Fresh Expressions 1

Progress and Priorities

General Synod York 2011

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Testimonies

• The presentation included a montage of testimonies taken from expressions: making a difference.

You can order the DVD at freshexpressions.org.uk/shop.

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making a difference

“ This DVD will help Christians realise the wonderful potential they have to make a difference wherever they are.John Sentamu

“ This resource shows the potential of Fresh Expressions to help us plant Church that makes a difference. I recommend it highly.Pete Greig

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making a difference

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making a difference

booklets:1. how can fresh expressions

emerge?2. how should we start?3. what should we start?4. how can we get support?5. how can we find our way?6. how can we be sustainable?7. how can we be a great team?

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Mission-shaped Church

• ‘church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context.’

• General Synod • Feb. 2004

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what is a fresh expression?

• 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

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called to proclaim afresh

• ‘The Church of England... professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds,

• ‘Which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation.’

• ‘Bringing the grace and truth of Christ to this generation.’

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A fresh expression of church is

• missional – it seeks to benefit non-churchgoers

• contextual – it seeks to fit the context

• formational – it aims to form disciples

• ecclesial – it intends to become church

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fresh expressions

• not the opposite of ‘stale’• not a rebranding of existing

work• not a bridge project designed to

being people to existing church• not the opposite of traditional –

the complement to it.

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fresh expressions

• not church-lite• but deep church • taking the right shape • in the right place• at a price… the comfort and

convenience of those who plant it

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February 2009

• that this Synod(a) affirm the mixed economy of

traditional churches and fresh expressions of church, working in partnership, as the most promising mission strategy in a fast changing culture;

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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

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February 2009

(b) encourage those responsible for vocations and training in dioceses and parishes to promote the imaginative recruitment, training and deployment of ordained and lay pioneer ministers in and beyond title posts;

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February 2009

(c) commend the making of Bishops' Mission Order to integrate suitable fresh expressions of church in the life of the dioceses; and

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February 2009

(d) request the Mission and Public Affairs Division and the Research and Statistics Unit to gather evidence on the spiritual and numerical growth of the mixed economy church in general and fresh expressions of church in particular, and to bring a further report or reports to Synod in the next quinquennium.'

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Numbers?

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The New Ecumenism

Unity grows as we partner one another in mission!

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Ecumenical

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Act ecumenically

“Mission is the whole Church bringing the whole Christ to the whole world.Paul Avis

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Partners

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Archbishop Rowan

• ‘We want to see growth, spiritually and numerically…

• Growth is growth in the power to show God’s fidelity – a power unthinkable without the prior act and prompting of the Spirit.

• To grow in this sense is to become daily more conscious of the words with which the Great Commission of Mt. 28 ends – “I am with you always”

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Presidential address

• “I am with you always” • Without this, carrying out the

Great Commission becomes a programme of human expansion and recruitment only.

• Our appeal in mission has to be, “Walk with us as we walk with Jesus.”

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Critical factors

• new imagination about the church

• new climate of permission

• new resources

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Information

freshexpressions.org.uk• stories• e-xpressions newsletter• audio and video

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Introduction

freshexpressions.org.uk/vision

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training

freshexpressions.org.uk/missionshapedministryfreshexpressions.org.uk/missionshapedintro

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Research

Rev. Dr. Mike Moynaghsharetheguide.org

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regional approach

FEASTs• prayer and

strategy• training• resources• mapping• find/support

pioneers

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One size does not fit all!

Michael HerbstInstitut zur Erforschung von Evangelisation und Gemeindeentwicklung

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Church attendance and experience, 2006,

EnglandFringe churchgoers(less often but at least 6x yr. ) 3% 1.4m

Open de-churched 5% 1.9m

Closedde-churched 26% 10.8m

Opennon-churched 1% 0.5m

Closednon-churched 33% 13.7m

Unassigned

2% 1.0m

Other religions 7% 3.0m

Regular churchgoers (at least monthly)14% 5.9m

Occasionalchurchgoers(less often but at least annually) 7% 2.9m

Base: Adults 16+ in England (unw. 5907 w. 5774) Pop’n (000s) = 41,043

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Time bomb!

• The Church is almost fourteen years older than the general population of England.

• CofE average – over 61• National average – under 47

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Young Adults

• 7.5% of population in church on average Sunday

• BUT only 3% of 20-30 year olds• Of these 27% worship in London.• The black hole in most

churches!

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Ignorance of ‘the little man’

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FE team national priorities

• MORE: every parish, circuit, area, cluster… the new default setting

• BETTER: sustainability, contextual disciple, contextual worship, sacramental worship, indigenous leadership

• OWNED: locally, by dioceses, and ecumenically – a culture of provisional recognition.

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• Mutual trust between the pioneers who plant fresh expressions and those to whom they are accountable.

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FE team national priorities

• The ‘missing generation’

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FE team national priorities

• A new missionary movement

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A new missionary movement

• a new missionary movement – self supporting missionaries

• planting fresh expressions in different life circumstances or wherever the Spirit directs

• accountable to the churches through missionary Orders

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Being and becoming

“The church is ‘missionary by its very nature’ and it becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself.Bevans & Schroeder

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Archbishop Rowan

“We keep faith with our society by searching all the time for the words and acts that keep faith today with the essence of Jesus’ challenge to the culture, religion and the righteousness of his day.

“And this means a difficult and constantly renewed discernment.

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• learning to be the church in our current context

• missionary by nature learning to be missionary in practice

• in response to the love of God

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The Cure of Souls

“I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish — hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.Romans 1:14-16

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The Church’s Challenge

• who will our current forms of church never reach?

• do we have a spiritual responsibility to those with no knowledge of the faith?

• hence – fresh expressions of church!

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no quick fix

• long-term incarnational ministry among the majority group who have never been part of church.

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Progress and Priorities

General Synod York 2011