Welcome
Welcome to the September 2011 edition of e-xpressions. Stories and updates on our website this month include:
We've improved our on demand pages so that they're quicker to load and easier to navigate. New audio and video this month includes:
- Lucy Moore on Messy Church at seven;
- Graham Cray on leadership;
- Gareth Hill - Church for people who don't do church.
You can listen to all of our latest audio and material from our on demand page.
Glocal leadership
If fresh expressions of church are to make a long term contribution to the re-evangelization of the UK, and the wider mission of God in our land, much will depend on the recognition and training of appropriate leaders. Many of these will be lay rather than ordained, but the comments I wish to make apply to all 'authorised' leaders who are given some training. It is the nature and perceived purpose of that training that is crucial. The Church needs glocal leaders!
The term 'glocalisation' was coined by sociologists (who else would have come up with such an ugly word?) to describe the impact of global change on local communities. This can range from seeing Starbucks and McDonald's wherever you look, to the closure of a local firm because of 'the world market', to a global menu available on your high street, to a local firm developing a global brand. Many people in the Facebook and Twitter culture belong both locally and to wider networks not restricted by geography. Glocalisation can connect and it can isolate. It has both positive and negative effects, varying from place to place. My point is merely that all communities are now glocal communities, and that the local church in an interconnected world is a glocal church. Just as people are encouraged to 'think globally and act locally', so Eddie Gibbs suggests that a characteristic of fresh expressions should be that they are 'locally engaged with global issues' (Eddie Gibbs, Churchmorph: How Megatrends are Reshaping Christian Communities, Baker, 2009). The glocal church needs glocal leaders.
Training for pioneers and missional leaders has to be on an action-reflection model, with much higher proportions of relevant practice than was traditionally the case for seminary courses. I take that for granted here. Rather, I want to emphasise that leadership training, for a glocal church, has to be both contextual and connected.
Every missional leader needs skills in discernment, in reading a context in the light of the mission of God. No-one should be authorised who cannot do this! But contextual training is not just a matter of training leaders to read the context with which they are familiar, or where they have been placed. It also requires experience in reading contexts with which they are not familiar, or they will be in danger of being blinded by familiarity. It is hard to read your own context discerningly if you have never faced the challenge of reading an unfamiliar one. Contextual training needs exposure to more than one context.
Even the most distinctive context is glocal. It has been shaped by wider influences, and is the result of connection. Training for glocal leadership needs to be connected in two ways: to the historic faith and to the world church.
How has the 'givenness' of the Gospel, that which makes us Christians and which all Christians share, been expressed and embodied in different eras and places? All mission is about 'constants in context' (Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today, Orbis, 2001). Training needs to focus the shape of the church in different eras as well as the intellectual expression of its belief.
And how is the faith expressed and embodied in the world church today? The centre of world Christianity is no longer in the West. Much of the world church in microcosm is present in the UK. Training for the glocal church needs to introduce leaders to the riches of the world church.
The purpose of this connected element of training is not just to be better equipped for the glocal, but to establish an understanding of the interconnectedness of the whole church, of belonging to the whole, of catholicity. Context and connection provide the key to training.
There is no context-free training, so the context of training is part of the training itself. I am convinced that it is not so much the location of training – in a college, on a course, in a locally created scheme - which matters, but the clarity of its purpose and the appropriateness of its shape, for that purpose. Training has to be shaped by the constants of the faith and the context of mission. That context is glocal and requires glocal leaders.
+Graham
Graham Cray, Fresh Expressions team leader, writes regularly in the Church of England Newspaper and other places - you can read his contributions each month on the Graham Cray in print page of our website. This month, Graham sees how Church takes shape in Sanctuary.
Re-imagining church and revitalising mission
New Wine and Fresh Expressions present re-imagining church and revitalising mission, Monday 28th to Tuesday 29th November 2011, The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick.
Church planting is the best methodology of evangelism under the sun.
Peter Wagner, Global Harvest Ministries and Wagner Leadership Institute
This insight has been the heartbeat of mission around most of the world for decades. In the last 20 years mission in the post-Christian west has been applying that thinking and fresh expressions take it further by forming churches for the unchurched in a culturally appropriate way.
This conference is both for leaders who are already involved in fresh expressions and others wanting to learn how to boldly reach out to people groups their church has never previously reached. This is the start of a new learning community. We hope you and your team will join us.
The keynote speakers are John Coles and Graham Cray, who will speak alongside Annie Kirke, Steve Clarke, Mark Carey, Andrew Roberts, Bob and Mary Hopkins, Andy Freeman, Jude Smith and David Bartlett, with worship led by Gareth Robinson.
Find out more now.
vision days
Have you hosted a vision day yet? If not, we would love to hear from you!
vision days are a great way for all Christians in a city, town or group of villages to discover more about fresh expressions of church. So far nearly 6,000 Christians have taken part in over 60 places, with a real desire to develop their dreams.
Using the latest material, we now also offer 'twin-track days' - with parallel sessions for both enquirers and practitioners. The first of these is being led in Guildford on the 5th November by Rachel Jordan and Andrew Roberts.
If you would be interested in hosting a vision day in your area or simply finding out more - please do get in touch with Rachel Matthews on vision@freshexpressions.org.uk or 01384 294454.
We look forward to your call!
It was a really encouraging event… and there was an excited buzz from the moment people arrived!
Participant at Manningtree and Harwich vision day
mission shaped ministry
There's still time to sign up formission shaped ministry in Birmingham, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, Kent and South East, North London or Aberdeen. Book places online.
Share
The Share page 
Sustaining a fresh expression contains much wisdom on leadership in a fresh expression of church. Headings include:
- Shared leadership is vital
It entails replacing the mindset "This is a project for other people" with one that thinks "This is a project with"... - Multiplying leaders is crucial for reproduction
Leadership can be multiplied so that each new expression of church reproduces.
Sara Savage begins her Share blog post, What are the distinctive marks of leadership in fresh expressions?, with 'Leaders in fresh expressions need to be "Picassos" - able to perceive multiple perspectives on the issue at hand, and draw them together into a picture that makes sense.'
Team news
We're delighted to announce the appointment in July of Abigail Rose as our new msm and Office Administrator. Abigail will be looking after our growing number of msm course centres, both in the UK and abroad, as well as staffing our office and shop - so if you contact the office it's likely to be Abigail you speak to.
This month we also welcome Linda Rayner to the team as URC Coordinator for Fresh Expressions. Linda is filling this role alongside holding the lay training brief for the North West Synod of the URC and this post will strengthen the URC's involvement in the fresh expressions movement.
We also welcome Beth Keith back from maternity leave this month and she will be continuing to work on the ground, networking and supporting pioneers.
And finally
Rowan Williams this month sent a greeting to the Canadian Vital Church Planting Conference, talking about how Fresh Expressions has developed in the UK and worldwide. You can see what Rowan had to say on our YouTube page.
Have a good month,
The Fresh Expressions team.
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