1. fresh expressions of Church
Church Army’s Research Unit th 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
@ChurchArmy #CARUconf

2. 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

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

4. How to view fxC Small Varied Young Three primary words about them
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5. 2.1 A set of small churches 64% are less than 50 attenders
See section 4.2

6. 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 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 attenders
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7. 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

8. 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

9. 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
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10. 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

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
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12. 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

13. 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 and 8.9

14. 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

15. 2.7 Frequency of meeting and who comes
NB leaders’ opinion & dioceses only – as more accurate
Await the data accompanying the split by fxC type
See section 8.2
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16. 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

17. Meeting frequency & some leader categories
Overall ordained: weekly 56%, fortnightly 43.7%, monthly 47.9%
See section 8.8
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18. Do ‘lay-lay’ leaders hold back ecclesial maturity?
Gender
Employment status
Male Female
Full time Part time Spare time
Lay-lay
28.0% %
17.3% % %
All other
63.3% %
73.4% % %
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

19. The lay-lay and routes in discipleship
They favour running courses less and make most use of 1-1
See section 11.8
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20. 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
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21. 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

22. 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

23. 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:
@ChurchArmy #CARUconf

24. Sustaining young churches
Over to Andy Wier
Sustaining young churches