The NET - NEWORK-FOCUSSED IN HUDDERSFIELD

Jesus said, "To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." Luke 13: 20-21

[Jesus] put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." Luke 11:31-32

NETWORK-FOCUSSED – THE NET, HUDDERSFIELD

“So, you’ll be at St. Thomas’ Pilgrimage the same time I will? … Isn’t God grand! …How ‘bout lunch Thursday? … Done.”

The Rev’d Nick Haigh, with whom I was e-mailing, is present pastor of “the Net” and followed founder Rev’d Dave Male (from 1999-2006). Initially called “the new thing,” this innovative church was said by many to be among the most successful FXs at reaching non-churched peoples. Once again my tight schedule did not allow me to attend either of their two services or even to drop in on a mid-week small group meeting. Still at the Net (as other Network-focussed churches) the real life is what happens when their networks of relationships are fully in gear .

For example, I had hoped to go to another Network-Focussed Cell church named “Harvest”, in Broadstairs, Kent, pastored by Canon Kerry Thorpe, also Canterbury's Diocesan Missioner for Fresh Expressions. We ended up in Newcastle instead, but I met Kerry at the first UK- FEAST meeting (Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Team). “Harvest” this spring had with them a theological student intern. Kerry quoted his student as saying “I’ve been here three months and I am just beginning to get a grip on how this church works!”

I didn’t have three months for “the Net” so interviews with Nick and Dave will have to suffice.

THE NET

Conceived about 1997, the Net was officially launched in 1999 in Huddersfield (population 120,000), a city forty minutes north of Sheffield. “It came out of my frustration that there was such a cultural divide between the church and my many friends, and there not being much link... It started with a seeker service in a local pub but [even with that novel setting] there was still a massive gap” (Male).

A previous network church based on the style of Willow Creek, “Tommy’s, Nottingham” unfortunately exhausted too early their relational network. “It is based on relationships and you only have so many relationships…so I knew we needed to create our own fringe” (Male).

To reach the 53% of Huddersfield people not connected with the church, they decided to focus on four specific networks of relationships as the primary areas of their missionary activities:

1) the natural friendships they have through the week: that is, their social life and interests, relationship needs (parenting, etc.)

2) Internet, in the sense of relationships with people who are into media-friendly technology (they find their web page forum to be high maintenance);

3) work colleagues and contacts, and

4) Sports.

“We sort of naively thought it would be limited to Huddersfield but actually the networks stretched much further” (Male). When launched, there were six leaders (most volunteer) and twenty eight people in all coming from various churches.

As with Christ Church Central, they still actively discourage people from other churches from joining them. “It was great to hear the people pick this up. When someone would visit they would say, ‘Great, you’re visiting from such and such a church… you know you’re not allowed to join us…and we did send people back... We were letting Christians who moved into the area join in – because we needed to replace those who left. Of the original twenty eight there are only four or so left. When people did join they were given six months to be around to soak in the Net until they learned to share our vision” (Male).

“It is not about coming back to the central body of the church but the primary activity is out there in the net. It is a group of relationships between people and it is working very well” (Haigh).

A CERTAIN MODEL OF BEING

By missionary activity one should not at all imagine a slick sales pitch approach to the gospel. “The Net aims to help people deal with the realities of everyday life, exploring the big questions in a comfortable and relaxed environment.” What shape that takes is an open question. The Net is built on a certain model of being, with principles drawn from Jesus’ teaching about yeast and seed.

Jesus said, "To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." Luke 13: 20-21

[Jesus] put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." Luke 11:31-32

“When you put dough into in the oven you know it will come out as bread but you don’t know exactly what shape its going to be. When you have a seed in the ground you know it going to be a tree, but you don’t know what shape the tree will take. So even starting with a model of a network-focussed church, you still don’t know what shape that will take.

For example, when it began there was a mood to move away from Sunday worship – the problem was the community wasn’t gathering. Now they have two services. “We are still working out what it means to be church, and that’s a hard question” (Haigh).

MISSION-ORIENTED

The driving force for the Net has always been mission (see www.netchurch.org.uk/mission.html) worked out through relationships with God and with people. They want to grow through non-Christians coming to a life-changing faith in Jesus. Though they do not describe themselves in the FX directory as a cell-church, in fact, they list seven mid-week small groups on the web-site :

NetSpace Foundations: For those who want to study the basics of the Christian faith.

NetSpace Homepage: Focussed around bible study as a group.

NetSpace Central: Meeting in a town centre venue, working out how we might connect with young adults outside the church.

NetSpace Action: To work on community projects.

NetSpace Connect: Time to pray, listen and worship.

NetSpace Runners: mixing spirituality and physical exertion as a way of reaching friends.

NetSpace Branch: meeting in the day time centred around bible study and discussion.

SUNDAY SERVICES

The Net swelled to about 100 members, baptizing / confirming a respectable four or five a year.

“We did want to be reproducible elsewhere in the Anglican Church, so sacraments were important to us – with communion every other week…. We had a mixture of people – but the church liturgy was a bit wordy, really. So with George Lings' encouragement, we wrote our own borrowing from Northumbrian liturgy and often twinning that with multi-media stuff… also with a lot of responsorial readings and the lighting of candles, writing notes to yourself. Our people were moving from being observers to be participators and they didn’t have any problem with that” (Male).

There are now two Sunday meetings – not because there is any a priori reason for meeting on Sunday - just because it worked for these people - at a rented space in a charity (National Children’s Centre). Attendance totals about 65-70 with about 100 who see themselves as members. “We have seen 20% growth over the last few months. [Since 2006] “we have had one full adult baptism and six rededications” (Haigh).

Worship is a typical English evangelical, charismatic style. The 10:30 AM service is more or less non-liturgical, mainly with singing, a testimony, a 40 minute preach, and a prayer time.

At the later service, there’s no music but there is a meal so it’s Eucharistic in that sense but not with a formal liturgy. Rob Bell’s “Nooma” videos have been shown and discussed. Sometimes a reflective song or two is played.

As with many FX, sustainability remains a big question even though “we are not working on a model that is priest centred” (Haigh).

There is a strong advisory group with diocesan representation that presently meets to help the Net along the way. That group includes, George Lings, Archdeacon Robert Freeman, the diocesan Canon Missioner and a local Methodist minister who has planted a network church himself.

“I really like what I do, not because it is a new thing; because I’m releasing people. They are the people who are bringing things along. The next challenge is to build the leadership [of the whole church] so that they are doing this, not me. It’s about people being released into the mission.

At the Net “the opportunities really are phenomenal” (Haigh).

NB: Dave Male is now Tutor in Pioneer Mission Training, Ridley Hall, Cambridge while also being Fresh Expressions Adviser for Ely Diocese. He has a vision for establishing a sports network-focussed church in Cambridge. The many flat green fields abounding in that fair city give evidence that there are more than enough sports minded people to make that work. He is also hoping that it is leaderless (I think he meant in the sense that there will be no paid leaders but much lay ownership of what happens).

For more on Network Church theory see "Network Church" by Steve Collins from which the graphic on the header came. http://emergingchurch.info/reflection/stevecollins/index.htm