MISSIONSHAPED CHURCH

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MISSION-SHAPED CHURCH

• WORK IN PROGRESS

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THE CHALLENGE
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OUR PEOPLE?

• The Anglican pattern of ministry, built around
  parish and neighbourhood, can lead to a way of
  thinking that assumes that all people whether
  attending or not attending are basically our
  people. All people are Gods people, but it is
  an illusion to assume that somehow the population
  of England is simply waiting for the right
  invitation before they will come back and join
  us.

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OUR PEOPLE?

• The social and mission reality is that the
  majority of English society is not our people
  they havent been in living memory, nor do they
  want to be. The reality is that for most people
  across England the church as it is peripheral,
  obscure, confusing or irrelevant.
• The task is to become church for them, among
  them and with them, and under the Spirit of God
  to lead them to become church in their own
  culture.

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Current (or previous) church attendance or
involvement
Regular attenders at least monthly(10)
Fringe- less than monthly(10)
Non Churched(40)
Open de-churched(20)
Closed de-churched(20)
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60/40
Within our reach as we are
Out of reach
Steven Croft, Fresh Expressions, 2004
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FRESH EXPRESSIONS

• A fresh expression of church is intended as a
  community or congregation which is already (or
  has the potential to grow into) a church in its
  own right.  It is not intended to be a half way
  house or stepping stone for someone joining a
  Sunday morning congregation.

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CALLED TO PROCLAIM AFRESH

• Which faith the Church is called upon to
  proclaim afresh in each generation.
• Bringing the grace and truth of Christ to this
  generation.

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CHANGE OF EMPHASIS

• Unplanned consequences of other pieces of
  Christian ministry
• Church where people are, not bridges to get
  people to church
• Church more deeply related to daily life
• Church when people can attend

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Doing Mission

• WORSHIP community mission
• Mission ? Community ? Worship

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COMMUNITY CHURCH?

• A church in every community in the land is an
  empty boast if it boils down to there being a
  church in a given geographical area, without any
  reference to accessibility or culture. Michael
  Nazir-Ali

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A LAYERED STRATEGY

• The territorial from-to idea that underlay the
  older missionary movement has to give way to a
  concept much more like that of Christians within
  the Roman Empire in the second and third
  centuries parallel presences in different
  circles and at different levels, each seeking to
  penetrate within and beyond its circle.

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INTERACTIVE

• This does not prevent movement and interchange
  and enterprise but it forces revision of
  concepts, images, attitudes, and methods that
  arose from the presence of a Christendom that no
  longer exists. Andrew Walls

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BEING ANGLICAN
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THE MARKS OF ANGLICANISM

• The Declaration of Assent
• The Lambeth Quadrilateral
• The Scriptures
• The Creeds
• The Dominical Sacraments
• Historic Episcopacy locally adapted
• A national church
• A international family
• A liturgical tradition (Shared frameworks)
• Lets wait and see.

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A EUCHARISTIC COMMUNITY

• The eucharist lies at the heart of the Christian
  life. It is the act of worship in which the
  central core of the Biblical gospel is retold and
  re-enacted, the focal point of Christian worship.
  
• All expressions of church will ultimately be
  eucharistic.
• An appetite or a starting point?
• Communion by extension?
• Who we ordain?

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So whats not Cricket?
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CATHOLIC

• Catholicity refers to the universal scope of the
  Church as a society instituted by God in which
  all sorts and conditions of humanity, all races,
  nations and cultures, can find a welcome and a
  home.
• Catholicity therefore suggests that the Church
  has the capacity to embrace diverse ways of
  believing worshipping,

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY

• and that this diversity comes about through the
  incarnation of Christian truth in many
  different cultural forms which it both critiques
  and affirms.
• The catholicity of the Church is actually a
  mandate for cultural hospitality. Paul Avis

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BOTH AND NOT EITHER OR
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the mixed economy

• Celebrating and building on what is
  mission-shaped in traditional forms of church

and finding new, flexible, appropriate ways to
proclaim the Gospel afresh to those who do not
relate to traditional ways
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THE CHALLENGE TO THE DIOCESES

• It is for dioceses to think creatively about how
  to connect the old and the new, to encourage
  traditional parishes to share prayer and energy
  with new initiatives in church life, and above
  all to help break down the perennial suspicion
  between the historic mainstream and the
  risk-taking innovators. The historic mainstream,
  after all, had its origins in risk-taking
  innovators. Rowan

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SYMBIOSIS

• We are going to have to live with variety. The
  challenge is how to work with that variety so
  that everyone grows together in faith and
  eagerness to learn about and spread the Good
  News. Rowan
• The brightest hope for church after Christendom
  is a symbiotic relationship between inherited and
  emerging churches. We need each other. Stuart
  Murray

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A QUICK WIN
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CHURCH IN THE SCHOOL

• Believing that Church schools stand at the
  centre of the Churchs mission to the nation.
• No Church school can be considered part of the
  churchs mission unless it is distinctively
  Christian. Dearing Report

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THE DEARING REPORT

• Church schools stand alongside the parish
  churches, which lead the missionary work of the
  church, as an integral part of the church
  community, offering Christ to the young and
  through them,to varying degrees, offering parents
  the opportunity to learn from children and to
  engage in the life of a Christian institution.
• We do not admit children, we admit families.

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POSSIBILITIES

• Church plants using school premises
• Collective worship in the parish church
• After school clubs
• Chaplaincy teams
• Regular eucharist in the school
• Expanding the congregation for collective worship
• This is my church!

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FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES
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KEY PRINCIPLE 1

• Inculturation (Embodying the Gospel)
• Planting not cloning.
• 'Dying to live
• Something new grows

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INCARNATIONAL

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

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INCULTURATION

• Inculturation is essentially a community process
  from below. Its purpose is to allow the gospel
  to transform a culture from within.
• No serious attempt at inculturation can begin
  with a fixed view of the outward form of the
  local church. Mission Shaped Church

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KEY PRINCIPLE 2

• FROM - Detailed advance planning
• TO - Discernment in context.
• Seeing what God is doing and joining in.

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HEALTH WARNING!

• DONT TAKE MODELS OF CHURCH OFF THE SHELF
• VALUES BEFORE MODELS
• FOLLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT
• AN INVITATION TO IMPROVISE

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STRATEGY
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STRATEGIC PERSONNEL

• National officer for evangelism
• Archbishops Missioner team
• Church Army
• CMS
• Ecumenical partners / Methodists
• A portfolio held within each diocesan staff
  meeting.

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ENABLING LEGAL PROVISION

• New provision should be made for episcopally
  authorised Mission Initiatives, with a clear
  and transparent method for their creation,
  renewal and termination.
• New category of bishops order in two stages -
• 1) A light touch Bishops order
• 2) A pastoral order normally within five years

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ENABLING LEGAL PROVISION

• Without being unduly prescriptive we would
  suggest that a mission initiative authorised by
  the Bishop should have a licensed minister,
  include a distinctively Anglican element, and
  should seek the goodwill, but not need to rely on
  the consent of the incumbent (s).

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FINANCE

• Church Commissioners re-prioritising funding
• Diocesan mission initiative funds
• Larger churches supporting specific initiatives

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AGREED PROCESS

• That a church that wishes to plant, or to develop
  existing organic growth outside its own parish,
  consults early with the bishop.
• That the bishop acts as broker between the
  sending church and the calling or receiving
  parish/es.
• That prayer and listening to each other are part
  of the process as it unfolds, and public prayer
  is offered by all parties for the others, on a
  regular basis.

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AGREED PROCESS

• That the leaders and churches of the sending,
  sent and receiving groups maintain a consistent
  public affirmation of each other.
• That churches foster good relationships between
  themselves, expressed at appropriate levels and
  intervals.
• That ongoing consultancy is offered to sent and
  receiving churches in terms of strengthening
  their respective senses of identity, call and
  mission.

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AGREED PROCESS

• This consultancy will include issues of personal
  growth for all parties such as feelings of
  threat, fear of failure, jealousy and self-doubt,
  as well as how to rejoice in progress and how to
  avoid a comfortable plateau.
• A diocesan-led process of review is agreed at the
  outset.

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LEADERSHIP
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THE OVERALL TASK

• What is required within the one priesthood is an
  extensive long term enlargement of the Church of
  Englands repertoire of ministry, in the light
  of our missionary context.

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The place of leadership is at the leading edge
modelling engagement with the culture in the name
of the gospel.
Missional church
Leaders
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LEADERSHIP - Alan Roxburgh

• The pastor apostle is one who forms
  congregations into mission groups shaped by
  encounters with the gospel in the culture -
  structuring the congregations shape into forms
  that lead people outward into a missionary
  encounter.
• But in this kind of congregation, the pastor
  will be able to lead only as she or he models the
  encounter with the culture.

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ALL CHURCH MISSION-SHAPED

• A new criterion on leadership in mission and
  evangelism as a requirement for all those
  selected for ordination training.
• All initial training to include cross-cultural
  evangelism church planting.
• Cross-cultural evangelism church planting to be
  a significant element of CME 1-4
• A training institution in each regional training
  partnership.

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AGE MATTERS

• The average age of those who do come to church is
  older than those who do.
• We seem to be fishing in a shrinking and ageing
  pool
• The average age of ordinands goes up, inevitably,
  because congregations are ageing.
• Many older ordinands are not at home in our new
  missionary context.

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Recommendations

• Encourage the identification, selection and
  training of pioneer church planters.
• Specific selection criteria established
• Patterns of training appropriate to the skills,
  gifting and experiences of those being trained.
• Those involved in selection need to be adequately
  equipped to identify and affirm pioneers and
  mission entrepreneurs.

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MISSIONARY ENTREPRENEURS

• Bishops Advisers should watch for candidates who
  have the necessary vision and gifts to be
  missionary entrepreneurs to lead fresh
  expressions of church and forms of church
  appropriate to a particular culture. Criterion H
• A vocation to the future Church of England
• True to its missionary nature and national
  calling.

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SELECTION

• Identified in the sponsoring papers
• Meeting the normal criteria
• Plus additional guidelines
• Often not seeing themselves as called to
  traditional expressions of ordained ministry

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Core Elements

• Vision for planting fresh expressions of church
  within contemporary culture
• An authentic, integrated understanding of the
  particular ministry envisaged
• Capacity to innovate and initiate
• Mature and well developed devotional life
• Well developed abilities to initiate change and
  enable others to face it in a flexible, balanced
  and creative way

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Core Elements

• Demonstrable maturity and robustness to face the
  demands of pioneering mission and ministry
• Self-motivation
• Well-developed understanding of the interaction
  between gospel and culture
• Clear vision of the place of their envisaged
  ministry within the wider church's response to
  God's mission to the world
• Commitment to reshaping the church for mission

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TRAINING

• For a permanent missional ministry among the 40
• An action reflection model
• Mixed mode (in effect)
• Placed as apprentices to proven practitioners
• Catholic and Evangelical

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TOGETHER TO GODS FUTURE

• do not try to call them back to where they
  were, and do not try to call them to where you
  are, beautiful as that place may seem to you. You
  must have the courage to go with them to a place
  that neither you nor they have been before.
  Vincent Donovan

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MISSION-SHAPED CHURCH

• WORK IN PROGRESS