Every Church an Evangelizing Community!
Vital Church Planting 2011 West takes place in Edmonton, AB, May 26-28
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 .
Each month the Share website in England sends out Share Thoughts, a free monthly email with a thought-provoking article, containing material of great interest to the church. In the August edition the article below appeared, which we reproduce in full with the kind permission of Fresh Expressions and Share.
We thought it would be of great interest to many Canadians and could even start an online discussion of the issues it raises. At the end of the article we have asked a question to which we would like you to respond!
Share thoughts – August 2010
exploring fresh expressions of church together
Rural fresh expressions
On a rural housing estate in North Oxfordshire, Church Army pioneer Ian Biscoe got to know his neighbours, put on a Christmas talent show at which Alpha was advertised, ran the course, turned it into a Thursday evening discipleship group, and enabled the group to be church. Five years later there were four congregations with 100 to 120 people overall.
David Muir, a pioneer minister in Devon, has offered these ten tips for people wanting to develop fresh expressions of church in rural areas.1. Do some serious homework on the social realities in your area
The countryside is hugely varied, so beware of generalisations about what ‘country people’ are like.
2. Do assume that countryside people are well disposed to the Christian faith
Most are. So think hard before using language like ‘becoming a Christian’.
3. If you are new to the countryside, get involved
Traditional countryside people will always see you as an in-comer, but it will only take a couple of years to be accepted as an ‘OK in-comer’.
4. Beware of the idolatry of nice village life
This is a temptation for the traditional inhabitants of the countryside and for in-comers seeking their rural idyll.
5. A community centred on its own well-being is a form of selfishness
The church must challenge this rather than collude with it to gain acceptance.
6. Support the church building
It is a social symbol that continues to have some Christian opportunities. Attending funerals will open some doors.
7. Accept that we have lost the battle for weekly public worship
‘Public’ worship was a Christendom idea and we need to let go of it. Think about how else to give expression to a living faith community.
8. Support the vicar
People still want clergy for baptisms, weddings and (most of all) funerals. So support ministers in their traditional roles, and find ways to link their ministries to whatever fresh expression of church you feel called to develop.
9. Refuse to be trapped by geography
Countryside people travel, often quite long distances, to things they really want to go to. So think wide. Doing something ‘just for our little community’ is killing the countryside socially.
10. Think ‘sustainability’ rather than ‘funding’
Evangelism by largesse is another Christendom idea that needs to die. It fosters dependency rather than initiative. Grants run out. So keep it simple. Start what the group can sustain.
Do you agree with David? What else might you add? Have you an experience of rural fresh expressions that you can share? You might like to comment on the Share page,Rural fresh expressions.
For more thought-provoking articles on different aspects of fresh expressions of church, visit theSubscription options
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Question: “In what ways do Canadian rural situations differ from, or match, the English rural scene?”
Please key your response in the comments box below. I hope we can get a good discussion started!
In the current issue of “expressions”, the e-newsletter of Fresh Expressions in England, Bishop Graham Cray writes,
“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
“Fresh Expressions is proof the church is not dying,” Archbishop Colin Johnson, metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, is quoted by Kristin Jenkins in her editorial, 
“Don’t touch that dial!”, in the March edition of the Anglican Journal. Read the complete piece here.
Speaking to the Church of England’s General Synod (Thursday 11th February 2010), Fresh Expressions (FE) Team Leader, Bishop Graham Cray, gave an update on the work of FE, saying much been achieved since the initiative’s launch in 2005 but there is “much, much more to do.”
Ra
chel Jordan has some advice for Christians who believe that someone else is going to build the kingdom of God here on Earth.“There isn’t a Plan B – you’re it,” she says. “You are the people God has chosen to be his agents right here, right now.”
(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
“There is a mistaken understanding that fresh expressions of Church are mostly linked to Evangelical churches and traditions. However, this is simply not true, as can be seen at the website, Fresh Expressions of the Sacramental Tradition.” writes Thomas Brauer
In May of this year, Canadian filmakers Bill Kinnon & Imbi Medri shot an interview between Bishop Graham Cray and the Revd Annette Brownlee, discussing the Fresh Expressions Initiative. In a wide ranging conversation filmed at Wycliffe College, Toronto,, Bishop Cray gives an overview of the initiative, as well as describing Anglo Catholic and Evangelical examples in England.
FX Canada Interview w/ Graham Cray Part I from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.
FX Canada Interview w/ Graham Cray Part II from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.
