e-xpressions October 2009

Welcome

Welcome to the October edition of e-xpressions. New for this month on our website are stories on our website about building church without a church in a new-build housing area called Mawsley, Zac's Place - a church for ragamuffins and an update to the story of Somewhere Else, the bread-making church in Liverpool.

You can also hear more about these stories, as well as Rachel Matthews meeting Jesus in Asda, in our latest podcast.

Joined up thinking

Its time to show we believe in the whole mixed economy church and not just our part in it. People involved in inherited forms of church sometimes complain that all the emphasis is on fresh expressions of church. While the fresh expressions people tend to complain that all the resources are allocated to inherited church. Isn't it time for some more joined up thinking, which first asks questions like 'To whom do we owe the gospel?' - 'Where around here is God's Kingdom most needed?' – 'Who could we never reach just by doing church the way we do now?'

Questions like that will give us more possibilities than we have resources – so we will need to listen to God together, and discern where he is calling us, or is at work ahead of us. There is no way of avoiding the task of local discernment if we are to join in God's mission.

But once we believe we have heard God, we all need to be committed to all of it: praying for and supporting both the inherited ministry and the fresh expressions of church. If this is to be more than token we all need to take responsibility to ensure that there is an appropriate sharing of limited resources across the different aspects of the work. This applies at every level of the church – the local congregation, the deanery or circuit, and the district or diocese. It is particularly important that those who are directly involved in ministry and mission and those who allocate resources and manage finances, are all working with the same priorities.

We are a mixed economy church, just as the New Testament church, which engaged with Jews and Gentiles, was a mixed-economy church – all baptised into the one body. When one part was in need the whole body suffered. When one part was blessed the whole body rejoiced. The weakest was treated with the greatest concern, and so on. Let that be a picture of the mixed economy church in practice.

+Graham Cray

Share

The Share website has a section on fresh expressions of church in different contexts.

Is your fresh expression of church in an urban or rural area? Is it café style? Do you work with a specific age group: under 5s, school-age children or older people? Do you want to start a fresh expression of church in your workplace? If so, there are detailed pages that can help, including real life examples, things to bear in mind and lists of resources for further reading.

Further pages will soon be added on subjects such as 'new monasticism' and 'young people'. And if you have any further advice and wisdom on working in these contexts, you are very welcome to leave comments on any of the pages.

So why not ask the question what are some examples of fresh expressions? and see where the answer takes you.

mission shaped ministry

Have you considered the mission shaped ministry course? The course is designed for individuals or teams from a whole spectrum, from those who are just exploring a vague sense of calling to start something new, to experienced pioneers who want to reflect on what they are doing, to church leaders supporting fresh expressions. Rooted in prayer and worship and designed for all ages, traditions and styles the course is starting in January in Inverness, Corfe Mullen, Colchester, Meole Brace (Shrewsbury), Scholes (Leeds), Bradford/Skipton and Bingley, Glasgow and Walthamstow. You can sign up for any of these courses using the contact details on the mission shaped ministry pages.

Fresh Expressions where you are

We have vision days taking place in Wakefield, Glasgow, Brighton and Chelmsford in the next month, with a special rural vision day in Thirsk. If you would like to come along to any of these days you would be more than welcome, visit their pages linked above or email vision@freshexpressions.org.uk for further details.

We will also be at the Diocesan Synods in Gloucester, York, Salisbury, Chelmsford, Carlisle and Manchester so do watch out for us there.

Finally, don’t miss the Fresh Expressions workshops at the Mission21 Church Planting conference in Bath, 17-19th November. Key Fresh Expressions speakers there will include Bob and Mary Hopkins, Pete and Kath Atkins and a special 'on the sofa' session with Bishop Graham Cray. Book via the Mission21 website.

New resources

Look out for two new resources in the coming month. Our fourth DVD is sanctus: fresh expressions of church in the sacramental tradition and that's followed by mission shaped congregations: re-imagining church, an interactive DVD-ROM to help you plan a mission-shaped Sunday worship service. You can pre-order both of these from our shop and there'll be more details next month.

And finally

You may have noticed we've switched to a new email distribution list. Whilst this has been extensively tested, it's possible that there may be some initial glitches, for which we apologise. Please bear with us through any teething troubles.

See you again next month,

The Fresh Expressions team.