What are fresh expressions

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What are fresh expressions of church telling us
about mission in the UK today
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• 20,000 copies sold
• Unanimous approval at Synod
• Discussed and implemented in dioceses
• Influence in UK
• Worldwide influence

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relay
passing on the Spirit of life
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A fresh expression is a form of church for 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.
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I believe we have only just begun to see the
potential fruits of this movement.
Fresh expressions are the green shoots of the
future.
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we are thinking of, not a series of
scattered experiments, nor a series of
enterprises in religious entertainment, nor
God forbid, a kind of dumbing down. The point of
fresh expressions is the point of the church
itself, that is to provide a place where
Christ is set free in our midst. Address to
General Synod,2007
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Is this movement the new highway to mission, or
rather a set of new intricate cul de sacs?
they do not hold out any long term hope for the
future of the church. The task of the church is
just to wait, and hope, and pray and wait for
better times. But the answer is not to be found
in turning our gaze to the new gods of a very
different kind of Babylonian captivity.
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1. There is no return address
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Two thirds of UK adults (33.2m) have no
connection with church at present (nor with
another religion) These people are evenly divided
between those who have been in the past but have
since left and those who have never been in
their lives. This secular majority presents a
major challenge to churches. Most of them
(29.3m)- are unreceptive and closed to church
church going is simply not on their
agenda. Tear Fund Survey 2007
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The reality is that mainstream culture no longer
brings people to the church door. We can no
longer assume that we can automatically
reproduce ourselves, because the pool of people
who regard church as relevant or important is
decreasing with every generation Mission
shaped church report, p11

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• some things must die

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Dying to live
I tell you the truth, unless a grain of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains
only a single seed. But if it dies, it
produces many seeds. John 13 23-6
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• some things must die
• beware of the clone

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• some things must die
• beware of the clone
• rediscover how mission
• operates in this new
• environment

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2. The nature of the church
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abandon attempts to define the church essence
in terms of something it has or is..no visible
marks Household of God
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We would drop two people off and then spend a
lot of time in prayer.
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3. The viability of the future
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we can either send out men who will act as
parochial clergy and hold services for groups of
people or we can send out men to establish
churches, on a self supporting basis from the
beginning. the stipendiary system must be
subordinated to the spiritual needs of the
church.
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4. The leaders of tomorrow
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most of our training for ministry and mission
still assumes a Constantinian, Christendom and
modernist, cultural context. Emerging Churches.
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5. The challenge of consumerism
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many examples of fresh expressions are
symptomatic of contemporary culture, which has
typically adopted the rhetoric of new,
alternative or fresh Evaluating Fresh
Expressions, p.35
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6. The place to start
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Prayer and Support
Loving Service
Evangelism and Disciple- Making
Forming Community
Evolving Worship
Listening and Following Gods call
Connection
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we are convinced that the primary meeting
place with our unchurched friends is now outside
the church building. Worship must finally become
more life than event.
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7. The need for transformation.
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Evangelism is no safe church activity that will
sustain a conventional church, nor a routine
enterprise that will support a societal status
quo. The news that God has triumphed means that
a transformed life ,i.e. one changed by the
hearing of the good news, works to bring more
and more of life, personal and public, under
the rule of this world transforming, slave
liberating, covenant making, promise keeping
, justice commanding God.
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• simple in its nature
• relational in its emphasis
• transformational in its outcomes
• George Barna

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