Church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context (CHP 2004) AJM April 2004
Report from a working group of the
A short, practical and exciting look at ways of expressing church in
the changing culture of the
Preface: ++Rowan
Williams
In the short time during which I have been
Archbishop, I have regularly been surprised and deeply heartened by the
widespread sense that the CofE, for all the problems that beset it, is poised
for serious growth and renewal. Many feel that, as various streams of
development over the past decade or so begin to flow together,
we are at a real watershed. vii
Introduction : +Graham Cray
A variety
of integrated missionary approaches is required. A mixed economy of parish
churches and network churches will be necessary…
1. Changing contexts
Social Trends – statistics.
Housing changes :
Employment
changes: more women
working, more hours worked – less free time
Mobility: distance travelled and no. of cars on roads has
doubled since 1971 – less time, weekend travel, non-local
churchgoing
Divorce and
family life: 11%
separated/divorced; 34% males are single; delay in childbearing – child access
on Sundays, implications for service patterns (singles may not like Sun
mornings, or child-oriented services)
Leisure: average 3 hrs a day TV; Sunday sport esp for children
Implications
- a fragmented society
- a network society – impce of
place is secondary to impce of flows. Globalisation implies a networked
world; leads to loss of local and national power. Internet as metaphor for
a network society. Networks do not replace neighbourhoods, but they do
change them
î
to
live in one place no longer means to live together, and living together no longer
means living in the same place – Ulrich Beck
Consequences : community is increasingly being reformed around networks, and people are
less inclined to make lasting commitments (we must respond to the first and
resist the second)
Fresh expressions of church
Many of these
connect with people through the networks in which they live, rather than through
the place where they live – church is being expressed around how people live,
rather than around where they sleep.
Consumer culture
Where
Westerners might have found their identity, their social togetherness and the
ongoing life of society in the area of production, these are today increasingly
found through consumption – David Lyon
Core value of society has moved from
‘progess’ to ‘choice’.
Consumerism affects the way people
evaluate truth claims. The way people think about shopping also becomes the way
people think about ‘truth’.
Must distinguish
between a consumer society (a term describing the current shape of W capitalist
societies) and the ideology of consumerism (the dominant idolatry of these
societies).
Post-Christendom
The emergence of a network and consumer
society coincides with the demise of Christendom.
From where to how
‘The Church will be able to reconnect
with both society and individuals through a pattern of diversity and unity,
rooted in the triune, endlessly creative, life of God.’ 13
Repentance – we have allowed our culture
and the Church to drift apart, without our noticing. We need the grace of the
Spirit for repentance if we are to receive a fresh baptism of the Spirit for
witness.
î
If
the decline of the Church is ultimately caused neither by the irrelevance of
Jesus, nor by the indifference of the community, but by the Church’s failure to
respond fast enough to an evolving culture, to a changing spiritual climate,
and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, then that decline can be addressed by
the repentance of the Church - Bob Jackson
2. The story since Breaking New
Ground
1984 – first
book on Church planting
1987 first conference, HTB
Breaking
New Ground said…
- Church planting is legit
- Parish and network are both valid
- It was permission-giving rather than future-looking
The issue now is not cross-boundary but
non-boundary plants.
An explosion in diversity
The reality of church planting has been
not quantity but diversity. Common themes within that diversity:
î
Church derives its self understanding from the
mission of God’s love to the world
î
Trinity models diversity as well as unity
î
Creation reveals diversity
î
î
Catholicity is not monochrome oneness
î
God is culturally specific within diverse
contexts
The
planting process is the engagement of church and gospel with a new mission
context, and this should determine the fresh expression of church, 21.
Assumptions have changed. Part of the
shift since BNG is the discovery that fresh expressions of church are not only
legitimate expressions of church, but they may be more legitimate because they
attend more closely to the mission task, are more deeply engaged in the local
context, and follow more attentively the pattern of incarnation.
Insights from other parts
of the world
- widen
our awareness, expanding our imagination and vision
- offers
cross cultural experience and encounter – the resources of people
- offers
different ways of doing things
- can
open our eyes to traditions within our own history that have
disappeared/gone underground
- Anglican
mission agencies now resource
- The
witness of the world Church
3. What is church planting and
why does it matter?
Church
Planting is creating new communities of Christian faith as part of the
Church planting that sets out to serve an
identifiable group, culture or neighbourhood cannot begin with a clear
understanding of what form or expression the resultant church may take.
In
the
Church planting is best thought of as a
verb – it’s a process. Suggested definition:
Church planting is the
process by which a seed of the life and message of Jesus embodied by a
community of Christians is immersed for mission reasons in a particular cultural
or geographic context. The intended consequence is that it roots there, coming
to life as a new indigenous body of Christian disciples well suited to continue
in mission, 32.
What is church? It has a sense of
rootedness, and is intentionally part of a place. Rootedness embraces culture
and network as well as location and territory.
Words to describe varieties of ‘new’
church:
² new
forms of church
² new
ways of being church
² emerging
church – Robert Warren
² fresh
expressions of church – in this report
Church planting and
fresh expressions of church matter – to fulfil the Anglican calling, to affirm
Anglican diversity, to continue Anglican history, to rediscover the forgotten
dimension of mission.
The parochial system can be compared to a
vast slab of Gruyere – its nature is to present as solid reality, but by its
nature there are lots of holes where there is no cheese. Church planting and
fresh expressions of church help to identify and fill geographic and cultural
gaps.
Reviewing the mission task
in England
Richter and Francis: relationship to
î
non churched: 40%
î
closed de-churched: 20%
î
open de-churched: 20%
î
fringe: 10%
î
regular attenders: 10%
The assumption that evangelism is about
bringing people back to church can only be effective for a diminishing
proportion of the population. The reality
is that for most people across
We must face our mission to the non-churched : The task is
to become church for them, among them and with them, and under the Spirit of God
to lead them to become church in their own culture, 40. The gap is as wide
as any experienced by a cross-cultural missionary; will require a reworking of
language and approach – needs church planting and fresh expressions of church.
And there is a time bomb – young people
no longer come.
4. Fresh expressions of church
Key themes and ideas.
Common features of fresh expressions of
church:
² small groups for discipleship
and relational mission, which
² do not meet on Sunday morning
² relate to a particular network
of people
² are post-denominational
² may be connected to a
resourcing network, eg HTB, New Wine, Reform, Soul Survivor, StTCrooks
Some types (profile and
examples):
