Fresh Expressions of Church

1. Fresh Expressions of Church

2. http://davemale.typepad.com/churchunplugged/

3. 2004 30,000 copies sold Unanimous approval at General Synod Discussed and implemented in Dioceses Influence in UK Ecumenical Worldwide influence

4. 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 ofthe church and for its cultural context.

6. A fresh expression is a church plant or a new congregation. It is not a new way to reach people and add them to an existing congregation. It is not an old outreach with a new name. (rebrand) Nor is it a half way house, which people belong to for a while, on their way into Christian faith, before crossing over to ‘proper church.’ This is proper church.’ Graham Cray. An Introduction to fresh expressions

7. The Mixed Economy

8. both-and continue to grow and develop the church as it is establish fresh expressions of church

10. “Fresh expressions, as part of the mixed economy Church, have a legitimate place in the mission strategy of the Church of England and the Methodist Church.” p179.

11. This is not new but fresh

12. The mission context

13. 2007 1,200,000 • 500,000 • 125,000 • Average Weekly Attendance in the Church of England Numbers attending church over 65 falls by 25% Numbers attending church under 30 falls by 80% Peter Brierley , CEN, 14/10/12

14. 2007 Tear Fund survey of 7000 adults in contact or not with church

15. “ this majority (66%) presents a major challenge to churches. Most of them are unreceptive and closed to attending church; churchgoing is simply not on their agenda.” Churchgoing in the UK. A research report from Tearfund. April 2007

16. %

17. The absence of the younger generation The average age of a churchgoer in 2010 was 51 The average age in 1980 was 37 Tear Fund

18. Playing Away

19. “Nearly 4000 people have been involved in the start up of the 361 examples. Attendance now at them is over 14,000, plus a fringe. For every one person sent, over two and a half others are now there. Any church with a growth rate over time, of 250%, deserves notice. Canon Dr George Lings Based on research in 6 Dioceses “ Fresh expressions of church more than reverse the decline in the Dioceses in the reported years 2006-10.”

20. •on average, of those who come, 35% are the de-churched • •it is striking that 42% are from the non-churched • over 50% are lay led

21. Methodist Church 1550 new fresh expressions of church 45,000 people attending. 77% non church people 8,000 lay leaders.

22. How have we defined a ‘searcher’? • Someone who has had cause to reconsider their core values, or think about the big issues like ‘the meaning of life’, in the last year • 2000 interviews with a nationally representative sample of UK adults, conducted 24-27th April 09

23. Are People Searching and why? • 73% of people are searching • All ages, male and female. • 70% of people are searching because of either the credit crunch, concern about personal finances or job insecurity

24. Are people considering prayer, the church or the Bible? • YES … a third of those who say they are Christian at all • And, the research shows that it is the most helpful thing to do (after turning to family and friends) • NO … if they do not belong to any religion • These do not even feature on the ‘spiritual search map’ • It is not that they are being considered but people haven’t got round to it yet, or that they have been tried and reject

26. This is about being……….

27. Contextual

28. ‘ I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.’ 1 Corinthians 9;16f

29. ‘ The Theology of the West, was itself a limited, contextual product of a particular set of experiences.’ Every time and every culture has to reflect on faith on its own terms. The Christian faith needs to engage a context authentically as a missiological imperative.’ Prophetic Dialogue. Stephen Bevans & Roger Schroeder

30. Shaped by the constants of the faith and the context of the mission. How is faith experienced and embodied now?

31. ‘ It is important to remember that what counted as an appropriate response to God in one generation and culture will be very different in another.’ Abbot Stuart Burns, Mucknell Abbey

32. ‘not leaving the tradition but driving to it’s heart’ Gerald Arbuckle, Refounding the Church

33. Missional

34. “The day of the churched culture is over. The day of the mission field has come.” Kennon L Callahan Effective Church Leadership

35. ‘ the church is missionary by it’s very nature……. the church does not have a mission but the mission has a church.’ Prophetic Dialogue. Bevans and Scroeder

36. “ we understood mission one way and organised life to accomplish it. We have awakened to find out the mission moved on us. To keep focusing on mission, we have to turn the furniture around and face a different direction. We may even have to move into another room.” Loren Mead. The Once and Future Church

37. ‘Mission is often described as if it were a planned extension of an old building. But it fact it has usually been more like an unexpected explosion.’ John V Taylor

38. Formational

39. The glory of God is the human person fully alive Irenaeus of Lyon

40. “ We are not inviting people to join an institution, nor to educate people in a process of interior transformation. We are inviting people into a renewed creation made possible by Christ through the Spirit.” Rowan Williams

41. ‘a disciple is simply someone who decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is.’ The Divine Conspiracy, p309.

42. How we see God • How we see ourselves and others • How we see our community • How we see creation and society

43. “If not part of a mutually discipling community the culture will disciple you.” Graham Cray

45. What kind of people are we called to be? What kind of community is capable of raising people like that?

46. Ecclesial

47. “Each of us promises in the Anglican formularies to proclaim the faith fresh in every generation by the grace of the Living God at work within us. To do this well in our own day involves a willingness to go to very heart of our changing culture, and often, to work with the Spirit to form new communities of word and sacrament in fresh and imaginative ways.”

48. “every expression of the church is, in it’s own way, another worked example of what the encounter with Christ looks like in the life of a particular community.”

49. Unity and diversity

50. Unity ‘ Diversity is part of God’s gracious purpose but separation and mutual recognition is not.’ ‘ There must be new ‘forms’ of church, outside the walls of the existing church and distinct from the community from which it came. Separation there must be- for the sake of mission but equally separation cannot be the last word for the gospel is about Gods purpose to unite all things in Christ.’ Ecumenical Review 29