fresh expressions of Church Church Army’s Research Unit 4th November 2016 fresh expressions of Church Canon Dr George Lings Director - Church Army’s Research Unit Part Two The Day of Small Things An analysis of fresh expression of Church in 21 dioceses of the Church of England www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

How to view ecclesial features in fxC? Parents stressing out, with, or at, their teenagers Both shouting “you just don’t understand” Probably not a helpful approach

Parents can get it right Giving to and learning from their teenagers Sorry about the self-righteous smiles!

How to view fxC Small Varied Young Three primary words about them www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

2.1 A set of small churches 64% are less than 50 attenders See section 4.2

Small church & natural unit size/range? Messy churches at various sizes Over 150 Over 100 70-99 51-69 40-50 30-39 20-29 <20 2 22 51 71 87 66 36 17 64% are 30-69 attenders Cafe churches at various sizes Over 150 Over 100 70-99 51-69 40-50 30-39 20-29 <20 2 9 8 18 22 28 29 73% are 20-69 attenders www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

fxC are small Let’s remember this Small is Beautiful E.F. Schumacher wrote a classic Small is Beautiful A study of economics as if people mattered fxC are small

2.2 fxC are varied Type of fxC See sections 4.3 & 6.1 No. cases %of cases All Age Worship Alternative Worship Café Church Cell Church Children focused Church Cluster Church Community Development Plant Messy Church Midweek Service Multiple Sunday Congregation Network Church New Monastic Community New Traditional Service Older people’s Church School based Church Seeker Church Special Interest Group Church Plant Under 5s Church Youth Church 90 78 151 40 148 64 89 360 54 80 30 17 63 46 52 101 132 76 65 8.1% 7.0% 13.6% 3.6% 13.3% 5.8% 8.0% 32.5% 4.9% 7.2% 2.7% 1.5% 5.7% 4.1% 4.7% 9.1% 11.9% 6.9% 5.9% See sections 4.3 & 6.1 Never a type of its own Choose what suits the context – not by popularity or internal preference

2.3 A set of young churches A sharply rising recent trend since the Mission-shaped church report of 2004 In the years back to 2009 c. 600 have started They are 54% of the total in the 22 years since 1992 These examples are, at best, 5-6 years old www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

2.4 3-self responsibility All fxC – averages Two messages: 80% have started this journey Taking steps in self-governing scores highest 3 self & 3 areas See section 7.11

3-self responsibility & frequency 3 self and frequency of meeting Some variety by frequency, but this is a narrower range than shown by different social areas Key: SEF - self financing, SEG - self-governing, SER - self reproducing See section 8.4 www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

3-self responsibility by fxC type Financing: 3 lowest & 3 highest fxC types 3-self responsibility by fxC type Governing: 3 lowest & 3 highest fxC types Reproducing: 3 lowest & 3 highest fxC types See section 6.14

2.5 Discipleship and fxC 80% do something A clear difference Parameter Not at this stage Small groups 1-1 meeting Running courses Serving in teams fxC overall 20% 48% 51% 35% 39% 80% do something Frequency of meeting Weekly 8% 70% 60% 42% 50% Fortnightly 11% 55% 36% 35% Monthly 33% 23% 38% 22% 29% A clear difference Type of fxC High scores 0% YTH 91% NTC 89% CLU 75% TCP 68% TCP 0% CLU 89% TCP 76% NTC 55% AAW 56% CLU A yet wider range of differences Low scores 34% MES 21% MES 37% CFC 18% OPC 32% OPC 24% <5s 39% MES 19% MES 21% <5s See sections 6.17 and 8.9

2.6 The effects of frequency 19 types of fxC Weekly Fortnightly Monthly Messy Church 7.2% 5.6% 87.2% Older people’s Church 38.1% 7.9% 54.0% Cafe Church 42.7% 10.7% 46.7% Child Focused Church 43.9% 8.8% 47.3% All Age Worship 7.8% 45.6% Alternative Worship 52.6% 12.8% 34.6% Multiple Sunday Congregation 61.8% 4.5% 33.7% Church Based on <5s 65.8% 6.6% 27.6% Special Interest Group 68.0% 14.0% 18.0% Community Development Plant 74.2% 10.1% 15.7% Youth Church 67.7% 21.5% 10.8% Cluster Based Church 70.3% 20.3% 9.4% Network Church 75.0% 17.5% 7.5% Cell Church 22.5% 2.5% Traditional Church Plant 96.2% 2.3% 1.5% Most commonly monthly <½ - >¼ monthly Very few monthly See section 8.1

2.7 Frequency of meeting and who comes NB leaders’ opinion & dioceses 12-21 only – as more accurate Await the data accompanying the split by fxC type See section 8.2 www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

2.8 Frequency of meeting and Communion Holding Communions, by frequency of meeting, in 19 types of fxC Communion frequency Weekly Fort-nightly Monthly Bi-monthly ¾ times a year Annually Less Often Monthly fxC   20% 2% 23% 22% 33% Weekly or fortnightly fxC 16% 12% 43% 4% 14% 7% See section 8.6

Meeting frequency & some leader categories Overall ordained: weekly 56%, fortnightly 43.7%, monthly 47.9% See section 8.8 www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

Do ‘lay-lay’ leaders hold back ecclesial maturity?   Gender Employment status Male Female Full time Part time Spare time Lay-lay 28.0% 72.0% 17.3% 23.7% 59.0% All other 63.3% 36.7% 73.4% 17.1% 9.6% The lay-lay are a different set to the others Leader type % monthly fxC % fortnightly fxC % of weekly fxC Lay-lay 46.5% 10.1% 43.4% All others 40.3% 6.8% 52.9% These differences are not very wide FxC with an above average % [36%] of Lay-lay leaders CLU - 67% YTH - 56% CEL - 56% <5s - 47% MES - 44% fxC with a low % of lay-lay leaders TCP - 9% MUL -21% MWC - 23% ALT - 24% CAF – 25% Quite a range here See sections 11.2, 11.4 and 11.5

The lay-lay and routes in discipleship They favour running courses less and make most use of 1-1 See section 11.8 www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

2.9 The lay-lay, 3 self & Communion Self-financing Self-governing Self-reproducing Not at this stage Lay-lay 53.7% 77.7% 39.4% 15.3% All others 61.7% 74.0% 45.9% 18.4% Average 55.7% 70.4% 39.3% 19.2% A higher proportion of the lay-lay have started down these paths Communion at lay-lay led and other fxC www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

2.10 Engaging with Scripture The 14 most common types of fxC Sermon or talk Studying in groups Encourage devotional reading Story telling Creative activity/ resource Messy Church 79.3% 6.4% 8.5% 91.5% 97.9% Cafe church 81.0% 52.4% 31.7% 50.8% 65.1% Child-focused church 71.4% 10.2% 12.2% 83.7% Church plant 100.0% 87.4% 81.6% 29.9% 41.4% Special interest group 66.7% 62.5% 43.8% 31.3% 35.4% All age worship 87.8% 43.3% 36.7% 64.4% 68.9% Multiple Sunday congregn 87.5% 45.8% 56.3% 47.9% 50.0% Community develop’ plant 97.5% 75.0% 47.5% 42.5% 52.5% Network church 75.9% 86.2% 69.0% 31.0% 65.5% Alternative worship 58.3% 44.4% Church based on <5s 4.9% 2.4% 95.1% 58.5% Youth church 84.2% 28.9% 73.7% Cluster based church 82.4% 88.2% 29.4% 41.2% Older people’s church 92.9% 25.0% 42.9% 28.6% Average (14 types) 80.4% 43.4% 36.8% 58.7% 66.8% See section 6.15

2.11 fxC, types of leaders including pioneers Incumbent or priest-in-charge Assistant ordained Ordained Pioneer Licensed lay Ch. Army Evangelist Lay-lay % 26.3% 22.7% 2.7% 9.5% 2.5% 36.4% The lay-lay are 3 times as numerous as the ‘professional’ lay. This % may reduce over time as some become licensed – as in Leicester diocese FxC are nearly 50% ordained and 50% lay led, and also by gender. Both vary by fxC type – see section 6.13 The OPMs are a small part [2.7%] of the fxC picture There is some confusion about the relationship of fxCs and OPMs The intersecting circles show only some OPMs lead fxC and most fxC are not OPM led About 125 OPMs 1109 fxC See section 10.3

Getting hold of the reports Hard copy £15 today from Andrew Wooding The Day of Small Things An analysis of fresh expression of Church in 21 dioceses of the Church of England George Lings Church Army’s Research Unit November 2016 PDF available to download for free at: www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch www.churcharmy.org/fxCresearch @ChurchArmy #CARUconf

Sustaining young churches Over to Andy Wier Sustaining young churches