Youthwork magazine editor Martin Saunders hails Fresh Expressions' 'massive impact' on the life of the church.
One of the biggest things that Fresh Expressions has done is given people belief that there is a new way of doing things; that (church) is not an old dying model but is genuinely looking at the culture and trying to alter the method with which we reach local communities and have church together. Fresh Expressions is a bit of a beacon that people look to and think, 'OK, it can be done; it's really inspiring.'
Martin, in the latest of our On demand interviews, goes on to consider the church's role as the biggest provider of youth provision in the country, saying,
If you took the church away tomorrow there would be utter bedlam in the field of youth provision... considering our size we do a lot and there are so many stories of transformational youth work going on with maybe some of the hardest to reach young people. But there's so much more we could do and the challenge is how we cope with the size of the harvest when there are so few of us.
He looks at the subsequent challenge to both conventional church and fresh expressions of church.
There is a really simple equation for church leaders to grapple with; if you want your church to survive past this generation you need to do youth and children's work. If you would like it to die - if your strategy is closing down your church - then don't do any youth and children's work.
Martin warns against trying to engage with so-called youth culture.
There is no such thing as youth culture; there is only youth cultures and they're diversifying and diversifying within themselves so you really need to be aware of your specific cultural context. It's a challenge and all about listening, getting to know your community properly and listening for a long time before you ever try and say anything.
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