couldn't develop a geographic focus but we could create a focus for something good. It was, and still is, important that the community feel they can 'own' what we do. Thankfully there has certainly been proof of that along the way.

When we moved in to the chapel building in Easter 2010, all the church turned up to clean the place and we came across a lady we didn't know doing the hoovering! It turned out that the church had helped her to clear and tidy up her garden and she wanted to give something in return.

We also have a New Community Rock Choir. Fifty eight people signed up for it and only a handful has any link at all with church but this is most definitely 'their' chapel.

The fact is that since moving in here we've had one miracle after another. Linden Homes put in a temporary electricity supply but didn't have permanent lighting. Then a member of our church was driving along when he saw lights being put into a skip. It turned out a school was being refurbished. He asked if he could have them for the church and he drove off again with all the lighting we needed.

A couple of weeks before we were due to move in, it was suggested that we might have to pay £10,000 a year to use the place! Some of our people were not at all sure about continuing with the whole thing but we said, 'This is the vision that God has given us and we will still move in on Easter weekend. If He wants us here, he will provide what we need.' The Monday before moving day one of the directors of the development company contacted us to say, 'We have decided we are not going to charge that figure. For the next two years you can use it for £1 a year.'

We are developing relationship as well as developing trust both with the community and those involved in delivering this scheme. We were able to put together quite detailed business plans for what was then English Partnerships and this really helped them to recognise that we were serious about the whole thing.

The idea of denominations or different streams of church is completely incomprehensible to many. If you mention to a lot of people in this area that we are from the Church of England, many wouldn't really know – or care – what that means. If people do have a view of what Christians were like, it would tend to be a stereotypical one of 'wet fish handshakes' and blue anoraks. There is no expectation of anything different.

It was at the Bishop of Chichester's invitation that we started on the route of becoming a Bishop's Mission Order. There had been difficult times before Immanuel Church was formed, its beginning was born out of pain, but Immanuel wasn't formed as an alternative to another congregation. Its growth was very organic and developed naturally. It had also always remained within the CofE's Canon law so the BMO offered an opportunity to embark on a new stage of Immanuel's journey.

Immanuel Church, in all but its direct governance, is sympathetic to the CofE and the BMO acknowledges that some churches are seeking a form of official recognition that falls into the Order's bracket. It’s all about restoration, reconciliation and healing.

We are very missional with Graylingwell and since we have moved here, the culture of the church has significantly changed. About 120 adults are now part of the church with attendances of roughly 100 on Sunday, plus children. We're now praying for new growth from people coming in as converts and there are good signs for future relationship building. Linden Homes has set up a Community Development Trust and a community development worker is using the Chapel for parties for new residents. Our youth and children's work currently takes place in a double decker bus parked alongside the Chapel. We bought it on eBay and later this year we do hope to go on the road with it.

The building itself will be restored by Linden Homes at an estimated cost of £300,000. They will start to do that when 150 houses have been built – 70 have gone up so far. We will remain in the Chapel while works continue, all of which will be in line with the carbon neutral development around it.

In thinking about the fresh expressions way of being incarnational in a setting rather than being attractional and bringing people back into a church building, it's all about knowing your context. For us here we recognise that one of the things that draws people in is the Chapel itself because they are curious to see what it's like. You can't always work to a formula of getting out and staying out. Many are coming to the church because of its community arts emphasis. You have got to know your own community and recognise where people are at as well as having a real Spirit-inspired vision.

Graylingwell Chapel is the new community venue in Chichester but we can see a time, as the site develops, when additional communities could well become those little churches that are very typical of fresh expressions. This might be seen as 'Chapel Central' to a network of churches.

We still find it amazing that it was the secular community of architects and developers that set Graylingwell Chapel's agenda as the spiritual heart. They want to create something that is very contemporary, very alive. In turn, people have picked up on the welcome, the friendship, the atmosphere of the place. It is easy to become concerned that they will be put off by liturgy, the way we worship, what we say in a sermon or whatever but we shouldn't assume that these things are barriers. Instead, friends and friendship are often the keys to them coming in the first place and then coming back for more. We have got to live community and give people a glimpse as to what that means – that's the heart of the Trinity after all isn't it?

Warham Community Church – update

An update to the story of the Warham Trust in Winchester Diocese, featured on expressions: the dvd – 2: changing church in every place.

The Warham Trust was founded with the permission of Winchester Diocese in the early 1990s as a direct result of house groups and Alpha courses reaching people who did not feel that they 'belonged' to any particular church. The first part-time Missioner was appointed and Sunday services were held at Wootton St Lawrence, gathering many new Christians together from a wide geographical area.

Various midweek events were held, including further Alpha courses, Marriage and Parenting courses. The core group of Warham members continued to expand, and under the leadership of two further Missioners, numbers grew.

As members' faith deepened, so did their desire to serve in their local communities and churches. The decision to move Sunday services to the afternoon released many people to their local churches, whilst still having the opportunity to maintain relationships that had become so important.

In 2009 Malcolm Duncan was appointed as Chaplain and Warham Trust became the Warham Community Church. The Church seeks to serve communities for Christ by:

enabling discipleship through teaching and training;

connecting people who hold a shared vision;

supporting mission as a lifestyle.

As a new leadership structure was introduced, Elders were recommended and recognised and a system for Church membership as 'Partners' was approved. In July 2010 the decision was made to stop Sunday meetings altogether and concentrate instead on providing an opportunity to bring friends along to midweek meetings held on a monthly basis in different locations within the area that Warham Partners live. Guest speakers are being invited who are known locally or nationally.

After an inspiring and invigorating time for the Warham Community Church, Malcolm Duncan left at the end of 2010 to pastor the Goldhill Baptist Church. The Elders decided that it was not a good time to appoint a new Chaplain whilst the Partners re-focus on the new Church mission, but will review this decision later.

Although there is some unhappiness at the ending of Sunday services, many Warham Partners are now focusing on supporting local churches, community activities and charities. Pastoral support increasingly comes through membership of small groups.

Warham Trust

It's many years since every country estate had its own church. Now, Malshanger House, just West of Basingstoke, has opened the doors of its clubhouse for the Warham Trust, an Anglican fresh expression of church in rural England.

The idea has been that we should be a fully-fledged church in our own right, at the same time as many of our people belonging to their local churches,

explains Peter Irwin-Clark, the vicar of the Warham Trust.

For the vast majority of our 100 or so core members we are their first church, and about one third of those don't belong to another church at all.

Beyond that inner circle we have contact with another 200 or so who are infrequent attenders at our worship-services but may come to one of our small groups or a midweek teaching meeting.

Earlier in the autumn some of the members were confirmed by the Bishop of Basingstoke, reinforcing the clear connection with the established church.

On Sundays, Warham holds Liquid Church — everyone worships together for much of the service, but, in the middle, disperse across the estate to different sessions offering a variety of topics and styles (including a non-verbal Creative Workshop).

On Wednesday evenings, a daughter congregation meets in Padworth, where 40 to 50 people come together for worship and small groups. The more-than one-centre element is part of what makes Warham different.

This approach to Sunday worship seems to be attractive to all ages. The clubhouse is set out in café-style and provides easy access for people in wheelchairs. This (with the excellent bacon-butties!) encourages a relaxed atmosphere, and it is less disruptive if, for example, a young child wants to walk around.

It is natural for people to stay around after the service because the church is set out so informally – and in such a beautiful setting no one is in a hurry to leave anyway!

This story was originally published in expressions: the newspaper – issue 3 (spring 2007) and features on expressions: the dvd – 2: changing church in every place.

All Saints Wingerworth

Are people coming to faith through Messy Church? Do they really become members of the wider Church as a result? Revd Dr Jo White, Rector of All Saints’ Church, Wingerworth, tells how they responded to those questions through Messy Confirmations.

At the end of January we held a Messy Church with a difference. Five children took Communion for the first time, two people affirmed their faith, two were baptised and then joined eight more to be confirmed while a further person was received into the CofE!

We had been talking with people about this service and encouraging adults to take responsibility for their faith in a variety of ways for a while but how did it all start?

Someone said they'd like to be baptized, and that set us thinking. We know that for adults the Church of England likes baptism to be linked with confirmation, but how would that work in this context? We'd held a Messy Baptism for a new baby to one of our existing families last year – so how about a Messy Confirmation?

The idea took off big time – as did the questions, 'Will I have to come to church on Sundays in future 'cos I work that day as my husband's at home to look after the children and so I can't do it.' 'Me too – I feel a fraud as I only come here and not to 'proper' church – it's just it reminds me of when I was a child and that was a terrible time for me.'

The comments just kept on coming… 'I want to get confirmed here, even though I live two hours away – I was brought up here and my family still live here, but above all these are the people who make me feel I belong.' 'I heard my brother's getting confirmed, so I'd love to do it with him.' 'This is the time for me and God. I do really want to come, I really feel 2011 needs to be a year when I reconnect with the church and my faith, too much has come between us of late.' 'I was confirmed as a kid, but I don't remember it, I wish I could do it with you.' 'Well I'm Catholic, but this is really my church now.'

So we spoke about Communion. What should we do about the bread and wine? We've never 'done' Communion before. When would you like to take it, at the confirmation service itself or shall we get together a few days later? Let's go for it! What about the kids? (In this church you have to be baptised and over seven years old) Hence we started preparing them too!

Needless to say, everyone who came to this service did know it would be different and longer! The key pressures came from balancing the need of the Bishop to follow the 'law' of the Church of England and our wish to make the service accessible and understandable for the majority of the Messy Church congregation who are either children or have none or little experience of 'formal' church. How do you make such a huge formal service needing loads of preparation and 'serious' thinking accessible to all of us at our different stages in our faith journeys?

At the rehearsal we realised that only one person knew what 'the peace' was. Things that church regulars take for granted, prayers that they know by heart, are unknown territory for most Messy Churchers and could easily divide the congregation in a service – which is exactly what we do NOT want in Messy Church.

We pared the service requirements to the bone, chose the shortest Communion Prayer and then added opening and closing prayers that were in everyday but in very meaningful language; trying hard to keep the theology of the occasion without dumbing down or making it so simple it was meaningless. We wanted this to be a memorable time for all those involved – in a good sense!

The service sheet, more of a book really, included absolutely every word and instruction. But it did mean that everyone could take a full part on an even footing. We made sure that there was a regular churchgoer you could follow if you got lost at the front of church and said so in the 'Welcome'.

We moved everything we could out of the 'service' section – like the prayers – and into the 'activity' section that comes first; trying to shorten the service without losing any of its meaning or worship elements. The children brought forward, as they often do, a collage of all our prayers written on paper cut-outs of our hands and glued as feathers on a dove. Come, Holy Spirit!

We chose songs that we often have at Messy Church and included some simple new ones either with a tune already known or that we’d introduced at other services in recent weeks.

A few weeks before Messy Church, Rt Revd Humphrey Southern – the Bishop of Repton – asked everyone being confirmed or otherwise involved to write a few lines about themselves and he wrote a few for them. On the day he arrived in good time to join in with all of Messy Church, including the activities in the first element of our Messy service, and chatted with everyone including the candidates all together. This set good practical examples of relationships which passed on to the service itself.

We began the service in the same way as usual, casually, with no 'procession' – and me, as minister, in my 'home' clothes. To save time, the Bishop was robed from the start, and I popped mine on during the first song. There were two Welcomes, first one from myself and then one after the first song, from the Bishop. I gave the practical details whilst the Bishop reinforced the views that all are welcome, there's not one way to 'do' church, and we all worship a living God in our own ways at our own levels. In other words – we may have a bishop, we may be dressed differently, the service may be longer BUT it's still the Messy Church we all know and love.

Bishop Humphrey's address talked about faith being in different layers and each one has value in itself – you don't have to wait 'til you get to the middle to get the gift. He'd brought 'Posh Pass the Parcels' which had a gift under each layer, just like our faith, so wherever we are faith has value and each layer brings surprise.

The taking of Communion was done kneeling or standing at the altar rail. We decided not to use sidespeople to indicate when to come up but to leave it open. In the event I (as the Rector) acted as maître d' in the sanctuary while the Bishop gave bread to everyone and two lay assistants gave the wine. In this way I was able to 'introduce' the Bishop to young children by name and tell him a little about those who were not taking Communion but had come up for a blessing, and just about everyone did come to the rail. His prayers of blessing were then made by name and were very specific for that person. The sight of him walking on his knees to give blessings at that rail to the many children squeezed alongside each other will stay with me for a long while.

So 75 minutes later (it's usually a 20-minute church service element) we went to eat our buffet tea together that our wonderful cooks had prepared. Something for everyone and a large celebratory cake with coloured icing that the Bishop cut – a final sharing. We're still smiling at the experience and wondering when we can do it all over again.

A key component in bringing all of this about was that 18 months ago, with the help of a diocesan mission grant, we created a new post here – Connecting with Families Co-ordinator (CFC): and that person has since been accredited by the Diocese as a Lay Minister in Fresh Expressions after completing the mission shaped ministry course.

Early discipling, encouragement and support takes dedication, time and vision!

Now we need to create something for those now recently confirmed or otherwise involved who are thirsty for more but still don't want or can't make Sunday services or more 'formal' church. At the moment we're thinking of late evening weeknight services, including Communion sometimes. Suggestions for inclusion welcome.

Side Door

The Side Door Youth and Community Church, featured on expressions: the dvd – 2 and once threatened with closure, now attracts more than 150 people – aged between 4 and 95 – every week. Circuit youth co-ordinator Elaine Watkinson explains the turnaround in fortunes.

Side Door is based in the Laceby Road Methodist Church building. Laceby Road ceased to meet in May last year but the community church is open seven days a week, running a variety of different groups on the Nunsthorpe estate.

The changing status of Laceby Road prompted fears that Side Door would also have to call it a day but Grimsby and Cleethorpes Methodist Circuit decided to allow a year's trial from March 2010 to prove that we could become self-sufficient and secure its future. Our members are now responsible for maintaining the building, setting budgets and keeping accounts.

The Circuit has supported us very well and provided oversight of all we have done. The first months of being sole trustees were extremely successful and it has been marvellous to make the most of any opportunities that came our way. Of course we didn't have to wait to get permissions to try something; it was up to us to get on with it! Having the freedom is excellent but we still need an income from the building for it to be worthwhile.

The local YMCA now uses our building once a week and so we have been able to engage with all their young people, we even did a panto with them. Here is a church that is 'being' church, 'being' outreach, affecting the lives of ordinary people on the street. That's why I can find it so difficult when we seem to be continually questioned as to whether we're really 'church' or not. It seems particularly odd when there so many churches which cannot lay claim at all to 'being' outreach or affecting the lives of ordinary people and yet their status is never queried.

The situation will be reviewed at the end of March but, at the moment, we continue planning on being here for the foreseeable future because this is a live and going concern.

It's an awesome responsibility, an albatross of a responsibility at times, because the Laceby Road building is a huge, rambling place but is also so right for what we are doing here. I wouldn't say we 'wanted' the building but we do need a base and it's perfect for that. There was a time when we would have fitted in a tent on the lawn outside Laceby Road but there's no chance of that now!

We are very forward looking and intentionally missional because we know this building has got to earn its keep. We are not going to meet that by relying on a membership of 25, many of whom are at university, or short of money, or older in years. We are very reliant on God's grace.

We have a church council and everybody who comes along to The Side Door is, more or less, on the church council and our leadership team. They can't all vote of course but they do all have a say. There are about 35 people who come regularly to worship with us and that's great.

Side Door started as a project but developed into a church. We had our outreach before we were a church, which is the opposite way round to the way it usually works. It officially remains a Circuit-based outreach more or less owned by the church. Some churches can exist without outreach. We can't. Now the outreach needs the church, they are inseparable.

We are open every day of the week at some point in the day and the breadth of people we are in contact with is staggering because of all sorts of activities. It may be something for children aged five and over, lunch clubs currently attracting people up to the age of 95, and the YMCA crowd which include that missing generation of 30-somethings.

We are still very much focused on reaching young people but others are now being drawn in. There is a community event on a Wednesday lunchtime where those in their 40s, 50s and 60s come along from the local estate to sell items of their personal clothing or belongings in an auction. We were unsure of letting it go ahead at first and we were quite uncomfortable with it but this is something that is very much needed in this area and now we are so glad we said yes because we have been very blessed as a result. All sorts of conversations are now underway that we would never have had without it.

Those on the estate will, in all probability, not be moving on from there because many will not have that freedom of choice. Those people are now saying to us, 'We want to spend time with you.' The mindset has changed completely. In turn we have to be prepared to cope with ways of thinking or doing things that we may personally find difficult or strange.

There are pressures involved in all of this, of course there are but we all feel called to be there. No-one is here out of duty, we are here out of love. We are as vulnerable as any other church but I'd say the difference is that we are very aware of the need to avoid complacency. There's too much to do and too many people to reach.