1. Fresh Expressions
Of Church

3. Unanimous approval at Synod Discussed and implemented in dioceses
20,000 copies sold
Unanimous approval at Synod
Discussed and implemented in dioceses
Influence in UK
Worldwide influence
This bubbling of new life and creativity is matched by agreement of policy and support.
Mission Shaped Church was commended unanimously by the General Synod.
Most Diocesan Synods have debated the report and passed motions of support. Many have committed to action. If you are an Anglican, find out what happened in your diocese.
The Church of England is in the process of changing its legal structures to enable the recognition of fresh expression of church.
The Methodist Church passed a resolution at Conference in 2004 affiming fresh expressions as one of five priority areas.
The Methodist Connexion and many dioceses are making new money available for mission projects. Again, find out what is happening locally.
Together these elements combine to what may be the beginning of a new movement of mission.

4. The Declaration of Assent
“…which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation”

5. is a form of church for our changing culture
A fresh expression
is a form of church for our changing culture
established primarily for the
benefit of people who are
not yet members of any church.
It will come into being through principles of listening, service,
incarnational mission and making disciples.
It will have the potential to become a mature expression of
church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church
and for its cultural context.

6. This is not
new but fresh

7. The bigger picture ‘ provided the vehicle to say that the development
of fresh expressions of church should no longer be
marginal but central & normative in our common
life….. the development of a mixed economy……
is an essential part of our life and witness.
Steve Croft, Mission Shaped Questions p4

8. both-and continue to grow and develop the church as it is
establish fresh expressions
of church

9. bloodstream of the traditional, mainstream churches life.
“Discovering new expressions of the church’s life has now become part of the
bloodstream of the traditional, mainstream churches life.
So you’re going to hear something now about being the Church, and being the Church of England, not about something marginal, something eccentric, but about the very life blood of who we are and what we are”.

10. Parishes in 2006 engaged with fresh expressions of church since 2000
Research
& Statistics
Parishes in 2006 engaged with fresh expressions of church since 2000
30% planning to begin a fresh expression in next 2 yrs

11. 102 parishes are doing a fresh expression = 32 %
2006 Churchwardens Returns
102 parishes are doing a fresh expression
= 32 %
44 parishes are planning to do something in
the next two years.

12. There are 12 Fxc on the fresh expressions website
There are c17 fxc in the Diocese (11 started in 2008)
A possible 8 starting this year

14. What difference is it making?
At least the topic area is known. We now have fresh expressions of everything.
Lots of confusion/ questions
Is fresh necessarily new?
Is this just for the young?
What does Mission-shaped mean?
Will it work or last?
Does this threaten our history?
A beginning has been made

15. CRITICAL FACTORS New imagination about the church
New climate of permission
New resources
New pathways for ministry
Old law revised to support mission

16. Its 1896: Fresh Expressions of Carriages?
Oh look
It’s that odd Mr Daimler without his horse
Consider all we have learnt
about making comfortable carriages and the care of horses.
You couldn’t throw all that away
Besides Daimler’s thing is dangerous …
Its always breaking down
People walk ahead of it with a flag
How vulgar – they’ll probably shorten it to “car”
Its 1996 – Mr Daimler & Mr Benz present

18. Our situation

19. Different Mission Fields
Regular attenders – at least monthly (10%)
Fringe - less than monthly (10%)
Non Churched (40%)
Open de-churched (20%)
Closed dis-churched (20%)
MSC p 37-40

20. Church attendance segmentation in 2006
Leaving aside the minority who are of other faiths, the UK adult population segments fairly evenly between the Non-churched, De-churched & churchgoers.
Regular (at least monthly) churchgoers 15%
Other religions 6%
Unassigned 2%
Closed non-churched 32%
Fringe churchgoers (at least 6x yr. ) 3%
Occasional churchgoers (at least annually) 7%
Open de-churched 5%
Open non-churched 1%
Closed de-churched 28%
Base: UK All adults (unw w. 7000) at TAM Wave 2

21. %

22. C of E statistics – by tables
% change
% change
% change 80– 2000 NB
In which decade is decline faster?
Feature of Church life
PCC Vol Income
-17
-39
-14
-11
-10 -5
+42
-13
-28
-43
-24
-16
-13
-14
-15
+30
-46
-40
-65
-35
-25
-22
-18
-15
+85
-52
-34
Stipend Clergy
The variety of fringe contacts
are declining faster than the core membership indicators
Contacts with those under 35 are in steepest decline
Adult attend
Electoral Rolls
Easter HC
Baptisms
Xmas HC
Child Attendance *
Marriages
Confirmations
* Child = <16
Bob Jackson: Hope for the Church p. 2 – put in a different order

23. But not secular

24. How have we defined a ‘searcher’?
Someone who has had cause to reconsider their core values, or think about the big issues like ‘the meaning of life’, in the last year
2000 interviews with a nationally representative sample of UK adults, conducted 24-27th April 09

25. Are People Searching and why?
73% of people are searching
All ages, male and female, all but the lowest of social grades
70% of people are searching because of either the credit crunch, concern about personal finances or job insecurity

26. What is being considered?
2 in 3 searchers agree that in the last 12 months they have considered spending more time with family and friends or contacting past friends
Looking out, to other people, not introspective
Base: searchers

27. Are people considering prayer, the church or the Bible?
YES … a third of those who say they are Christian at all
And, the research shows that it is the most helpful thing to do (after turning to family and friends)
NO … if they do not belong to any religion
These do not even feature on the ‘spiritual search map’
It is not that they are being considered but people haven’t got round to it yet, or that they have been tried and reject

28. For those without a religion, where do they look
For those without a religion, where do they look? (after family and friends)
Reflective time alone
Under 35s, Social grade C1, female
Voluntary or community work
Under 45s (part ), Social grade ABC1
Artistic or musical hobby
Under 45, Social Grade ABC1 (very C1)

29. What kind of church?

30. Apostolic Catholic One
Holy
“UP”
Jesus focus
Jesus followers
Church is any expression of the life of Jesus in communal form
Enduring Marks
Apostolic
“OUT”
Catholic
“OF”
“IN”
One
Four linked
Journeys
OHCA

31. “ But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth.”
Acts 1;8

32. Half the picture
Ends of the Earth
Samaria
Judea
Jerusalem

33. “Concentric” Jerusalem Occasional Offices Pastoral Contacts Evangelism
Processes
Pastoral Contacts

34. The eccentric effects…
The ends
of the earth
Samaria
Judea
The centre and the Acts story shift
Samaria is not a return ticket
story moves from a focus on Peter to Paul
the Church goes west
church is done differently among Gentiles

35. The 2nd view Is the Holy Spirit is “eccentric”? Judea … Fringe ?
Samaria …
De-Churched ?
The ends of the earth ….
Non-Churched ?
Churched
Jerusalem
Is the Holy Spirit is “eccentric”?

36. ‘The church is what happens when Jesus is
there, there received and recognised.
Church is the event of Jesus’ presence with
it’s characteristic effect of gathering people
round Him and making them see one another
differently as they see Him.’

37. ‘How does the church become the evangelising centre it was meant
to be?
Before we think of programmes
or techniques, we need to be renewed
in our vision of who Christ is and
what God’s purposes are for the world.’
Rebecca Manley Pippert.

38. Cole and Young

39. A Critique a cultural obsession with newness, novelty & alternatives
create the church we want
individualistic retreat from the world
a brand
bourgeois
a new highway or a series of cul de sacs.
Martin Percy , Old tricks for new dogs.

40. Our resources

42. Bishop’s Mission Order
“… to promote or further the mission of the church through fostering or developing a distinctive Christian community which will itself be part of the wider Church of England.”

43. Finance for initiatives
Self-financing
Locally funded (e.g. by a parish)
Diocesan resources
National seed-corn money

44. Public worship probably isn’t the best starting point

45. Loving Service Forming Community Evolving Worship Evangelism and
Prayer and Support
Loving
Service
Forming
Community
Evangelism and
Disciple-
Making
Evolving
Worship
Listening and
Following God’s call
Connection

46. Modification of the existing
is not enough

48. Mission shapes the church

49. Christ and the Church: Incarnation
Church doesn’t just belong to Christ, but is shaped by his dynamics, reproducing his patterns.
Incarnation
A typically bipartite process
Like humans from breath and dust, or in the covenant
Spirit and Mary
Christ=God the Son and Son of Mary So
Incarnation was not a transplant
Christ the eternal son is shaped by the mission context/ he even has Mary’s DNA
neither was Incarnation a case of Cloning

50. Incarnation cont… 2. The Process exhibits continuity and change
cf Philippians 2: Celebrating sacrificial changes
Christ Jesus = FX of God the Son?
Jesus’ call : the planned/ proactive
Jesus’ openness to change / reactive
Continuity : his ID, relationship to Trinity etc
Change: Enfleshed, ministry, Death and Resurrection
So church should not be photocopied – but created, holding continuity and change together.
Jesus: Sent by God, shaped by Mission

51. assume that we can automatically
‘The reality is that mainstream culture no longer brings people to the church door. We can no longer
assume that we can automatically
reproduce ourselves, because the pool of people who regard church as
relevant or important is decreasing
with every generation’
Mission shaped church report p11

52. “ we understood mission one way and organised life to
accomplish it. We have
awakened to find out the
mission moved on us. To
keep focusing on mission, we
have to turn the furniture
around and face a different
direction. We may even have
to move into another room.”
Loren Mead. The Once and Future Church

53. “church planting is a process by which a seed
of the life and message of Jesus, embodied
by a community of Christians is immersed
for mission reasons in a particular cultural
or geographic context.
The intended consequence is that it roots
there, coming to life as a new indigenous
body of Christian disciples well suited to
continue in mission.”
MSC report

54. Please note: OXC M-S C FXC Church DNA Mission Context
The prime issue is not being Fresh
Church DNA
Mission Context
M-S C
OXC
FXC
The key is the process – not what it looks like

55. Ask the right questions
Who is it for?
Who is it by?
Who is it with?

56. of reaching unchurched
Keep the value
of reaching unchurched
top of the list

57. Paul Roberts – What is missional?
If by 'missional' is meant a proven and primary capacity to bring unbelievers to faith
and discipleship, then the answer has to be 'no' - although a new group within it
has just started, aimed at the 'Alpha market' which may usher in changes here.
However, if we broaden the definition to include a group which attracts people
who might otherwise be on an exit trajectory from other forms of 'missional church‘
and which helps them to continue and to grow in the practice and articulation of
their Christian faith, then the answer has to be a 'yes'. It has actively sought, often
with considerable pain, not to become a therapeutic group for ex-evangelicals
(or ex-charismatics). It is real church: a community of disciples committed to
Jesus Christ and meeting together for worship, prayer, pastoral care and
growing together in faith. But full-on intentional evangelistic work is still on the
back foot.
Paul Roberts – What is missional?

58. ‘Transformed leaders have a clear conviction that God can and will
work through their congregation
to change lives and that their
congregation of people can be
used by God to help change the world.
Such vision begins with the clear
vision of the evangelising community
and what that community might look
like in its particular setting and
circumstances

59. evangelistic strategy
The importance of an
evangelistic strategy
What are you asking people to do?
What training are you providing?
What is the church’s role?
Model it !
Minimise meetings, maximise relationships

60. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel.. ( 1 Cor 9;22)

61. This might change US

62. Dying to live “ I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat
falls to the ground and dies, it remains only
a single seed. But if it dies, it produces
many seeds.”
John 13; 23-6

63. TOGETHER TO GOD’S FUTURE
‘…do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, beautiful as that place may seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have been before.’
Vincent Donovan

64. KEY PRINCIPLES Inculturation (Embodying the Gospel)
Planting not cloning.
'Dying to live’
Something new grows

65. KEY PRINCIPLE FROM - Detailed advance planning
TO - Discernment in context.
‘Seeing what God is doing and joining in.’

66. YOU CAN’T PREDICT THE OUTCOME
DETAILED PLANNING WILL BE LESS EFFECTIVE
MORE A MATTER OF DISCERNMENT
SEE WHAT GOD GROWS
New members?
A cell?
A project?
A church?

67. Welcome the three eccentrics

68. The 3 eccentrics Who are the Philips? A Dangerous Deacon?
Allow space for the unknowns
Discover Cornelius
who evangelizes who
Pray for Pauls
Eccentrics will do it differently

69. The challenge of discipleship

70. Simple in its nature
Relational in its emphasis
Transformational in its outcomes

71. How do we incarnate the gospel in consumer cultures?
‘The changing nature of our missionary context requires a new inculturation of the gospel within our society.’
‘The gospel has to be heard within the culture of the day, but it always has to be heard as a call to appropriate repentance. It is the incarnation of the gospel, within a dominantly consumer society, that provides the Church of England with its major missionary challenge.’ Mission Shaped Church

72. The model of Jesus life INCARNATION - The world to enter
CROSS - The world to counter
RESURRECTION - The world to anticipate

73. Don’t end with church but
continue with mission

74. +Grahams PRIORITIES FOR PART TWO
More first time buyers - non churched, younger
Moving to maturity - sacraments
Discipleship - built into the process
Discernment not cloning
Mission accompaniers

75. Alan Roxburgh’s Five Steps
Awareness
Understanding
Evaluation
Experimentation
Commitment
The Missional Leader