Vision Day in New Brunswick…

All are welcome to the Vision Day at the St. John the Evangelist Parish Centre, 75 Main St., Fredericton, NB on Saturday November 26, 2011 from 9:15am to 3:00pm

Presenters:  The Rev. Nick Brotherwood and Archdeacon David Edwards, Parish Development Officer of the Diocese of Fredericton.

Cost: $10.00 each (includes lunch).

Register On-line here

fxca september 2011 update

Late last month the Fresh Expressions Canada (FXCA) team had a conference call to update each other about fresh expressions related things we are aware of going on in our respective necks of the woods. This is my first opportunity to share some of that with you.

Edmonton, AB, is a happening place with three Mission Days planned for the fall, and various mission-shaped and shaping initiatives taking place in a variety of settings.

In the Diocese of Toronto, five “Re-imagining Church: mission shaped” courses will run this fall, with Bishop Linda Nicholls teaching one of these five week corses. More information here. They have been busy producing a video highlighting all their missional and fresh expressions projects, it will be premiered at their synod in November. Their Reach Grants program ( “to enable local ministry that will reach people who are not currently being reached by traditional forms of church.”) has to date made seven grants to parishes!

New videos of Bishop Steven Croft

Bishop Steve Croft sat in front of our camera for half an hour last June, and answered twelve of our skill-testing questions! See the first two of them here and here. Thanks to Andy & Sue Kalbfleisch for doing such a superb job with the videoing and editing. Thanks to Bishop Steve too for his patience with our incessant questioning.

We will be releasing a new video each week on the FXCA website. So please keep your eyes open for them!

The first two in a series of podcasts featuring all of the  plenary sessions and some of the workshops from this year’s

Beth Fellinger

Vital Church Planting Conferences. Each month another set of podcasts will be posted on this site. Here are the details of the first set featuring plenary speaker Pastor Beth Fellinger.

My travels

I will be visiting Saskatchewan for the Diocese of Qu’Appelle, in late September. The visit includes giving two presentations to their Clergy Conference in Regina on the 28th & 29th. In late November I will be visiting the Diocese of Fredericton for a day with clergy on Friday Nov. 25th and a Vision Day on the Saturday. It will be great to meet new friends in both of these dioceses.

Fredericton, NB are holding their first Vision Day on Saturday, November 26th. Location to be announced

Planning has begun for  a Regina, SK, Vision Day on Saturday 25^th February, 2012 at  All Saints Church, Regina. Please let your friends in the  area know.

Mission Shaped Intro. This excellent six-session, free to download, course, has been adapted for our Canadian context.

A new four-five sessions course, developed in Canada, for Canada, and by Canadians, is undergoing testing in a variety of locations. We will report the results in future updates. For enquiries about Mission Shaped Intro email msi@freshexpressions.ca

Mission Shaped Ministry-Take Two starts September 17th in Toronto.  Once again we are inviting clusters of three or more people to form “distance learning sites” to follow this course “where you live.” The course is of most use to those groups which are planning and implementing a “fresh expression of church.”  To find out what last year’s participants thought of the course click here. Watch a video of one of those particpants here.

Contact msm coordinator John Bowen at msm@freshexpressions.ca for details, or here for more details of this year’s course.

A number of Messy Fiestas (Messy Church workshops) are being planned for the fall

New Hamburg Ontario on Saturday, November 12th from 10-3.  Click here for information and to register.

If you are interested in holding a Messy Church workshop or wish to receive the monthly MCeNewsletter, please contact Sue Kalbfleisch at Sue.Kalbfleisch@freshexpressions.ca

I trust that you find these FXCA updates helpful. Please let me know if there is any way in which we can help you. Please pray for the team as we continue to work together to a see a more Jesus-centred and mission-shaped emerge from coast to coast to coast.

The next time you should receive one of these updates is October, until then to keep up to date with FXCA follow us on the website or our FXCA Facebook page.

Yours in Christ Jesus,

Nick Brotherwood

team Leader-Fresh expressions Canada

nick.brotherwood@freshexpressions.ca

Diane Walker, United Church of Canada pastor, Niagara

“The MSM course was a great place to renew vision, dream, plan and strategize and refocus what church could look like. I would highly recommend this course for individuals and teams who have a heart for mission and their world.”

Beth Fellinger, Christian Reformed church planter, St. Thomas, Ontario

“Taking the MSM course has given my colleague and me knowledge, confidence and encouragement to start a fresh expression of ministry.”

Jonathon Connell, Anglican priest, Edmonton, Alberta

“In my experience MSM is one of those all too rare spaces where leaders can explore the “How to’s and how not to’s” of birthing fresh expressions of church, develop a renewed sense of their own authentic evangelism in a setting aware of the range of theological traditions in the mainstream church, connect their learning with hands-on-experience, develop supportive networks of the growing company of those responding to this new call and ground all of it in the Trinitarian God who fuels our mission.”

Rob Dalgleish, United Church of Canada, Toronto

“Another student from last year’s class and I started up a fresh expression during last year’s course, and we are continuing it this year, as we are just starting to reach some unchurched and dechurched people. MSM will have been a very central course among my theological degrees in terms of the effect it will have had on my understanding of what ministry is, what the priesthood is, and what being a follower of Jesus of Nazareth really is.”

Jeff Stone, Night Church, Toronto

“The MSM course enabled us to move beyond just being passionate about the possibility of a plant.  We learned of successes and  failures; we met church planters and made connections across denominational lines. It was a blessing to witness all that God is doing in the Church and to the possibilities that lie ahead.”

Beverley and Graham Williams, Anglican priest and layperson, Brooklyn, Ontario

“I found the MSM course incredibly helpful.  It helped me clarify my own role in the church planting process and gave me a range of insights that I was able to adapt to my own context.  It also gave us the tools to evaluate what we were doing in order to iron out those things that would have limited the projects we were involved in.  As somebody who has been involved in church planting in three countries I would suggest that this is a great learning opportunity for those who as seasoned ministers as much as it is for those exploring new forms of ministry and church planting for the first time.”  

Simon Bell, Anglican priest, St George the Martyr, Toronto,

“MSM is a course that both inspires and encourages fresh ways of bringing the Gospel to the world by equipping and encouraging the saints in doing creative Kingdom work. I loved the course.”

Paul Ranson, Anglican priest, St. John, New Brunswick

“I enrolled in the Mission Shaped Ministry course because I am interested in different and creative ways of sharing the Gospel. Taking the MSM course has given me (and my colleague) knowledge, confidence and encouragement to start a fresh expression of ministry.”

Jon Dykeman, Anglican, St. John, New Brunswick

“There are no gimmicks or sexy solutions here only humble and prayerful inquiry into the “sent-ness” of the church and what this means for our life together to the glory of God.  I now feel better equipped and hopeful for the task that lies ahead.” 

Jonathan Turtle, Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Toronto

“MSM was an excellent experience. It brought together people who were involved in missional churches to tell us about their experiences. It was real and it was practical.”

Arthur Dyck, Anglican, Edmonton.

“I would highly recommend the MSM course for anyone who wishes to engage with fellow Christians in what God is trying to birth in our Western 21st-century church and society. It provides helpful cultural analysis, solid exploration of our biblical/theological roots, a serious engagement of what mission means today, practical suggestions from church planting practitioners as well as a wonderful opportunity to share and discern together how the Holy Spirit is calling us to embody the gospel today. Regardless of your role in the church – pastor, layperson, church planter – there’s a banquet of material and ideas in this course. I commend Wycliffe College for offering this to the wider church.”

John Lawson, United Church church planter, Guelph

“Toronto Mission Shaped Ministry course is definite must for your fall “to do” list. The dynamic mix of teaching, excellent guest speakers, interesting group conversation, video clips and prayer opened my mind to many new ideas.”

Ann Krueger,  Lutheran pastor, Barrie, Ontario

“I learned strategies about how to deal with the baggage of the dechurched and moreover how to make Church relevant for a world that is essentially unchurched. I found the required readings were also pertinent and thought provoking. Having a team in place to share the work of a new church plant is vital and I wish the rest of the team I belonged to could have shared the course with me and preferably before we had started our project!”

Barbara Jenkins – Anglican layperson, Toronto

For details of this year’s course, including dates and costs, click here.  

So how do you begin a new Christian community where none exists at present and where there is little or no “Christian memory” to help it get jump-started in the community?  After all, it is no longer the case that “If you build it, they will come.”

These days, in order to begin a new Christian community these days, you need to start much “further back” than was the case fifty years ago. But what does “further back” mean?

The process often seems to happen like this:

(a)    Try to discern what God is doing in your community: look, listen, pray

(b)   Build relationships, meet whatever needs you can

(c)    Encourage natural, relational evangelism

(d)   Offer discussion groups or Bible studies or Christianity 101 for those who are interested

(e)    As people come to faith and are baptized, start a Eucharistic community.

This is not a formal “system” (these things by their nature resist systematization) and events do not usually unfold as neatly as this implies.

But this outline does show that a process is involved, and that growth from tiny beginnings into a mature church takes time—maybe several years. It’s like human growth: embryos can’t do most of the things that mature adults can do. However, unless a human being goes through the embryo stage, they will never become a mature adult. For that reason, nobody criticizes an embryo for not being on facebook.

But how do we learn in practice to do this new, post-Christendom kind of church planting? This September, Wycliffe College in Toronto is for the second time offering the course, Mission Shaped Ministry. Here’s the basic information:

1.      What is this course?

 Mission Shaped Ministry (MSM) is an eight-month (September to April) ministry-based, practical orientation to church planting and fresh expressions of church. It is adapted for Canada from the materials developed by Fresh Expressions UK.

2.      Who is it for?

MSM is primarily for teams (ideally, lay and ordained together) who are thinking and praying about the possibility of pioneering a fresh expression of church, as well as for those who are already involved in one. Over the eight months, the course will enable you to take practical steps forward towards the realization and growth of that vision.

The course is also suitable for senior church leaders (equippers and encouragers—“permission givers”) who can check it out, and then encourage others to take the course and to become involved in pioneering ministries.

3.      The teaching

Connie denBok

The lead teacher is the Rev Dr. Connie denBok. Connie is a pastor in the United Church of Canada, has herself planted three churches, and is an outstanding teacher who taught Mission-Shaped Ministry last year. Connie has an extensive network of church planting friends in different denominations and of varying ethnicities, who will be helping with the course at different points.

  4.      The dates

The course runs from September till April. The schedule involves nine Thursdays (7.00-9.00) and two Saturdays (9.30-4.30) at Wycliffe College, and a residential weekend to be held at the Mount St Mary retreat centre in Ancaster, outside Hamilton, ON. The exact dates for the coming year are these:

Saturday Sept. 17

Thursday evening Sept. 29

Thursday evening Oct. 13

Thursday evening Nov. 3

Thursday evening Nov. 17

Thursday evening Dec. 1

Thursday evening Jan. 12

Weekend of January 27-29 (not January 20-22, as previously posted)

Thursday evening Feb. 16

Thursday evening Mar. 1

Thursday evening Mar. 15

Saturday Mar. 24

5.      Distance learning

The first time we ran MSM we had groups of distance learners from points as far apart as Edmonton, Fredericton and Barbados! So you will be glad to know it is perfectly possible for a team or group to participate from a distance.

The way it will work is this: Each classroom session will be videoed and (within a couple of days) uploaded to a website. You will then be able to download the session and watch it at a time to suit yourselves at any point during the following week. Then, one week after each classroom session, Connie or another member of the MSM Canada team will be available for live interaction by phone, to discuss the content and to answer questions.

Important proviso: As you will see from the schedule above, a residential weekend is part of the course. If you are within driving distance of Toronto, we will expect you to attend the weekend in person. If distance makes this impossible, we will figure out with you the most worthwhile way for you to access the content of the weekend.

6.      Cost

For those attending the classes live at Wycliffe College, the cost is $295 for the eight months. The cost of the residential weekend is a further $200.

Since MSM works best with teams, we will be offering a special rate of $245 for each person who comes as a member of a team, a saving of almost 20% over the normal rate! (The residential weekend, of course, still costs $200.)

For those watching the classes on video from a distance, the cost for the whole course is $195.

If you attended the course last year, and are returning this year with a team, you can take the course for free! Please indicate this on the registration form.

7.      Registration

The registration form with details of how to pay, can be found here.

8.      What if I am a student at TST?

(TST is the Toronto School of Theology and comprises seven federated seminaries—Wycliffe, Trinity, Emmanuel, Knox, Regis, St Michael’s and St. Augustine’s.)

It is possible to take this course for credit towards your Master’s degree. See information, see the TST website here or contact me, John Bowen, at john.bowen@utoronto.ca for further information.

John Bowen

A new video

To find out more the Mission Shaped Ministry (msm) course, click here.

Steven Croft

who will be a speaker who will be a speaker at both Vital Church Planting West & Easy conferences this May.

Fresh Expressions Canada is delighted to see that our leaders recognise this need as being the major issue that faces us, and is committed to doing all it can to see the church become more Jesus-centred and mission-shaped.

Vital Church Planting 2011 West takes place in Edmonton, AB, May 26-28

Steven Croft

Vital Church Planting 2011 East takes place in Toronto, ON, May 31-June 2

Watch short promotional video here.

Website for both conferences here

Bishop Steven Croft will be the main speaker at both VCP 2011 East & West .

Sue Kalbfleisch, Paul and Lucy Moore

Lucy Moore, (inventor of Messy Church,) touched down in Vancouver in June, for ten days of Canadian messiness! Shortly after arriving home in Cowplain, Hampshire, she wrote this in her blog.

“The flight home was in the company of a young Canadian figure skater come to train for the summer months at Nottingham ice rink. She was full of drive, ambition, vision, confidence and though it was hard to assess her degree of talent whilst jammed into Economy Class, she obviously felt that the future was packed with opportunity. Her mum had loved her enough to let her leave home for two months and spread her wings. Without wanting to get too sentimental about it, I feel the same for Messy Church, the young fresh expression I’ve helped drop off in Canada. It’s all in such good hands: those of the wonderful people who have shown me what real hospitality to strangers is – Elizabeth Northcott in Ladner with her warmth, glowing enthusiasm and seemingly endless reservoirs of love for the people in her parish; Louise Peters, the Dean of Kamloops Cathedral and Barbara Andrews, the bishop, with their creativity, drive, wide vision and bubbling energy; Maddie, Quinn, Thomas and the dynamic clergy of Edmonton Diocese who, if they can manage that level of energy and incisive questioning at the end of a clergy conference, will take Messy Church on with astute and clear strategic planning that can only enrich our understanding of what God is doing through it all.

I need more time to reflect on my Canadian adventure, but as I sit here at home, reeling slightly with jetlag, I am filled with gratitude for having been given this fantastic opportunity to travel and enjoy so many people and places, for the sense of sowing seeds and for the love of Christ bouncing round the world that’s made it all possible. My prayer is that the ideas behind Messy Church will be used sensitively in that different culture and climate to help more people enjoy this warm global family in a cold world. And that perhaps one day I’ll be able to return.

And see a bear.”

Lucy kept a daily diary of her trip. Read all the entries here.

.

“One of the most common misunderstandings about fresh expressions is the belief that they are new types of worship service. It is an understandable mistake as worship lies at the heart of the life of the church, and fresh expressions are new congregations or churches, (not rebranded or experimental church services). There is also an honourable stream within, and pre-dating, the Fresh Expressions initiative, called ‘alternative worship’. However, our recommendation is that the shaping of an act of worship normally lies near the end, rather than at the beginning, of the planting process.

There are a number of reasons for this. Ideally fresh expressions are planted following a process of prayerful listening, and making relationships through acts of service. But if the initial point of contact is a worship event it can only be one which it is hoped the relevant people will like, rather than one which they are involved in shaping, or which we can shape for them with greater care, because we know them. There is also a danger of self indulgence, of creating an event which suits us, or which relieves the frustrations we have with the worship in our own church. ‘I like it so they will as well’ is not the way to plant. What Mission-shaped Church called ‘dying to live’ challenges us to sacrifice our preferences for the sake of what is appropriate for others. Finally it is likely that the result will be an event to attend rather than a church community to which to belong. If there is no intention to form a new congregation, it is not a fresh expression ‘of church’.

To begin with worship may be feasible for the de-churched, who retain a memory of what church was like (up to the point they decided to leave!), but it is less likely to be appropriate for the largest part of our adult mission field, those who have never been involved before. For many worship is culturally strange. They don’t have the toolkit for worship. They don’t know the Biblical story. They only community sing at football matches and they don’t understand our vocabulary. With them we have to start much further back.

Of course, if a fresh expression is planted by transitioning an existing piece of work in the community, then the listening, serving, community forming and witnessing have probably already taken place. In which case you are not starting with worship, but introducing it at the right time. A culturally appropriate, recognisably Christian practice of worship, including baptism and holy communion, is the aim for all fresh expressions that hope to endure, but mostly it is a later development, not the starting point.

+Graham Cray”

team leader Fresh Expressions from expressions June 2010

Courtesy of General Synod

By Trina Gallop

June 08, 2010 -

Brian Bukowski / General Synod Communications

Canon Nick Brotherwood

The landscape of the church is changing and we are faced with a culture that has, “less knowledge of the faith,” with each successive generation. Through a dynamic presentation full of startling statistics to General Synod 2010 on Monday, June 7, members were encouraged to consider new approaches to the environments they minister in.

Read more and Discuss…

“I found the Messy Fiesta event to be exciting and inspiring.

With remarkable joy and creativity, Christian worship/education was offered in an inviting, open-minded atmosphere, with wonderful intergenerational appeal. It has huge potential as a means for inviting and welcoming those who are spiritually hungry, but not attracted to a traditional way of doing church. We are delighted at the prospect of beginning Messy Church ministry at St. John’s, Thorold this Fall.” These words, from Rev. Cathie Crawford Browning following the Messy Fiesta (Messy Church workshop) on May 15^th, capture the essence of Messy Church and the two Messy Fiestas held in April and May this Spring in Ontario. 

Messy Church is a fresh expression of church that is drawing families and children to learn about God, as they engage in a faith community in a new and exciting way. Messy Church was developed in the UK as a way of reaching families who weren’t part of the ‘traditional’ church or who due to their busy schedules were unable to attend Sunday worship. As the dynamics of our culture are in constant flux many parents have only the weekend to spend with their children and don’t want to spend it in traditional church while their children are in Sunday School. Messy Church aims to create the opportunity for adults and children to enjoy expressing their creativity, sit down together to eat a meal, experience worship and have fun within a church context, often midweek. Messy Church is a way to reach families who are not in our churches on Sundays.

“Messy Church is a welcome alternative congregational approach that can stand side by side with a traditional Sunday morning congregation. It accommodates the needs of family life while being innovative and post modern.  It may resemble the early church groups with gatherings, discussions and a meal followed by short worship.” Annette Hoare, St. Alban’s Beamsville.

As co-presenter Rev. Nancy Rowe said, “Part of the format for the Messy Fiesta day was to do a Messy Church so that parish leaders could get a feel for what a Messy Church is like. Messy Church is aimed at young families, and certainly that is the nucleus of our Messy Church at St. George’s, Georgetown.   At first it seemed quite strange doing a Messy Church that was adults only, but the energy and spirit of Messy Church is infectious, no matter what the age, the workshop participants were able to enter into the uniqueness of Messy Church to experience the power of God renewing God’s Church. I left each   Messy Fiesta in awe of God’s on-going intrepid plan for us.”

Thanks to St. George’s, Georgetown (April 24^th) and St. John the Evangelist, Thorold (May 15^th) for hosting the Messy Fiestas and all the enthusiastic participants. For more information about Messy Church, contact me at ask@nas.net

Sue Kalbfleisch

Messy Church Regional Coordinator

Sue

The two streams will do the same foundational courses in Bible, theology and history. But students in the pioneer stream will also have specialized courses and placements to prepare them for their future ministries.

If you are interested in exploring what the pioneer stream within the M.Div might look like, click here for more information, or email the Director of the stream, Dr. John Bowen.

Many thanks to Nancy Lennox, who coordinated the day at First United and to everyone on her team who made the day such a success…  and the lunch and snacks were yummy as only ‘church folk’ can do!

If you are interested in hosting a Vision Day in your area, please contact Sue.

(photo by Michael Hudson, story by Stuart Mann)

Dr. Jordan, who is a leader in the Fresh Expressions movement in England, was speaking at the fourth annual Vital Church Planting Conference, held at St. Paul, Bloor Street, Feb. 2-4. The event, which attracted 180 clergy and laity from across Canada, was sponsored by the Diocese of Toronto and the Wycliffe College Institute of Evangelism. read more

http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/podcast/oct09

Church on Tap was also profiled on video by Sue and Andy Kalbfleisch, linked to on our Fresh Expressions Canada list.