Mission Network News

Future of Parish Mission Funding

General Synod members will have received their paperwork for the forthcoming Synod. It contains this paragraph from the "Summary of decisions of the House of Bishops":

"Financial issues...
Following discussion, there was general agreement...
That, if current distribution levels could not be sustained in the light of future actuarial reviews, less priority should be given to sustaining the parish mission fund at its present level than to other spending categories (though further thought was needed about the possibility of funding for new housing areas)." (my emphasis)

This matter will not be on the agenda at this Synod, but as part of the Synodical process the report of the House of Bishops' discussion is now in the public arena. As we all know, money is in short supply across the Church. We need to debate the best way to prioritise resources sensibly. So, if you have had good experience of the parish mission fund, and if you feel that such seed-corn money makes a significant difference for good, you might want to say so to your bishops and General Synod members over the next few months.

Church of England Olympic Executive Co-ordinator

This is a wonderful mission opportunity for a clergy person somewhere. Can you pass the news around?

Job Title: Church of England Olympic Executive Co-ordinator
Job description:
The Dioceses of Chelmsford, London and Southwark are making a senior strategic appointment to co-ordinate the Church of England's response to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

We are looking for a clergy person with experience of leadership and management:
• Large scale people management, diplomacy and inspiring people to work to their strengths and potential.
• Spiritual leadership and discipleship as well as excellence in administration and organisation.
• Ecumenical relationships and cross denominational mission planning and delivery.
• Achieving positive outcomes in relation to government and community partnerships.
• Engagement with sporting, cultural, leisure and educational authorities and agencies.
• A media spokesperson.

Further information and an application pack can be downloaded from the website below.

Contact Information
Contact Phone: 020 8509 7377
Contact Address: Bishop of Barking, Barking Lodge, Verulam Avenue, London E17 8ES
Contact Email: [email protected]
Web: www.chelmsford.anglican.org/olympics2012

HOPE 08

Missioners and some of our Bishops and other senior leaders will be receiving information from Paul Bayes this week about HOPE 08 together with a promotional DVD.

Paul is serving on the HOPE leadership team alongside Steve Clifford, the HOPE08 chairman. Steve writes:

HOPE 08 - Can we help?

The feedback we are receiving from across the country is incredibly encouraging: -

• The HOPE Road Show has just connected with hundreds of church leaders and young people, passionately planning to see HOPE happen where they live. An underground youth movement is emerging with plans being made for a 100,000 participants connecting by text, email and a web presence.
• We are anticipating that every major UK city will see HOPE activities and events taking place. But 100s of smaller towns and villages are also getting involved (at present over 350 locations have been identified).
• The Bible Society is making their ‘public space’ material (field tested in Bristol and Manchester) available for use in both small and large communities.
• The ‘HOPE publication’ carrying scores of great ideas for HOPE is now being worked on with over 20,000 copies available at cost (thanks to the support of STL).

Thanks for all the encouragement and support you have already given us in getting to this stage. We are focusing our attention and ensuring that every church leader of churches, both large, small and of all traditions in the UK, clearly hear the vision of HOPE and are given the opportunity to get their church involved (by becoming a partnership church).

The HOPE DVD, literature and website (www.hope08.com) are great resources towards this end, but we have always recognised that we need our friends (senior leaders across the country) to be speaking on our behalf, encouraging participation and opening their network of relationships.

Let us know if there is anything more that we can do to help you: -

* More literature to distribute
* HOPE postcards
* DVDs
* Articles for your publications
* Copy for your website
* Speakers for your events

Steve

HOPE Leadership Team

Contact Paul for any further information or resources: [email protected]

Renew the Church of England? You're fired!

Check out this report that a new series of ‘mini-musicals…..sending up some of the most successful television formats’ by the producers of Jerry Springer: The Opera, will include one based on The Apprentice, called The Applicants, where the contestants have to design a new look for the Church of England’.

Each 30-minute show imagines the on- and off-screen lives of presenters and contestants, with fantasy song and dance sequences. The Apprentice becomes The Applicants, with John Thomson taking on the Alan Sugar role. The contestants have to design a new look for the Church of England and risk being told "you're fired" in "spectacular, bloody fashion".

More here if you have the stomach for it: http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2264669.ece

Discipleship resources

Thanks to Joanna Cox in the Education Division here at Church House for news of these discipleship resources.
Do contact Jo if you want to contribute to her "scoping exercise" (see her final paragraph for details).


'YOUR SHAPE FOR GOD'S SERVICE' - Resource from Carlisle Diocese
Amiel Osmaston in Carlisle diocese has produced a resource that will certainly be of interest to many others too.  The course 'Your Shape for God's Service' consists of six 2-hour sessions, which involve some input / Biblical material, practical exercises, discussion and application to each person’s life situation, and prayer together - with a "homework" preparation exercise each time. 
Amiel had found that many other resources looking at 'gifting' seemed to presuppose a particular theology or a large suburban (or american!) congregation - which didn't always fit the needs of smaller rural parishes in Cumbria!  This course "aims to create an informal atmosphere, where people feel safe to discuss things at a personal level."

She writes:

• "I have created “Your SHAPE for God’s Service” to meet the needs of ordinary British churches, of any denomination, including small ones whose members are not confident about “having anything spiritual to offer.”   Most similar courses have a narrower focus, usually just dealing with Spiritual gifts.  SHAPE tries to look at the whole person (including our Heart’s desires, Abilities, Personality & Experience), on the basis that we have been created and shaped by God and he wants us to serve him in all that we are and do.  The course aims to help people grow in their Christian discipleship in every area of their lives – work, family, friends, local community, church, voluntary and leisure activities.  This is about mission and God’s Kingdom, not about navel-gazing or merely “doing things in church".”

Amiel says they have purposely not copyrighted the materials - so that with acknowledgement it is possible for others to adapt them for local use.  So this course is both flexible and cheap.  The course materials are available on a CD as a series of Word documents for printing off (or adapting and printing off). 
This is available for a cost of £4.00 from:

• Ministry and Training Department 
Church House 
West Walls 
CARLISLE   CA3 8UE  

Cheques for £4.00 to be made payable to "Carlisle Diocesan Board of Finance Ltd"
If you have other questions about this, Amiel says she will be happy to provide further information - mailto:[email protected]

RESOURCING WHOLE LIFE DISCIPLESHIP 

Some other ideas / reminders / pointers:
*  The 'After Sunday' project is based at Durham Cathedral and headed up by Peter Sinclair (who is well known to the Local Ministry network).  It includes a wide range of related information on living out  Christian faith in the world.  www.aftersunday.org.uk
*  From the other side of the Atlantic, is a site on 'Ministry in Daily Life'  at www.episcopalchurch.org/mdl.htm  This has been produced from the office for Ministry Development at the Episcopal Church Center and the Division for Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
*  The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity are developing interesting work and research in the area of 'whole life discipleship', particularly with their 'Imagine' project.  www.licc.org.uk/imagine/home .  There are useful challenges as well as information - for example in Parish Development contexts the 'How whole life is your church' questionnaire under the 'resources' section could be invaluable. 
Also from the 'Imagine' project comes the book "Let my people grow - making disciples who made a difference in today's world" - a collection of essays and biblical, theological and practical reflections on the subject edited by Mark Greene and Tracy Cotterell. One key message is the importance of 'intentionality' in developing disciples - often the church has seen worship as its corporate activity and 'witness' as an individual one, and being a disciple sometimes presumed to be spin-off that happens rather than something that needs to be intentionally developed.  This isn't aiming to be a collection of resources, or to point to a recipe for an "off-the-shelf, all-dancing, all-singing, change-the-church-by-Tuesday (and win-the-world-by-Thursday) solution".  Some essays are thinner than others on the 'whole life' dimension of discipleship, and some Friday Mailing readers will probably find some 'preaching to the converted'.  But good value at £7.99, it is available from LICC - website above.
Tracy Cotterell has also sent information about " ‘21st century Disciples’, a workshop and teaching day with Bishop Graham Cray designed to help church leaders (paid/unpaid; part/full time) seeking to build communities of growing, whole-life disciples of Christ in today’s culture. It runs from 9.15 till 4.30 on Tuesday, March 13th at LICC in London and costs £20." - Full details and booking form on the LICC website above.
*  There is a constant  challenge of finding ways to encourage /support / resource churches to become communities that support lay discipleship / whole life disciples. As the church, along with other faith communities, grapple with the whole issue of the role of their faith 'in the public square', what are the many and various ways this is currently being approached /thought about in the church?   I am planning to undertake "a scoping exercise" looking at this - including not only formal educational training courses etc, but also any other approaches used. If you have examples or ideas - please let me know - mailto:joanna.cox:@c-of-e.org.uk  .  You don't necessarily have to write lots of detail - I can always follow up with a phone call if needed.   Thanks .

"Making our mark" Walk of Witness, London, Saturday 24th March

This is the first ever nationally-organised Church of England walk of witness. Come along and make history!

Walk of Witness, London, Saturday 24th March

Sign up on the website www.makingourmark.org.uk to join the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for this major public event.

The bi-centenary of the Act abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire is to be marked in the anniversary month of March 2007.

As part of the Church of England’s contribution to marking this event there is to be a ‘Walk of Witness’ in central London on Saturday 24 March.

One walk with two starts:

The Whitehall start will begin at 12.15 in Whitehall Place (close to the Embankment). The Clapham start is from Holy Trinity Church, Clapham at 1.00pm. It is for limited numbers - for further information contact [email protected].

The two groups will come together for an act of worship in Kennington Park (close to the Oval cricket ground) beginning around 2.15 pm.

The walk's three themes are Remembrance; Repentance and Restoration building on the apology for the role of the Church in the slave trade, offered to heirs of the enslaved by the General Synod in February 2006.

It is a ‘walk’ – a reminder that those millions taken into slavery had to walk to the coast of Africa. It will cross the river Thames as a recollection of the significance of ‘water’ in transporting slaves to the ‘new world’.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York - with representatives from other Churches - will lead the walk through the capital in a symbolic act that they have described as similar to ‘walking the way of the cross’.

The closing worship at Kennington Park will be an opportunity to re-commit to truly live by the values of the gospel - loving and respecting each another as human beings made in the image of God – and as such, it is hoped that the walk will become an assertion of the power of the resurrection.

Further details from the website www.makingourmark.org.uk or telephone 0870 321 2005 to register yourself or your group.

Please pass this information on – and encourage churches and groups to come to mark this important anniversary.

Fear and trembling in Liverpool

The age of miracles and Godly fear is not dead in Liverpool - as the Daily Mirror makes clear.

It has this report of ‘people falling to their knees in prayer or fleeing in terror’ on seeing a ‘fearsome steel and bronze sculpture of Jesus…amid claims that “sparks” have been seen shooting from its eyes’ at the Liverpool Academy of Arts.

The full story is here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_method=full%26objectid=18613643%26siteid=89520-name_page.html
And Liverpool Academy is here: http://www.la-art.co.uk/Exhibtions/E111.shtml
Here's the sculpture...

“Evangelising – Protestant perspectives for the churches in Europe”

This from Jim Currin at GfE:

The Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) has published a study project on the Protestant contribution to the missionary task of the churches in Europe.

Vienna - The Council of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) – Leuenberg Church Fellowship - has published a 30-page booklet “Evangelising – Protestant perspectives for the churches in Europe ”. The booklet presents the results of the work of the doctrinal conversation group on “The Protestant profile in the missionary task of the churches in Europe ” which met between 2002 and 2004.

The doctrinal conversation group appointed by the Executive Committee of the Leuenberg Church Fellowship focussed its discussions on the topic of evangelising. It thought it important to clarify how “evangelising can take place in such a way that the form chosen for it corresponds to the content”. The result of the studies which is now published is particularly concerned to provide stimuli for practical action. As well as discussing the fundamental questions of why evangelising is a challenge for Protestant churches in Europe and what drives the churches to evangelise, the reflections therefore issue in concrete forms of evangelising in the different European contexts.

The CPCE General Assembly in Budapest in 2006 recommended to its 105 member churches that they should examine and strengthen their own action in evangelising and develop it further by taking note of the present text. Thus the study project is particularly intended for practical use in the CPCE member churches. It can be downloaded free from the internet address www.leuenberg.eu or ordered for a contribution of 50 cents per copy to cover expenses through the email address [email protected].

Get me to the church on time... in a taxi

Church House press unit has this - as you may have seen, it got lots and lots of media coverage this week.
Get me to the church on time… even if it’s in a taxi
Buying your wedding dress from a charity shop and giving it back afterwards, inviting your guests to bring a bottle, and arriving at the church as part of a flower parade or in a taxi are all suggestions included in a new book published today by the Church of England. Among other things, the book aims to debunk the idea that weddings need to cost thousands of pounds. With St Valentine’s Day just a few days away, the Church of England is using the book to remind couples that their wedding day need not cost the earth – and that the real investment has to be made in the relationship itself.
In addition to the tips on saving money on the events of the big day, Making the Most of Weddings offers ideas for arranging an environmentally friendly wedding, such as using organic food for the wedding breakfast or fairly-traded materials for the dress, or arranging the wedding list with a charity.
The pocket-sized book, by former Relate counsellor the Revd Andrew Body - who has conducted more than 500 weddings in 35 years as an Anglican priest - also gives a wealth of practical tips for churches keen to make the most of holding weddings, from the moment the couple approach the vicar, through to remembering the anniversary of their big day. Written primarily as a book for church ministers, it also provides a range of ideas for couples who want to take advantage of the various wedding service options – which hymns to choose, how the bride should enter the church, which vows to use – and the book includes a handy checklist designed to prompt questions for the vicar.
The Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Anthony Priddis, commends the book’s ‘can do’ attitude: “Marriage is absolutely fundamental to our human life and, therefore, to society’s health. Couples need every possible help and encouragement to walk this path. The Church is brilliantly placed to provide that assistance... There is a great deal here to encourage and help all congregations to assist couples at the start of their married life”.
Against a backdrop of recent figures suggesting the average cost of a wedding in the UK is now £17,000, Andrew Body believes the Church has a duty to “blow the whistle on commercialism”. His more ‘creative’ suggestions, drawn from ideas collected by Karen Holford, former chair of Churches Together for Families, are aimed at giving couples - and the churches that play a major part in their wedding day - a sense of the options open to them, that will help keep the focus on the wedding as a public commitment to their relationship with each other, and with God.
The Revd Jan Harney, a member of the Archbishops’ College of Evangelists and the Church of England’s first wedding website ‘blogging vicar’ (at www.newlyweds-uk.com), comments: “Andrew has drawn together a wealth of expertise and good practice, wrapped up in a heart-warming blend of pastoral concern and sound business sense.”
Making the Most of Weddings – A practical guide for churches (ISBN 978 07151 4125 0) ispublished by Church House Publishing, priced £6.99, and is available from Christian bookshops including Church House Bookshop, 31 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BN, tel. 020 7799 4064, email, or on the web (mail order available).

Church House Westminster

Just an update on our forthcoming move back to Church House after its 'open plan makeover'.

The timetable for each department's transfer across the river to Westminster is now fixed, and MPA staff are due to move around 9 March. But not all departments move simultaneously - so we will make sure that anyone coming to a meeting around that time is very clear when we will be where!

Phones and e-mails will remain unchanged, though if you send anything by post you may like to note that the Church House postcode will in future change to SW1P 3AZ (This will also help you find the right entrance if you are arriving using satellite navigation - although more fool you if you try to drive here.). The old postcode will still find us for the time being.

Lay pioneer ministry guidelines

Last month the House of Bishops approved new guidelines on encouraging lay pioneer ministry, to go alongside the ordained pioneer ministry guidelines which were approved last year.

They contain substantial recommendations on the provision of training and for recognition of lay pioneers to begin fresh expressions of church.

"The Guidelines should be seen not as prescriptive but as supportive to a range of developments that are happening in local churches, dioceses and at national level in the Church of England and as an initial attempt to describe and identify and comment on good practice in these ministries."

Thanks are due to Steve Croft who has nursed these guidelines through many drafts to a successful conclusion.

Download the guidelines from Fresh Expressions here: www.freshexpressions.org.uk/training/lpm

blah... on entrepreneurship

Over at CMS Jonny Baker has this:

blah... learning days 2007


Blah... learning days take place in London where we bring together key speakers for a day of discussion around a key area in the ongoing conversation about mission in a changing culture. We are very excited to be hosting the first day of 2007 in conjunction with Ethos on the MLS ship HMS President which is on the Thames in the centre of London.



March 31st | The Entrepreneur Imperative


with Bill Bolton 10am – 4.00pm on the HMS President, Victoria Embankment


Bill leads the field on thinking about entrepreneurial talent. He has been closely involved in the 'Cambridge Phenomenon' - he set up the St. John's Innovation Centre which now has an international reputation for generating new businesses and nurturing entrepreneurial talent; it helped to launch about 500 businesses - 2 businesses a week for 5 years. He was a UNESCO professor of Innovation and Technology Transfer and is a specialist in Business Incubators. He has written three books, and has developed an entrepreneur evaluation tool that identifies people’s entrepreneur potential and also that of entrepreneur enablers. While his background is in business, he sees entrepreneurs working with three kinds of capital – economic, social, and spiritual. He has also recently written a grove booklet on entrepreneurs and the church.


A changing world is the entrepreneur’s natural habitat. Business, mission, spirituality, social transformation are all environments where there is huge change. So it makes sense to see what might happen if we can encourage more entrepreneurial thinking and activity.


Cost including lunch and refreshments £15


Book online at http://blahentrepreneurship.eventbrite.com/


Blah learning days are a partnership between CMS and Moot. This day is being held in conjunction with Ethos.


http://www.blahonline.net | http://www.cms-uk.org | http://moot.uk.net | http://www.ethosmls.co.uk

Urblog update

Andrew Davey here at MPA writes:

Urblog is an informal site we are developing for comment and resources on urban life, faith, theology and action. We welcome contributions, news and book reviews.

New posts on Urblog include housing, prison and mosque design; and devolving urban governance - also even more new books for 2007.

Urblog can be accessed on http://www.urblog.typepad.com/

Christian Research

Here's an example of Christian Research's monthly "Research Brief".
To subscribe go to http://www.christian-research.org.uk/

February 2007


Our latest seminar, entitled ‘How not to have a Pear-shaped Church’, is coming soon. The dates and locations are: 12 March in Streatham, 13 March in Cambridge, 14 March in Sheffield, 15 March in Nantwich, and 16 March near Bristol. To find out more, or to book, please go to our website or phone us.


Strong support for euthanasia is revealed by the British Social Attitudes Survey. The latest results from this annual survey, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, suggest that most British people now support euthanasia. Four out of five say that the law should allow a doctor to end someone’s life at the person’s request if they have an incurable and painful illness from which they will die. People who regularly attend a religious service are far less likely to support euthanasia than people who never attend. You can read the press release here www.natcen.ac.uk. Click here to see how the Guardian reported the story www.guardian.co.uk/britain/

House churches much more satisfying than conventional church meetings according to new American research from the Barna Group. The average size of the churches surveyed was 20 people, including children, and was defined as "a group of believers that meets regularly in a home or place other than a church building…. they are not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church." Worshippers at house churches were found to be more satisfied on a variety of measures including leadership, connectedness with others, and spiritual depth. Click here to read more: www.barna.org

Website of the Month: the CIA World Factbook: an authoritative and up-to-date set of statistics about every country in the world. It gives information about the geography, people, government, economy, communications, transport and military capacity of each country, including reasonably accurate information about religious adherence. Click here to find out about your favourite obscure (or not) country www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook

Young Muslims more militant than their parents despite evidence of tolerance in British society. Two new surveys look at attitudes to Islam. The first, by the Policy Exchange think tank www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/ finds that young British Muslims are more religious and more militant than their parents. It asserts that a major reason for this is the misguided implementation of multi-culturalism. The other study, by Pew Global Attitudes project, finds that on one measure at least - the wearing of the veil - the British are by far the most tolerant of five major European countries (pewresearch.org/pubs/95/).

Young women not concerned about getting HIV according to new research. The research, which was commissioned by The Body Shop and MTV, found that seven out of ten young women do not believe they are at any risk of being infected with HIV. More than nine out of ten (92%) of women between the ages of 16 and 30 do not think a condom is an essential handbag item on a night out: two-thirds thought it would spoil their chances of having sex. More from the BBC website: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/. Watch this space for news about churchgoers’ attitudes to HIV and AIDS based on a major new survey being conducted by Christian Research.



Our latest seminar, entitled ‘How not to have a Pear-shaped Church’, is coming soon. The dates and locations are: 12 March in Streatham, 13 March in Cambridge, 14 March in Sheffield, 15 March in Nantwich, and 16 March near Bristol. To find out more, or to book, please go to our website or phone us.


Editorial Policy: The aim of 'Research Brief' is to be fact-based, relevant and topical. Christian Research does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of any third party information presented. The stories chosen for this Research Brief, and the information presented via links to third party websites, do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of Christian Research.

Missioners conference 2007

The planning group met this week and missioners will be receiving an email soon with fuller details of the conference. Meanwhile you have got the date in your diary, haven't you?

July 2-4 at Swanwick.

Theme - Mission & discipleship

Organised ecumenically with the Methodist Church. Pressure on numbers means we'll have to restrict applications to district mission enablers and diocesan missioners in the first instance.

Input on discipleship will come from Canada's Cameron Roxburgh. Among other things Cam is an experienced church planter, Director of the Missional Training Network in Canada, and a faculty member at Carey Theological Seminary.

Also Martyn Atkins (president-elect of the Methodist Conference) will visit us just before he becomes president, to share his mission vision.

Plus a chance to interact with the Fresh Expressions agenda, especially in terms of building learning networks of practitioners. And the usual opportunities for networking, relaxation and worship.

Visit the conference website to keep up to date - the link is at the top left of the STW page.

HOPE 08 briefing tour

From the HOPE 08 office. It would be great if you could spread the word about this.

You can download an invitation to the leaders' briefing meetings here - NB for local or regional church leaders only: LeadersForumInvite.doc

The tour also includes evening sessions of worship and teaching that are open to all.

SOUL SURVIVOR LAUNCHES HOPE08 ACROSS THE UK

More than 1,000 people in 350 locations have pledged to 'make Hope happen where they live' - even before the initiative is presented to the nation this month (February) on a high-profile tour.

That is the number so far who have signed up to promote and plan for Hope08 - a year of united mission for every denomination across the UK.

'We're excited about the number who've registered their interest so far,' said chairman Steve Clifford. 'But we invite everyone else who wants to see God's kingdom spread across the UK - to also make Hope happen where they live.'

This new initiative will be highlighted on the Soul Survivor Tour 2007 - at five major cities in the Midlands and Southern England. The programme of activities is being taken to Oxford, Nottingham, Bristol, London and Cambridge.

Participants will hear about the plans from Soul Survivor leader Mike Pilavachi, and Andy Hawthorne from The Message or Roy Crowne of Youth for Christ.

The day will include lunch for 'advocates', reception for church leaders and an evening event featuring the popular Soul Survivor mix of worship and teaching. The tour will run from 19th-24th February, and will go on to visit Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff and Belfast in the October half-term week.

'Hope in 2008 provides an amazing opportunity for all Christians to work together and make a huge impact on this nation,' said Mike Pilavachi. 'My hope and prayer is that through representing Jesus in words and in deeds, we can see lives transformed and bring lasting change.'

Andy Hawthorne has described this year of holistic mission as 'the most exciting thing I've ever been involved in'. He added, 'I honestly believe Hope in 2008 is an opportunity, perhaps like we've never had before, for every denomination, stream, conference and movement to play to their strengths - and together make a huge impact on this nation.'

The lunch and reception are by invitation. Tickets to the evening event cost £3. To book, visit http://www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/tour/ or phone 0870 054 3331

Mike Hill on emerging church

Visit Bishop Mike's blog for some provocative and radical stuff about the way to make the mixed economy church happen.

See especially the article "Drive a white van" about breaking the link between paid ministry and emerging church - click here

It's all at http://bishopmike.wordpress.com

Fresh Expressions (1) - Hard Questions lecture series

Here's a pdf with full details of the Fresh Expressions lecture series "Hard Questions".

For the FE web pages about this, including a booking form, click here

Fresh Expressions (2) - press update

Rob Marshall at Fresh Expressions has this press release bringing people up to date with the latest there.

Fresh Expressions
Changing church for a changing world


Increasing Effect

Fresh Expressions has now caught on to such an extent that people are defining it according to their local understanding and interpretation of it – Dr.Steve Croft, Archbishops’ Missioner and Leader of Fresh Expressions says in an article published today.

Recent Church of England statistics revealed that Fresh Expressions has caught on to the point that 39% of parishes in recent published statistics had begun a Fresh Expression since 2000. Many other parishes and Methodist churches talk of starting a Fresh Expression in the future.

“When a term becomes fashionable it is tempting to brand everything with the same label,” writes Dr.Croft in this week’s Church of England Newspaper adding: “The use of the term will, no doubt, continue to evolve.”

Those involved with Fresh Expressions have taken care to define what a fresh expression is to give added weight to the notion of these emerging congregations as an indisputable element in what the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.Rowan Williams, refers to as a “mixed economy” of more traditional and emerging churches.

“Whilst I am in favour of a clear, centred definition of what we mean by a fresh expression of church, I am myself also very much in favour of using the term to describe the many small initiatives growing at parish level as well as lager ones across a deanery or diocese,” writes Dr.Croft.

Dr.Croft and his team has worked indefatigably travelling from diocese to deanery and district ensuring that Anglican and Methodist churches are given insights into how to give confidence to new ways of being church in the 21st century.

Fresh Expressions has just announced a national series of theological study days ensuring that hard questions relating to the authority and place of fresh expressions are not ignored. A new edition of the tabloid newspaper Expressions will be published next week, packed with examples of how the mixed economy is working.

More at www.freshexpressions.org.uk

Notes on "Organic Church"

Thanks to Alison Morgan for this precis of Neil Cole's book "Organic church - growing faith where life happens"

Download it here:

Cole 2005.doc