Mission Shaped Church Some of the working group Ch 7: An enabling framework for a…

Conclusions from the Mission  The existing parochial system alone is no longer able to deliver its underlying missionary purpose  We need a mixed economy – no longer promoting one way of being church

That quote … “We have to ask whether we are capable of moving towards a ‘mixed economy’ church, recognising church where it appears and having the willingness and the skill to work with it” The Archbishop of Canterbury in the General Synod, July 2003

Consequences …  This means assessing the old and valuing where and for whom it works The existing parochial system alone is no longer able to deliver its underlying missionary purpose We need a mixed economy – no longer promoting one way of being church – diversity is OK

Flourishing old expressions  Some Traditional expressions are growing New BCP congregations Cathedral attendance Visits to Holy Places Retreats and Spiritual Direction MSC pp 73-74

But also …  Mixed Economy means investing in, creating & nurturing a diversity of the new The existing parochial system alone is no longer able to deliver its underlying missionary purpose We need a mixed economy – no longer promoting one way of being church Mixed economy includes assessing the old and valuing where and for whom it works

Some “Fresh Expressions Of Church”  Alternative worship communities  Base Ecclesial Communities  Café church  Cell church  Community initiatives creating church  Midweek and Multiple congregations  Network based church  Traditional [conventional] church plants  Youth congregations Archbishop CP conference June 2004 “…what has been so extraordinary, so life giving and wonderful in the last decade or so, is more and more stories coming in of how those fresh encounters happen….. God is showing us examples of what the church is, in startling new ways, because we are seeing what corporate forms of life actually happen when people meet Jesus.”

Mixed economy is both/and – not either/or  How does the church organise itself in such a way that..  it doesn’t simply send out the message that fresh expressions, new encounters are a kind of tolerable eccentricity on the edge ?  but neither does it send out the message that everything people are doing as the moment is wrong and they need to forget it.  Mixed economy…. Means that the church is always a mixture of the disciplined regularities of the prose and the unpredictable encounters, the new creation beginning to happen afresh somewhere, the poetry. Archbishop Cp conference June 2004

Mixed Economy is not …  A mixture of …. Mission-shaped Churches And Mis-shapen Churches Rather Mixed Economy means growing a mixture of inherited and emerging expressions That are all becoming Mission-shaped

Wise words The churches attitude towards experiments should not be one of silent toleration, especially towards experiments which are seeking to create new forms of Christian presence in terms of particular situations. A missionary church should welcome such attempts and encourage their multiplication 1967 WCC The Church for others

Question The future’s … OR

2 factors in the changes now  1:Mission overflows past boundaries – Various Networks – City centre regeneration – Greenfield Housing estates So think in appropriate wider geographical units … deanery, archdeaconry, diocese

2 : Change about change But there can come the time to scatter But who gives the order ? In a church that values order and relationship the levers for change are a mix of the need and the bishop authorising mission There is safety in the convoy The End of the convoy system ?

Guiding the responses In a proposed new mission  The Bishop acts as a broker, with freedom & authority to proceed or restrain  FXC proposed will be unlike the surrounding parish – in both target group and style, encouraging mutual affirmation  Existing ecclesiastical boundaries are seen as permeable – both respected and crossed  Agreed process of the above plus consultancy and review for sending and sent church Mission-shaped Church pp

Redressing the balance? “Receive the cure of souls that is yours and mine” Removing the canonical right of protectionist clergy to deny others access to their parish, when the cause of shared mission needs it. MSC pp

How interesting ! New Pioneers CMS Church Army T.O.M. “Mixed Economy” Fresh Expressions [Son of Springboard] Steven Croft Pastoral Measure Review Group Church Comms Spending Review