There is no culture-free Christianity. An important emphasis of the fresh expressions movement is for the church to take appropriate shape for the culture which it is engaging, while remaining clearly Christian and also demonstrating Christ's reconciling work between cultures. All of this is demonstrated in Sanctuary.
Christ's body takes shape within cultures and bridges cultures.
It is relatively easy to establish a short lived event. It takes time and patience to develop a long term, sustainable, fresh expression of church.
The story of St Peter's in the Pub embodies a number of principles which are applicable to many, many other parishes: Openness to try something different to reach those unreached by existing work; the importance of training and some consultancy (msm courses are being offered in many parts of the country); listening to local people and establishing Initiatives which serve the community; matching gifts with opportunity; the creation of a regular congregation with patterns for spiritual growth; formal recognition by the diocese (BMO) and a joined up strategy with the rest of the parish. This is not rocket science. It is patient prayerful mission.
Graham Cray reflects on the story of Church on the Bus.
Church on the Bus wonderfully embodies a number of principles which are essential for the Church's mission.
This is 'go to' mission, rather than 'you come to us' mission. If the bus turned out to be in the wrong place in each town, it is easily moved to where the people are. The bus does not exist for the convenience of the team, but of the people it was set up to serve. The same should also apply to our less mobile buildings and resources.
This is 'word and deed' mission offering food, clothing, friendship, counsel and the good news of Christ. The gospel is put into action and words carry authority because they have already been backed up by deeds.
And this is mission echoing God's heart from the poor and excluded. You get the sense that Jesus, not just the Archbishop, is at home on the bus! Not every church can have a bus, but every church can ask the questions, 'To whom can we go? How can we serve? And where can we gather new people around Jesus?'
Graham Cray reflects on the story of St Paul's Café Church.
Fresh expressions of church develop one step at a time. Long term blueprints don't drop out of the sky! First the nursery contacts, then the Earlybird cafe, then Café Church.
The, as yet, unanswered questions, like how to develop a depth of discipleship in this sort of monthly congregation, will unfold in the same way, as long as St. Paul's stays faithful to what it has learned already.
Perhaps the most fascinating question is how will Café Church help to reshape St Paul's in the future?
Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops’ Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, looks at how a fresh expression of church can both continue and develop after its founders move on – and that the gift of pioneering has little to do with age.
GraceSpace in Bradford is 'a church for people who don't go to church.' It started life five years ago when Andy Bowerman was appointed as Pioneer Minister and he, and his wife Ali, set up the Vicars Café in Saltaire with a vision to create a community in the Aire Valley. The Café continues to operate today, providing a 'third space' where people can enjoy hospitality while building relationships and sharing God with those who are interested. When the Bowermans moved to Dorset, the Café became a social enterprise with a project manager.
Colin and Katy Blake arrived in 2009. Colin had been ordained for 27 years and, at 59, thought he was 'one of the oldest pioneer ministers in CofE history!'
A four month gap between Andy leaving and Colin arriving meant that the community dissipated – with only six or seven people turning up at the licensing service to represent GraceSpace. Colin said,
Many people associated with GraceSpace related to Andy and Ali very strongly but it was clear, when we came on the scene, that they weren't relating to each other in the same way. As a result we decided not to get involved in lots of missional activities initially; instead we wanted to help people to get to know each other.
Mine is a five year appointment and we knew it was vital to get strong building blocks of community in place right from the start. We moved a lot of events away from Vicars Café and hosted them in our home. We began to meet together as a group around meals. Food and drink became the staple of what we were doing and when people eat together, somehow there is a little heaven in the ordinary. The number has now grown to 25 with many people coming who have either been bruised by church in the past or with no previous experience of church at all. They range from families with teenage or adult children through to people in their 50s and 60s. We also have about 10 younger children, aged from two to 12, coming along with their parents. Some come as a result of personal invitation from a friend though many have turned up as a result of the information and publicity we put out through our website.
A turning point came when GraceSpace came up with the idea of a different meal theme for each Sunday in the month. On the first Sunday we have Breakfast when people turn up at 10am to help us cook breakfast together; we will then organise a spiritual thought or reflection while we're eating. The whole thing can run for about three hours as people often want to stick around and discuss things.
The second Sunday is Lunch. This starts at 12.30 and people bring different foods around a theme so we might have a Chinese meal or what we call 'Yorkshire food' which means three types of curry! Everyone takes part; we don't offer separate things for different ages.
The third Sunday is Tea or 'Creativitea' at which we bring along cakes and biscuits and make big crafts together from 3pm. I'm a regional co-ordinator for Messy Church but we don't have enough space to run a Messy Church. However, Creativitea is a variation on the theme because we do have a celebration, activity and food as part of the mix. The adults are happy to join in with cut and paste but generally they want to make things that will last, something with a purpose.
The fourth Sunday is based around supper time at about 6pm. It is called Ikon; this is more reflective and allows people to share what comes out of that time together. Typically they will have bread, soup, pate and cheese at that one. When there's a fifth Sunday in the month the children choose what the adults have to do on that day and tell us what the spiritual element is going to be.
We also offer Explore sessions during the week. These are cell church like in structure but are about Bible application rather than Bible study, giving the opportunity for a much more interactive approach. It's all about giving people the freedom to have different opinions. It's no good saying, 'this is the only answer to this passage'. Instead I approach it as, 'I know what I think this passage is about but tell me, what do you think?' It's about trying to step back, not telling people what to think but allowing them to grow.
At the end of 2011, Colin had to take some time off work for health reasons but he was very encouraged to see what happened at GraceSpace while he was out of action.
The people have been brilliant,
he said,
offering their homes and their skills to keep things moving along. My absence prompted the devolving, training, encouraging and mentoring of new people into leadership. For this fresh expression to develop we want to create another network of community – a second GraceSpace and, for that, we need leaders but we have also taken a long, hard look at our purpose in all of this. It can't just be to build community. How do we look outside and make a difference?
Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops' Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, explores the story of Night Shift at Hereford Baptist Church to see how the clientele of a fresh expression of church may change but its core ministry – to reach those unreached by other forms of church – remains the same.
Mair Granthier is one of the organisers of Night Shift, which runs on Saturday evenings from 12 midnight to about 3am when the church's front entrance is opened up so that those in local pubs and clubs can finish their evening with a hot cuppa or coffee and a chat.
As part of the regular Night Shift team since it started just over nine years ago, Mair has seen many changes and met hundreds of young people – and some not so young – during that time.
A small team of volunteers are on duty every week to provide a welcome for anyone who comes through the door. Since Night Shift was featured on expressions: the dvd – 1: stories of church for a changing culture, the process remains the same and what's on offer remains the same but there is a significant drop in the numbers of those coming in.
Mair puts this down to several key things,
The licensing hours have changed so people filter out of the venues at different times and local fast food outlets now have to shut by 1.30am so you no longer have huge queues of people waiting for their fish and chips. However, the fact that fewer people are coming in does offer greater opportunity for us to speak to them. Looking back on those early days it was more like crowd control! Week by week, we continue to feel that there is a reason why we are still around. The clubbers now expect us to be there – though it's not just clubbers we serve. We also have the homeless call in on us and people who would be seen as the misfits of society; they view Night Shift as their 'night out' or at least a place – maybe the only place – where they can feel welcome.
Another thing we've noticed more recently is the increasing call on team members' time, which unfortunately limits their availability. The needs of the people we serve don't change so the availability of sufficient staff is really important to us. We always try to have at least three or four on duty at any one time and there's probably about 10 people involved all together.
We offer hot drinks, toilet facilities, and a safe warm place to sit, wait for a taxi, eat a burger or rest their feet. We've also had people who get thrown out of clubs; they come in to Night Shift and text their friends to tell them that they are 'at the church'.
Some of them we see very regularly, in fact we know most of our visitors by name, but a lot of those we used to see don't tend to go out drinking any more but will occasionally drop in and say hello. We have built up a lot of friendships over the years and it's great to see how people are getting on. We’ve also had parents and grandparents of young people say to us how good it is to know that there is somebody trustworthy there to help their kids or grandkids if they get into trouble on a Saturday night out.
We have come to accept that Night Shift really is church to quite a few people, and even if they only come in for 20 minutes or half an hour they know who we are and why we do it and who we do it for. There was great joy at Christmas when we gave out carol sheets to them and we all sang favourite carols; they really enjoyed that! We pray that Night Shift will be part of people's faith journey; it may be that someone else does the harvesting, but that's fine.
We have a small prayer team of predominantly older people who support our work. We write a prayer request report for every Night Shift that they use to identify prayer needs; the report is also useful because it means that we have a record of who comes in.
Our greatest desire at the moment is to recruit more volunteers – even if it's just to do one stint every couple of months. Our team members are all getting older and so we would like to encourage others to be part of the welcoming team. They could come along to 'taste and see' what it's like; if they do they could well become hooked on it – just like us! We recognise that very elderly people or those with young families couldn’t help us in this way but it would be good to see some new volunteer faces.
The people we meet at Night Shift wouldn't normally consider going through a church door and it's a privilege for us to be there for them. We believe that the church more and more has to be prepared to reach out to where people are, rather than expect them to come to what we call church and 'fit in'.
Bishop Graham comments,
Not all fresh expressions are meant to be sustainable, some are seasonal. They run their course while a door of opportunity is open and come to a natural end when that door closes, without having failed in any way. But many are to be long term sustainable. They are new engagements on the front line of mission, developing into permanent congregations and communities.
The nine years of Night Shift show that the clientele of a fresh expression may change because culture isn't motionless but its core ministry, to reach those unreached by other forms of church, has to continue. The work can be long and hard. It is a persistent challenge to disciple established and newer Christians so that they are willing to serve at inconvenient times and places. Fresh expressions of church are certainly not a quick fix solution to church growth but they are here to stay, a vital part of Christ's missionary call to his Church, for the sake of many for whom he died.
The shape and ministry of a fresh expression of church tends to unfold one step at a time. It is much more a question of discernment in context, than long term strategic planning. Listening to God and then joining in what God has prepared is the key each step of the way.
The vision of Grange Park Church in Northampton is to follow the call of Jesus to be the good news to Grange Park and beyond.
In 2001 Charlie Nobbs was completing his curacy at St Giles Northampton when it was suggested he do a church plant in the Grange Park new housing area. He discovered that the local Baptist church had the same vision, to plant a cell church. They joined forces, and Grange Park Church is a local ecumenical partnership.
Ministry in new housing areas is easier to get off the ground if a Christian presence can be established at an early stage. Just a few hundred houses had been built when Charlie joined the parish council, while his Baptist colleague helped to set up Neighbourhood Watch in the area and got involved when the primary school was being built.
Initially the strategy was attractional: with a traditional Sunday service plus small groups. But the team were keen to connect with those who might not attend traditional church and focused on young families in particular. To make contact with young families a children's holiday club called Kidzone was held. The assumption was that attendance at Kidzone would lead directly to church attendance; which didn’t happen.
But the team noticed that groups of parents would be chatting together while waiting for their children and a typical conversation went. 'Where do you live?', 'Oh I'm just round the corner from here, come and have a coffee.' Community building was to be the means of being good news and bringing the good news to Grange Park. It is easy to plan the right events but to misunderstand their long term significance.
New housing areas run the risk of becoming soulless dormitory estates. The church is working hard to build community and combat isolation. They learned from a health visitor that the doctors' surgeries were over-run with depressed new mums. Charlie and his wife Charlotte suggested she use their home for appointments with the mums and so Talking Point was started on Thursday mornings. Visitors are offered tea, coffee, cake and a warm welcome. They meet and chat in the lounge, comparing birth experiences and sleep patterns. The health visitors love it because they can see eight or more at a time; the mums love it because they make friends and realise they are not alone. There aren't many babies born in Grange Park that haven't been through Charlie and Charlotte’s house!
The Health Visitors believe Talking Point has significantly improved the mental health of struggling mums. The church now runs various Talking Point groups in and around Grange Park. They use cell principles and organise a social night for the parents without their kids; it welds them together as a cohesive group. Midwives in the area have also picked up on Talking Point, telling mums-to-be about it as a place to go after the birth.
Things shifted again when one of the people coming along to the sessions asked about getting their baby baptised; another wanted to do an Alpha course. The upshot is Stepping Stones which now runs fortnightly on Tuesday mornings in the Community Centre, offering breakfast for carers, mums and children, telling Bible stories in creative ways, and providing a craft activity. It has been going for nearly four years with about 50 mums and their children attending.
That in turn has developed because several mums said they wanted to find out more; their children were asking questions they didn't know the answer to and the parents also thought of the Bible stories as being a 'good thing' to teach the little ones. To meet that need, a five-week introduction to Christianity course is offered through a DVD series called Journeys. A number of people have come to faith.
The most recent development is the opening of the Kairos Centre, a central place where people can get together from all walks of the community, for all sorts of reasons, at the same time. The church worked with South Northamptonshire Council, to transform an empty shell of a building into a much-needed facility. The vision is for a place that provides facilities and a home for the existing church family, provides services and relationships with the wider community and ultimately will be home to future fresh expressions of church. A café style evening service is being relaunched and they hope to develop an after-school club fresh expression and maybe even a film church.
At least that is the plan – but the key will be to follow Jesus one more step at a time.
Part of the Following the missionary Spirit day was a panel question and answer with Rowan Williams, Martyn Atkins and Graham Cray. Many more questions were asked than we had time to answer, so we have endeavoured to respond the the rest here.
Listen to Rowan, Martyn and Graham respond to these questions below.
You can listen to Rowan, Martyn and Graham respond to these questions below.
Graham Cray responds: Both the Archbishop and I profoundly regret the General Synod’s rejection of the legislation for women bishops, and are glad that new proposals are to be brought to the Synod next year. There is a large overall majority in favour in the Synod, and in the Church of England as a whole, and it is only a matter of time before legislation is passed. I do not see any significant connection between this and the commitment to pioneering ministry, which the Synod has affirmed unanimously three times. However, ancient institutions change slowly and in an uneven way, as regrettably this vote demonstrated.
Ben Clymo responds: Our What is a fresh expression? page contains the definition we use and unpacks and explores what that means (and you may enjoy the short video on that page which explains what is and what isn't a fresh expression quite succinctly). This page also links to more detailed information in the Guide about what is and isn't a fresh expression.
The Guide also contains a wealth of information on developing a fresh expression, including information on moving from loving and serving (and putting on events) to exploring discipleship.
Graham Cray responds: It is sustainable to maintain commitment to the mixed economy because both are needed to reach the breadth of our mission field. At the moment traditional ministry reaches more people than fresh expressions, but fresh expressions are particularly relevant for the one third of the population which has no previous history with any church, as well as many of those who are no longer involved.
However there does need to be greater resources released to support pioneer ministry. But the sheer scale of the task means that this cannot be done simply by allocating existing resources differently. We will need to establish new models of releasing and supporting pioneers.
Ben Clymo responds: Fresh expressions are intentionally church in themselves and not just a route into 'traditional' church. That does not mean that nobody will move from the fresh expression into a more traditional congregation (and vice versa) – indeed that does happen – but inherent in the definition of a fresh expression is that it is not just a bridge to existing church.
It is vital for all fresh expressions (and indeed all churches) that they maintain strong and robust connections to the wider Church – the 'of' dimension of the 'up, out, in, of' way of seeing church.
Graham Cray responds: Work is already underway for some agreed processes on 'Right Touch' ecumenism. The idea is to be able to provide recognition and support for an appropriate level of partnership, which facilitates mission, without assuming that it will have to develop into a formal Local Ecumenical Partnership, under the present legislation.
Support and help towards sustainability can be provided in a number of ways – in the Church of England through Bishop's Mission Orders and the support of Visitors, across denominations through mutual networking as part of FEASTS, through learning communities or networks of pioneers. Above all through good research, which informs denominations and senior leaders about the most effective ways in which they can invest their limited resources. We are still on a learning curve about sustainability.
Graham Cray responds: The fresh expressions movement is now old enough for research to be worthwhile. The Fresh Expressions team gathers and shares learning, often in story form through its website, and feeds it to partner denominations. We have a round table which brings research departments together. The msm course is revised in the light of practitioner experience. The Church of England Ministry Division Pioneer Panel reports to the Ministry Council each year.
Ben Clymo responds: We have featured several stories of fresh expressions with older people on our site and the Guide also contains several examples of fresh expressions for older people. We also have a seminar pack addressing this area and Mike Collyer, who wrote the seminar pack, has written a couple of comment pieces on the subject: The invisible generation and Ageing church congregations: problem or challenge?.
Graham Cray responds: Clearly there are often tensions within local churches between the old and the new, and fresh expressions and inherited church will be no different. These are best overcome by goodwill, patience and clear communication. The mixed economy is not intended as a device for separate development, but implies mutual concern, mutual understanding and mutual blessing.
You can find more on this in our response to the question, Is the opposite of a fresh expression a stale expression of church?.
Karen Carter reponds: The fresh expressions movement very much embraces this value of encouraging the identification and discipling of emerging leaders within the mission of a fresh expression… of all ages according to gift, calling and character, and wherever it's applicable.
Stories featured on our DVDs and website – as well as all training materials – would seek to express this philosophy. However, for any given new fresh expression mission initiative, this will obviously depend on the local leadership.
There are many notable fresh expressions that are doing an outstanding job in encouraging leadership among the emerging generations. This approach can clearly be seen, for instance, in re:generation, a Methodist fresh expression of church in Romford. In early 2010 they had a census on the church's age and the gender breakdown – the average age was 25, and most of those on the 10-strong leadership team were in their early 20s. A core value of the work of re:generation has been discipleship. Now weekly Bible studies are increasingly led by the young people, and they also have rotas to lead the prayer ministry time and input from Scripture.
Ben Clymo responds: Yes, there are. You can find some contemplative and meditation examples in our stories, as well as new monasticism stories and, in the Guide, examples of new monastic fresh expressions. Our Sanctus DVD features stories of sacramental and contemplative fresh expressions and we have a round table drawing together those exploring fresh expressions in the sacramental and contemplative tradition.
Pete Atkins responds: Starting a fresh expression of church should be in response to listening to God and following His direction in any community – rural or urban. This will not always result in meeting identified need as a first step. Jesus' approach was often to accept hospitality offered (advice he repeated to those he was sending out in two's) and in his incarnation we see the ultimate in the vulnerability of the one sent in mission. Our experience in middle class rural communities is that prayer, relationship building and having a willingness to seek help from others as well as to serve will lead to missional opportunity and the establishment of a new community of faith – which may be very different from our initial thinking. It may be that engagement with those who are better off will take place as together with them we seek to meet need in another community altogether – possibly abroad or a particularly needy sector of society in this country.
One of the main principles of fresh expressions of church is that we need to go to where people are rather than ask them to come to us. In sparsely populated rural areas where there are few amenities this will often mean using homes as places of meeting. In rural areas, small groups (eg. cell format, discussion groups, film nights, supper clubs) are often a very effective way forward for the development of fresh expressions of church – which will be based in homes and not primarily in the building down the lane.
Encouraging existing Christians to focus on prayer and build relationships whilst involving themselves in the usual life of the community will lead to the opening of missional opportunities which may well naturally be in the environment of the hospitality a home can bring.
Ben Clymo responds: It is the responsibility of all Christians to reach out to their communities – and the rest of the world – and Christians and churches have been doing this (and often doing it very well) through mission and mission projects for a very long time. A fresh expression of church differs in that although it may have started out as a missional project or outreach, at some point it has become intentional about growing a new community of Christians and not just bringing people into an existing one. Our page exploring what a fresh expression is has more on this.
Graham Cray responds: There are boundaries of shared commitment in any community or it would have no cohesion as a community. Christians are bound together by a shared faith. Within that faith it is up to each fresh expression to determine the breadth of belief with which it is comfortable. However all Christian communities are to be characterised by grace and hospitality.
Graham Cray responds: The Fresh Expressions partners are committed to continuing to support the Fresh Expressions team beyond the current phase which ends in 2014 – some are already actively making plans and others will do so according to their different schedules for financial planning.
Norman Ivison responds: It is very difficul to engage with a diverse group of people, build community and make disciples. Most fresh expressions find it better to focus on one group and work with them and see church form amongst them. That is often called the 'homogeneous unit' principle.
Michael Moynagh has some useful material in his new book Church for every context on this. He argues (page 20) that people-group specific churches existed in the early church. Now he believes we need 'Focused-and-connected church', with some groups serving quite specific constituencies, but always connected to the wider church (Michael Moynagh, Church for every context, SCM, 2012, ch9)
The Guide also contains more about the homogenous unit principle.
Graham Cray responds: Street Pastors and Street Angels make a major contribution to the churches’ engagement with local communities. Their work could create the contacts which might lead to a fresh expression. However a fresh expression is always a new congregation or church plant and Street Pastors do not directly evangelise.
Ben Clymo responds: We are aware of some fresh expressions of church working particularly with deaf people. Because of their emphasis on being contextual, fresh expressions of church can often be more attuned to different needs of those they are trying to reach and make appropriate arrangements. Many fresh expressions also make much more use of visual material than some more traditional churches which can also be helpful. We have also had people who are deaf complete our mission shaped ministry course. There is always room to do better though.
Graham Cray responds: It is a false antithesis to set 'fresh' and 'traditional' totally against one another. The key issue is appropriateness to context. If the group being reached are mainly dechurched some traditional elements may be right for the fresh expression. Fresh expressions are about contemporary and contextual faithfulness to the Christian tradition. However our imagination can be held captive by certain models of church, hindering our receiving fresh missional imagination from the Spirit. The Guide has more information on the mixed economy.
Stephen Lindridge responds: Recognising that we are in a developing era, the key to this question is the onus to connect and with all such connections this has to be a two way street. FEAST (Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Teams) is a developing structure which should take initiative to formalise current good practice of informal networks of support for the pioneers but as yet FEAST doesn't cover the whole country. Some Regional Training Partnerships (RTPs) have included fresh expressions with in their remit but others have not. Therefore the challenge for the coming years is to ensure there is easy access for any pioneer to a regional pioneer network in reasonable proximity for the whole country. At present there are a number of individuals who are facilitating something of this ilk in their area or denomination. Ensuring this can be as joined up as possible is part of the Fresh Expressions team's existing priorities. Encouraging good awareness and communication is an essential element and a bespoke work for any FEAST.
Graham Cray responds: The 'edge' and the 'middle' are part of one whole. In Paul's description of the body of Christ they are interdependent, 'members of one another'. Each has insight to give and insight to receive. New life only comes from the edge because the edge is engaging with new contexts, especially given the rapid pace of change in our society.
All Christians, wherever located, draw on the resources of Christ through the Spirit and the means of grace, but missional imagination and new insight come through the challenge of ministry beyond the familiar and the comfortable. Often only there do we truly rely on the Spirit.
The gift of the edge is to stop the middle from absolutising its current experience, and reminding it that it too is contextual. The gift of the middle is rootedness in what has been learned so far, caution about innovation for innovation (rather than context's) sake and the stable base which makes the ministry on the edge possible. Each needs the other.
Graham Cray responds: Each denomination which is a partner in Fresh Expressions has different rules and theologies about who may baptize and preside at Holy Communion. Irrespective of denomination, most mature fresh expressions will have these sacraments as part of their regular life. Those denominations, like the Church of England, which limit this to ordained ministers have a responsibility to ensure that each fresh expression is properly served. In the long run we should expect vocations for ordination from within fresh expressions, as the local 'president' emerges.
In the Methodist Church, Conference this year agreed to allow lay people to be authorised to lead communion where there was a genuine missional need.
Karen Carter responds: A fresh expression, over time, can all too easily become regularised in the way it does things. It is really important that it should 're-discover' itself and not get set in its ways, to aim for multiplication rather than duplication. Fresh expressions multiply through relationship. If you want to communicate with people outside inherited church, everything that makes up your fresh expression should be relational.
Springfield Church in Wallington, Surrey, did just that and have now seen friendships growing, families joining them for other events, parents getting involved to help and some becoming part of Sunday congregations, cell groups and Alpha courses. As their minister, Will Cookson, says, 'The social events organised by different cell groups look to encourage community and it may take one, two or three years for people to get involved to that level – but that's OK, it all takes time.' Springfield 'multiplied' by planting a café church on the local Roundshaw estate. They sent out 25 people and now average about 40 at the café church. Most of those who have joined come from the estate itself.
The Fresh Expressions movement will foster this sort of multiplication and discipleship through increased opportunities for training; sharing stories of good practice and the encouragement of support networks for those looking to continue to develop new forms of church – in East Anglia and anywhere else the Spirit may lead.
Graham Cray looks back on the growth of the fresh expressions movement – and forward to the continuing journey.
As I hand over the leadership of Fresh Expressions to Phil Potter, I have the privilege of looking back – not just over the five years I have spent with the team but at the twelve years since a working party first gathered round a table to write a report for the Church of England.
The journey from that Mission-shaped Church working party to Fresh Expressions 2014 is extraordinary. Who could have imagined that we'd be looking at 2,000 fresh expressions of church in both the Methodist Church and the Church of England, new denominational and mission agency partners in the UK, and friends and colleagues in many different part of the world?
Also extraordinary is the range and depth of local missional imagination it has been our privilege to observe, the wonderful stories we have been able to record and report, and the quantity and quality of new pioneering leadership which God has called into being.
However creative and inspirational this movement has been – and it has been very creative and inspirational – it is all down to grace. God in his mercy has not allowed his church to be paralysed into fatalism by decades of decline. He has forged one of the keys to the future, fresh expressions of church, in a most unlikely place! We have much to be thankful for. That gratitude, and continuing trusting dependence on God, is essential for the future.
Nationally and internationally, we have caught a wave of the Spirit. We have been allowed to share in a charism – a multifaceted gift of the Spirit. Our praxis emphasises following the missionary Spirit, and practising discernment in context. In just the same way, the future of the movement cannot be achieved by merely repeating what has been learned and done so far. Expertise must not supplant prayerful discernment and trusting obedience; the God of surprises still leads the Church. Stay open to the future which God has prepared, but which he reveals only step by step.
One lesson from this team's ten-year ministry is the importance of perseverance. We began in 2004 but the key point of lift-off in the founding denominations was 2010. The team for phase one ploughed and sowed; phase two watered and harvested; perhaps now we are called to secure an annual harvest for years to come? There is no quick fix; persevering with God-given vision in each partner organisation is the only effective pathway to the future.
From my perspective there are two equally important tasks ahead:
I am convinced that this is not just a matter of leaders making space for the new amid existing structures and practices, but that the mixed economy requires new practices of leadership at the senior level. A missional church requires missional leadership.
Finally I believe there is an outcome to bear in mind beyond the life of the Fresh Expressions team (however long that may be) and beyond the 'shelf life' of the fresh expressions terminology. The long-term task is to see the values which underlie this work embedded within the churches, so that they are assumed as normal.
At Phil Potter's licensing, Archbishop Justin expressed his confidence "that Fresh Expressions will continue to lead the re-imagination of the ministry of the church in this country". Incarnational mission, discerning and following the missionary Spirit, the planting of new communities of disciples by contextual mission: these are simply how we are to be the Church in Western society. They are to be the mainstream.
We work towards the point where the default setting for church instinctively includes these values and practices. We look for the time when church self-evidently means missional church and mixed economy ministry. May God continue to bless us all on that journey.
+Graham Cray
