Mission Shaped Church

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Mission Shaped Church
Changing times needing a
Presented by The Sheffield Centre Church Armys
Research Unit
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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed
• How we relate to others has changed neighbour
  and network
• Culture is now diverse and church is not central
  in the mixture
• Christian faith is less known
• Spirituality is in, Religion is despised
• Today we have to start at a different place and
  further back

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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed

• Sport
• leisure / hobbies
• time to chill out from work
• shopping
• visiting wider family
• split families

Other days and times can make whats on offer
less churchy and more accessible
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The Todmorden Story
Anglican Churches Meeting Midweek
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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed
• How we relate to others has changed neighbour
  and network

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A Vision of Territory Neighbourhood and Network
All these groups of people are our Anglican
responsibility
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From neighbourhood to network
Meet Melissa

• In which community do we grow church?

Surely not just where Melissa sleeps !
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Network Churches
Acton Birmingham Bloomsbury Bristol Deal Hudders
field Loudwater Manchester Nottingham
Sandwich Scarborough Sheffield Stoke Telford Tha
net Westminster
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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed
• How we relate to others has changed neighbour
  and network
• Culture is now diverse and church is not central
  in the mixture

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England has changed so must we

• UK is becoming more diverse in many ways
• to be a Church for the nation is a call to
  embrace the diversities
• Most of the faces we face are cross cultural
  mission
• No one form of church will do

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Post-Christendom Shifts Church

• From
• Centre .
• Majority .
• Settlers ..
• Privilege .
• Control
• Institution ..
• Complusion ..
• Temple .

• To ?
• Margins
• Minority
• Exiles
• Plurality
• Comment
• Organic
• Voluntary
• Tabernacle

Amended from ideas in Anabaptist Newsletter 2004
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Stepping Stones

• A precarious story
• Crossing to where people are
• Not asking them to come to us
• Where the Christian story is little known

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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed
• How we relate to others has changed neighbour
  and network
• Culture is now diverse and church is not central
  in the mixture
• Christian faith is less known

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Is everything still OK ?

• 72 of English people believe in God
• I wonder what sort of God they mean.
• The Junior School girl story .

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Faith in Britain Research from Robin Gill
Churchgoers Britain
Non church folk Britain NI
I agree that ...

• There is a God who concerns himself personally
  with people
• Life is meaningful to me because God exists
• Right and wrong is based on Gods laws
• There is life after death/ heaven
• There are religious miracles
• I pray once or more a week
• Describe myself as religious

84 68 77 86 81 87 86
21 8 27 42 28 16 29
48 20 40 62 42 30 24
Gill Church Going and Christian Ethics CUP
1999 128
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Different Mission Fields Adults in England
10 Regular at church Attend monthly or more
40 The Non-Churched Never have come
10 Irregular at church Attend less than monthly
20 are open to come back
40 The De-Churched Used to come but dont now.
20 are never coming back!
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Non Church de-church adult attitudes
Non church As child
Child weekly At church

• I know God really exists have no doubts or
  have doubts and still believe
• I dont believe in God nor that there is a way
  to find out
• I dont believe in God and never have
• The bible is the actual word of God or inspired
  word of God
• I never pray
• I pray at every fortnight

40 27 6 32 41 13
19 54 40 13 70 6
Gill Church going and Christian Ethics p 132
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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed
• How we relate to others has changed neighbour
  and network
• Culture is now diverse and church is not central
  in the mixture
• Christian faith is less known
• Spirituality is in, Religion is despised

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Frequency of Report of Religious or Spiritual
Experience in Britain from Hay Hunt
1987 2000 Rise
29 27 25 16 18 12 48
55 38 37 29 25 25 76
A patterning of events Awareness of the presence
of God Awareness of prayer being
answered Awareness of a sacred presence in
nature Awareness of the presence of the
dead Awareness of an evil presence Cumulative
Total
90 41 48 81 38 100 58
This includes totals for respondents to two
additional questions asked in 1987 about a
presence not called God (22) and awareness
that all things are One (5), i.e. the total of
76 for the year 2000 is quite likely to be
relatively speaking an underestimation.
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Looking for Spirituality
you have got to be joking
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Changing Times the headlines

• Sunday has changed
• How we relate to others has changed neighbour
  and network
• Culture is now diverse and church is not central
  in the mixture
• Christian faith is less known
• Spirituality is in, Religion is despised
• Today we have to find different starting points
  and further back

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Please note the time bomb MSC pp 40-41

___ Pop Attended lt15 yrs
Non-churched Approx 60
Most existing churches are not aware of this, nor
shaped to meet it 76 of converts come from
dechurched
De-churched Approx 30
____ Attended In 1998
Attending approx 10
Age
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The Big tidal Change

• Come to church is flowing away
• Going to others is flooding in

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Just a few questions

• How do these changes affect your family, your
  community and your church?
• What other changes can you think of which are not
  mentioned here?
• What different cultural and social groups are you
  aware of? Are there already any members of your
  church from these groups?