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Changing the landscape: making the mixed economy work

A national day conference exploring how the mixed economy can thrive in deaneries, circuits and synods. Working towards a church in which tradition and dynamism, established ministry and fresh expressions of church inform, energise and complement each other.

Hosted by Stephen Lindridge and Graham Cray, with a keynote address from Rowan Williams and interviews with practitioners, pioneers and those working with them, the day also included plenty of round table discussion (download a summary) and the latest Fresh Expressions learning, thinking and resources. 24-7 Prayer surrounded the day with a reflective prayer environment and lunch and refreshments were provided.

Addresses and interviews

Rowan Williams' keynote address (watch, listen to or read);

Graham Cray's keynote address (watch, listen to or read);

Shiela Porter and Chris Spencer discuss St George's, Deal with Karen Carter (watch or read);

Bart Woodhouse and Tim Crome discuss The Beacon, Dartford with Karen Carter (watch or read);

Paul Bradbury and Stuart Goddard discuss Reconnect and Poole Missional Communities with Karen Carter (listen to or read);

Mark Berry and Loraine Mellor discuss safespace, Telford and the Warrington Circuit with Karen Carter (listen to or read).

B1 – update Jan11

Jonathan Dowman became leader of B1 in autumn 2010. Here he gives an update on the fresh expression of church in Birmingham city centre.

B1 has been going since January 2001 when it started with a core group of 27 adults and 16 children. It really was a journey into the unknown as to what B1 would come to look like, but we knew that 'church' – as it had been done previously – simply didn't mean anything to for large sections of the population.

It was called B1, partly because it's the central Birmingham postcode, but also because it emphasised our sense of being community. We are very much a network church in that people live work, relax, socialise and worship in a variety of different communities or locations. In this day and age there is no longer the sense of common identity necessarily being forged through community; it is more about having interests and friendships in common.

The City Inn / Mint Hotel in Brindleyplace, a very smart, redeveloped part of the city, is where we meet on Sunday mornings and we will celebrate in all sorts of different ways.

We also run a cafechurch in Costa Coffee in the Bullring, Birmingham. Wherever we are, we aim to be a community where we ‘live’ God, live community and live differently. Thankfully our relationship with the management of Brindleyplace and local businesses like Costa Coffee is very good. The message seems to have been well received that 'we are B1, we meet in this area and we'd like to know how we can get involved with – and support – the wider community'.

Over the past 18months to two years, B1 has been in a state of flux but now we hope and pray to make the most of these relationships we have around us. Since I have been in post, I have been working – with the help of others – to put things on an even keel again and we now have some more regular worship patterns in place. A number of people left during that period but that’s fine as generally they felt they had done their bit, were aware that the call and the mission of the church might change in the future and often their own personal circumstances had changed as well.

In recent weeks there has been much more talk and discussion about what happens next. On the whole, the people still at B1 are those who would say, 'why would we go back to a form of church that we feel we were called out of?' As a result, people are now beginning to talk enthusiastically about what that means which involves exploring and listening and discerning our future path.

I believe that part of this involves finding out where there are already Christians in places of work and the residential area and how we might support them. This might give us a lead on what an expression of B1 might look like at midweek or lunchtime, for instance. It also means enabling one another to be B1 in our own networks throughout the city and living as a dispersed worshipping community. We would still have a core community gathering on a Sunday morning but now we can really take a fresh look at what it means to be a network church at other times of the week.

We have about 30 committed adults, some with families of children and others not. There is also one family with teenagers who worship at one of the big Anglican churches in the city; some families have left us in the past because we were unable to provide that level of youth work for young people of that age.

We are hoping to be part of the msm course in Birmingham towards the end of next year. At the moment we are looking at venues and times and we are very excited about that. There are some really great projects going on in the city but many people have been working in isolation, msm provides a wonderful opportunity to meet together.

A wonderful opportunity also presented itself when the Brindleyplace management gave us the go ahead for a public event at which we distributed candle bags outside Costa Coffee. We gave away 400 of the flame resistant bags which come with sand inside and a tea light. We wanted to offer busy shoppers the opportunity to have a moment of reflection while the light was glowing.

In 2011 we will consider where God wants to take the life of B1. Maybe there will be a moving away from organising 'events' as such to something very different. I wonder if there has been a similar change in many a fresh expression. At the launch of any group the natural inclination is to do lots of flyers and tell the world about it but now we're willing to say, 'let's see what naturally emerges as a matter of course and be willing to change our ideas and aspirations.' This in turn may involve adapting a slightly different approach to what we have had before.

Brindleyplace is a huge complex; along other things it is the base for the Sea Life Centre and many financial institutions. Much business is conducted here during the working week and it gets a lot of footfall. However it is all 'inward looking' physically with a lot of gated apartments; this results in it not easily relating geographically to what's going on in the wider city.

It is at the edge of the inner city parish of Ladywood and we get on well with the new parish vicar. His church is at the other end of the parish – another world economically and socially – so he is keen to work with us on 'church in the apartments'. He very much sees it as something that we could support one another in.

Something else to consider is Birmingham's ChaplaincyPlus which resources, encourages and supports Christians in the city centre business community. They have a group that meets in Brindleyplace and we will be thinking and praying about how we may be able to partner with them in some things too.

Church at The Centre

Church at the Centre (United Reformed), Tonge Children's Centre sees its mission as sharing the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Tonge Moor through worship, fellowship and action. Community Minister Pat Oliver explains more.

Tonge Moor United Reformed Church, Bolton, was originally founded as a Congregational Church in 1891 and is now a member of the Vision Pastorate with Rose Hill URC and St Andrew and St George URC. In 2000, the church reviewed its calling of service to the community and major issues were identified as a result:

increasing age and decreasing numbers of members;

burden of upkeep and unsuitability of a building over 100 years old;

call to work more closely with other churches and organisations supporting the Tonge Moor community.

Whilst many members of the fellowship had their roots in the Congregational and United Reformed Churches, many of them actually lived outside the immediate community and so did not share (as residents) the problems and aspirations of local people. It was strongly felt that there was a need for the church to be shaped by local residents into the form of fellowship which best suits the needs of the community.

The church responded by firstly inviting neighbouring churches (Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic) to create Churches Together in Tonge Moor. Then after taking advice on the potential uses and limitations of its existing building, the church also approached Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council and East Bolton Regeneration with a view to making the church's land available for the development of a Community Centre, which would include accommodation for the church.

In October 2003, after demonstrating a willingness to work alongside others supporting the community, the church was invited to join in the creation of a new Children's Centre to be built on the church's land and that of the neighbouring Tonge Moor Community Primary School. The fellowship adopted the name Church at The Centre, when the Children's Centre opened in May 2006.

Out of the church's desire to better serve its local community, the church identified the following aims for its Church-in-Community project, Building Bridges:

To counter alienation in young people and fear in older people by building bridges between the two age groups and developing mutual trust and support;

To explore opportunities presented by the Church's partnership with the Children's Centre;

Use this experience to identify and share ways in which other churches could become more engaged in the national Children's Services/Children's Centres initiatives in their areas;

To provide a model for other churches to shake off the constraints imposed by obsolete buildings.

The Tonge Moor project involves Age Concern, Bolton Council Children's Services, other denominations, local Residents' Associations and URC NW Synod (all represented on the Project Management Group). The church has developed financial management systems for its community support work separate from its life as a worshipping fellowship. This was done to facilitate access to, and eligibility for financial support from a variety of bodies.

The Children's Centre's main remit is to help 0 to 5-year-olds, their parents and families, but we work alongside them to provide some supportive extra glue eg. summer holiday activities for the older siblings of families using the statutory services, craft activities or just chatting with lonely young parents in the Centre cafe etc. I basically try to grasp every opportunity I can to support what's going on here. It works as a seven day a week operation, five days a week for children's services with a community café and activities on Saturday and our informal services on Sundays. We try to be open to and willing to take advantage of as many opportunities as we can to demonstrate the love of God in Christ in this place.

In terms of community development, it takes time to build up relationships so as I'm based in the Centre, I'm able to work with the Centre's community outreach leader to organise some events jointly – it is part of their community cohesion remit and it's our reason for being. We are also building a volunteer base, involving people from church and community, which will help us to offer long-term support in this area. I’m not into offering something that comes and goes very quickly because that builds on the low expectation that many people have around here. People are accustomed to things starting up and then disappearing without trace; this contributes to the feeling that 'we don't matter'.

Being based in someone else's building has required adjustments by the church fellowship. Even new members who never knew the old building have preconceptions based on the traditional model where a Church has control of its own building. We've had to learn to share. People now appreciate how hard it is to cross the threshold of someone else's building no matter how warm the invitation! This new Centre is far more welcoming to 'non-church' people and provides 'neutral space' for church folk to meet with others from our local community and this is happening more and more now.

A recent joint venture involved creating a mosaic on the theme of nature. Anyone who came in to the Centre via the café was invited to join in and it took us three months to complete. We had a community artist working with us and the result is wonderful – the folks who aren't used to being creative have something to be very proud of. As far as the theme of it is concerned, for those who have no faith it's nature, for those with faith it's creation. This is the best visual example so far of what we are trying to do together.

I think at the beginning of all of this people said, 'Let's have a church within a Children's Centre' but what that actually means in practice is very different to what some imagined it would be. It can be a challenge for many to realise that church can look very different from the way they might expect. Folk outside of our fellowship find it hard to take on board that we're all about supporting people in living as good a life as they can in their community.

If they ask us about our motivation, then we have an opening to tell them about the whys and wherefores behind it all – the faith that stirs us into this action. If they don't ask, we just get on with it knowing that in God's time our message will be received one way or another.

We have about 30 members and we are growing. Some of the new folk have come from very different sorts of church backgrounds, or from no church background at all but whoever you are, you still have to get through the doors in the first place. As a result, hospitality events are very popular and very rewarding. We work with the other Partners in the Centre on special occasions and we also have a hugely popular candlelight Advent Supper.

Weekend baptisms, weddings and funerals can take place here as in any church but, mid-week – thanks to an arrangement with the Centre Management, the same services are possible. When requested, part of the premises is closed and we use a different entrance, enabling families to have their ceremony on the day and time they choose. Thus far only funerals have taken place mid-week but who knows what the future will bring.

My role is not about me alone or about building church in its narrowest sense; it's about supporting all in the challenge of looking for where God's love is already evident and joining in, it's about all of us carrying God's love to where it's needed, and it's about us together building God's community wherever God calls it to be. Not an easy task… some of the challenge comes from those who say that if people don't become 'official' members of our churches then how will we continue as a denomination? Others ask, 'If you are based in a Children's Centre, do you get children coming to church on Sunday?

Church at The Centre believe that we are taking our worship beyond Sunday mornings and into the week, and sharing the love of God as we meet people in their everyday lives – just as Jesus did. We don't expect people to respond by falling in with past traditional patterns – all must be encouraged to worship in ways that suit them and their journey with God.

As we go forward we know we are totally reliant on faith and the way God works in the community through people who say they have no faith. Christians don't have the monopoly on God after all.

Grafted – Luke’s story

Grafted

Refresh, a fresh expression of church in the Scottish Borders, has grown out of the Church Army's Grafted project. Established in 2003 by Church Army officer Paul Little, Refresh continues to develop new ministries in the region.

I came to the area in 2001 straight out of Church Army college and my first post was as an evangelist in the outdoor centre here which belongs to Barnabas Trust, now known as Rock UK. We are 25 miles north east from Carlisle and 20 miles south of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, the very furthest tip of Edinburgh diocese. There's somewhere around 800 in the traditionally agricultural community though there is a lot of tourism in the summer.

I was placed with another officer and my brief was to be an evangelist on the site to the 9,000 people who visited very year but it soon became clear to me that the future job would be very different. God had called me here but it was to be for another reason and this started to take shape after I ran a 10-week course for six people recognised as most serious offenders in the youth justice system. During that time one did reoffend but otherwise everybody had a clean sheet and the police would ring up asking where they were! Basically it worked because the young people had something to do on a Friday which appealed to their sense of adventure and helped them develop skills at the same time.

They ranged from 12/13 year-olds up to 16 and were basically pre-prison status. It was an experimental last ditch programme and things have developed a lot more since then. Many of the young people I have met along the way are now in their early 20s and those relationships bring lots of opportunities.

Those first few years saw me heavily involved in networking with youth work, social justice projects and drug agencies so that when it came to running the stuff we are now running, there were already strong relationships in place and they were prepared to trust us. It may have appeared to be quite unfruitful at the time but those early links have become vital. Many of the people I first came across are now key decision makers and budget holders in the area but it all takes time and you have to allow that time if things are going to be effective. These days we get a lot of referrals from social workers – even though they know we’re Christian and we're trying to tell the Gospel. The local council also funds us to run the youth work in the village.

Grafted (Giving Hope to those Without Hope) is known locally for its work with people struggling with drug and alcohol dependency. Using outdoor activities such as canoeing, mountain biking and mountaineering, Grafted's Window of Time project helps to develop leadership and self esteem in those with poor basic and social skills, or those with learning disabilities or emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The project runs 5 days a week, including a drop-in on Tuesdays at Hawick Youth Centre. This provides a safe and supportive environment with opportunities to talk to others who have been able to overcome their own addictions and hear their stories. There is also a discussion group for those wanting to talk about issues of faith and the bigger questions of life.

Each Wednesday we encourage people from the drop-in to join us for adventurous outdoor activities which help promote an active lifestyle. These include hill walking, canoeing, kayaking, archery and mountain biking. Throughout the rest of the week, we support people in a variety of ways by attending appointments, accompanying them to court and showing kindness and support where needed.

We have an open access policy and anyone over 18 is welcome to attend.

Referrals and recommendations also come through social workers, health professionals and the Criminal Justice system.

The other strand to all of this is the fact that my wife and I joined the Presbyterian Church when we moved here. In fact I was actually preaching in a Presbyterian Church when I felt a strong calling from God to leave and begin another one. What sprang to mind was, 'Leave the 99 sheep and look for the lost one' from Matthew 18 and Luke 15. It sounds simple but I went through a year without going to church as an 'event' and instead learned about 'being' the church rather than 'doing' it.

Refresh Community Church in Newcastleton was the result of that period. About three quarters of the people who have come over all are non-Christians and we have grown to about 20 in number with some 60 people from the community involved in one way or another. There are also groups that meet under the banner of Refresh, all of which are missional because the people who make up the leadership are locals who have been through Alpha.

It's normal for them to do things that are missional but that is something else that has taken time as well. We had to be strong at one particular point because we found there were a lot of people who were already Christians attracted to Refresh and they wanted things to become more settled and comfortable. It meant we had to be quite firm in saying that we were called to be a mission group in the village. We work well alongside the Presbyterian Church but have always had this vision of Refresh as a lifeboat and we do our best never to become a cruise ship. That doesn't suit everybody but some people just want to cruise and enjoy all the benefits that brings.

When we meet for Refresh, there is usually discussion and some sung worship. We don't have anybody at all who is ordained – we never have had on the leadership team. Children's work didn't really take place in the community when we started Refresh but it is flourishing now.

Stepping Stones is church for two to four-year-olds and their parents and carers. This takes place each Monday and has become an integral part of the week for many.

Other children's activities include Boulder Gang on Thursdays and Rock Solid Crew. The groups are run in six week blocks and there are social events in between, things like games nights, activity sessions, movie nights and adventure walks. Each week we follow a theme based on a Bible story and a memory verse and we include games, worship, and prayer. We have an average of 25 primary school children coming along each week, with 16 of those not attending any other form of church.

In June we took a group of 32 of these young people to a Christian residential weekend called 'Spree'. They all had a great time and are already looking forward to going back next year.

More recently, and as part of Refresh, Deeper was developed for 14 to 19-year-olds in the village. Deeper is a home group for teenagers, which meets each Sunday in a Church Army house we have here. The aim of the group is to disciple the young people who come along and encourage them to grow deeper in their relationship with God. The evening consists of games, a talk and discussion with food. On average 12 young people attend regularly. We see youth work as a priority so we are looking at new ways of developing youth work for 2011.

At the other end of the age range, another group came about when Mary – a member of Refresh – felt called by God to invite the elderly people we visit each week to come to a regular tea party. Mary serves a home-cooked meal with plenty of cakes and scones for afters. Our guests chat to their peers and lifelong friends who they haven’t seen for years and this is sometimes followed by a short time of worship and a speaker talking about some aspect of their Christian faith.

Some of those at Refresh are still involved with their local church and we did come close to meeting on a Sunday because we wanted to reach families but we decided that wasn't the right way forward. We have explored, and continue to explore, a lot of options but the important thing is that we see ourselves as part of the one Church with Jesus at the head of it.

Holy Commotion

The parish church of Truro, St Paul's, closed in November 2007 but the parish of St Paul continues to exist and worship is now based at Archbishop Benson CofE School. Parish priest, Father Christopher, describes how it is also home to… Holy Commotion!

On alternate Wednesdays during term time, we get together in the school hall – a licensed place of worship – for a short, informal act of worship with songs, a prayer, a reading and lots of fun. Everyone is welcome and we always tells people that if they don't fancy formal Sunday church but want to explore the Christian faith in a familiar and 'safe' environment, Holy Commotion! could be just the thing.

Emphasis is on informality and the involvement of children. As a result we have a regular kids club with activities designed specifically for them. For those wanting to explore their own spirituality or beliefs, or specific aspects of the Christian faith, we run an Emmaus course.

Sometimes we have theme evenings at Holy Commotion when we get involved in other activities as part of our act of worship. Truro Methodist Church's Speaking in Drums group has visited us a couple of times.

As well as our regular Wednesday evening gatherings we also have social events for adults and/or children. It has come a long way since it first got off the ground a few years ago. I arrived here in 2003 and noticed that Christingle services always brought in so many people who would never otherwise come to one of our services. In 2006 the church was absolutely heaving with people; it was so packed we were putting visitors in the choir stalls and there was still standing room only at the back.

Afterwards I thought, 'This is incredible, where do all these people come from and where do they all go? Why are they happy to come to Christmas services but not at any other time?'

The answer, of course, was because they knew nothing 'strange' was going to happen. Even allowing for the fact that St Paul's is fairly strong Anglo Catholic – and people may not be familiar with that tradition – there was obviously a very different 'feel' about those Christingle services. People felt comfortable in coming to them.

In digging a little deeper about the whys and wherefores of it all we came to some serious conclusions about things we tend to take for granted in church circles:

The day: Sundays are not good days to get to a service for many people;

The place: Church buildings can be quite intimidating;

The time: 10am is useless if you're taking your children to play football or some other sport; or arranging to transport them from one place to another if they're going to see a parent who no longer lives in the same home as they do;

The formality of it all: Radical reassessment was needed because this thing called 'church' does not attract people in the same way these days. I have found that people of all ages, and whatever family or age bracket they happen to be in, are not averse to religion and spirituality but they don't like the way it is contextualised in institutional church.

So we decided to launch Holy Commotion! in the school hall. We now have a very committed bunch of people and the way we break it down generally is that I do the 'bits' that requires someone with a dog collar and they do the 'commotion'. It's very informal and, to my mind, combines the best of both worlds to establish some kind of early church model.

There was quite a milestone recently when we had our first ever baptism which means that people are now seeing that school hall as a holy, sacred place. They may not necessarily see themselves as Christians but they are interested in finding out about that thing called religion.

We worship, we pray, we sing, I talk to the children but the 'shape' of it is never quite the same! We also have a Eucharist from time to time. Holy Commotion! is all delivered on PowerPoint so people don't get mounds of books given to them; there is nothing scary about it. I find that if we take the scariness away, people really do open up.

We have children up to the age of 14 but don't seem to attract the older teenagers. In saying that, it has been successful beyond my wildest dreams in drawing people into the Christian family.

One of its wider effects can be seen in the number of baptisms having increased phenomenally across the benefice – most of whom are people who have come through Holy Commotion! and then fed back into other churches. It has also had an impact on my other congregations, we have introduced a fourth Sunday family service because the 9am Mass attracted one kind of clientele but it wasn't right for people with families. Now, after the Mass, the 9am crowd sit down for breakfast with the congregation arriving for the 10.30am service.

There have been some rumbles of 'It's all very nice but when are they going to come to proper church?' Well, Holy Commotion! is church and the fact is that these people simply will not come to what many think of as a church service. If they didn't go to Holy Commotion! they wouldn't go to church anywhere else – Wednesday has become the new Sunday for us.

I'm a high churchman and I was very much stepping out of my comfort zone when we first started – now I find it all hugely encouraging. The wonderful thing is that the people who come are here because they want to be here, not because they feel they should be here for whatever reason. Perhaps more importantly they tend not to come with any baggage, politics or prejudices associated with church life.

Holy Commotion! is quite intensive in terms of energy and resources – and of course I have the life of the wider parish to look after as well but thankfully, because this is 21st century, I can communicate with the Holy Commotion! people extensively via email, text or Facebook.

There's no doubt that we really need to be doing this, we need to be doing both fresh expression of church and traditional church. It's the only way forward. When we started I was quite keen that whatever was to be presented had to have some kind of liturgical structure. That wasn't so much based on a deep theological reasoning, more that it was a complete experiment so I just stuck to what I knew and put together a service that was sort of familiar in structure. This included a welcome, gathering prayer, hymn or song and a reading from Scripture – I wanted it to be recognisable as church rather than just a social gathering.

People didn't find it off-putting. Instead they took to it all immediately because we forget how unusual it all is – they have not heard the Bible read so it's great to see their reaction to something like the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Also to have teaching is unusual because they don't know about Jesus. To me, that's what it's all about, a fulfilling life with a spiritual dimension. On the whole they are truly intrigued by it all because they see it as something incredibly relevant to today.

It could have such a different story on the first evening… we got to about 6.25pm and there were only three of us there. I was just about to say, 'Oh well it was worth a try but that's that' and then suddenly everyone came in through the door and there were about 36 people in the room. Our age range is from newborn to a lady in her 80s, the number fluctuates – for our harvest social there were more than 70 but I would say we have a core of 50.

Perhaps a testing time next year will be when I take a six-week sabbatical in March. I've tried to do my very best to get the message across that Holy Commotion! isn't me, it's them. My own personal resources are limited and one of the struggles is to try and think of new things to do, coming up with the ideas is tricky.

We need to resource it with people from either Holy Commotion! itself or other local churches. There are sufficient numbers of them to do that and the shape and form of it can continue in my absence because they now have a template to work from but they can develop it in different ways.

Footsteps

Mary Styles, an ordinand with the CofE Diocese in Europe, is a Reader at All Saints Church, Rome. For the past nine years she has led Footsteps, a fresh expression of church meeting in two areas of the city.

Rome is the base for three United Nations agency headquarters and many international companies so there is a large English-speaking community here. Hospitality, friendship and fellowship are the basis of our ministry and, as a cosmopolitan group, understanding and celebrating other ways and cultures are hugely important.

When I first arrived in Italy I really noticed the difference in people's openness to talk about things other than the weather! In England it had been very difficult to talk about spiritual matters and no-one really wanted to engage with that. However, when people are away from their home 'territory' they are far more willing to discuss all sorts of matters.

Footsteps started because I was aware of the gap between these sort of discussions and the opportunity or space to follow them up. Since that time, some of those who have been part of Footsteps are churchgoers who have lapsed, others have been involved in church life for quite a while and there are also those who are not interested at all in attending a traditional church.

Whilst there is a good choice of established churches in the city centre, it became clear that there was no opportunity for worship in English in the suburbs and beyond (from where it can take one to two hours to reach the heart of Rome). It was also notable that many who expressed an interest in learning more about the Christian faith or coming together to worship were either not interested in – or disillusioned with – inherited church.

Footsteps now meets in both a northern and a southern suburb, Casal Palocco and La Storta, for informal worship in English and runs weekly Bible study groups and occasional Alpha courses open to all. We meet in people's homes, as families and individuals, to serve and reach out to our neighbours. Our mission is 'knowing and growing in Jesus, following in His footsteps and putting His love into action.'

We are all English speakers but that doesn't mean we are all British. Instead we have got people from every continent and denomination and as a result we have been very enriched by our Orthodox and Catholic members.

Dealing with ex-pats means there are large fluctuations in numbers because our community is particularly mobile; quite a lot are highly skilled professionals and they may be with us for anything from six months to two years before they fly off again. We generally tend to attract families with children; there aren't too many people of grandparent age.

We have what would broadly be recognised as a Liturgy of the Word where we sing songs, read the Bible and talk about what relevance the Bible has for us. We may also have a forum or discussion with different people leading it. People have come along through word of mouth 'advertising', in the past there have been very good mother evangelists at the school gate but we don't have many of those people at the moment so we are having to rethink how we get the message out. There is no big strategic plan; we do what we do depending on who is around at the time.

We try to keep the actual worship to an hour but there is always a time of fellowship afterwards with coffee and pastries. I have had lots of support from the local Baptist pastor and Methodist minister and my parish priest at All Saints has been very supportive too – though there has been the inevitable tension from some people in the community who say that we should bringing regulars from Footsteps into All Saints. On the positive side of things, we have got vicars and ministers who want to help us lead interdenominational worship because we are not linked to any one tradition. The only link is through me – who happens to be an Anglican Reader.

If I could go back and start it all over again I'd say it would have been better if we had put a proper authority structure in place; otherwise there's a danger of Footsteps becoming 'Mary Styles Incorporated' and I'd never want that.

I have been trying to prepare people for a handover in leadership but, due to the transient nature of the congregation, everybody I have trained as possible new leaders has left. As a result I am now trying to forge links with churches with a good organisational structure in order to help make the big decisions about the way we are going.

I have a leadership team and every now and we do gather as a group to try to discern prayerfully what we should be doing. The big challenge is for me eventually to leave Footsteps as something that is sustainable, something that continues with a life and energy and purpose.

Legacy XS

Legacy XS offers, among other things, indoor and outdoor skate parks, a recording studio, arts suite… and a youth congregation. Leader Pete Hillman gives the lowdown on its work in Essex.

It's never boring being involved in fresh expressions! When we first appeared on expressions: the dvd – 1 there was a lot going on but things have developed much further. The skatepark is still very much a going concern but we have also developed the building itself and now have outside ramps as well. There is a multi-use games area at the back for basketball and 5-a-side football and we fitted a recording studio and an arts suite with a dance floor so we can offer dance lessons. There's a café downstairs, Café Legacy, and a video editing suite that boasts £20,000 worth of equipment which we got with a grant from various sources.

There have been some difficult times along the way. The local council decided they wanted to begin charging rent on the land on which Legacy XS is built (an interesting move in the context of the 'big society!') and, as a result, we had to make the centre manager redundant. However, the council's decision made us take a fresh look at what we wanted to achieve with the skate park as a whole.

We decided to reduce the hours we were open to the public and instead of running our midweek sessions on a commercial basis we instead now operate them as cell groups organised by our team of youth workers. That has been running quite successfully on Tuesday evenings for young people from Year 4/5 up to Year 7.

Wednesday evenings are now given over to skateboarders, we started with very small numbers but this has grown steadily. Thursday night is a BMX cell and, again, numbers are very encouraging. On Fridays we have just started running a gym as a bit of a pilot project.

On Saturday and Sunday we can get 60 young people through the doors. It's interesting the response we get sometimes. For instance, a local Catholic Church gave us a large figure of Jesus made out of wicker which we put at the end of the skatepark on the wall – it is supposed to be a crucifix but looks more like ascension. A couple of years ago when one of the BMX lads was leaving, I was joking with him about me doing all the work around here. He said, 'What do you mean you run this place? I thought it was that bloke hanging on the wall over the ramp.'

The Legacy XS youth congregation itself has been much quieter and has shrunk down to a maximum of 20 people. How many of them are moving on in faith? Not many that we know of to be honest. It's better to tell the truth and say it is really, really hard to develop the youth congregation. The fact is that the measure of success and failure in God's economy is quite different. That may make it sound as if we are trying to cover ourselves but that's what we believe. All we say is that it's our job to put Jesus at the centre of what we do, for some young people that will be enough for now because maybe the time isn't yet right for them.

About three years ago we also launched Legacy Rayleigh which operates in the neighbouring town. It has its own full-time worker as part of the parish team there and has developed its own distinctive ethos. They too have mid-week outreach activities for different age groups as well as a cell group and Sunday evening gatherings for worship, prayer and teaching. It's another runner of the plant springing up somewhere new.

In other areas Legacy XS, now open for six years, continues to develop very well. Two years ago, the local county and borough councils and the Canvey Island Town Council asked us to be the lead partner in a drop-in centre on the Island. They came up with all the money. I reminded them that we are Christians and they said they had no problem with that at all. In fact I have never encountered a problem because of our Christian roots – quite the opposite. We have got another year or so of funding so we can now offer sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, after-school Saturday and most of Sunday.

The team does a lot of teaching work on Canvey Island and we also managed to get some money to buy a 33ft Winnebago-style vehicle to use as a mobile recording studio to go out into different areas. It's like a youth club on wheels.

Sustainability is always a big challenge. My curacy comes to an end in June 2011 and at the moment I have no idea what will happen then – hopefully something to help me continue with Legacy XS. It's always a struggle because youth congregations in particular are never, ever going to break even. The only way they will be self-sustaining is if they are delivering work on the ground that is recognised by secular funders. That's why we have to be clear about what we are doing and why we are doing it.

You really have to be an entrepreneur if you are going to be doing radical stuff; that can be seen in things like taking risks and being a bit creative about the way you describe what's happening and what you can offer. It's about being as wise as serpents and a bit shrewd about things.

People then begin to recognise what you are doing. The local secondary school is a Business Enterprise College and they now study Legacy XS as an example of social entrepreneurship. The fact is that I run a reasonably sized organisation and have learned to be creative – not just in the work itself but how I am able to develop ideas within the existing structures. Through my work as a school governor, I not only take lessons in Religious Studies but also in Business Enterprise. This is a time of great opportunity and we hope and pray that we can continue to make the most of them in all of our activities.

Rhythm of God and The Well

Tanworth-in-Arden is a small rural parish between Birmingham and Redditch. Paul Cudby, vicar of St Mary Magdalene church, explains what they are doing to reach those who don't 'do' church.

There is a large commuter contingent here and in many ways there is a sense of suburban-church-in-the-country about the place. We recognise that in a diverse culture we need to meet a wide variety of needs and so the pattern of worship varies across the month.

Rhythm of God (RoG) is a monthly evening service which we subtitle 'Contemplative Prayer Drumming'. Our aim is to use rhythm and the natural rhythm of words to aid us in a form of Lectio Divina – meditating on a short passage of scripture or a creed – in which the rhythm of a phrase can be played by the drummer as a way of taking the words down deeper into the soul, and as a leaping off point for worship. At the end of the session we sit in silence for a time and then anyone can share what they felt, experienced or thought during the service.

The numbers attending are fairly small but for some of them this is their only experience of church, which is fine because this is church. Specifically this refers to a number of teenagers who I initially met because they attended a weekly drumming class I run at the neighbouring church primary school. When they move up to secondary school they are invited to start coming to RoG, some of whom now do regularly. For most of them this is their way of seeing church and my co-leader (Tim Scarborough) and I recognise the missional nature of the service.

We have now got six or seven lads on the books with usually four of them there at any one time. One now helps us with our standard all age services but he finds that Rhythm of God is the place where everything 'joins up' for him. We are gradually evolving our own liturgy and also seeing some interesting outcomes. One of the lads is aged about 12 or 13 and when we ask for any responses after our silence at the end of the service, he comes out with some things that are amazing – quite profound and mystical.

For me, this is something that has grown out of a personal passion for music. I started playing drums when I was 16, later getting involved with percussion and I now play folk clubs and pubs across the area. Anyone coming to a Rhythm of God service will arrive about 20 minutes beforehand so that we can just play to warm up.

The Well, also monthly, is a service of contemporary night prayer and meditation with musical contribution from celtic harp, piano and percussion. Once again there is a strong missional element in providing a contemplative place to explore our relationships with God for those who are either uncomfortable in traditional church or not available on Sundays.

In each of these cases the numbers are small by city standards and some query the need for these services but that is the nature of rural work in my (limited) experience and there's no doubt they have become church and a spiritual lifeline to people.

We're also in the process of developing a contemplative Eucharist under our 'Soul-Space' banner (a name derived from Greenbelt and an explorers group we run) for those attending our youth group. Five or six had decided they wanted to be confirmed but for most of them, Sundays are not a good time. I said I would be very happy to have a youth group communion service in the vicarage for them once or twice a term – very quiet, very reflective, lots of candles and incense. At this point I have given them a reflective outline to consider what they would like to do with it. They are excited at the prospect and so am I.

24-7 announced as new partners in Fresh Expressions

Fresh Expressions today announced that the 24-7 Prayer movement has become a partner in the initiative.

Listen to Andy Freeman explaining why 24-7 Prayer are joining the Fresh Expressions initiative below.

24-7 Prayer is an interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice that began with a single, student-led prayer vigil in Chichester in 1999. It has since spread to more than 100 countries.

The movement has given rise to numerous new initiatives, communities and ministries particularly focusing on the poor, the marginalised, students and those outside the reach of normal expressions of church. The missional communities, inspired by ancient Celtic monasticism, are generically known as Boiler Rooms though they may also be known by a local name – such as Houses of Prayer.

Andy Freeman is on the 24-7 Council and pioneered the first 24-7 Boiler Room in Reading, overseeing the development of similar communities across the world. He is now training for ordination at St Mellitus College while developing Reconcile, a mix of an Anglican fresh expression and a 24-7 community.

Andy said,

Conversations have been going on for some while between Pete Greig, director of 24-7, and Bishop Graham Cray as leader of the Fresh Expressions team, about the possibility and potential of partnership. I had also talked to Bishop Graham about it in relation to my own training as a priest. The result was that it felt like the right time, something that God wanted us to do.

There are a lot of parallels between the work of Fresh Expressions and 24-7. I think the biggest one is that fresh expressions start with the process of listening. This listening to culture, listening to what's going on and listening to each other is also very important within prayer rooms and nearly all of our communities would have started from that same place.

Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops' Missioner, commented,

I am delighted that the 24-7 Prayer movement is becoming a partner in the Fresh Expressions initiative. 24-7's emphasis on prayer, spirituality and mission exactly accords with ours, and will strengthen us as we develop patterns of discipleship for fresh expressions of church and as we engage with young adults.

Andy Freeman sees further similarities in work relating to training, how to stay flexible and mobile while working alongside more established forms of church, and enabling continued thinking on associated ecclesiology and theology.

We are really interested in how we can help Fresh Expressions, but I think we are also conscious how Fresh Expressions is going to help us too. In particular I hope that prayer rooms could be part of the listening process for people on the ground wanting to build mission communities and fresh expressions. I'd also love to see ways in which younger people could get the opportunity and be given the permission to start fresh expressions of church. To play our part in the Church's continued change and growth in its development of the mixed economy will be very exciting indeed.