1. Mission Shaped Church Change about Church behind … Presented by The Sheffield Centre Church Army’s Research Unit

2. The gathered church of Christendom Inherited view: Church is … Parson Parish Place People who congregate to Praise

3. Context has shaped Church  Where did they meet in early Rome?  What took off after Constantine?  Where do Christians meet in China today? Match the pictures

4. What’s your scene? Location options  Borrow a RC church  Or a Prot. Hall  Use a home  NOT public buildings  What about a café Kinds of people: what are they looking for ?  English speaking Retireds  Ditto - Young families  Mixed marriage families  France – the happy life? Another slant  Émigré Disciples  Christendom Attenders  Non Christian explorers  “Church” leavers One size fits all ?

5. Congregationless Christians ?  It’s a fast growing trend  Those turned off by the institution  Jesus we do – “Church” we don’t

6. Parts of Scripture suggests church is.. 1.A scattered people – Jas 1.1 1 Pet 1.1 – Resident Aliens, Exiles, Diaspora 2.A special people – 1 Pet 2 – priests to the world – not a building, facing inwards 3.A self sufficient people – Paul leaves them and trusts the Spirit 4.A subversive people – Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is, it is his Ecclesia.

7. 1 Some different pictures of the church …  The city set on a hill  The lamp on the stand  Its Values  Salt  Yeast Its Values Gathered Visible Attracting Dispersed Invisible Subverting We are free to use all of them – which suit best after Christendom ? …Location… …Presence… …Purpose…

8. Expect church to be larger and smaller Cells, Congregations, Celebrations and wider links Rejoice ! Church IS all these multi-layers Within the Western Church in Exile It helps us to embrace the diversity we need

9. Cluster as Church Congregate as Church Because all levels are church Cell as Church Celebrate as Church Congregation is Church Church is Priest Building and Worship Down with congregational imperialism

10. 2 The special people  Priests to the world – Out there, dispersed where people are – In touch with them culturally – In Go mode, before Come invitations – Grow what is needed, when and where  An Odyssey story….

11. “Church planting is instinctively happier with the transient rather than the intransigent. It’s doctrine of the church is more to do with Tabernacle than with the Temple”. George Lings 1998 2 What about a moving church ? “Synagogue was invented by the Jews dispersed in Exile. The Temple’s destruction was both a judgment and a favour”.. George Lings 2005

12. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? The recently lost sheep..

13. 3 Locally self sufficient Dispersed church is perhaps better  It spreads Christians around  It needs Christians who have learnt – To break the dependency/control collusion – To be the church in their context – To feed themselves – To seek God, with others nearby – To grow their contacts – To relate to the wider church  China is a good example of growth

14. 4 Subverting  A little makes a lot of difference  Could your little group cause “a rise” in your circle or community  Could you and your friends make things around you more worth “savouring” Remember the yeast – or the salt ?

15. Concentration & Dispersal

16. A good NT pattern Concentration Dispersal There are long and short cycles The short one [weekly?] could be Gather to Scatter The longer ones involve sending out whole groups Like from Jerusalem, Antioch and Ephesus

17. This might happen  Accidental church ?

18. Change is not new – rather it’s original Consider the NT mission and Church  From Jews only to Jews, Greeks and Romans  The language changed  From Synagogue to Ecclesia  In models of Atonement  From Temple to dispersed houses  Circumcision was dropped  So were many food laws – Some resisted this – the Judaisers

19. Official changes for the clergy!  “For the laity to become more priestly it is therefore necessary for the clergy to become more episcopal” ABM Occasional paper 18 p 8 : from Derby Diocese

20. Episcope: a focus of… Episcope VALUES and guarding them VISION and seeing it is done UNITY and Connectedness CARE of leaders RECOGNISING gifts and callings

21. But how can dispersed be healthy?  Think about what is church – Jesus gave us some dispersed models – Church exists at lots of sizes and levels – Growth in self-sufficiency sounds good – Being more dispersed means more contacts  What would be good yardsticks of being/ becoming church ?

22. Holy “UP” Apostolic “OUT” Catholic “OF” “IN” One Enduring Marks of the Church OHCA

23. How are these criteria changing? The church is One Holy Catholic Apostolic. But suppose … Oneness is no longer Roman uniformity but modelled on the Trinity …. Holiness is a call to belong to God and becoming like him, but mixed with fallen provisionality …. Catholicity is not just universality. But expression of interconnectedness and interdependence …. Apostolic is not a fight over succession. But a Missionary identity of being sent ….

24. Church for Resident Aliens The four journeys re-described  UP – Not attending services, but seeking God  IN – Not “going to Church”, but live out attractive community  OUT – Wanting others to know this life with God in Christ, through act and word  OF – Living an interdependence with the wider Church

25. Church is alive – thanks MRS NERG  MMovement  RRespiration  SSensitivity  NNutrition  EExcretion  RReproduction  GGrowth “Which would you say the Church is good at ?”

26. “Monastic life may seem utterly out of tune with the spirit of our times, yet if we are entering another Dark Age, it may be to the wisdom of such a way the Church of today needs to turn … I sense that the renewal of both the Church and Society will come through the re-emerging of forms of Christian community that are homes of generous hospitality, places of challenging reconciliation and centres of attentiveness to the living God.” Brother Samuel SSF: Mission and Community BFBS 1998 Last Orders ? - not on your life !

27. Questions  How do you see church. where you are, living out being dispersed as well as gathered?  What are the challenges in becoming more self-sufficient ?