Ripon College Cuddesdon

1. Ripon College Cuddesdon 5th February, 2007 www.freshexpressions.org.uk

2. St. Edward King and Martyr It is good that the Goth Eucharist has become so well established in Cambridge. It is a significant and important development, which is meeting a clear spiritual need." Right Revd. Anthony Russell Bishop of Ely

3. amixed economy church The Goth Eucharist Odyssey Meditative Eucharist BCP Congregations

4. themixed economy church a midweek all-age after school service a Sunday Evening Deanery Youth congregation Parish Communion A network of midweek cells assembling monthly A small community in a new housing area

5. What’s happening?

6. Christians are starting forms of church for a changing culture

7. The Church of England and Methodist Church have named these “fresh expressions of church” and are encouraging them.

8. The going of “Come” What brought them? Baptisms/Weddings/Funerals Questions of life/Pastoral Crises Our church we don’t go to Coming back to values or past known Church From the 4th century in the west, the surrounding culture brought people to the door of the Church. • The mission task was : • Respond well to their requests • Take them, from the door to the altar

9. The coming of “Go” But living in our current culture draws many people away from not towards the church A few people are still drawn to the church doors by they culture • The mission task becomes: • Go to where people are • Make disciples there

10. How much is it happening?

11. The Directory • 600 Fresh Expressions registered • 30,000 people • Includes 10,000+ children • A very incomplete picture

12. Parish Returns 2006 • 39% started something new since 2000 • 33% connecting with non church members • 12% planning something • Half of those already doing something are planning another • Average: 25 adults, 8 young people, 17 children

13. Parish Returns 2006 • A fresh expression of church is a new and/or different way of being church in and for our changing culture. • Examples include youth congregations; new initiatives in schools; midweek or additional Sunday services; midweek groups for children; network focussed congregations, cells; or churches arising from community initiatives – but there are many more. • A fresh expression of church is not normally seen just as an additional activity or simply a stepping stone for people to Sunday services but as something with the potential to be or become church for those who take part.

14. Listening to a changing world Changing Sundays Church at different times Church for different networks Changing relationships Church in different cultures Changing cultures Church for beginners Less knowledge of faith Deeper spiritual hunger Church for disconnected explorers fresh expressions of church

15. 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.

16. Starting a Fresh Expression

17. Prayer and Support Listening and Following a Call Connection

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

19. What is the understanding of mission?

20. The Mission of God • It is not the church of God which has a mission but the God of mission who has a church • Mission is finding out what God is doing and joining in

21. Shifts in understanding mission FROM: Mission is something the church does in other places TO: Mission is something the church does in our own culture FROM: Mission is either service or transformation or evangelism TO: Mission involves service and transformation and evangelism FROM: Mission is something the church does TO: Mission is something God is

22. Key Theological Influences • Missiologists reflecting on British context from the context of global mission • Roland Allen: Missionary Methods • John V Taylor: The Go Between God • Leslie Newbigin: The Household of God • Vincent Donovan: Christianity Rediscovered

23. Key Theological Influences • Missiologists reflecting on British context from the context of global mission • A magisterial synthesis: Bosch • Missio Dei • Mission at the heart of God • Mission shapes the church • Christology shapes mission • The Five Marks

24. The Five Marks of Mission • To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom • To teach, baptise and nurture new believers • To respond to human need by loving service • To seek to transform unjust structures of society • To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

25. Key Theological Influences • Missiologists reflecting on British context from the context of global mission • A magisterial synthesis: Bosch • The Five Marks • The decade of evangelism: • Integration of a mission centred view at the heart of the Church of England • Integration of evangelism and social action within a broader theology of mission

26. What ministry is needed?

27. themixed economy church a midweek all-age after school service a Sunday Evening Deanery Youth congregation Parish Communion A network of midweek cells assembling monthly A small community in a new housing area

28. Discipleship: Mission Shaped Living Light structures Outwardly facing Making and sustaining disciples Whole life, Kingdom focussed Outwardly facing Mission shaped

29. Ministry in a mixed economy Church [Apostles and Prophets] Connecting and Sending Episcope: Oversight Ministries Sustaining missionary community Beginning new communities Evangelists Pastors and Teachers Diaconal Ministries Presbyteral Ministries

30. Different Fresh Expressions

31. Messy Church • Listen to the community • Listen to what God has given you “I don’t see it as a stepping stone for Sunday services because I think for a lot of people Sunday is not an easy day to get to church on…”

32. A Distinction A fresh expression of what we are already doing Beginning afresh with a new community

33. A fresh expression of what we already do: Shift 1 Something the Church does Something which is Church

34. “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, so long as we have ways of identifying the same living Christ at the heart of every expression of Christian life in common” • Archbishop Rowan Williams

35. A fresh expression of what we already do: Shift 2 Midweek Activity Youth Group Bible Study Service in Residential Home Parish Communion One Service at the Heart of Everything

36. themixed economy church a midweek all-age after school service a Sunday Evening Deanery Youth congregation Parish Communion A network of midweek cells assembling monthly A small community in a new housing area

37. What is Church? • “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” Matthew 18.20 • “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca and the church in their house greet you warmly in the Lord” I Corinthians 16.19

38. Mapping Ecclesiology

39. Five Areas • Defining the essence of church • Describing the richness of church • Deciding what is church and what is not • Determining what makes a church Anglican/Methodist • Comparing the reality of church to the rhetoric

40. fresh expressions resources • expressions: the DVD • moving on in a mission shaped church • starting a fresh expression • listening for mission • tabloid • vision days • the knowledge bank • the one year course www.freshexpressions.org.uk