Fresh Expressions1 Pioneering Church Diocese of Adelaide

COULD THIS BE YOU? ‘The ministry training that I received forty years ago was for a world that no-longer exists.’ Rev. Professor Eddie Gibbs

SOCIETY CHURCH FRINGE CHRISTENDOM CONTEXT MH p.12

SOCIETY CHURCH FRINGE CHRISTENDOM CONTEXT MH p.12

SECULAR. PLURALISM Church MH p.12

baptism education marriage festivals Sunday sickness crisis bereavement baptism education marriage festivals Sunday sickness crisis bereavement The mission task: from door to font to communion table & out to the world The mission task: from door to font to communion table & out to the world Culture and the rhythm of the year lead people to the church door

The mission task becomes: go to where people are form communities of faith make disciples there Culture leads people to many other doors.

MISSIONARY CONTEXT ‘Ministers in the Church of England must pursue their vocation increasingly aware of the missionary context in which the church is set. In previous generations ministry was exercised in a culture where Christian beliefs and behaviours were the norm: today’s context is more of a spiritual and moral market place.’

‘Culture is now an organised diversity with little sense of defining centre.’Alan Roxburgh

Change the Church’s ‘default settings’ to mission and pioneering.

Fresh Expressions2 MENU Pioneering Church Pioneering Ministry Pioneering Heritage

Fresh Expressions2 PIONEERING CHURCH

Fresh Expressions2 The Pioneer Of Our Faith Identifies with us - Hebrews 2:10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Prepares a new way for us - Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Fresh Expressions2 PIONEERING CHURCH A Community of Disciples An Incarnational Community A Movement of the Spirit

Fresh Expressions2 A Community of Disciples

What is the essence of church? ‘If ‘church’ is what happens when people encounter the Risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with each other, there is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style …

WHAT IS CHURCH? so long as we have ways of identifying the same living Christ at the heart of every expression of Christian life in common.’ Archbishop Rowan Williams Fresh Expressions4

Church is …… ‘… people with Jesus at the centre travelling wherever Jesus takes us.’ Church Without Walls

Fresh Expressions2 An Itinerant Church 'Jesus never tarries, like foxes and birds, he is always on the move, the kingdom is a movement that requires him to go to those to whom he has been sent. …. The book of Acts witnesses to the necessity for disciples of Christ to, like Jesus himself, be on the move.’ Stanlet Hauerwas There is something essentially 'itinerant' about Christian ministry and discipleship - flexibility and and lightness of touch - in response to the plight of those to,whom Jesus sends us.

Fresh Expressions2 Itinerent Ministry 'Luke makes the continuation of the gospel mission unmistakeable by having the disciples travel two by two (In fulfilment of Jesus' command in Lk. 10:1) and shake the dust off their feet when they are rejected.'(Acts 13:51 Lk 10:11)' Luke Timothy Johnson

Fresh Expressions2 In the company of Jesus ‘Being where Jesus is means finding yourself in the company of the people whose company Jesus seeks and keeps So, when Jesus goes to be in the company of the excluded, the wretched, the self- hating, the poor, the diseased, that's where you're going to find yourself.

Fresh Expressions2 In the company of Jesus This is once again an important reminder that our discipleship is not about choosing our company beyond choosing the company of Jesus.’ Rowan Williams

Fresh Expressions2 Grafted

Paying our debts ‘I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish — hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.’ Romans 1:14-16 Theology Point 1.23

Sent to proclaim Rom.10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13 For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? Fresh Expressions24

Mission in the power of the Spirit Rom. 15:18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ. 20 Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named. Fresh Expressions5

The Church’s Challenge Who will our current forms of church never reach? Do we have a spiritual responsibility to those with no knowledge of the faith? Hence – fresh expressions of church!

Fresh Expressions2 An Incarnational Community

We share in Christ’s mission ‘The mission of the Church is the gift of participating, through the Holy Spirit, in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world.’ James Torrance John 20:21f ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you …. Receive the Holy Spirit’

Called to join Jesus ‘As a fellow human being with us, Jesus can do no other than draw other human beings into his unique and incomparable work. And so he calls other to join him in the special task of continuing his work … drawing them ever more deeply into his own mission.’ Hans Urs Von Balthasar Fresh Expressions19

An activity of God ‘We are invited to participate in an activity of God ….. We are invited to become, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, participants in the Son’s loving obedience to the Father.’ Lesslie Newbigin Fresh Expressions40

The Unique Event ‘When we expound both the what and the how of mission incarnationally, we need to be careful always to emphasize that the incarnation is the unique event that founds and forms the church’s witness. The event defines how it is to be embodied and thus communicated.’ Darrell Guder Fresh Expressions7

Incarnational Mission ‘As Christ had entered our world, so we are to enter other people’s worlds. …… This entering into other people’s worlds is exactly what we mean by incarnational evangelism. All authentic mission is incarnational mission. We are to be like Christ in his mission.’ John Stott Fresh Expressions6

‘Christ takes flesh’ ‘Christian faith is embodied faith; Christ takes flesh among those who respond to him in faith. But there is no generalized humanity; incarnation has always to be culture specific.’ Andrew Walls

‘One of the central features of this report is the recognition that the changing nature of our missionary context requires a new inculturation of the gospel within our society.’ MSC Fresh Expressions23

OUR PEOPLE? ‘The gap is as wide as any that is experienced by a cross-cultural missionary. It will require a reworking of language and approach, and it is here that both church planting and fresh expressions of church offer real possibilities.’ Fresh Expressions34

the word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood… (John 1) Try this …. The Body of Christ

INCARNATIONAL Entering their world. Taking it as seriously as they do. Helping them to find Christ there.

INCARNATIONAL Entering their world. Taking it as seriously as they do. Helping them to find Christ there.

INCARNATIONAL Entering their world. Taking it as seriously as they do. Helping them to find Christ there.

Fresh Expressions2 The Sunday Sanctuary

Research & Statistics Scope There are around 1,000 fresh expressions or new forms of church Within at least 40 Dioceses

Research & Statistics On average, that’s an additional 40 people attending in these parishes each week

Fresh Expressions8

Church is ‘for the place where it is located’ ‘not just latitude & longitude’ but ‘its place in the fabric of human society’ ‘the whole secular reality, including physical, social, cultural and political aspects’ as ‘sign, first fruit and instrument of God’s purpose in Christ for that place.’ Lesslie Newbigin Fresh Expressions6

Not ‘Imports from another “place”’ ‘Survivals from another time’ ‘Static – every aspect is in process of change’ Fresh Expressions34

Not about us ‘The character of the local church will not be determined primarily by the character, tastes, dispositions, etc., of its members, but by those of the secular society in which and for which it lives - seen in the light of God‘s redemptive purpose revealed in Jesus Christ for all men.’ Fresh Expressions34

More faithful witness ‘The continuing conversion of the church to incarnational witness does not mean selling out to the …. cultures that form our context. Our conversion is to more faithful witness, to more loving and creative translation of the gospel. … God’s Spirit is promised to us for precisely this continuing task …’ Darrell Guder Fresh Expressions36

Fresh Expressions2 A Movement of the Spirit

The Director ‘The chief actor in the historic mission of the Christian church is the Holy Spirit. He is the director of the whole enterprise. The mission consists of the things that he is doing in the world. In a special way it consists of the light that he is focussing upon Jesus Christ.’ John V Taylor

The primary witness to the resurrection John 15:26-27 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father, he will bear witness to me. You also will bear witness ….’ 'It is not said that the Spirit will help the disciple to bear witness What is said is that the Spirit will bear witness and that - secondarily - the disciples are witnesses.’ Lesslie Newbigin

But God …. ‘God continues to create new futures in the most inauspicious of places.’ ‘The biblical narratives are full of stories about places and people without hope who became centres of the Spirit’s creative, world changing, activity.’ Roxburgh + Romanuk

‘Spiritual’ John 20:21f ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you …. Receive the Holy Spirit’ ‘This is the primary purpose for which the Spirit is given: that we may bear witness to Christ. We must not expect the gift while we ignore the purpose. A church which ceases to be missionary will not be, and cannot rightly expect to be “spiritual”.’ Archbishop William Temple Fresh Expressions9

2 'Luke's interest lies elsewhere than institutional arrangement, and his challenge to the church is less to do with how the assembly structures itself, than with the character of the assembly's response to the Holy Spirit at work in the world.' Luke Timothy Johnson

Fresh Expressions2 Responsiveness to the Spirit 'This constant movement and mission depicts a church that responds to the promptings of the Spirit and is not defined in terms of place.' Luke Timothy Johnson 'The corollary of itineracy is responsiveness to the movement of the Holy Spirit.' Luke Timothy Johnson

'The narrative of Acts suggests that a community truly led by the Spirit will be led in new and surprising directions.' Luke Timothy Johnson Fresh Expressions25

Seeing what God is doing and joining in! ‘We must relinquish our missionary presuppositions and begin in the beginning with the Holy Spirit. This means humbly watching in any situation in which we find ourselves in order to learn what God is trying to do there, and then doing it with him.’ John V Taylor

God is ahead 'God is already ahead of all evangelism, carrying on his mission to the world. …. More often than not respectful discernment will demand drastic changes of heart and mind, as for Peter with his own traditions.' David Ford + Daniel Hardy

Reconnect Fresh Expressions37

Poole Missional Communities Community Cafe Wild Spirit Fresh Expressions38

Being and becoming ‘The church is “missionary by its very nature” and it becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself.’ Bevans & Schroeder

Expanded by the Gospel ‘They were not expanding the gospel as they followed the missional mandate of our Lord across all the safe boundaries of their world. The gospel was expanding them. It still does.’ Darrell Guder Fresh Expressions27

Putting things the right way round ‘Our theology would improve if we thought more of the church being given to the Spirit than of the Spirit being given to the church.’ John V Taylor

Fresh Expressions1 Pioneering Church Diocese of Adelaide