Last weeks Diocesan church growth strategies conference mixed input on particular streams & topics (leadership, research, Fresh Expressions of church) with case studies and presentations from particular Dioceses. 3 case studies going up today, London first, Birmingham and Coventry later.
1. London
For a long time London has been the exception to the rule of Church of England decline, owing a great deal to the leadership of David Hope, and Richard Chartres (worth noting that neither of these could be described as an evangelical, church growth is not the property of 1 section of the church only)
The Diocese is about to launch Capital Vision 2020. Ric Thorp, the Bishop of Londons' church planting advisor (how many Bishops have one of those?) talked us through their vision of planting 100 churches across the diocese. Having a bishop who is pro- church planting, not just allowing it "is a game changer".
There are currently 30 church plants in the diocese from the Holy Trinity Brompton family alone, mostly grafting new people into an existing, but struggling, congregation "we have managed to keep nearly 100% of the existing congregation in the parish on board... they are seeing something happen that they have only ever dreamt about", and we heard several stories of small churches growing from 10-20 members to over 100 in a very short space of time. Some of this may be made easier by the large turnover of population - Ric spoke of areas where 30-40% of the population changes each year. On one level, that means simply to stand still you have to replace 1/3 of the congregation, but it may also make it easier to do outreach than in a more stable and fixed community.
The Diocese is pretty well resourced for this, with St. Mellitus college offering training, a church planting advisor, the track record and resources of HTB and its various plants, and over £2m set aside over the period. They also have a very clear but distinctive Anglican church planting policy. There are 4 main areas targeted: regeneration areas (e.g. Olympic Park, where the developers are building a new church), parishes needing a new start, new communities within parishes (e.g. a new congregation within an existing church "the fastest and easiest way to grow your church") and mission communities (e.g. in networks, schools, among certain social groups). There's some creative thinking about funding going on too, including a lending scheme to enable the diocese to buy housing for pioneer ministers in strategic places.
There are targets for each type of plant, and each year, which seemed a bit over-planned, but "if we don't plan it at all, it won't happen". The result of talking through the plans in details is that people now think it's manageable, in fact, 100 is seen as a conservative estimate of what's possible.
The diocese is deliberately looking at partnership working - e.g. with Scripture Union to plant into schools, with Vineyard and Eden in neighbourhoods. It makes a lot of sense, and cuts across the standard 'go it alone' mentality which often means that Anglicans end up doing nothing, because it's beyond our capacity.
Identifying where to plant is done within Deaneries, and there's a diocesan team headed up by a deputy bishop keeping a steer on the whole thing. One interesting development is that they've started asking grant making bodies to fund several projects, rather than 1, which actually excites more interest because it's seen as something more significant. Aiming high is releasing more resources.
Planted churches are themselves expected to plant, Ric talked about planting 'pregnant' churches. Churches are also being asked to put 2% of their income into a church planting fund to back future growth. That makes a lot of sense - I'd much rather invest in a growing concern than prop up a declining one, and there's a good theology of giving underlying that too.
There's also work going on with a group of Anglo-Catholic clergy "who are all fantastic at growing churches" to explore what Anglo-Catholic church planting looks like.
Finally, the diocese is using 'learning communities' to share expertise, a facilitated group with teams from several planting churches. With key decision makers (usually 3-5) from each church, those teams can make plans during the session, and are then accountable to the other groups for following them through, as well as being able to learn from the other groups in the process. That sounded fascinating, and again is something made possible by aiming high. My experience is generally of parishes being left to get on with it, with little central co-ordination, encouragement or resourcing.
a couple of quotes
"church planting is not dependent on resources, it's dependent on leader-readiness...if you want to plant a church, if you see an opportunity of need, then you can do it."
"we've got to focus as parish priests on raising up leaders for mission."
It was breathtaking stuff, though at times a bit overwhelming. One or two thoughts:
- Consistent diocesan leadership in the same direction is key: Richard Chartres has continued what David Hope started, not dismantled it and started again.
- The model is much more clearly planned, costed and strategised than just about anything else I've seen in the CofE. That may be because we've become too used to amateurism - whilst our schools have rigorous school improvement plans, inspection mechanisms, targets and clear leadership, somehow we think that mission, worship and discipleship will just happen if we keep the building open and the liturgy handle cranked up. We are in an incense-induced stupor when it comes to good practice.
- There are only a few places in Bath and Wells where we could think of something similar on a small scale, with an urban area where struggling churches and growing churches exist side by side. But it's worth remembering that the resources and expertise built up in London are part of a 20 year journey, church growth is long term and hard work, and it doesn't look the same everywhere.
For other posts from the conference (7 so far, more to come) go here.
update 25/5:
a couple of London policy papers, which give a bit more background:
http://www.london.anglican.org/kb/church-planting
http://www.london.anglican.org/mission/missional-communitie
Showing posts with label church planting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church planting. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Fresh Expressions - encouraging research on CofE church planting
Claire Dalpra, researcher at the Sheffield Centre, talking about research on Fresh Expressions recently done in 3 Anglican dioceses. Some of the key findings she mentions:
- Out of every 5 members of a 'fresh expression', 1 was already a Christian, 2 are 'de-churched' (people who have been part of a church, dropped out, and now rejoined through the FX) and 2 had no church background at all. So they are clearly working in reaching folk not reached by traditional churches.
- Fresh Expressions are being established in all sorts of different places, from rural to inner city urban, and over 1/3 are from 'central' or 'Anglo-Catholic' parent churches, which shows that anyone can do this, it's not an evangelical preserve.
- In the 3 Dioceses surveyed, Fresh Expressions make up 20% of their worshipping congregations, and 10% of regular attenders. So a significant part of the CofE is worshipping in newly planted churches.
- Over 80% have some form of discipleship development, e.g. small groups, mentoring etc.
- Rates of church planting aren't slacking off - the fact that most were planted in recent years may reflect an attrition rate, that some of the earlier fresh expressions haven't survived.
It would be interesting to compare the closure rate we're prepared to contemplate for new churches compared with ones which have existed for centuries. I know of church plants with 20-30 members which were closed down because they were beyond the resources of the sending parish. But if you applied that logic to 'inherited' churches then over half the churches in my Deanery would be facing the axe.
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Fresh Expressions in Liverpool: lay led, midweek, no church building, and growing.
In a timely response to my post yesterday on Fresh Expressions in the CofE, the Sheffield Centre have published a study on Fresh Expressions in Liverpool Diocese.
Liverpool are one of the 2 Dioceses quoted by a CofE paper this week as having 10% or more of their members belonging to a 'fresh expression' of church. The other is Canterbury. As Laurence commented yesterday, the study shows up a certain flakiness in the reported figures - around 40% of things reported to be 'Fresh Expressions' weren't. What's remarkable is that, with 202 parishes and 78 confirmed new churches, around 1/3 of Liverpools churches are church plants. They only equate to 10% of the Diocesan membership, but that's growing: these churches were planted with a combined total of 570 people, and now have a membership of over 2800.
Other interesting stats: 60% don't use a church building, only 29% meet on a Sunday, and a large proportion are lay-led, rather than clergy led. It's a very encouraging report to read, and hopefully the kind of thing that will have the bishops of the CofE sidling up to James Jones over the weekend and asking how they went about it.
Liverpool are one of the 2 Dioceses quoted by a CofE paper this week as having 10% or more of their members belonging to a 'fresh expression' of church. The other is Canterbury. As Laurence commented yesterday, the study shows up a certain flakiness in the reported figures - around 40% of things reported to be 'Fresh Expressions' weren't. What's remarkable is that, with 202 parishes and 78 confirmed new churches, around 1/3 of Liverpools churches are church plants. They only equate to 10% of the Diocesan membership, but that's growing: these churches were planted with a combined total of 570 people, and now have a membership of over 2800.
Other interesting stats: 60% don't use a church building, only 29% meet on a Sunday, and a large proportion are lay-led, rather than clergy led. It's a very encouraging report to read, and hopefully the kind of thing that will have the bishops of the CofE sidling up to James Jones over the weekend and asking how they went about it.
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
If it's 3% Fresh, is it Fresh?
One of the papers for General Synod this weekend looks at the impact so far of Fresh Expressions:
The movement has produced over 1,000 fresh expressions of church in the Church of England and nearly 2,000 in the Methodist Church. The new people attending fresh expressions in the Church of England account for 3% of our national attendance figures; these are people who were not previously attending “inherited churches” (i.e. established patterns of church life and worship). In two dioceses in the Church of England, where the planting of fresh expressions has been adopted as a clear part of their growth strategy, 10% or more of their attendance figures are those attending fresh expressions of church.
Synod has a debate on the 'ecclesiology' of fresh expressions - I would argue we need to question the ecclesiology of all our other expressions of church too - but there seems to be a commitment to ongoing church planting and development of FX in the Anglican church.
A couple of things struck me about this:
- how come the Methodists, a significantly smaller church, have got twice as many? It's reminiscent of 2020 cricket, invented in England but then England quickly got left behind as others realised more quickly the potential of the game. The CofE has 13,000 parishes, and only 1 in 13 (probably less, some churches will have several FX) has developed a new form of church. What can we learn from the Methodists?
- our Messy Church is probably one of those 1000, but it happens monthly, with a month off in the summer, and whilst it has some of the features of the church 'event', it's not a congregation of Christian disciples. It might be called 'church', but it's not a new, self-sustaining congregation, it's series of branded events which might form a gateway to Christian faith for some. I wonder how many more of the 1000 are Fresh Expressions, but these are more expressions of outreach than of viable churches. Or am I being unfair?
- I'd love to know who the identity of the 2 Dioceses mentioned in the last sentence. Again, strategic question: will other Dioceses be encouraged to take the same approach? How committed are we to this stuff? Will the national CofE step in if Dioceses are failing to plant new churches or promote mission? If we recognise that what we currently do is culturally limited, and tends only to connect with those who already have a church background (30% and shrinking), then as a mission strategy we need to be looking more at 50-70%.
It's a start, but there's plenty still to do.
The movement has produced over 1,000 fresh expressions of church in the Church of England and nearly 2,000 in the Methodist Church. The new people attending fresh expressions in the Church of England account for 3% of our national attendance figures; these are people who were not previously attending “inherited churches” (i.e. established patterns of church life and worship). In two dioceses in the Church of England, where the planting of fresh expressions has been adopted as a clear part of their growth strategy, 10% or more of their attendance figures are those attending fresh expressions of church.
Synod has a debate on the 'ecclesiology' of fresh expressions - I would argue we need to question the ecclesiology of all our other expressions of church too - but there seems to be a commitment to ongoing church planting and development of FX in the Anglican church.
A couple of things struck me about this:
- how come the Methodists, a significantly smaller church, have got twice as many? It's reminiscent of 2020 cricket, invented in England but then England quickly got left behind as others realised more quickly the potential of the game. The CofE has 13,000 parishes, and only 1 in 13 (probably less, some churches will have several FX) has developed a new form of church. What can we learn from the Methodists?
- our Messy Church is probably one of those 1000, but it happens monthly, with a month off in the summer, and whilst it has some of the features of the church 'event', it's not a congregation of Christian disciples. It might be called 'church', but it's not a new, self-sustaining congregation, it's series of branded events which might form a gateway to Christian faith for some. I wonder how many more of the 1000 are Fresh Expressions, but these are more expressions of outreach than of viable churches. Or am I being unfair?
- I'd love to know who the identity of the 2 Dioceses mentioned in the last sentence. Again, strategic question: will other Dioceses be encouraged to take the same approach? How committed are we to this stuff? Will the national CofE step in if Dioceses are failing to plant new churches or promote mission? If we recognise that what we currently do is culturally limited, and tends only to connect with those who already have a church background (30% and shrinking), then as a mission strategy we need to be looking more at 50-70%.
It's a start, but there's plenty still to do.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
What the Church of England Needs
If you want one explanation for London Diocese 'outperforming' the rest of the CofE when it comes to church growth, then it's here. Over the last 10 years London has commissioned 2 substantial reports into the reasons for church growth and/or decline, and fed them into Diocesan policy. Other Dioceses will need to do their own work (not every Diocese has a Holy Trinity Brompton accounting for 25% of its growth), but if we are serious about reversing the trend of membership decline, then this is a key part of the solution.
It's interesting to look at the conclusions drawn in the most recent report. Key factors in growth include:
- church planting
- investing in childrens work
- being a smaller church (the bigger you are, the less likely to grow)
- short vacancies between clergy
- a big investment in welcome, in an area which sees a lot of population turnover.
Some of these lessons will apply in any Diocese, and maybe to any church whether Anglican or not.
One of the other things we need is a serious engagement with the reasons people leave. Here was what one commenter posted here a few days ago:
I left the church 12 months ago, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons include a real lack of spiritual help in the church, poor quality preaching by people who although mean well, lack the ability to get the facts right when preaching, the failure of general synod to make public the millions of pounds lost in an unethical property investment in New York recently... There is more ....
Pastoral care, preaching, integrity, ethics, and that's just one person....
It's interesting to look at the conclusions drawn in the most recent report. Key factors in growth include:
- church planting
- investing in childrens work
- being a smaller church (the bigger you are, the less likely to grow)
- short vacancies between clergy
- a big investment in welcome, in an area which sees a lot of population turnover.
Some of these lessons will apply in any Diocese, and maybe to any church whether Anglican or not.
One of the other things we need is a serious engagement with the reasons people leave. Here was what one commenter posted here a few days ago:
I left the church 12 months ago, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons include a real lack of spiritual help in the church, poor quality preaching by people who although mean well, lack the ability to get the facts right when preaching, the failure of general synod to make public the millions of pounds lost in an unethical property investment in New York recently... There is more ....
Pastoral care, preaching, integrity, ethics, and that's just one person....
Sunday, October 16, 2011
I Wish All Church Reports Were Done by the Baptists
This is how to do a report. 1 page, and plenty of good news. It's a survey of Baptist church planting since 2005, gives a breakdown of the types of plants and the types of leadership, and takes about 3 minutes to read. I dread to think how long it would take the CofE to put together something similar, or even if we were capable of it at all.
One reason the Baptists are good at this is that they have a clear strategy, some great resources, committed, regular and targeted finance, and they review and evaluate. Ok, that's 4 reasons. They also don't have a parish system, which means that new estates and unreached areas are 'greenfield' sites as far as church plants are concerned, rather than political and ecclesiological minefields.
One reason the Baptists are good at this is that they have a clear strategy, some great resources, committed, regular and targeted finance, and they review and evaluate. Ok, that's 4 reasons. They also don't have a parish system, which means that new estates and unreached areas are 'greenfield' sites as far as church plants are concerned, rather than political and ecclesiological minefields.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Church Planting 101
Delighted to see that this training day with Stuart Murray Williams is being repeated in Bristol in October. Details at http://incarnate-network.eu/training-and-events/church-planting-101-bristol-1st-october A few of us from Yeovil went to this event last year and it really was excellent. £20 well spent.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Mission 21 quotes and notes, part 1
Just got back from the Mission 21 conference in Bath, failed miserably to make friends with the wifi provision, a problem fellow tweeters and bloggers don't seem to have had.
I'll probably blog about it later, once I've caught up with everything else which needs doing. In the meantime, the conference site has done a good job of staying up to date with things, there's a few video clips etc. on there, and the promise of some of the presentations being available on download.
In the meantime, a few quotes:
"It's more fun making babies than building coffins" (Martin Atkins, Methodis gen sec)
on the lack of growth in mainstream churches “the diet we’ve been expected to live on week by week has not been sufficient to keep us alive.” (Atkins)
"we live in a little Christian gekko" (I'm not going to name names for this one!!)
“No matter how good church is, it’s still a bridge too far to invite most of my friends to it.” (Steve Hollinghurst, I think)
“too many people are sold Chrsitianity as a trip on a cruise liner, and then are horrified when at the docks they find they’re boarding a battleship”. (John Wimber)
“What does God want to say to me through the person who I’m about to disagree with?” (Graham Horsley)
"The gospel is the seed which contains the church" (Graham Cray)
“one of the loneliest places in England is the church” (Pastor Emmanuel, Nigerian church planter)
“one of the big enemies of discipleship is fast church growth, maybe we should grow slower.” (Steve Hollinghurst)
I'll probably blog about it later, once I've caught up with everything else which needs doing. In the meantime, the conference site has done a good job of staying up to date with things, there's a few video clips etc. on there, and the promise of some of the presentations being available on download.
In the meantime, a few quotes:
"It's more fun making babies than building coffins" (Martin Atkins, Methodis gen sec)
on the lack of growth in mainstream churches “the diet we’ve been expected to live on week by week has not been sufficient to keep us alive.” (Atkins)
"we live in a little Christian gekko" (I'm not going to name names for this one!!)
“No matter how good church is, it’s still a bridge too far to invite most of my friends to it.” (Steve Hollinghurst, I think)
“too many people are sold Chrsitianity as a trip on a cruise liner, and then are horrified when at the docks they find they’re boarding a battleship”. (John Wimber)
“What does God want to say to me through the person who I’m about to disagree with?” (Graham Horsley)
"The gospel is the seed which contains the church" (Graham Cray)
“one of the loneliest places in England is the church” (Pastor Emmanuel, Nigerian church planter)
“one of the big enemies of discipleship is fast church growth, maybe we should grow slower.” (Steve Hollinghurst)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Mission Resources from the Baptist Church
Update: one Baptist blogger asks, 'what is our Baptist mission strategy'? In the light of one response I got to this post on Twitter, a problem might reside in the nature of the Baptist Union - is it possible to have a mission strategy for a voluntary union which doesn't see itself as the 'Baptist Church' with a big C? The response in question said I couldn't talk about the Baptist Church, because such a body didn't exist.
Every now and then I wander over to the Baptist Union site, and it's always worthwhile. Here's a few places to find some good mission resources:
Crossing places - stories of outreach through 'neutral territory' ministry, rather than staying in the church shouting ever louder for people to come in. Lots of great stories - football club chaplaincies, evangelism at the hairdressers, parish nursing, etc.
Selection of concise and easy to use pdf's on mission and church planting, covering strategy, ecumenism, new housing. Part of a larger mission files section, with lots of helpful stuff, from Inflatable Church (?) to youth work, seasonal ideas, toolbox for small churches, etc.
I really like the Mission Department newsletter - like a bigger version of Start the Week - and have emailed them to ask if I can get it by email. Has a good roundup of the resources and initiatives going on for Christmas.
Note to Anglicans: if you're in the national CofE, there's some good stuff here to copy/link to. If you're involved in a Diocese, see if you can get your mission deparment to link to some of this stuff, rather than reinventing the wheel by writing it themselves.
Every now and then I wander over to the Baptist Union site, and it's always worthwhile. Here's a few places to find some good mission resources:
Crossing places - stories of outreach through 'neutral territory' ministry, rather than staying in the church shouting ever louder for people to come in. Lots of great stories - football club chaplaincies, evangelism at the hairdressers, parish nursing, etc.
Selection of concise and easy to use pdf's on mission and church planting, covering strategy, ecumenism, new housing. Part of a larger mission files section, with lots of helpful stuff, from Inflatable Church (?) to youth work, seasonal ideas, toolbox for small churches, etc.
I really like the Mission Department newsletter - like a bigger version of Start the Week - and have emailed them to ask if I can get it by email. Has a good roundup of the resources and initiatives going on for Christmas.
Note to Anglicans: if you're in the national CofE, there's some good stuff here to copy/link to. If you're involved in a Diocese, see if you can get your mission deparment to link to some of this stuff, rather than reinventing the wheel by writing it themselves.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Fresh Expressions: New Resources - vids, books, stories.
Various new bits and pieces coming out from Fresh Expressions:
Sanctus: Fresh Expressions of Church in the Sacramental Tradition, a new DVD with 7 different stories of contemplative/sacramental style Fresh Expressions. Good viewing for catholics who are more concerned about mission than about ecumenical politics. And even those who aren't.
And for non-catholics who are..... well, here's the vid anyway:
Mission-shaped congregations, a new DVD with resources for folk who want to introduce Fresh Expressions and the thinking of the Mission Shaped Church report to their churches.
Very encouraging story of a brand new church in a new housing area near Kettering, engaging with the community. Sounds great, though I wonder if the group of laypeople would have been able to kick this off themselves before the 'official' pioneer leader arrived. New housing is a mission challenge here in Yeovil, but the model of sending in a paid professional to each estate isn't practical or sustainable.
Changing church for a changing world, new book exploring FX in the Methodist Church. The Methodists have also announced £7m of funding for new outreach with under-30's, here's the story from the Methodist Recorder, in case the link expires:
PIONEERING mission is “firmly on the agenda of the Methodist Church”, it has been declared, as work progresses with the implementation of a ground-breaking £7 million initiative to reach Britain’s “unchurched” young adults.
This affirmation of Methodism’s dedication to pioneering ministries has come from the co-ordinator of VentureFX, the Church’s 10-year scheme to recruit pioneer leaders who can plant new Christian communities – rooted in the Methodist tradition – for people in their 20s and 30s who have no connection to Church.
Launched earlier this year, the scheme will seek to establish five projects a year during the next few years, reaching the total of 20 within its first phase (Recorder, February 5). These projects will be jointly sponsored by VentureFX and local circuits or Districts who are “enthusiastic” about reaching this “missing generation”.
The Church is inviting circuits and Districts to propose suitable projects where pioneer leaders might work. It has also begun the process of selecting the leaders, who can be lay or ordained. With these key stages under way, VentureFX co-ordinator the Rev Ian Bell has reminded Methodists of the importance of the initiative, which he believes is “a truly Methodist way of responding to contemporary mission needs”.
You can sign up for a monthly FX e-newsletter through contact@freshexpressions.org.uk
Sanctus: Fresh Expressions of Church in the Sacramental Tradition, a new DVD with 7 different stories of contemplative/sacramental style Fresh Expressions. Good viewing for catholics who are more concerned about mission than about ecumenical politics. And even those who aren't.
And for non-catholics who are..... well, here's the vid anyway:
Mission-shaped congregations, a new DVD with resources for folk who want to introduce Fresh Expressions and the thinking of the Mission Shaped Church report to their churches.
Very encouraging story of a brand new church in a new housing area near Kettering, engaging with the community. Sounds great, though I wonder if the group of laypeople would have been able to kick this off themselves before the 'official' pioneer leader arrived. New housing is a mission challenge here in Yeovil, but the model of sending in a paid professional to each estate isn't practical or sustainable.
Changing church for a changing world, new book exploring FX in the Methodist Church. The Methodists have also announced £7m of funding for new outreach with under-30's, here's the story from the Methodist Recorder, in case the link expires:
PIONEERING mission is “firmly on the agenda of the Methodist Church”, it has been declared, as work progresses with the implementation of a ground-breaking £7 million initiative to reach Britain’s “unchurched” young adults.
This affirmation of Methodism’s dedication to pioneering ministries has come from the co-ordinator of VentureFX, the Church’s 10-year scheme to recruit pioneer leaders who can plant new Christian communities – rooted in the Methodist tradition – for people in their 20s and 30s who have no connection to Church.
Launched earlier this year, the scheme will seek to establish five projects a year during the next few years, reaching the total of 20 within its first phase (Recorder, February 5). These projects will be jointly sponsored by VentureFX and local circuits or Districts who are “enthusiastic” about reaching this “missing generation”.
The Church is inviting circuits and Districts to propose suitable projects where pioneer leaders might work. It has also begun the process of selecting the leaders, who can be lay or ordained. With these key stages under way, VentureFX co-ordinator the Rev Ian Bell has reminded Methodists of the importance of the initiative, which he believes is “a truly Methodist way of responding to contemporary mission needs”.
You can sign up for a monthly FX e-newsletter through contact@freshexpressions.org.uk
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Mission 21 Church Planting Conference
Just in....
The Churches Coordinating Group for Evangelisation (GfE) is a sponsor of the forthcoming Mission 21 conference which will bring together a wide cross section of Pioneer people planting new churches.
Mission 21 will be held in Bath 17th -19th November. The current cost is £75 for those Pioneers and network people who book early. The dedicated new website with further information and online booking is: http://www.mission21.info/home/
Speakers include Martin Atkins (Methodist Gen Sec) Graham Cray (head of Fresh Expressions team), Agu Irukwu (Senior Pastor of Jesus House, a fast-growing Pentecostal church), Billy Kennedy (24-7 Prayer/New Community Church Southampton), and a whole swathe of church planting bods from Church Army, Salvation Army, NFI, etc.
There are a mixture of 'workshops' and 'streams' which to be honest just looked like 2 different ways of giving titles to things! Quite a few different topics on church planting in different settings, issues at different stages of church planting, discipleship, cross-cultural planting etc. There's also the chance to meet with people in small groups for consultations with more experienced church planters.
Most church streams are represented, which is excellent. I went to Mission 21: Sheffield in 2005 and it was very worthwhile, and this is all the better for being just up the road. By happy 'coincidence', I first heard Jonny Bakers 'hand grenade' talk (see post below) at the Sheffield event.
I would say that it's a slightly plusher setting than Sheffield was, but last time I looked there was a major construction project just across the road from the venue! 5 mins walk from the train station, Park and Ride on the southern edge of the town drops you outside the door.
The Churches Coordinating Group for Evangelisation (GfE) is a sponsor of the forthcoming Mission 21 conference which will bring together a wide cross section of Pioneer people planting new churches.
Mission 21 will be held in Bath 17th -19th November. The current cost is £75 for those Pioneers and network people who book early. The dedicated new website with further information and online booking is: http://www.mission21.info/home/
Speakers include Martin Atkins (Methodist Gen Sec) Graham Cray (head of Fresh Expressions team), Agu Irukwu (Senior Pastor of Jesus House, a fast-growing Pentecostal church), Billy Kennedy (24-7 Prayer/New Community Church Southampton), and a whole swathe of church planting bods from Church Army, Salvation Army, NFI, etc.
There are a mixture of 'workshops' and 'streams' which to be honest just looked like 2 different ways of giving titles to things! Quite a few different topics on church planting in different settings, issues at different stages of church planting, discipleship, cross-cultural planting etc. There's also the chance to meet with people in small groups for consultations with more experienced church planters.
Most church streams are represented, which is excellent. I went to Mission 21: Sheffield in 2005 and it was very worthwhile, and this is all the better for being just up the road. By happy 'coincidence', I first heard Jonny Bakers 'hand grenade' talk (see post below) at the Sheffield event.
I would say that it's a slightly plusher setting than Sheffield was, but last time I looked there was a major construction project just across the road from the venue! 5 mins walk from the train station, Park and Ride on the southern edge of the town drops you outside the door.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Is Mission on the Church of Englands Agenda? Part 2
After the near-death experience that was reading the agenda for General Synod, I then read this, posted yesterday by Richard Frank, a vicar in London:
Fantastic. Please could other dioceses take note. As far as I know Bristol is the only Diocese with a church planting policy, and now it looks like they have company. Great. Who's next?
Spent today in rather remarkable company - most of the London Bishops,
Archdeacons and Diocesan figures, together with a veritable who's-who of London
anglican church leaders of all sorts of stripes, but one thing in common - a
commitment to church-planting as a key part of a London-wide strategy for
evangelism and growth.
People talk often of the death of the CofE, but someone hasn't told
this bunch - the leaders of HTB, St Helen's Bishopsgate and All Souls, Langham
Place, together with many others have been speaking with passion and belief
about reaching London...
The conviction at the heart of the meeting is that the Diocese wants to
be a "can do" and permission-giving organisation, rather than one that puts
barriers in the way - that's not always been the way it's been seen (nor,
perhaps, acted), but I do believe that's the intent and it's exciting to
hear.
Fantastic. Please could other dioceses take note. As far as I know Bristol is the only Diocese with a church planting policy, and now it looks like they have company. Great. Who's next?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Let The One Who Has a Field, Sell It to a Developer
Housing Projections
Latest government projections suggest that in just over 20 years, there will be 6.3 million extra housholds in the England. This is a rise of nearly 30%, driven by a combination of population increase, higher life expectancy (half the extra households will be 65 and overs), fracturing families and net migration. Summary here.
Impact on the South-West
The South-West will see a rise from 2.11 million households to just over 3 million. That's 1 extra home for every 2.1 houses - picture that in your street/town.
The planning agency for the South-West has planned extra housing up to 2026 - South Somerset's share of that is 19,700 houses, of which Yeovil is identified for 11,400 extra houses.
That will increase the population of Yeovil from the current 40,000-ish to 65,000.
However, the planned totals for 2026 are based on old government projections. These new ones represent a 10% increase on previous estimates. That could be spread evenly around the area ( = 1000 extra houses for Yeovil), or done on a more 'lumpy' basis.
A final version of the 'Regional Spatial Strategy' for the South-West is due at the end of June from the Department of Communities and Local Government. I don't know whether Hazel Blears departure will affect those timings.
Here's the regional projections from 2006-2031, figures in '000. If you want to work out population, the average household size is estimated at roughly 2.2 people per household:
North East: 1,110 to 1,316 19% rise
North West: 2,931 to 3,617 23% rise
Yorkshire & The Humber: 2,181 to 2,932 34% rise
East Midlands: 1,849 to 2,539 37% rise
West Midlands: 2,237 to 2,762 23% rise
East: 2,371 to 3,211 35% rise
London: 3,178 to 4,016 26% rise
South East: 3,447 to 4,425 28% rise
South West: 2,211 to 3,001 36% rise
England: 21,515 to 27,818 29% rise
Implications for the Church of England
1. Unless there is a massive rise in ordination levels, the ratio of clergy:general population will continue to drop.
2. This in turn raises serious questions about the nature of local leadership within the CofE. We need to be planting churches which can function well with lay leadership and less clergy input, and recalibrating the ones we have to work in the same way. That's not about doing the same work with less resources, we need to rethink the work itself.
3. Ecumenical mission partnership moves up the agenda. The parish system is creaking at the seams, and in many places exists more on paper than in reality. If these projections are even half true, many areas will be transformed over the next 20 years. Ancient parish boundaries will bear less and less relationship with reality, and without a serious effort at church planting, the parish system itself will cease to mean anything.
We can be committed to neighbourhood churches without having to run them all ourselves. In nearby Weston-super-Mare, different neighbourhoods in new estates are served by a mixture of churches, not all of them Anglican. Here in Bath and Wells we've just appointed an Ecumenical Mission Enabler (had a good chat earlier this week), and the whole ecumenical agenda itself needs to focus more on collaborative mission.
4. Dioceses will need some kind of church planting strategy for new estates, and to take time to resource local church leaders who are trying to engage with new communities on the ground.
A local picture.
We have a local situation with a 4-parish benefice, 4 village churches, but where more than half the population is in an urban area on the edge of Yeovil, mostly built in the last 20 years. This neighbourhood doesn't have an accessible, local parish church, even though it falls into 3 (rural) parishes. The parish system hasn't kept up with real people and real lives, but whenever you talk, about moving boundaries people mutter darkly about how long it will take and what a faff it will be. Within current structures, with so much new housing planned, that is a picture of the future for more and more people.
If we are committed to the parish system, then we have to find a way to reform it so that it keeps on working.
and finally... presently, nobody is building anything. You can plan all you like, but at the moment neither developers, nor government, can actually afford the houses we need right now, never mind the houses of the future....
Latest government projections suggest that in just over 20 years, there will be 6.3 million extra housholds in the England. This is a rise of nearly 30%, driven by a combination of population increase, higher life expectancy (half the extra households will be 65 and overs), fracturing families and net migration. Summary here.
Impact on the South-West
The South-West will see a rise from 2.11 million households to just over 3 million. That's 1 extra home for every 2.1 houses - picture that in your street/town.
The planning agency for the South-West has planned extra housing up to 2026 - South Somerset's share of that is 19,700 houses, of which Yeovil is identified for 11,400 extra houses.
That will increase the population of Yeovil from the current 40,000-ish to 65,000.
However, the planned totals for 2026 are based on old government projections. These new ones represent a 10% increase on previous estimates. That could be spread evenly around the area ( = 1000 extra houses for Yeovil), or done on a more 'lumpy' basis.
A final version of the 'Regional Spatial Strategy' for the South-West is due at the end of June from the Department of Communities and Local Government. I don't know whether Hazel Blears departure will affect those timings.
Here's the regional projections from 2006-2031, figures in '000. If you want to work out population, the average household size is estimated at roughly 2.2 people per household:
North East: 1,110 to 1,316 19% rise
North West: 2,931 to 3,617 23% rise
Yorkshire & The Humber: 2,181 to 2,932 34% rise
East Midlands: 1,849 to 2,539 37% rise
West Midlands: 2,237 to 2,762 23% rise
East: 2,371 to 3,211 35% rise
London: 3,178 to 4,016 26% rise
South East: 3,447 to 4,425 28% rise
South West: 2,211 to 3,001 36% rise
England: 21,515 to 27,818 29% rise
Implications for the Church of England
1. Unless there is a massive rise in ordination levels, the ratio of clergy:general population will continue to drop.
2. This in turn raises serious questions about the nature of local leadership within the CofE. We need to be planting churches which can function well with lay leadership and less clergy input, and recalibrating the ones we have to work in the same way. That's not about doing the same work with less resources, we need to rethink the work itself.
3. Ecumenical mission partnership moves up the agenda. The parish system is creaking at the seams, and in many places exists more on paper than in reality. If these projections are even half true, many areas will be transformed over the next 20 years. Ancient parish boundaries will bear less and less relationship with reality, and without a serious effort at church planting, the parish system itself will cease to mean anything.
We can be committed to neighbourhood churches without having to run them all ourselves. In nearby Weston-super-Mare, different neighbourhoods in new estates are served by a mixture of churches, not all of them Anglican. Here in Bath and Wells we've just appointed an Ecumenical Mission Enabler (had a good chat earlier this week), and the whole ecumenical agenda itself needs to focus more on collaborative mission.
4. Dioceses will need some kind of church planting strategy for new estates, and to take time to resource local church leaders who are trying to engage with new communities on the ground.
A local picture.
We have a local situation with a 4-parish benefice, 4 village churches, but where more than half the population is in an urban area on the edge of Yeovil, mostly built in the last 20 years. This neighbourhood doesn't have an accessible, local parish church, even though it falls into 3 (rural) parishes. The parish system hasn't kept up with real people and real lives, but whenever you talk, about moving boundaries people mutter darkly about how long it will take and what a faff it will be. Within current structures, with so much new housing planned, that is a picture of the future for more and more people.
If we are committed to the parish system, then we have to find a way to reform it so that it keeps on working.
and finally... presently, nobody is building anything. You can plan all you like, but at the moment neither developers, nor government, can actually afford the houses we need right now, never mind the houses of the future....
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Free Booklets on church planting and emerging church
Over at the Church Army, ‘Encounters on the Edge’ have just had a clearout of back copies. I therefore have 10 copies each of over 30 titles, which are free to give away for local churches to use, study and reflect on, so if you're fairly local, do get in touch. If you'd like a batch of your own, they may still have some back copies spare (and if not they may send you a pdf, which is nice), but you need to be a subcriber: £15 a year for 4 books.
Each is about 24 pages long, and combines research, the story of a particular new church, and theological reflection. Here are the ones sitting in a box in my study:
Each is about 24 pages long, and combines research, the story of a particular new church, and theological reflection. Here are the ones sitting in a box in my study:
- Community and youth
- Unit 8: a forgotten estate
- cell planting
- youth congregations
- what is church
- community engagement
- network churches
- multiple congregations
- what kind of leadership do new churches need?
- Church planting by a ‘graft’ of extra members
- midweek church
- alternative worship
- the church in exile
- Eden Project, Manchester
- Holy Trinity Bromptons church planting
- Catholic Fresh expressions
- church for addicts
- tough estates
- network churches
- cell church alongside congregations
- youth congregation
- Mission Shaped Church
- New housing areas
- Church in the workplace
- church for artists
- ecology and community
- rural fresh expressions
- rural cell church
- new monasticism
- mission and discernment
- church for under-5s
- simpler church
Friday, January 23, 2009
New Sheffield Centre homepage
The Church Army's Sheffield Centre, a research and training unit on mission and church planting, has a very good new website.
It's much easier to navigate than before, and has lots of great material on Mission Shaped Church, church planting, work with the elderly, work with spiritual seekers, and their excellent Research Bulletins. If you've never paid a visit, now might be the time.
It's also a lot easier to browse the back issues of Encounters on the Edge, the Church Army series on church planting and fresh expressions, which is now nearing 40 issues. But if you want to order back issues then be quick - they are clearing out older issues because of lack of storage space, so if you want anything published before 2006 you'll need to get a wiggle on. They are already out of 4 issues
It's much easier to navigate than before, and has lots of great material on Mission Shaped Church, church planting, work with the elderly, work with spiritual seekers, and their excellent Research Bulletins. If you've never paid a visit, now might be the time.
It's also a lot easier to browse the back issues of Encounters on the Edge, the Church Army series on church planting and fresh expressions, which is now nearing 40 issues. But if you want to order back issues then be quick - they are clearing out older issues because of lack of storage space, so if you want anything published before 2006 you'll need to get a wiggle on. They are already out of 4 issues
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Fresh Expressions in Bristol Diocese
the CPAS Leadership blog has an interview with Bishop Mike Hill, Bishop of Bristol, about fresh expressions and the 'mixed economy' church (one which combines the best of traditional church life with innovative outreach, mission, and new forms of church).
The interview links to this great little page on the Bristol Diocese website, which has 6 videos of different fresh expressions (definition: forms of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church) within the diocese. The Diocese of Bristol - this is an Anglican diocese, by the way, for folk from other churches who are rubbing their eyes at this point and wondering what was in the mulled wine last night - has it's own church planting policy. I wonder if our folks in Bath and Wells ever talk to them....
The interview links to this great little page on the Bristol Diocese website, which has 6 videos of different fresh expressions (definition: forms of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church) within the diocese. The Diocese of Bristol - this is an Anglican diocese, by the way, for folk from other churches who are rubbing their eyes at this point and wondering what was in the mulled wine last night - has it's own church planting policy. I wonder if our folks in Bath and Wells ever talk to them....
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Mission and Church Planting Quotes
Trawling through the Anglican Church Planting Institutes back catalogue, a few juicy and thought-provoking quotes from various sources:
You will need to go where they are, you will not get them to come to you. Plant churches that are shaped by their culture, but reflect Christ. The Christian distinctive stays, but otherwise the shape of the church is substantially decided by the actual lifestyle and circumstances of the people you are trying to reach. The very shape of church we are used to can be a stumbling block to the gospel. No one expression or shape of church life will fit the whole of our diverse culture. I suggest that to have in mind what a church plant will look like probably won’t work. We need a baptised imagination in the practice of mission, not just dreaming up what we think we are going to do under God as we begin. (Graham Cray)
The first stage of our strategy is to reach people where they are, in the form of community they actually live in, and not the ones we believe they ought to live in. You plant churches in networks, communities of people who do have a relationship with one another, not in streets of people who ought to have a relationship with one another. (Cray)
don’t fool yourself about bridge projects - they don’t work. Soul Survivor Watford was planted as a bridge project. It became a youth targeted church plant. Youth got on the bridge and would not get off. The jump to the highly traditional form of Anglicanism at St Andrews, Chorleywood was hugely too far culturally! (Cray)
Get the church into the shopping centres; consider an area or deanery youth congregation with the cells in local churches; put your resources together; identify initiatives with the elderly; and if you do all that stuff, effective mission must be allowed to create problems of unity. All that stuff about unity in the New Testament was because they planted churches among people not like them, called Gentiles, and then had problems about how they held together in the body of Christ. First do it, then sort out the glorious problem. Christian unity is not meant to be a spiritual form of birth control. (Cray – superb)
“You are not , if you are involved in church planting, an odd nutter in the church, you are part f what God is calling the whole church to be.” (Robert Warren)
I guess in the past it was too easy for us to think that we knew how to do Church, and that in hurch planting all we needed to do was get the birth process right and then everything else would sort itself out.
Such naivety.
We must do better in future. (George Lings)
You will need to go where they are, you will not get them to come to you. Plant churches that are shaped by their culture, but reflect Christ. The Christian distinctive stays, but otherwise the shape of the church is substantially decided by the actual lifestyle and circumstances of the people you are trying to reach. The very shape of church we are used to can be a stumbling block to the gospel. No one expression or shape of church life will fit the whole of our diverse culture. I suggest that to have in mind what a church plant will look like probably won’t work. We need a baptised imagination in the practice of mission, not just dreaming up what we think we are going to do under God as we begin. (Graham Cray)
The first stage of our strategy is to reach people where they are, in the form of community they actually live in, and not the ones we believe they ought to live in. You plant churches in networks, communities of people who do have a relationship with one another, not in streets of people who ought to have a relationship with one another. (Cray)
don’t fool yourself about bridge projects - they don’t work. Soul Survivor Watford was planted as a bridge project. It became a youth targeted church plant. Youth got on the bridge and would not get off. The jump to the highly traditional form of Anglicanism at St Andrews, Chorleywood was hugely too far culturally! (Cray)
Get the church into the shopping centres; consider an area or deanery youth congregation with the cells in local churches; put your resources together; identify initiatives with the elderly; and if you do all that stuff, effective mission must be allowed to create problems of unity. All that stuff about unity in the New Testament was because they planted churches among people not like them, called Gentiles, and then had problems about how they held together in the body of Christ. First do it, then sort out the glorious problem. Christian unity is not meant to be a spiritual form of birth control. (Cray – superb)
“You are not , if you are involved in church planting, an odd nutter in the church, you are part f what God is calling the whole church to be.” (Robert Warren)
I guess in the past it was too easy for us to think that we knew how to do Church, and that in hurch planting all we needed to do was get the birth process right and then everything else would sort itself out.
Such naivety.
We must do better in future. (George Lings)
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
National Church Planting Conf - Talks Now Online
The talks and slides from the Church Planting Conference are now online:
http://www.acpi.org.uk/NACPC07.htm is the link you'll need. I missed the final talk, by Bishop Stephen Cotterell because we had to get a train, but just listened to it online now, and he opens with this great quote:
“Europe was not evangelised by the parish system, the parish system was a consequence of Europe having been evangelised. What the church is slowly waking up to… is that it won’t be the parish system that re-evangelises Europe, it will be something much more like what evangelised Europe first time round… monks and nuns, religious communities.”
All the talks are in the region of 15-20minutes, so they're pretty easy to listen to in 1 sitting. If you only pick one, have a listen to George Lings on the 'Jerusalem trap', really thought-provoking.
If you look carefully you'll also see yours truly in one of the pictures, thankfully they got my good side....
http://www.acpi.org.uk/NACPC07.htm is the link you'll need. I missed the final talk, by Bishop Stephen Cotterell because we had to get a train, but just listened to it online now, and he opens with this great quote:
“Europe was not evangelised by the parish system, the parish system was a consequence of Europe having been evangelised. What the church is slowly waking up to… is that it won’t be the parish system that re-evangelises Europe, it will be something much more like what evangelised Europe first time round… monks and nuns, religious communities.”
All the talks are in the region of 15-20minutes, so they're pretty easy to listen to in 1 sitting. If you only pick one, have a listen to George Lings on the 'Jerusalem trap', really thought-provoking.
If you look carefully you'll also see yours truly in one of the pictures, thankfully they got my good side....
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