Category: Ben Edson

Ben Edson completes his look at the fantasy cycle and fresh expressions. You can read part 1 here.

I have previously considered the Anticipation, Dream and Frustration elements in a framework called the fantasy cycle of: Anticipation – Dream – Frustration – Nightmare – Death wish. Now I'm looking at the remaining stages in relation to fresh expressions of church.

Nightmare

The nightmare doesn't necessarily lead to death wish. The cycle is still breakable and death is not predestined. Nightmare comes on the back of frustration and I think it is a stage that we need to go through.

It's hard to qualify what makes for a nightmare. My experience was that it involved a variety of factors until, one day, the realisation hit me that things were tough. There may have been suspicions about it for a while, but all of a sudden you're firefighting and those hopeful dreams seem so far away. I feel the nightmare is the hardest stage to break because usually there will be associated pastoral crises that need dealing with as well. 

It's not simply a case of re-ordering, as that only serves to paper over the cracks. It's doing the hard work with your community that exposes you to the brokenness of the cross. It's the time that you cry with people in their brokenness and your brokenness; it's the time that you realise that it's not all easy. Yet, perhaps the hardest thing about this stage is that you still get the 'tourists': those looking to see the dream and not finding it.

Death wish

I'm all for death – I think that it can be liberating for a fresh expression – but we should not assume that death means there will be a resurrection. Death is death.

I also think that the death wish may be something that different people go through at different times, in part depending on their role within the community. For example, my leaving Sanctus1 involved the death of my life in that community – yet the community carries on. The community is bigger than the pioneer. The death wish was individual rather than corporate; the danger is making a personal death wish corporate.

However, there is also a time when a personal death wish needs to be worked through for the sake of the community; a time when we put our struggles and frustrations to one side as we're in a different place to the rest of the community. If we don't, we'll drag the community down with us.

When the death wish is corporate I think that is when it needs to die. The cycle has come to a close and the community ceases to be. Death is death.

At risk of repeating myself, I think that the cycle can be broken but the key piece of discernment is when to break that cycle and what to move into afterwards.

Ben Edson begins a look at the fantasy cycle and fresh expressions.

Recently I've been thinking about life cycle and fresh expressions of church, with specific reference to a framework called the fantasy cycle. The cycle (though not very cyclical at all) is: Anticipation – Dream – Frustration – Nightmare – Death wish.

Anticipation

I think there is the danger that we front-load with anticipation. Typically, a person, if training to be an Ordained Pioneer Minister, will do two or three years of theological training before they actually start something. This is all about anticipation; they're dreaming about what will be and what will happen … anticipating. At the same time, a permission giver is dreaming up possibilities. Anticipating.

One obvious problem with this is that when the pioneer arrives they are immediately in a goldfish bowl of their own expectancy and the local expectancies. When I was first employed as a pioneer in the city centre of Manchester, there was no Mission-shaped Church, no Fresh Expressions and no expectations! Just realistic hopes.

If the community is indigenous, then this anticipation is part of the formation of the church, happening as it does in the birthing community. If anticipation is part of the cycle, then I think that it should be done in context. It is a time of dreaming in community and of working out the possibilities, but it is predominantly about trying to live that anticipated dream.

Dream

The dream stage is not when you're dreaming about all the possibilities; it's when you're living the dream. The fresh expression is flourishing; there is energy and excitement about what the future holds and all that you seem to touch turns to gold. Please note … it doesn't last!

However, the problem with the dream stage is that it creates unrealistic expectations as to what the fresh expression will be like in the long term. People start to think that it will always be like this, always be easy, and hence when things change – as they will – the memory of what has been becomes a powerful comparison to the present. The dream is an unsustainable phase; it attracts the consumer rather than the disciple and hence the dream needs to be a phase of high cost discipleship.

Frustration

I think it's no surprise that Frustration comes straight after Dream. In many ways the dream opens our eyes to the possibility of what could be, perhaps in a somewhat utopian way, but nevertheless once the eyes have been opened there is no turning back. Frustrations come because the dream will not last for ever, and hence I think that the first point of learning is to let people know that!

The challenge is negotiating a pathway through the frustration that does not necessarily lead to death. We accomplished this a few times when I was with Sanctus1 by reinventing ourselves; this would happen through a change in group set-up or venue. This seemed to re-energise people and bring the Dream stage back. However, this was temporary and we still remained in the cycle, the real challenge being to break it and move into something more permanent.

I'm becoming more convinced that the way in which the cycle will be broken is by a process of aggregation with the wider church. It will be an aggregation process that involves both parties learning together so that the fresh expression of church can move out of this cycle and move towards something more permanent. In the Anglican Church, ways in which the fresh expression can break the cycle may involve a Bishop's Mission Order or paying into the parish share. Without this reference to something 'other', I think that the fresh expression may become too self-absorbed and concerned about reclaiming the dream.

Next week, Nightmare and Death wish…

Ben Edson explores how to manage provisionality in a fresh expression.

After eight years of pioneering and leading Sanctus1 in Manchester, I decided that it was the right time to hand the community over to a new leader. Three months ago I left Sanctus1 in the capable hands of Al Lowe and became the Diocese of Manchester's Fresh Expressions Missioner.

However, I continue to reflect on my experience of Sanctus1 and one area that I've been thinking about is provisionality. I was recently told that the city centre residential community of Manchester has an annual people turnover of 30% – almost the entire community changes in a three year period. This was something that I observed during my time with Sanctus1 – approximately every two years 50% of the community would change. People who had been part of the community for more than four years were a rarity.

This transience created a fragility as people moved in and moved out. New people bring new energy and new life, but losing more established people all the time is draining on established people within the community. It is hard when you build community with one group and then that community disappears around you and a new one forms. Comparisons are always made with what the previous community was like and memory can be rather utopian.

A further reflection is how draining it can be for people who have been part of the community for a number of years, when they are dealing with the same questions that they have dealt with a few years earlier. Questions of identity, faith, purpose, belonging, etc, that they wrestled with before are revisited. This is an important process for the current community, but slightly frustrating for those who have been part of the community for a number of years.

It is also often the case that those who have been established for a number of years carry a lot of the responsibility of the community. When they do not see this level of commitment being shared by others, who are relatively new to the community, frustration can occur.

These are some of the challenges of church in a transient culture. I think that one answer is to develop a corporate patterning of spiritual life – patterns that allow for the instability of a transient context and church. I don't think that we got this right in Sanctus1. It's the tension of catering to the new people, the mission field, whilst nurturing patterns of spirituality that sustain those who are more established.

Ben Edson explores being called to the centre.

The rhetoric of this second phase of Fresh Expressions seems to place a large focus on embedding fresh expressions in the ordinary life of the traditional church. Fresh Expressions, as an institution, is moving towards the centre. My personal vocation has always been to the edges, and hence I personally react against this move towards the centre. It may be that the move towards the centre is correct for Fresh Expressions, but my question is whether this centripetal movement is missional suicide for fresh expressions. 

When I began ministry eight years ago, there was no Mission-shaped Church report, no Fresh Expressions, no mixed economy, no Ordained Pioneer Ministers, no Bishops' Mission Orders; it was an exciting time as we broke boundaries and defined church alongside the traditional pattern. In the past five years all these areas have been developed; many resources have been poured into them as the edges have been pulled towards the institutional centre. The edge is now neatly defined by its relationship to the centre rather than by those outside the church. Fresh Expressions is mainstream.

For many spiritual searchers and post-modern pilgrims, the mainstream nature of Fresh Expressions is deeply problematic. Many questions will be asked such as: 'Do I want to be part of a mainstream, hierarchical institution?' If the answer is no, then we will have failed in this part of the missional task and so, whilst I recognise the importance of the relationship to centre, it seems that we need to nurture the new emerging edges rather than the edges defined by the centre.