Fresh Expressions

1
Fresh Expressions Of Church
2

• 20,000 copies sold
• Unanimous approval at Synod
• Discussed and implemented in dioceses
• Influence in UK
• Worldwide influence

3
The Declaration of Assent

• which faith the Church is called upon to
  proclaim afresh in each generation

4
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.
5
This is not new but fresh
6
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
7
both-and
continue to grow and develop the church as it is
establish fresh expressions of church
8

• Discovering new expressions of the churchs life
  has now become part of the
• bloodstream of the traditional, mainstream
  churches life.
• So youre 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.

9
Our situation
10
Changing culture
What is taking place is not merely the continued
decline of organised Christianity but the death
of the culture which formerly conferred Christian
identity upon the British people as a
whole. Callum Browne Death of Christian Britain
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
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
14
2007 Tear Fund survey of 7000 adults in contact
or not with church
15
Later intelligence its worse than
Mission-shaped Church thought
NON CHURCHED
DE CHURCHED
Tear Fund 2006 statistics from 7 thousand home
interviews
1
5
Open To attend church as they know it
32
28
Closed to attend church as they know it
16
(No Transcript)
17
C of E statistics by tables
change 80 2000
change 90-2000
change 1980-90
NB In which decade is decline faster?
Feature of Church life
PCC Vol Income
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 lt16
Bob Jackson Hope for the Church p. 2 put in a
different order
18
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 18
19
The 2nd view
Jerusalem
From the familiar, through the disagreeable to
the unthinkable.
20
The 2nd view
Jerusalem
Is the Holy Spirit is eccentric?
21
Could we say
Percentage now in England
Today
Acts address
22
Concentric
Jerusalem
23
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

24
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
25
Half the picture
Jerusalem
26
The eccentric effects
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
27
Our resources
28
(No Transcript)
29
Bishops 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.
30
Finance for initiatives
Self-financing Locally funded (e.g. by a
parish) Diocesan resources Nationalseed-cornmon
ey
31
Ask the right questions
Who is it for? Who is it by? Who is it with?
32
Public worship probably isnt the best starting
point
33
Prayer and Support
Loving Service
Evangelism and Disciple- Making
Forming Community
Evolving Worship
Listening and Following Gods call
Connection
34
Modification of the existing is not enough
35
(No Transcript)
36
Mission shapes the church
37
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
38
This might change US
39
TOGETHER TO GODS 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

40
OHCA
Enduring Marks
Four linked Journeys
41
we have to ask much more radically how do we
structure a society in which it goes on being
possible ,even likely that, people will meet
Jesus and, in meeting Jesus will want more people
to meet Jesus?
Rowan Williams, Keynote address MSC Conference
42
Welcome the three eccentrics
43
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

44
The challenge of discipleship
45
The model of Jesus life

• INCARNATION - The world to enter
• CROSS - The world to counter
• RESURRECTION - The world to anticipate

46
Dont end with church but continue with mission
47
Alan Roxburghs Five Steps

• Awareness
• Understanding
• Evaluation
• Experimentation
• Commitment

The Missional Leader
48
(No Transcript)