Values and governance

Values

As an organisation, Fresh Expressions aims to keep the following values at the heart of all our work.

We centre all that we are and all that we do on God - and therefore will:

• be concerned with the kingdom of God, and keep our horizons wide;
• pattern our lives and ministry on God’s son, Jesus Christ;
• see mission as discovering what the Holy Spirit is doing and joining in;
• be grounded in prayer and the scriptures as we depend on God’s grace.

We recognize the special opportunity we have, both for the Church and for the Kingdom – and therefore will:

• have a sense of urgency in our task;
• be prepared to take risks and prepared for the unexpected opportunities he offers us;
• aim for quality before quantity;
• seek to be strategic in all we do.

We value collaboration both within the team and with those we seek to serve – and therefore will:

• work with integrity, honesty, generosity, openness, and loyalty;
• recognise that we are learners rather than experts and spend time in listening and reflection;
• encourage one another and all God’s people;
• recognize that as fallible individuals serving a fallible church, we will make mistakes and see failure as well as success;
• believe that the future is in God’s hands.

Finance and governance

Fresh Expressions is a registered charity (#1080103) and limited company (#3598030) under the leadership of a board of trustees chaired by Sir Christopher Wates. It is funded by its partner organisations, by grant funding from trusts and funds and by donations from individuals. You may like to consider supporting us financially.

Four key objectives

• Renewing vision

We continue to try and do this through speaking engagements, networking and informal conversations and sharing stories of good practice through the media, and our own publications, and other websites.

• Gathering news

We need to discover what is happening in order to encourage one another; to enable people to network together and to learn from one another and to exercise responsible oversight.

• Supporting growth

The major initiative in supporting growth is Share, which has a wealth of information on thinking about and establishing fresh expressions of church, plus many opportunities for comment and networking to enable the sharing of experiences and good practice.

• Developing training

Since the Fresh Expressions initiative started, a number of training initiatives have started. Find out more about the training we offer for individuals and teams.