Transcript Slide 1

IMAGINE….
Question?
If you had to describe the
essence of what a church is
in short phrase what would
it be?
Bible Metaphors
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Body 1 Cor 12:13
Household Eph 3:19
Flock Acts 20:28
Field 1 Cor 3:9
Temple Eph 2:21
Eklessia= called out ones
Machine or Organism?
Are we alive?
Heptagon
MRS GREN
Growth
Movement
Plants move in
response to the sun. We
should be moving in
response to the son
Respiration
We need to be breathing in
God’s Spirit to release
energy with in the church
Sensitivity
Are we willing to change
in response to our
surroundings, culture,
people’s needs, etc.
Growth
Growth happens in
seasons. What limits
growth in the church?
Reproduction
Have we forgotten God’s
first command to man?
“Be fruitful and increase
in number.” (Gen 1:28)
Excretion
Excretion is the removal of
substances which were
good but all nutrition from
them has been used.
Nutrition
Do you have a
balanced Diet?
Fresh Expressions
• "Fresh expressions are new and different
ways of being church in a changing
culture."
• A fresh expression of church is not
normally seen just as an additional activity
or simply a stepping stone for people to
Sunday services but as something with the
potential to be or become church for those
who take part."
• A fresh expression is a form of church for
Elements
our changing culture established primarily
for the benefit of people who are not yet
members of any church.
• It will come into being through principles of
listening, service, incarnational mission and
making disciples.
• It will have the potential to become a mature
expression of church shaped by the gospel
and the enduring marks of the church and for
its cultural context.
MY STORY
Cultural context
Discuss how culture in Britain has changed
over the last 50 years. If you are younger
compare your Grandparents culture to
your own.
Some of those changes include
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Mobility
Family life – divorce
Employment (esp. increase in women)
Free time
Media, and Internet
Communication
Fragmented Society
Church attendance
Changes in thinking
Word based  Image based
Learning through  Learning through
thinking
experience
exploration for
 exploration for
wider truth
my truth
Rational as worship  Heart as worship
Head & Individualistic  Feeling & Shared
Is it right  Does it work
Hay & Hunt 2002
Frequency of report of religious or spiritual experience in
Britain for years 1987 and 2000
1987
2000
%
increase
A patterning of
events/transcendent providence
29%
55%
90%
Awareness of prayer being
answered
25%
37%
48%
Awareness of the presence of God
27%
38%
41%
Awareness of a sacred presence in
nature
16%
29%
81%
Awareness of the presence of the
dead
18%
25%
39%
Awareness of an evil presence
12%
25%
108%
CULUMATIVE TOTAL
48%
76%
Things have changed
So what are we going to
do about?
Fresh Expressions a solution?
• There is no one solution
• Many cultures/sub cultures calls for many
different types of churches.
• People for the most part will not come to
us, we have to go to them.
• Gives us an opportunity to use our Godgiven creativity
What is a Fresh Expression?
Alternative worship communities
Base Ecclesial Communities
Café Church
Cell Church
Churches arising out of community initiatives
Multiple and midweek congregations
Network focused churches
Schools based church
Seeker church
Traditional church plants
New monastic communities
Youth Congregation/church
Examples
How do you start?
Who are you trying to reach?
What is there culture?
Where are they already?
What do you enjoy doing?
Where are the points of connection?
What is God already doing?
Are there people already interested?
What Culture
• Get into groups if possible with either
people who live in town or in a village.
• Discuss what the culture of the
town/village is.
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Who lives there (age, class, employment, how long,)
How do they relate to each other and where
What points of connection are there
What do people believe
Where to start?
Worship
Community
Mission
Question and
(maybe) answer
session!
Resource
• Mission Shaped Church, Cray et al Church
house Publishing
• Emergingchurch.intro M. Moynagh, Monarch
• Post-Christendom S. Murray, Paternoster
• Church After Christendom, S. Murray,
Paternoster.
• Messy Church, L Moore, Barnabas
• The Passionate Church, M. Breen, NexGen
• Emerging Churches, E. Gibbs R Bolger, SPCK
Resources Cont.
• Expressions: The DVD – 1and 2: N. Ivison
Church House Publishing, 2006
• www.freshexpressions.org.uk
• A New Kind of Christian (trilogy), B. Mclaren,
• Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell, Zondervan
• Planting Churches, Stuart Murray, Paternoster
• Evaluating Fresh Expressions, Croft et al.
Canterbury Press
• Emerging Evangelism, J. Finney, DLT
• Irresistible Revolution, S. Claibourne, Zondervan
• The Prodigal Project, M. Riddell, SPCK