Fresh Expressions Toronto

Slide 1: FRESH EXPRESSIONS TORONTO

Slide 2: A Tale Of Two Reports

Slide 3: THREE YEARS PROGRESS  21,500 copies sold  National Evangelism Officer (Paul Bayes)  Senior Staff coordinator in 40 dioceses  ‘Fresh Expressions’ organisation (+Methodist)  635 registered projects,  35% of parishes in 2005 count.  New legal Framework: ‘Bishop’s Mission Order’  Mission leadership criterion for all ordinands  Pioneer ordained ministers

Slide 4: THREE YEARS PROGRESS  Pioneer lay ministry guidelines  Resources: books, pamphlets, DVDs,  ‘Share’ - Online guide www.freshexpressions.org  Training courses: ‘Mission Shaped Intro.’ ‘Mission Shaped Ministry’  Additional financial provision, national & diocesan.

Slide 5: A SHIFT IN CULTURE  ‘Essentially the Fresh Expressions program is not simply about a kind of scattered set of experiments;  it’s about that gradual, but I think inexorable shift, in the whole culture of our church that has been going on in the last few years, and which will undoubtedly continue to grow and develop.

Slide 6: PART OF THE BLOODSTREAM  And that shift in culture is about the way in which discovering new expressions of the Church’s life has now, rather paradoxically, become part of the blood stream of the traditional, mainstream churches’ life.

Slide 7: Rowan Williams  To be, so to speak, an ordinary average Anglican, to be an ordinary average Anglican diocese, to be an ordinary average Anglican bishop, now involves you in thinking about, planning for, and involving yourself in, some quite extraordinary and, on the face of it, sometimes rather un-Anglican bits of new life.

Slide 8: BEING THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND  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.’

Slide 9: THE NEW FRONTLINE  FROM - How to share the gospel  Alpha, Emmaus Etc.  TO - How to be church  So that people can hear and see the gospel.  FROM - Church ‘where’ people are  TO - Church ‘how’ people are.

Slide 10: A CHANGING CULTURE  Greater mobility  A network society  Weakening neighbourhoods  Porous boundaries

Slide 11: MISSIONARY CONTEXT  ‘Ministers in the Church of England must pursue their vocation increasingly aware of the missionary context in which the church is set.  In previous generations ministry was exercised in a culture where Christian beliefs and behaviours were the norm: today’s context is more of a spiritual and moral market place.’ Criterion H

Slide 12: 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) Other Unassigned churchgoers 15% Closed religions 2% 6% Fringe churchgoers non-churched (at least 6x yr. ) 3% 32% Occasional churchgoers (at least annually) 7% Open de-churched 5% Open non-churched Closed 1% de-churched 28% Base: UK All adults (unw. 7069 w. 7000) at TAM Wave 2

Slide 13: Percentage of child population in Sunday School UK, 1900-2000 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 ©UK Christian Handbook Religious Trends 2001/2001 No.2

Slide 14: CONCLUSION  The existing parochial system alone is no longer able to deliver its underlying missionary purpose.  We need a mixed economy of the old and the new.

Slide 15: NOT EQUIPPED  ‘We know that our much loved and treasured parochial system is not equipped to meet all the challenges of young, mobile populations, whose patterns of life and work are not those of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.’ +Rowan Williams

Slide 16: COMMUNITY CHURCH?  ‘A church in every community in the land” is an empty boast if it boils down to there being a church in a given geographical area, without any reference to accessibility or culture.’ +Michael Nazir-Ali

Slide 17: OUR PEOPLE?  ‘The Anglican pattern of ministry, built around parish and neighbourhood, can lead to a way of thinking that assumes that all people – whether attending or not attending are basically ‘our people’. All people are God’s people, but it is an illusion to assume that somehow the population of England is simply waiting for the right invitation before they will come back and join us.’

Slide 18: OUR PEOPLE?  The social and mission reality is that the majority of English society is not ‘our people’ – they haven’t been in living memory, nor do they want to be. The reality is that for most people across England the church, as it is, is peripheral, obscure, confusing or irrelevant.’  ‘The task is to become church for them, among them and with them, and under the Spirit of God to lead them to become church in their own culture.’

Slide 19: THE CHURCHES’ RESPONSE  New forms of church plant - into networks  From cross boundary to non- boundary  Churches transitioning to cell  Fresh expressions of church

Slide 20: CALLED TO PROCLAIM AFRESH  ‘Which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation.’  ‘Bringing the grace and truth of Christ to this generation.’

Slide 21: FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF CHURCH  Alternative worship communities  Base ecclesial communities  Café church  Cell church  Churches arising out of community initiatives  Multiple + midweek congregations  Network focused church  School based or linked congregations

Slide 22: FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF CHURCH  Seeker church  Traditional church plants  New monastic movements  Traditional forms of church inspiring new interest  Youth congregations  Fresh expressions for children  Fresh expressions for under 5s and their families

Slide 23: changing Sundays church at different times changing relationships church for different networks changing cultures church in different cultures less knowledge of faith church for beginners deeper spiritual hunger church for explorers fresh expressions of church 23

Slide 24: Alt Worship New congregation and Crosslinks service after café services in school Community Choral hall Bearstead Regeneration - Eucharist Dover Cranbrook Harvest New Anglican Church Carpenter’s Thanet (Cell) Arms network church plants - Time Out Deal + Canterbury Sandwich Nightclub Chaplaincy Y Youth Post Alpha Maidstone Congregation congregations Whitstable Café Church COME, Ignite Bobbing

Slide 25: ￕ St. Georges Clusters 8 til late Bridging Stepping 8 til late Balcony the gap Stones Centre point No limits Trans4m Light Greener Pulse Emerge conNect house way

Slide 26: 8 til late 8 til late Greenerway CoNnect Emerge Greenerway 8 ‘til late “NO LIMITS” Stepping Stones Trans4m Lighthouse

Slide 27: CHANGE OF EMPHASIS  Unplanned consequences of other pieces of Christian ministry  Church where people are, not bridges to get people to church  Church more deeply related to daily life  Church when people can attend

Slide 28: POLICE & GOTHS

Slide 29: FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF CHURCH  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.

Slide 30: KEY PRINCIPLE 1  Inculturation (Embodying the Gospel)  Planting not cloning.  'Dying to live’  Something new grows

Slide 31: THE PRICE OF MISSION  The church must always be willing to die to its own cultural comfort in order to live where God intends it to be.  John 12:24 ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit.’

Slide 32: DYING TO LIVE  ‘The seed loses its previous identity, which was to be part of the sending church with its particular manifestation and culture. It will become something different from what it was before. Dying to live is inherent in the planting process.’ Mission Shaped Church

Slide 33: INCARNATIONAL  Entering their world.  Taking it as seriously as they QuickTimeﾪ and a Photo - JPEG decompressor are needed to see this picture. do.  Helping them to find Christ there.

Slide 34: INCULTURATION  ‘Inculturation is essentially a community process “from below”. Its purpose is to allow the gospel to transform a culture from within.  No serious attempt at inculturation can begin with a fixed view of the outward form of the local church.’ Mission Shaped Church

Slide 35: KEY PRINCIPLE 2  FROM - Detailed advance planning  TO - Discernment in context.  ‘Seeing what God is doing and joining in.’

Slide 36: WATCHING  ‘We must relinquish our missionary presuppositions and begin in the beginning with the Holy Spirit. This means humbly watching in any situation in which we find ourselves in order to learn what God is trying to do there, and then doing it with him.’ John V Taylor

Slide 37: 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

Slide 38: HEALTH WARNING!  DON’T TAKE ‘MODELS OF CHURCH’ OFF THE SHELF?  FOLLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT?  AN INVITATION TO IMPROVISE!

Slide 39: Prayer and Support Evangelism Listening Loving Forming and Evolving and Service Community Disciple- Worship Following Making God’s call Connection 39

Slide 40: THE ‘MIXED ECONOMY’

Slide 41: the mixed economy Celebrating and building on what is mission-shaped in traditional forms of church… …and finding new, flexible, appropriate ways to proclaim the Gospel afresh to those who do not relate to traditional ways

Slide 42: THE CHALLENGE TO THE DIOCESES  ‘It is for dioceses to think creatively about how to connect the old and the new, to encourage traditional parishes to share prayer and energy with new initiatives in church life, and above all to help break down the perennial suspicion between the historic mainstream and the risk-taking innovators. The historic mainstream, after all, had its origins in risk-taking innovators.’ ++Rowan

Slide 43: SYMBIOSIS  ‘We are going to have to live with variety. The challenge is how to work with that variety so that everyone grows together in faith and eagerness to learn about and spread the Good News.’ ++Rowan  ‘The brightest hope for church after Christendom is a symbiotic relationship between inherited and emerging churches. We need each other.’ Stuart Murray

Slide 44: WHAT IS CHURCH?  ‘If ‘church’ is what happens when people encounter the Risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with each other, there is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style …’ ++Rowan Williams

Slide 45: CHURCH EXPRESSES CHRIST  ‘If Christ is the embodiment of God, and the Church is his body on earth. Then no single expression of church can ever exhaust Christ.’ ++Rowan Williams

Slide 46: THE GIFT OF REPENTANCE  ‘If the decline of the Church is ultimately caused neither by the irrelevance of Jesus,  nor by the indifference of the community,  but by the Church’s failure to respond fast enough to an evolving culture, to a changing spiritual climate, and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit

Slide 47: THE GIFT OF REPENTANCE - Bob Jackson  Then that decline can be addresses by the repentance of the Church. For true repentance involves turning around and living in a new way in the future.  A diocese or parish which, out of repentance, grows a new relevance to the contemporary world, may also grow in numbers and strength , because the Spirit of Jesus has been released to do his work.’

Slide 48: FRESH EXPRESSIONS TORONTO