A 'growing army of mission shaped people' is changing the shape of Church in Liverpool diocese. So said Revd Canon Phil Potter, Liverpool's Director of Pioneer Ministry, at the Bishop's Conference on Saturday (20th March 2010).
Speaking to 350 delegates at Let the Rivers Flow, he highlighted the role of the Flagship School of Leadership, the msi course, evolving msm training, and the increasing focus on providing mentors for people to 'share the journey' as an over-riding theme of fresh expressions of church in the diocese.
He went on to detail three main categories of people involved in the burgeoning movement: Ordained and Lay Pioneers; Champions – including mission-shaped Area Deans – who
keep the agenda alive and support those who are doing it on the ground; and Permission Givers. We have also long been blessed by a Diocesan Bishop and a Diocesan Secretary who have given their blessing to anything that is mission shaped.
The conference, to explore fresh expressions of church in Liverpool, also looked at how to move forward with the initiative.
The Bishop of Liverpool, Rt Revd James Jones, drawing on Ezekiel 47.3-10 and current church attendance statistics, outlined the stark reality of the work to be done.
There are a million people out of the area's 1.5m population that are not touched by the love and grace of God, and that is our challenge. As a Church we can be so dominated by our own agenda that we do not recognise what is happening by the Spirit of God outside our church walls. Fresh expressions is all about finding new ways of being in relationship with other people who have, for various reasons, given the institutional Church a wide berth and I think it's going to get worse.
Highlighting the words of Jesus from Matthew 18:20, 'When two or three people meet in my name, I am there,' the Bishop said,
He couldn’t have given us a better motto for fresh expressions of church.
He added,
There is a place for the Church and the institution; there is a place for beautiful buildings; for iconic buildings that become a focus of pride in the community; but that’s not where we can confine the Spirit of God.
Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops' Missioner and team leader of Fresh Expressions, gave his keynote address on 'Planting fresh expressions – sharing in God’s Mission. The Long Term Challenge.'
Emphasising that his passion was for the re-evangelisation of the nation, he spoke about how the landscape of our culture and our society has changed rapidly over the past few decades. Expanding on the imagery of lake and river to look at different forms of church and what that might mean for individuals and communities of God's people, he said,
Let the rivers flow but please keep fishing in the lake.
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