Fresh expressions + Missional Opportunities

1. +Graham Cray Fresh expressions + Missional Opportunities Fresh Expressions

2. what’s going on all around the country • God’s Spirit is on the move • Christians are trying new things • new types of churches are being formed • lives are being changed

3. mission-shaped church • church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context Church of England General Synod, February 2004

4. Some examples Edinburgh

5. Menu • Fresh expressions of church • Why • What • How Fresh Expressions

6. Why? Fresh Expressions

7. why fresh expressions? Because this is what the Church does 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 ‘Constants in Context’ Edinburgh

8. why fresh expressions? Because this is why the Spirit is given • The continuing conversion of the church to incarnational witness does not mean selling out to the …. cultures that form our context. • Our conversion is to more faithful witness, to more loving and creative translation of the gospel. … • God’s Spirit is promised to us for precisely this continuing task …’ Darrell Guder ‘The Incarnation and the Church’s Witness’

9. why fresh expressions? • they are a response to the decline of Christendom • and major changes in • Western culture

10. Culture and the rhythm of the year lead people to the church door baptism education marriage festivals Sunday sickness crisis bereavement The mission task: from door to font to altar & out to the world

11. Culture leads people to many other doors. The mission task becomes: • go to where people are • form communities of faith • make disciples there

12. Changing Sundays Changing relationships Changing cultures Less faith knowledge Religion to spirituality Church at different times Church for different networks Church in different cultures Church for beginners Church for disconnected explorers Five shifts in society

13. Christendom context Society Fringe Church

14. Secular pluralism Church

15. The Netherlands

16. UK Church attendance and experience segmentation in 2006 Regular churchgoers(at least monthly)15% 7.6m Other religions 6% 3.2m Unassigned 2% 1.1m Closednon-churched 32% 15.6m Fringe churchgoers(less often but at least 6x yr. ) 3% 1.6m Occasionalchurchgoers(less often but at least annually) 7% 3.4m Open de-churched 5% 2.3m Opennon-churched 1% 0.6m Closedde-churched 28% 13.7m Base: UK All adults aged 16+ (unw. 7069 w. 7000) Population = 49.0m

17. why fresh expressions? • Because God is blessing this ministry

18. Methodist Statistics for Mission forfresh expressions Fresh Expressions

19. fe growth in Methodism 1552 fresh expressions in 2012 In 82% of Circuits Fresh Expressions

20. Meeting monthly or more 437 153 952 Total 1552 45,969 people attending 77% are not existing church folk Fresh Expressions

21. When did the fxC start? Most cases are post Mission-shaped Church All dioceses have seen a rapid increase Dioceses reveal different histories 21

22. 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. Six dioceses 22

23. Six dioceses • On average, of those who come, 35% are the de-churched. • It is striking that 42% are from the non-churched. • No parish church has figures like this; some have virtually none of either. Canon Dr George Lings

24. Momentum • Most of the growth has happened in the last three to four years. Fresh Expressions

25. What? Fresh Expressions

26. 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 do not attend 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

27. A fresh expression of church is • Missional – it seeks to benefit non-churchgoers

28. the mission of God • The mission of the Church is the gift of participating, through the Holy Spirit, in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world. James Torrance • As the Father has sent me, so I send you… Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:21f Edinburgh

29. A fresh expression of church is • Missional – it seeks to benefit non-churchgoers • Contextual – it seeks to fit the context

30. Context despite a dominant Western culture, the key to planting a fresh expression is local context what forces shape a locality, whether neighbourhood or network or a combination of the two? disciple-making is a process of inculturation, involving the reading of a local culture

31. One size cannot fit all

32. Fresh Expressions 32

33. 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

34. Discipleship the key • When dealing with discipleship, and the related capacity to generate authentic followers of Jesus, we are dealing with that single most crucial factor that will in the end determine the quality of the whole – if we fail at this point then we must fail in all the others. Alan Hirsch www.freshexpressions.org.uk

35. 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

36. Church is diverse • ‘If ‘church’ is what happens when people encounter the Risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with each other, there is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style.’ • Rowan Williams

37. fresh expressions not… • the opposite of ‘stale’ • a rebranding of existing work • a bridge to existing church • the opposite of traditional (instead, the complement) • church-lite Edinburgh

38. fresh expressions instead… • ‘deep church’ • taking: • the right shape • in the right place • at a price… the comfort and convenience of those who plant it Edinburgh

39. How? Edinburgh

40. A process of discernment listening underpinned by prayer, ongoing listening and relationship with the wider church

41. to the Spirit to the church to the community or network Listening

42. Somewhere Else - Liverpool

43. A process of discernment listening loving and serving underpinned by prayer, ongoing listening and relationship with the wider church

44. Grange Park Church, Northampton

45. Talking Point

46. Stepping Stones

47. Grange Park Church, Northampton

48. A process of discernment listening loving and serving building community underpinned by prayer, ongoing listening and relationship with the wider church

49. I did not sit in lounge dreaming up what to do, the community asked. The mission initiatives create the relationships and the relationships form the community. Everyone who has joined the fresh expression has come in this way. Katie Miller, Marlpit, near Norwich Service, to community, to church

50. The fruit of discernment • Pioneering ministry cannot be done to a community by someone who knows what they need, it can only be done with a community by someone who shares their need.” Angela Shier Jones