The Church of England should pour more of its resources into fresh expressions of church – so says Church Army's chief executive Mark Russell.
Speaking on the May Fresh Expressions podcast (available Saturday 1st May), Mark goes on to say that
you judge the priorities of an organisation by where and how it spends its cash.
He added:
If you were cynical, you'd say the Church priorities revolve around maintaining the institution and clergy pensions. When it comes to fresh expressions of church, many dioceses seem to be 'talking the talk, but not walking the walk'. The actual amount of money spent on pioneering and fresh expressions is quite small compared to how much is spent in total on clergy stipends.
Mark said he was disappointed that when the Church Commissioners specifically gave money to dioceses for pioneering mission, some of them 'threw the money straight into the diocesan stipend account'. He suggested that the Church needed to think about its priorities and invest accordingly.
Listen to the full podcast from tomorrow (1st May) on the Fresh Expressions website.
RSS
Podcast feed