Fresh Expressions1 International Conference +Graham Cray

Fresh Expressions 1

International Conference

+Graham Cray

FROM INITIATIVE TO MOVEMENT

Fresh Expressions

Fresh Expressions 2

HISTORY

Fresh Expressions 3

A Tale Of Two Reports

MISSION SHAPED CHURCH

• ‘church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context.’

• General Synod • Feb. 2004

Approved by General Synod

• ‘In each diocese there should be a strategy for the encouragement and resourcing of church planting and fresh expressions of church, reflecting the network and neighbourhood reality of society and of mission opportunity. This strategy should be developed with ecumenical collaboration.’ MSC

Fresh Expressions 6

MISSION SHAPED CHURCH• This is primarily a

report on what the Church of England is already doing in many dioceses, rather than a recommendation that it begin something novel. There is good news to tell, and our recommendations come from a review of actual practice.

FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF CHURCH

• Alternative worship communities• Base Ecclesial Communities• Café church • Cell church• Multiple & Midweek congregations

(Missional clusters, midsize communities)

• Network churches• School based church

FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF CHURCH

• Seeker churches• Traditional (geographical) church

plants• Traditional forms of church inspiring

new interest (including New Monasticism)

• Youth congregations• Family and Under Fives Congregations• Children’s congregations.

Fresh Expressions 9

Celebrating and building on what is mission-shaped in traditional forms of church…

……andand finding new, finding new, flexible, appropriate flexible, appropriate ways to proclaim the ways to proclaim the Gospel afresh to thoseGospel afresh to those who do not relate to who do not relate to traditional ways traditional ways

The mixed The mixed economyeconomy

Parallel Developments

• Revision of the Ordinal• Mission leadership criterion for

all ordinands

February 2009

• That this Synod• (a) affirm the mixed economy of

traditional churches and fresh expressions of church, working in partnership, as the most promising mission strategy in a fast changing culture;

12

February 2009

• (b) encourage those responsible for vocations and training in dioceses and parishes to promote the imaginative recruitment, training and deployment of ordained and lay pioneer ministers in and beyond title posts;

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February 2009

• (c) commend the making of Bishops' Mission Order to integrate suitable fresh expressions of church in the life of the dioceses; and


February 2009

• (d) request the Mission and Public Affairs Division and the Research and Statistics Unit to gather evidence on the spiritual and numerical growth of the mixed economy church in general and fresh expressions of church in particular, and to bring a further report or reports to Synod in the next quinquennium.'


Team


Ecumenical

The New Ecumenism

• Unity grows as we partner one another in mission!


Partners

ACPI

AdvocacySynods, Consultations Conferences, Committees

Bishop Graham CrayArchbishops’ Missioner

Rev. Stephen LindridgeMethodist Connexional Missioner

Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Teams

• prayer and strategy

• training• resources• mapping• find/support

pioneers• accompaniment

Resources

www.freshexpressions.org.uk

Rev. Norman Ivison

resources

making a difference

Training

• Vision Days


Rev. Andrew Roberts

Research


Rev. Dr. Mike Moynagh

CRITICAL FACTORS

• New imagination about the church

• New climate of permission

• New resources

CONNECTING THE CENTRE TO THE EDGE

ARCHBISHOP ROWAN

• MSC + ABC = FEI

Definition


what is a fresh expression?

• a fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church– it will come into being through principles

of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples

– it will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church and for its cultural context

called to proclaim afresh• ‘The Church of England ...

professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds,

• ‘Which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation.’

• ‘Bringing the grace and truth of Christ to this generation.’

A fresh expression of church is

• Missional – it seeks to benefit non-churchgoers

• Contextual – it seeks to fit the context

• Formational – it aims to form disciples

• Ecclesial – it intends to become church

Definition

• Disciplining the language.


What’s in a name?

fresh expressions

• Not the opposite of ‘stale’• Not a rebranding of existing work• Not a bridge project designed to

being people to existing church• Not the opposite of traditional –

the complement to it.

fresh expressions

• Not church-lite• But deep church • taking the right shape • in the right place• at a price … the comfort and

convenience of those who plant it

Emerging Church?

• Some people are particularly concerned for mission and they value the conversation, because it has helped them to think about how to reform the church in ways that will increase their capacity to see churches grow as they reach out to others in a post-Christendom society.


Emerging Church?

• Other groups have found in the emerging conversation resources to enable them to reinvent church when they were on the verge of leaving. For them the key concern has been with authenticity, with creating a space in which they could express their spirituality honestly and practice their faith with integrity.’


Context


Context

• Postmodernity• PostChristendom


Fringe churchgoers(less often but at least 6x yr. ) 3% 1.4m

Open de-churched 5% 1.9m

Closedde-churched 26% 10.8m

Opennon-churched 1% 0.5m

Closednon-churched 33% 13.7m

Unassigned 2% 1.0m

Other religions 7% 3.0m

Regular churchgoers (at least monthly)14% 5.9m

Occasionalchurchgoers(less often but at least annually) 7% 2.9m

Base: Adults 16+ in England (unw. 5907 w. 5774) Pop’n (000s) = 41,043

ENGLAND Church attendance and experience segmentation in 2006

Time bomb!

• The Church is almost fourteen years older than the general population of England.

• C of E average– over 61• National average – under 47

‘More of the same just means less of the

same.’


Motivation


Paying our debts

• ‘I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish — hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.’ Romans 1:14-16

Theology Point 1. 46

The Church’s Challenge

• Who will our current forms of church never reach?

• Do we have a spiritual responsibility to those with no knowledge of the faith?

• Hence – fresh expressions of church!

Progress


Video removed


Numbers?


Methodist 2010

• Café church – 298• Cell church – 386• Messy church – 392• 3rd Place – 95• Other 369• One Methodist church in five.


The Spectrum

Large ProjectsFunded Posts

“BMO”

Locally basedLay led

Shift to “church”

New CommunitiesWider than parish

Some funding

Reimaginingfor mission

Praxis


One size does not fit all!

Michael Herbst


Key phrases

• ‘Seeing what God is doing and joining in’

• ‘Dying to live’


BEING AND BECOMING

• ‘The church is “missionary by its very nature” and it becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself.’ Bevans & Schroeder

Archbishop Rowan

• ‘We keep faith with our society by searching all the time for the words and acts that keep faith today with the essence of Jesus’ challenge to the culture, religion and the righteousness of his day.

• And this means a difficult and constantly renewed discernment.’


A fresh expressions journey

loving and serving

buildingcommunity

exploringdiscipleship

churchtakingshape

underpinned by prayer, ongoing listening and relationship with the wider church

listeningdo itagain

• Learning to be the church in our current context

• Missionary by nature learning to be missionary in practice

• In response to the love of God


Is this niche church?

• Widening the scope of effective mission

• Mainly new congregations not independent churches

• Starting points not final destinations

Tubestation

tubestation

try this

the word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood…(John 1)

INCARNATIONAL• Entering their

world.• Taking it as

seriously as they do.

• Helping them to find Christ there.

INCARNATIONAL

• Entering their world.

• Taking it as seriously as they do.

• Helping them to find Christ there.

INCARNATIONAL

• Entering their world.• Taking it as seriously as they do.• Helping them to find Christ there.

Pioneers


Pioneers

• Revised selection criteria and process

• Challenges of deployment• Need of new imagination about

support• Lay in life pioneers


Priorities


More fresh expressions


Change the Church’s ‘default settings’

to mission and ‘mixed economy’

Better fresh expressions

• Contextually appropriate discipleship, mission and worship

• Sustainability• Developing indigenous

leadership• Retaining a missional

perspective Etc.


Owned fresh expressions

• The development of the FEAST network.

• National denominational diplomacy. Work with senior leaders (Bishops, District Chairs, Moderators)

• Advocacy for the long term deployment of pioneer ministers.

• Close links with the national ecumenical bodies


The next generation

• Passing on an inheritance.


Young Adults ‘the missing generation’

• 7.5% of population in church on average Sunday

• BUT only 3% of 20-30 year olds• Of these 27% worship in London.• The black hole in most

churches!

Missional orders and communities


A new missionary movement• REACHING BEYOND THE REACH OF

EXISTING CHURCHES• A new missionary movement – self

supporting missionaries• Planting fresh expressions in different

life circumstances, or wherever the Spirit directs

• Accountable to the churches and one another through missionary Orders


Health Warning!

• No quick fix!• Long-term incarnational ministry

among the majority group who have never been part of church.

FROM INITIATIVE TO MOVEMENT

Fresh Expressions


Documents

Fresh Expressions1 International Conference +Graham Cray