An open letter to Fresh Expressions

Dear Fresh Expressions and leaders of Fresh Expressions of church,

Thank you so much for the space you have created within the established church for mission, and growing new forms of church which are new and fresh and cater to a whole wealth of different people. However, I have a problem, and the more I read about other Fresh Expressions (my own community is a registered Fresh Expression) the more I am becoming worried about this movement as a whole, and the intrinsic problem which seems to be built into it.

I hope you’ll humour me a moment to explain my very real problem.

Under the Fresh Expressions banner, there are now so many different projects which are springing up. We now have Messy Church (a staple in the Fresh Expressions wardrobe – every church should get one!), Cinema Church, Older People’s Church, Pub Church and old favourite Cafe Church. And these are just projects I’ve seen showcased in recent months.

But here’s my question:

Are we really creating mission-shaped churches? Or simply a mission-shaped approach to growing worship-shaped ones?

My very real problem is that all of the churches mentioned above are all specifically aimed at a particular group of people and satisfying their appetite for worship and church. As I understand it, one of the first steps in the Fresh Expressions process is to develop a model for worship within the Fresh Expression you are developing.

But doesn’t this mean that all we are really creating is a whole mixed economy of consumer churches to cater to the spiritual consumer?

Now nearly every person can have their own unique experience of church to consume and enjoy – but is this drawing them closer to Jesus? And is this bringing God’s kingdom and God’s mission closer to fulfilment?

I understand the need to contextualise church within a consumer culture, and read Ben Edson’s challenge last week – it’s something I’ve been seriously reflecting on. However, I just can’t see how developing a web of consumer churches is going to help us to grow new communities of Christ-followers who are ready to go change the world into his image. Instead, I believe we are simply creating a new culture of church which looks different, but is still stuck with Christian consumers in the same attitude as we were stuck with before; rather than fostering a new movement of people who are affecting the people and communities around them.

So what do we do?

The problem is that it has been so easy to get going with the surface changes which needed to be made to the way we do church, to the extent that it seems that we’ve simply gotten carried away with our own creativity. Instead, I believe, its time for us to dig deeper – to grow Christians who are just disciples, but who also realise that the other side of the coin is to be apostles – sent to be Christ’s body in the world.

Let’s dig deeper and challenge to very heart of our assumptions about church and worship. Let’s build communities that centre around mission, that centre around giving rather than receiving. This is why it’s incredibly heartening to read a few examples of this already happening. It’s not about worship – it’s about sharing God’s love with the world.

Bob & Mary

Hi James,

Thanks for your reply

Glad the Cafe church analysis may prove helpful and that the ACPI site could be a useful resource for you.

Blessings,

Bob & Mary

Bob & Mary Hopkins

Dear James

I really liked your blog post and the challenge that you pose to the fresh expressions movement. We agree that there are real problems around what you have well described as "...

Are we really creating mission-shaped churches? Or simply a mission-shaped approach to growing worship-shaped ones?

From the Fresh Expressions team perspective, we have tried to put our weight against this natural tendency in all that we do and particularly I would cite a number of specific ways. First our early booklet "Starting a fresh expression" has a journey which has evolving worship as the very last step of the journey... exactly the opposite of your suggestion that it might be the first step. Second, our web-based guide to good practice "Share" has the journey expanded and emphasises this point even more, especially as Mike Moynagh the editor, has always been passionate to counter exactly the weakness that you highlight.

Thirdly, our Vision Day material and mission-shaped intro course (msi) both have the same principles built into all the sessions and workshops. Fourthly, the mission shaped ministry course (msm), our one year part time training for teams initiating fresh expressions, has almost every session expounding and unpacking the principles of incarnational mission and costly discipleship. The sessions on Lessons from Weakness and Maturing a fresh expression, also highlight this exact pitfall that you present.

So we might ask, what more can we do? The human tendencies to follow an easier path than discipleship and mission based on "dying to live", and to settle for the quick fix of copying someone elses "model", will always be there, and the consumer culture that surrounds us reinforces these no end. We do however need to dig deeper in more ways than you suggest. Precisely because our society is very diverse with a multitude of sub-cultures, and we need to plant contextual fresh expressions into them all, this will mean that the real test is not whether a new mission initiative is messy church, or cafe church, etc., but rather as you say what sort of disciples are being formed.

Lastly, to try to expose some of the tendencies you highlight, I have written a piece analysing six different approaches to engaging with Cafe Culture... you can find it on Share or on our ACPI website at www.acpi.org.uk

Hope this helps and we woud encourage you to press on to pioneer fresh expression(s) that epitomise the mission shaping that you so eloquently describe. Then this can be multiplied as many are inspired by the Kingdom fruit that God may give you.

Bob & Mary Hopkins

James Henley

Hi Bob & Mary,

Thanks for your comment - and its great to know that this is stuff that Fresh Expressions is already engaging and wrestling with.

Just read through the piece on Cafe Church approaches and loved it. The "traditional/established" church I'm part of is experimenting with the Cafe Church layout, but also runs a cafe out of the church building during the rest of the week. You asked some really interesting questions for us to take into our discussions as the PCC evaluate the trial period we're just in the middle of. I wasn't aware of the ACPI website - but it looks like a really valuable resource.

I would ask, though, whether shooting after sub-cultures is the right direction for church planting today? I wonder whether, as individualism reaches its ultimate conclusion within UK culture, we'll see as many distinct sub-cultures as there are people. I'm not a fan of HUPs (it seems such a counter-kingdom principle) - although its difficult to see a practical alternative.

Thanks for the work you're doing, and thanks for taking the time to reply ;-)

sarah

Hi James. Great stuff here. would be really interested to know how you would go about building a new community. Sure you could do it.

James Henley

Hey Sarah, thanks for the comment. I think there's a lot of power in a residential approach to church planting (Tom Sine has written about this in the past - and check out the "Alway" section of The Lab website, which is the missional community I lead: http://thelabnewport.org/alway).

Perhaps this is a subject for a future blog series - and something that hopefully I will have the chance to do again in the future. I began with The Lab very early on in its existence but in lots of ways we were very much stumbling around in the dark, and have continued to stumble along wherever God has called us. Perhaps that's a good metaphor for church leadership though.

I'm a big fan of Ian Adam's approach to growing missional community - he works for CMS on Small Missional Communities and blogs here: http://inthebellyofthebigfish.blogspot.com/.