Latest Fresh Expressions Newspaper

The latest 'expressions' free newspaper has just come out from Fresh Expressions, (order from here) and includes:
- input from Graham Cray, asking 'where next' for mission in the Church of England
- text of Brian MacLaren's talk to Lambeth 08 on mission and culture
- mission stories from work among Tamils in London, suburban families in Lincoln, a shop in Tasmania, the nightclubs of Tenerife, a lads church in Bridlington, and pioneer work in Middlesborough, Cornwall and Yorkshire.
- personal stories of people who have come to faith through fresh expressions, or have got involved in starting one up.

I got 100 copies delivered for local churches and have been spreading them around. It's always encouraging to hear the good news, even if we're indoctrinated into thinking that only bad stuff counts as 'news'.

From the same site, a review of Ancient Faith, Future Mission, recently published book on Fresh Expressions from a catholic/sacramental perspective, which has sold well after release in May.

"Fresh expressions are not about making our worship more attractive in the hope that people will come. They are about planting congregations where people are." (Graham Cray)

Is Mission on the CofE's Agenda?

More details of the General Synod agenda for July have been released, with debates on finance, pensions, laws, the number of senior clergy, childhood, ecumenism and various other things. The nearest thing to an item on mission is a report on ministry to people with learning difficulties.

A planned debate following up Mission Shaped Church, has been shelved to create time for 'essential legislative and financial business'. I have to wonder in what way is mission not 'essential' business? There have been massive changes in the way the institutional CofE views and funds mission in recent years, but a wholesale change of mindset is still a work in process. One common mission mantra is 'mission is not on the agenda, it is the agenda'. Maybe someone in head office spilt coffee on the last 4 words.

Full details of everything on Thinking Anglicans

Update: Howard Jamieson muses on the most interesting agenda item, a proposal for the reduction in the top-heavy Anglican bureaucracy.

How Fresh is Your Diocese?

In the course of the last month, I’ve been looking through all 43 Diocesan websites for resources in the areas of mission and Fresh Expressions. The full research is here:

Based on diocesan websites alone (which I’m aware don’t give the full picture), the level of engagement with Mission Shaped Church, Fresh Expressions, and the Mixed Economy church is mixed. Several Dioceses give it a high profile, some don’t mention it at all.

However, this isn’t an indicator of how seriously the dioceses take mission: for example both Southwell and Manchester have plenty going on, but neither gives FX a very high profile.

For simplicity, I’ve grouped all the Dioceses (excluding Sodor and Man, which has a very skeleton website) according to what level of profile they give to Mission Shaped Church, Fresh Expressions etc.

High Profile
The following dioceses use their websites to draw attention to particular Fresh Expressions in their area, and provide background on what Fresh Expressions is:
Bristol, Chichester, Exeter, Guildford, Liverpool, Oxford, Ripon and Leeds.

Of these I would say that Bristol, Exeter, Guildford and Oxford exemplify the level of engagement and fruit that would be good to see in every diocese.

Medium Profile
The following Dioceses (typically) have a Fresh Expressions page, run the Mission Shaped Ministry training course, and have some level of encouragement for Fresh Expressions, perhaps with examples of a particular project.
Chelmsford, Ely, Gloucester, Norwich, Peterborough, Southwell, Truro

Low Profile
Fresh Expressions material consists mainly of links to other sites, no evidence of any work in the Diocese.
Bath & Wells, Blackburn, Bradford, Chester, Coventry, Durham, Leicester, London, Manchester, Portsmouth, St. Albans, St. Edmunsbury & Ipswich, Sheffield, Southwark, Wakefield, Winchester (but a new appointment here, so would expect profile to rise), York.

No Profile
Nothing on the site to do with Fresh Expressions or Mission Shaped Church.
Birmingham (though the ‘local projects’ section has examples of what you’d call Fresh Expressions), Canterbury, Carlisle, Derby, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, Newcastle, Rochester, Salisbury, Worcester

Based on the above, the majority of Dioceses (29 of 43) give low or no profile to Fresh Expressions on their websites.

Though in some Dioceses, mission is a clear priority with or without Fresh Expressions, a glance at the list above will show that for many of them, Fresh Expressions has made little or no impact on their public face as shown through the Diocesan Website – which is also now a prime place for archiving resources, stories and training materials.

I'm sure that there is plenty more going on than the diocesan sites record, and the reasons for this not feeding through to the sites could be many and varied! This information is accurate at the time of writing, based on what I can find on the websites. There may be hidden gems, but they’re too well hidden to find! As websites will change, it’s true as a snapshot, but not as a moving picture.

Fresh Expressions, Diocese by Diocese (virtually)

After trawling through all 43 Diocesan websites, it's very clear that the whole 'Mission Shaped Church' agenda has had a varied impact, if the sites are anything to go by. Bishops, prayers, and rules on buildings are an ever present reality, but there's a much patchier picture on 'fresh expressions of church'.

The 'average' diocesan site has some mention of the Mission Shaped Ministry course, with a link to the national site, and (in some cases) to forthcoming local MSM courses. A few have a description of what Mission Shaped Church/Fresh Expressions is all about, and a handful (see below) actually showcase examples of Fresh Expressions in their Diocese.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are some websites which have no mention of any of the above. In some cases it's because the Diocese is putting its resources elsewhere than the website (fair enough, things are tight). But to find that getting on for a third of Diocesan websites don't really mention it at all is a bit worrying. One or two of these have a strong mission message already, but on some sites the absence of anything about Fresh Expressions is part of a general absence of much to do with mission.

In passing, it's interesting that Mission Action Planning (which hasn't been a national initiative) is much more common than Fresh Expressions, and much more high profile in many diocesan strategies.

Most worth a visit (in alphabetical order):
1. Bristol: a selection of Youtube videos on local fresh expressions and a diocesan Church Planting Policy. The whole website is very mission flavoured.

2. Chichester has a full list of registered Fresh Expressions in the diocese

3. Exeter a substantial Mission section, includes Fresh Expressions in Devon, with details of specific local fx's, plus local examples. 2 Cathedral based fresh expressions Life on the Beach is a mission partnership between Exeter Cathedral and local churches, using the Cathedral green for a Saturday open-air outreach/festival. Nightchurch is a new outreach based in the Cathedral on Friday nights, aimed at Gen X and Y. Mission Downloads include generic fx presentations for parishes/deaneries to preview, and a very good paper on Pioneer Ministry.

4. Guildford: a concise list of every fx in the diocese, grouped by type (alternative, workplace, cafe etc.) with details of when and where. Also a 20 page thesis on the difference between fx and traditional outreach.

5. Liverpool: lots of good things, but highlights: ACTS a joint initiative with TEARfund to take parishes step by step through embarking on a new project for the benefit of the community, from building a community centre to running a fun day. A way in for community based fresh expressions. Their latest report on the diocesan strategy identifies a resource church for pioneer ministry, and summarises church plants and pioneering projects.

6. Norwich: simple pages explaining Fresh expressions and alternative worship, with links to local examples and a page on alternative and creative worship, from all-age to 'liquid', with links to blogs, books and resource sites. Couple of good case studies of redeveloping churches as community centres.

7 Oxford: The Encouraging Evangelism page has a selection of vid clips on the practicalities of evangelism, no. 5 focuses on the Jigsaw fresh expression of church in Witney. Oxfords Cutting Edge project (2002-8) resourced 6 pilot new congregations, there's a summary of the fruits here, and the full report on the project is well worth a read if you are looking to set up a Fresh Expression within an Anglican diocese, very very helpful. The Diocese has also produce a concise 'Beginning, Nurturing and Sustaining Fresh Expressions' booklet, which is available as a pdf.

8.Ripon and Leeds: has FX section, and great to see that there are 4 video clips of different FX in the diocese, plus an intro from the Bish. However, they need to link the vids from the fx page! Also has a policy document on mission and ministry in UPA parishes, worth reading.

9. Southwell: nothing explicitly on fresh expressions, despite pages on Sports Ministry, and Car Boot Sale ministry, and a link to iChaplaincy (an internet chaplaincy/workplace chaplaincy in the Nottingham area.

At least as many other dioceses have fresh expressions pages, some which mention local projects but without much detail (Truro).

You'll notice that not all of the above are actually going great guns on Mission Shaped Church. Southwell and Liverpool are there partly because they are things that look like fresh expressions of church, but don't use the label. Based on websites alone, you'd have to say that only Bristol, Exeter, Guildford and Oxford have really got the bit between their teeth, but you wonder how many people even in these places are holding the reins (to mix equine metaphors).

It's also interesting that a planned General Synod review of Mission Shaped Church has been shelved. I really do hope it's not for long: despite Rowan Williams clear leadership on this, and the remarkable changes embraced by the church in recent years, the evidence from the online presence of the various dioceses is that the job is by no means done.

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

Anglican Church Planting Initiatives

Since I last visited, Anglican Church Planting Initatives (ACPI) have revamped their website, and it's worth a visit if you're into church planting, fresh expressions, mission shaped church etc. There's a news, upcoming events and useful articles section, and links to some ACPI resources.

Bob and Mary Hopkins, who run it, recently taught on our local Mission Shaped Ministry course on evangelism and were outstanding, everyone was saying 'wow' afterwards. I think most of the content is in their 'Evangelism Strategies' booklets on the resources page.

Mission Shaped Questions

The latest in the very good 'Mission Shaped' series from Church House is based on a national speakers tour in 2007, and adds some theological meat to the quite pragmatic other books in the series.

Here's some blurb from Start the Week

Mission-shaped Questions tackles some of the common queries and myths about fresh expressions of church head-on and argues that embracing a mixed-economy church is not the preserve of a certain type of churchmanship or something that should be seen as a ‘bolt-on’ to ‘normal church’.
Edited by Dr Steven Croft, the Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions, Mission-shaped Questions explores some of the key issues facing churches as they seek to develop new ways of ‘being and doing church’ for the twenty-first century, in a society that is becoming increasingly mobile, less socially cohesive, and has a weaker understanding of the Christian faith than older generations.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has welcomed the book’s insights, commenting: “If we are to grow and mature as a mixed economy Church, there are hard questions to be asked and answered. We need first-class thinking to back up and support all that is happening at local level. I hope this collection will get the attention it richly deserves.”

The collection of essays by respected thinkers in the field addresses some of the big theological and practical issues that church leaders have grappled with as they have implemented ideas from the Mission-shaped Church report. It follows a series of day conferences held during 2007 across the country, sponsored by Fresh Expressions, called ‘Hard Questions’. These events featured theologians discussing key subjects, followed by questions to the speakers and a panel discussion with practitioners and church leaders. The book includes contributions on issues such as the definition of church, sacramental ministry in fresh expressions, the evidence for the existence of fresh expressions in the New Testament, and how a mixed-economy Church can connect with contemporary spirituality.

You can order the book from here , and the 15 chapter contents list is here.

For information, the other books in the series are
Mission Shaped Church (the original report, link takes you to the full text)
Mission Shaped Children Margaret Withers
Mission Shaped Parish Paul Bayes
Mission Shaped and Rural Sally Gaze
Mission Shaped Youth Various authors
Mission Shaped Spirituality Susan Hope.
Church Army papers and presentations on Mission Shaped Church

Other related books (this is turning into a 21st Century mission reading list...)
Hope for the Church & The Road to Growth Bob Jackson (this link gives you places to buy the book, and a presentation applying his findings to the local church, in this case Solihull Deanery. If it can work there......)
The Future of the Parish System Steve Croft (ed)
Evangelism in a Spiritual Age various authors.

Or if you're in the Yeovil area and are good at returning books, you're welcome to borrow them from me...