Fresh expression

A fresh expression of church is one of over a thousand[1] new Christian churches or congregations that have developed within one or more Christian denominations and organisations in the United Kingdom and abroad, including the Church of England, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church, Church of Scotland, The Salvation Army, Church Mission Society, 24/7 Prayer, Ground Level Network, Congregational Federation, Christian Witness Ministries Europe and Anglican Church Planting Initiatives.[2]

A fresh expression of church is a "form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church [which] will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples [and] 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".[3]

Description

According to Graham Cray the movement involves the "planting of new congregations or churches which are different in ethos and style from the church which planted them; because they are designed to reach a different group of people than those already attending the original church."[4] While 70% of the British population said they were Christian in the 2001 census less than 15% of the population say they attend church on a regular basis (TEARFund research 2007). In 2007 statistical returns from the Church of England revealed that several tens of thousands of people are involved in such groups attached to the Church of England, [5] and by 2010 Fresh Expressions, though only part of the life of 6% of churches, were "the equivalent of a whole diocese in terms of attendance".[1]

Fresh expressions of church have been created for, among others, skateboard and BMX culture in Essex, cafe culture in Kidsgrove, artists and creatives in London,[6] university students in Southampton, surfers in Cornwall, British Asian people in Birmingham, and people living in the city centre of Manchester and children in Portsmouth.

In September 2005 the Church of England and the Methodist Church recognised this movement by setting up an organisation, called Fresh Expressions, to monitor and encourage new expressions in the two churches. The partnership has since expanded to include a number of other church traditions and organisations in the UK. Fresh Expressions has a core team of 15 people and is led by an archbishop's missioner, the Rt Revd Graham Cray, the former Anglican Bishop of Maidstone.

The development of the ecumenical Fresh Expressions initiative is based on the "Mission-shaped Church" report of the General Synod of the Church of England in 2004 (Church House Publishing ISBN 0-7151-4013-2). The Methodist side of the movement is recorded in "Changing Church for a Changing World" (Methodist Publishing House ISBN). The United Reformed Church, the Congregational Federation and Ground Level Network are also formal partners.

Fresh Expressions is differentiated from "fresh expressions". The capitalised version refers to the initiative. In lowercase it refers to a large number of new initiatives.

Theology

Cray says that two key biblical principles underlie fresh expressions:

According to Fresh Expressions such churches are:

The more pioneering forms of Emerging Church ("those exploring new forms of church mainly for or with people who don't attend church") may be considered as fresh expressions.[7]

Success for a fresh expression may not be measured by the normal three (or four) selfs, but by viability (for as long as it is appropriate); flow (of members from one Christian community to the next) and appropriate independence.[8]

Criticism

Canon Dr. John Dunnill of St George's Cathedral, Perth says that a Fresh Expressions project can sometimes be more about form than substance.[9] Fresh Expressions point out that merely improving efforts to attract people to an existing church "isn't a fresh expression ... The aim of a fresh expression is not to provide a stepping stone into existing church, but to form a new church in its own right".[3]

Footnotes

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.