Every Church an Evangelizing Community!
The Institute of Evangelism and Fresh Expressions Canada are now offering streaming audio and podcasts of keynote speakers from past events. Note that audio from the 2009 Vital Church Planting Conference is not yet available.
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http://www.freshexpressions.ca/
The official web site for Fresh Expressions in Canada was launched at the Vital Church Planting Conference, on February 18th at St. Paul’s Bloor Street in Toronto. Fresh Expressions Canada (FXca) seeks to encourage the development of fresh expressions of church alongside more traditional expressions, with the aim of seeing a more mission-shaped church take shape throughout the country.
This is a companion web site to the Institute of Evangelism, so you will find shared content.
Visit this web site for more information.
I’m delighted we’re having the Vision Day, and I encourage folks to come and listen and hear, because what Fresh Expressions does, is it reaches out to those who are unchurched and dechurched, and it reaches out to them where they are.
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to endorse “Fresh Expressions Canada”. It is an initiative in keeping with our Church’s vision of “growing in membership, faith and service in God’s world”.
It is a creative style of evangelism, drawing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It will speak to many who are looking for a fresh expression of our life together in Christ. It represents an imaginative approach to strengthening the witness of a local Christian community.
I encourage you to learn more about this initiative by exploring the newly formed website.
With prayers for blessings on this venture in the service of the Gospel, I am
Sincerely in Christ,
Fred J. Hiltz
Archbishop and Primate
The following announcement appears in the January 2009 edition of the Anglican Messenger, (the newspaper of the dioceses of Athabasca and Edmonton) under the heading “Notes from the Bishop”, “The Rev. Thomas Brauer is appointed to Church Planting and Fresh Expressions, and Honorary Assistant at Holy Trinity,Edmonton, effective January 6, 2009.”
Congratulations Bishop Jane on creating this innovative position and on making this appointment, and congratulations Thomas on this exciting new chapter in your ministry! more
Church Planter and Filmmaker Joe Manafo’s 43-minute documentary on new and evolving forms of church in Canada, One Size Fits All? has just been released on DVD and is available for sale at http://www.onesizefitsall.ca/. Manafo visits fresh expressions of church across Canada, including Emerge and St. Benedict’s Table, Anglican fresh expressions of church in Montreal and Winnipeg. There will be a screening of One Size Fits All at the Vital Church Planting Conference February 17-19, 2009.
From http://www.onesizefitsall.ca/ –
What is God doing on the fringes of Canadian culture? Flying under the radar of pop-Christianity, experimental churches are quietly establishing genuine Kingdom outposts in settings both feared and forgotten. ‘One Size Fits All?’ uncovers the obscure story of these Canadian missional communities and its leaders.
Watch the video below for a short preview:
mixed economy is the new annual journal from Fresh Expressions in England which takes a serious look at what it means to have new forms of church living alongside more conventional congregations.
Included in this first edition: news of the second phase of the Fresh Expressions initiative, the Archbishop of Canterbury asks, ‘is it really church?’; how a Sunderland parish is putting mixed economy theory to the test; and the spirituality of mission.
Click here to download an electronic version or order printed copies. Copies of the journal are free, but we request a donation to cover the cost of sending them to you.
The 61st Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton met over October 17th and 18th 2008, and heard much about mission, and the call to reach out with the gospel to a world in need. A significant element of that call was given to the Synod by the Reverend Nick Brotherwood, Team Leader for Fresh Expressions Canada, and pastor of Emerge Montreal.
In this time of decline across the Anglican Church, it has become increasingly important for congregations and diocese to recall our mission-to proclaim the arrival of the Kingdom of God, and to call the world to enter that Kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. However, with dramatic changes in national and regional cultures, traditional Anglican methods of “being Church” can no longer hope to reach all people in all contexts, and so “fresh expressions” of Church have become necessary if we are to share the gospel in our changing world. This, in summary, is the message delivered to the diocese by Nick Brotherwood.
Delivered with great humour, and many encouraging and enlightening examples of fresh expressions in Canada, this message has captured the heart of many within the diocese, and there were not a few declarations of “This is exactly what we need!” However, Nick also challenged us to change our thinking of Church, and this is never easy: some have expressed uncertainty with what such changes might mean for their parish homes.
In the coming months, the diocese will continue to engage with Nick’s message, and to converse about the new directions in which we must go in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in a more appropriate way among the changing cultures of our society. With Nick’s help, and the support of the wider Church, it will likely not be long before Church is being expressed afresh among the communities that make up the Diocese of Edmonton.
