Fresh Expressions of Church?

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Fresh Expressions of Church?
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IMAGINE.
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Question?

• If you had to describe the essence of what a
  church is in short phrase what would it be?

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Bible Metaphors

• Body 1 Cor 1213
• Household Eph 319
• Flock Acts 2028
• Field 1 Cor 39
• Temple Eph 221
• Eklessia called out ones

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Machine or Organism?

• Are we alive?

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Heptagon

Nutrition
Movement
Excretion
Respiration
MRS GREN
Sensitivity
Reproduction
Growth
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Movement

• Plants move in response to the sun. We
  should be moving in response to the son

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Respiration

• We need to be breathing in Gods Spirit to
  release energy with in the church

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Sensitivity

• Are we willing to change in response to our
  surroundings, culture, peoples needs, etc.

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Growth

• Growth happens in seasons. What limits growth
  in the church?

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Reproduction

• Have we forgotten Gods first command to man?
  Be fruitful and increase in number. (Gen 128)

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Excretion

• Excretion is the removal of substances which
  were good but all nutrition from them has been
  used.

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Nutrition

• Do you have a balanced Diet?

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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."

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Elements

• 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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MY STORY
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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.

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Some of those changes include

• Mobility
• Family life divorce
• Employment (esp. increase in women)
• Free time
• Media, and Internet
• Communication
• Fragmented Society
• Church attendance

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(No Transcript)
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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

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Hay Hunt 2002Frequency of report of religious
or spiritual experience inBritain for years 1987
and 2000
Postmodern p
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
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• Things have changed
• So what are we going to do about?

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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 God-given
  creativity

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• 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

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Examples
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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?

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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.
• 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

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Where to start?
Worship
Community
Mission
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• Question and (maybe) answer session!

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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

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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