FX Pilgrimage

INTRO - STORIES TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD

2008-06-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
Psalm 84:5

This isn't really a blog.

What you are about to embark on is more of a pilgrimage to places where I saw God moving mightily to change His church and His world.

The menu to your right is your guide to that record.

Go where ever you feel moved.

Each entry contains at least one major lesson learned. For example.

Christ Church Central - the centrality of the gospel

Sanctus1 - adapting "church" for an emerging culture.

Building Planes, MSM & Dorothy - good stuff on FX and planting leadership

Messy Church - for children and families (almost 1/3 of UK FX have a kids focus!)

Tas Valley, Southrepps, and Ashill - three models for rural FX and cell churches ("Stuke's" is also cell-based but university & urban)

Huddersfield (+ Sanctus1, Southrepps and Ashill) - what the UK means by Network focussed

and much more. It continues to be edited.

It chronicles our trip more or less in order.

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WHY DID WE DO THIS?

At the suggestion of good friends and colleagues, this blog will record my adventures on an FX Pilgrimage. Not FX as in special effects, but Fresh Expressions as practiced in the UK.

The trip begins as we arrive at Gatwick June 6 and stay overnight in Ealing. Deborah will stay on with dear friends she has not seen in years while I'll be headed to Sheffield, Bedford, Tas Valley, Cambridge, London, Newcastle and whereever God makes the connections. There, God willing, I will see churches reaching apartment dwellers, messy churches, churches planting in rural East Anglia, Anglican Cell churches, Network-focussed churches, revived churches and those who know how to do such things.

What is an FX? Somewhere on the UK website (http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/section.asp?id=584) you'll find this definition:

What is a Fresh Expression?


	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.

Read or see what is already happening in Canada and the UK at

www.therez.on.ca/index.php?option=content
&task=view&id=109&Itemid=108

This exciting set of ventures puts mission where it belongs - into the hands of ordinary people like you and me; people who have a deep desire to share the love they have for and from Jesus with their friends and neighbours. I hope to bring back examples of ministries that are thriving and reaching non-churched peoples, examples that we can adapt in our Canadian context.

Someone e-mailed noting...

"I just received a report about the decline in Sunday attendance in the
> Church of England. You may help us to verify this when you visit England."

Notice the concern of the article was decline in Sunday attendance.

As Steve Croft points out below many Fresh Expressions (FX) of Church meet midweek: Cell Churches, Messy church, Network-focussed churches, etc. For many of these attendance figures are not kept.

Still FXs are not the whole solution. Someone has estimated that the UK would need not 700 but 10,000 FXs to replace all they have lost in the last few years.

Here's the latest:

Steve Croft, Archbishop's Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions
team, said that pessimistic interpretations of churchgoing trends in England had not yet caught up with how people are worshipping in the 21st century.

In an interview yesterday on Premier Radio, Dr Croft backed the stance taken in today's Times by Lynda Barley, head of Research and Statistics for the Church of England, in stressing that the complete picture needed to be
taken into account before a proper analysis could begin.

He told Premier's Drivetime audience: 'Christian Research needs to catch up with how people worship ?they have to include worship figures during weekdays. We haven't really caught up with how people worship yet!'

Stressing that there were genuine signs of growth in both traditional
congregations and fresh expressions of church, Dr. Croft, who tours the
country visiting new congregations alongside existing ones, underlined the Archbishop of Canterbury's frequent insistence that a mixed economy was the way forward.

'The church always has to learn to be innovative in every single
generation, this generation no less than any, even more so in a time of change.'

'We need to go to where people are and speak to them and serve them.'

'I think the future of the Christian church in this country rests, we hope and pray with God, but also with the creativity in doing many different
kinds of things.'

'Many people are looking for the church to be more spiritually deep, not less. That is not just my opinion. It is my experience.'

www.freshexpressions.org.uk/
section.asp?id=3586

I say Amen to that!

SO WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Twenty seven years ago to the day, Deborah and I were married at Little Trinity. For our anniversary we are flying back to where we honeymooned - the UK. We are covering her flight expenses ourselves - its our anniversary gift to each other.

The diocese is helping me out with mine so that I can visit Fresh Expressions of church so our itinerary will not be what it was in 1981.

Much is planned. God willing, after staying where we stayed all so many years ago, my FX pilgrimage takes me on my own to Sheffield to meet with...

Christ Church Central (doing excellent work reaching people in apartment buildings)
Staff at the Sheffield Centre, including George Lings
Dropping in on St. Thomas' Pilgrimage featuring dynamic missional speakers
Visiting near-by Manchester for two appointments
Meeting with staff of the Anglican Church Planting Initiative
and more....

Then I head off to Bedford joining up with Deborah again with at week's end to attend a Messy Fiesta on Saturday. That looks to be a lot of fun - and visionary.

Following that The Rev. Sally Gaze has been brave to invite me to preach in two of her rural congregations on Sunday June 15. We are looking forward to the slower pace of East Anglia.
We will discuss the Tas Valley churches and also visit several Norfolk area pioneers in and Network Focused churches.

After a few appointments in Cambridge and London, we head back north to visit friends in Newcastle. There the rector of St. Luke's will take me under his wing to show me the work being done there.

After one final meeting back in Sheffield we will have a few restive days in London before flying home.

Prayer Requests?

Obviously for our flight.
This will be the first time for me driving on the UK side of the road - gulp!
Rarely in England are roads on a grid - pray the Spirit give us / me directions along the way.
Church Planting friends in Canada were just in the UK and loaned me their SAT NAV (GPS).
that should help.
For son John and other housesitters as they keep a watchful eye on the place and walk Zephyr.
And that we find both time to learn and time to enjoy these three weeks

Stay tuned and I'll keep you informed.

Blessings

FREEDOM IN COMMUNITY & 10 WAYS TO WORSHIP

2008-06-28T17:09:00.002-07:00

May God Almighty bless you
and make you fruitful
and increase your numbers
until you become a community of peoples.

Genesis 28:3

THOUGHTS FROM THE PLAIN OF RUNNYMEDE

Standing on the plain of Runnymede, UK it occurred to me that we should consider having a Magna Carta of Fresh Expressions, a “great paper” that would further us along in Toronto.

The Magna Carta signed almost 800 years ago established early on in English history that "freedom is found under the rule of law."

I thought of this not because we are in any sense being oppressed by unjust rulers – not in the least.

Rather, our FX Magna Carta in Toronto could encourage FX and church planters, lay or ordained, to feel they had “freedom under the rule of law” to proceed to emulate and adapt here in Toronto the creative ways proven to reach non-churched (and open de-churched) peoples in the UK.

Such regulations, in whatever form is deemed appropriate, would also provide our Bishops with the assurance that their concerns and the unity of the communion would be kept while the gospel is creatively advanced for the glory of God and the spreading of His Kingdom.

Certain Canonical regulations must be set in place to encourage, protect and further innovative church planting and Fresh Expressions of church if they are to prosper.

With Toronto canons temporarily suspended, this is the perfect time to draft whatever is needed.

What should that include? Based on my FX Pilgrimage, at the very least…

PLANTING ACROSS OR BEYOND PARISH BOUNDARIES

We will need the dynamic equivalent of Bishop Mission Orders for our situation. http://www.sharetheguide.org/section5/bmo. Given Episcopal support and blessing, BMOs allow FXs and church plants to be launched across parish boundaries. Everywhere in the UK people underlined this need.

GRACE TO THE PLANTERS

Our nourishment of growing FX and church plants must be “gradual”. Many of our notions of church planting are borrowed from the United States where remnants of Christendom have survived better than in Canada. There it is a common expectation that a church plant will be financially self-sustaining within its first five years. Yet it takes on average four years for a person to go from first exposure to Christ to a genuine heart felt commitment of faith. It will take some time well beyond that before those same people tithe. If that is the case, we need carefully to consider how long a diocese should be subsidizing a fresh work. Five years may not be enough in our context. Grace given the planters in the form of time to achieve self-sustainability would give them more time to nourish their people gradually toward Christian maturity.

LITURGICAL FREEDOM IN COMMUNITY

Reaching new non-churched communities will require adapting Anglican principles of liturgy incarnationally ("locally adapted"). As George Lings put it, the book “Patterns of Worship” says it all. There are patterns that mark Christian and Anglican worship: scripture, prayer to God, the father, Son and Holy Spirit, connection with the rest of the church, etc. Innovative Fresh Expressions such as Messy Church, Goth Eucharist, the New Monasticism and so on have flourished because they could create orthodox worship in response to the specific needs of the people they seek to reach. Some freedom in this regard exercised in community, that is, with our Bishops involvement and blessing will be essential both to reach these people and to remain faithful to the apostles.

ADEQUATE SUPPORT, MENTORING AND COACHING

How this will be done in community without over-stretching our structures will depend on our offering (nay) even insisting that the diocese provides and the FX and church planters receive adequate training, support, mentoring and coaching. Effective supportive links will need to be forged between planters, FX practitioners, on the one hand and diocesan officials and Bishops on the other, both extending the right hand of fellowship to the other. Such advisory groups could include the FX or church planter, a representative of the Bishop, a teaching professional, and also someone with experience in the specific kind of FX being planted even if it is someone from another denomination.

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As an example of FREEEDOM IN COMMUNITY...

How did each FX do “worship/meeting?” (a sampling of what I saw or was told)

CHRIST CHURCH CENTRAL (“evangelical/missional” church plant) Sun. 4:30 pm
(Average Service Attendance = ASA 200) Sundays 4:30-6:15
Gamma Teams set up
1/2 hour gathering
A Song
Intro
A Song
Intro and testimony
A Song
Notices
A said Psalm
A song
Two Scripture Readings (lay led)
Sermon – 20-25 minutes careful exposition
A song
Gamma Teams clean up
[Some Off to the pub – or Int’l students fellowship]

In October a second service starting: 4:30 PM and 6:30 PM

ST JOHN’S EALING, CAFÉ CHURCH – target: street people – “soup kitchen” crowd

(ASA 30) At church lobby Sunday evening 5:45-6:45 pm
[Note Deborah attended this]

Gather snacks coffee and tea
Some singing with a band
A time of sharing – anything good happen this week
A song
A talk – with short discussion at table on one beatitude
Eat

SANCTUS1 (Network-Focussed Community for urban Manchester - meeting in a café)
(ASA 30) Wednesdays 7:30-9:30 PM

Gather at café for conversation (ad hoc) (15 min)
Lighting of three-wick-ed candle with invocation of Trinity & silence. (5 min)
Reminder of content from last week (15 min)
Discussion of topic in groups of 3 or more (35 min)
Plenary discussion (35 min)
Summary by leader (5 min)
Responsorial Prayer & Dismissal (5 min)

chat on the way out

[Some Off to the pub]

THE NET HUDDERSFIELD – Network Focussed Community

(ASA 35) Sunday 10:30 pm- ? (as told to me by Nick Haigh)

Typical Evangelical / Charismatic order
Lots of Singing
Testimony / notices
A preach (40 minutes)
Eucharist ever other week

Sunday 6:30 pm (ASA 35)

No singing
Nooma Video and discussion
Or reflective songs
Food (in that sense “Eucharistic”)

MESSY CHURCH (for families)

(ASA in Portsmouth 60) Thursdays 3:30-6 pm

3:30-4 pm gather – games available but no agenda
4:00-5 pm - 10 craft stations
5:00-5:15 worship
5:15- 6 pm meal together

4ALL – Southrepps - multigenerational

(ASA 40) also with midweek cells and celebration
Sunday 4:30 - 6:15 pm
(Trunch Benefice 10 traditional churches worship in morning)

Three songs (mostly choruses) most sung twice
Intro
2 Songs
Interview of guest (me)
Song
Message – this week outside sitting on the grass church lawn highly interactive with all ages
Song
Offering
Song & Dismissal
A simple meal

TAS VALLEY BENEFICE (6 traditional churches with a 7th building)

Saxlingham (Sun. 9:30 am ASA 40-45)
& Newton Flotman (Sun 11 am, ASA 20-25) –

(1 hour ASB service each - somewhat similar to Canadian BAS Eucharist)

Jesus And Me (JAM Youth Cell) (ASA20)

Mondays 7-8:30 pm
Welcome (20 min), Word (40 min), Worship (15 min), Witness (15 min)

Adult Cells 7:30 Tuesday, Wed., Thurs, & Fri. also day times (below Tues 7:45 pm)

Welcome (20 min), Word (40 min), Worship (20 min), Witness (10 min)
Two hours max (ASA 12 max)

FOUNTAIN OF LIFE (hub church with life boat small groups)
(ASA 200) Form 1 10 am to 12 noon

Intro and Confession
Singing 20 minutes
A Testimony or story
Prayer + notices
Note: Mid service Coffee Break!
A song
Prayer & Intercession
Lessons
Message
Prayer Ministry

Evenings 6:30-8:30
Singing
Message
Prayer Ministry

NEW WINE ON TYNE 10:30 for 10:45 AM
(ASA 45) Sundays 10:30 for 10:45 AM- 12:30 PM ASA 45

One song to start
ASB starts then three songs
Scripture
Sermon
ASB communion resumes
1 song to close

(ASA 55) Sundays 6:30 or indeterminate to 8:30 pm time after for discussion / ministry

Praise, prayer, soaking in the spirit, word, ministry

NORTHUMBRIAN COMMUNITY (New Monasticism)
I didn’t make it there but was close by and am trying their daily offices through July
http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/index.html

Quiet reflective silence, Morning and Evening Prayer include scripture readings, meditations and open “conversational” prayer for requests. Also mid-day prayers and compline.

OTHERS CONSULTED & BOOKS READ

2008-06-28T17:09:00.001-07:00

I will give you thanks in the great assembly;

among throngs of people I will praise you.
Psalm 35:18

In addition to the church leaders and Fresh Expressions people visited on this FX pilgrimage and noted in this blog, God also enabled me to have time in one setting or another with each of the following Fresh Expression leaders. ( FEAST = Fresh Expression Area Strategy Team).

Thank you all for so very much.

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Pete and Kath Atkins, directors, Ground Level; Deputy Presidents of Churches Together, Lincolnshire; Fresh Expressions Team supporting the establishment of mission shaped ministry in different centres across the UK. (FEAST)

Rev'd Juergen Baron, German Lutheran Church and Fresh Expressions researcher in Sheffield.

Rev'd Canon Paul Bayes, National Mission and Evangelism Adviser, Church of England

Mike Collyer CA, evangelism, spiritual needs and fresh expression of church among Older People Encounters on the Edge, Sheffield Centre

Claire Dalpra, research assistant for Encounters on the Edge, Sheffield Centre

Rev'd Andy Emerton, director St Paul's Theological Centre, London (at HTB)

Bob Franklyn, Fresh Expressions International Liaison

Bob and Mary Hopkins, Anglican Church Planting Initiatives, also part time in the Fresh Expressions team (FEAST)

Rev'd Steve Hollinghurst, Evangelism to post-Christian culture and spirituality, Sheffield Centre

Norman Ivison, BBC TV religion / ethics producer, Director of Training, Fresh Expression

Dr Rachel Jordan, Associate Mission & Evangelism, Adviser Mission and Public Affairs Division, Archbishops' Council Church House

Laurence Keith, team co-ordinator and PA to George Lings, Sheffield Centre

Rev’d Steve Lindridge, Methodist Fresh Expressions representative for the Northeast. (FEAST)

Revd George Lings is Director of The Church Army Sheffield Centre, UK

Rev'd Canon Dave Male, Tutor in Pioneer Ministers Training at Ridley Hall and Westcott House, Cambridge and Fresh Expressions Adviser for Ely Diocese

Phil Pawley, mission and church growth advisor for Liverpool Diocese, member St.Mark’s Haydock, Liverpool (FEAST)

Rev'd Canon Phil Potter, Director of Pioneer Ministry for the diocese of Liverpool, Incumbent St. Mark’s Haydock, Liverpool (FEAST)

Revd Canon Mark Rylands, Director of the Council for Mission & Unity, Diocese of Exeter (FEAST)

Rev'd Canon Kerry Thorpe Canterbury Diocesan Missioner; and Senior Minister of Harvest New Anglican Church in Broadstairs, Kent. (FEAST)

Andrew Wooding CA, editor of the Fresh Expressions Share website and the Learning Networks co-ordinator, Sheffield Centre

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I should also mention that I took in a couple of days of St. Thomas' (Crookes and Philadelphia) and 3dMinistries Pilgrimage while I was in Sheffield, June 9-14. Many thanks to the many speakers whose lectures I am still working through.

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and of course books read

Potter, Phil. The Challenge of Change: a practical guide to shaping change and changing the shape of church (to be published by Church House, March 2009).

DISPERSED COMMUNITIES - 7 STEPS -ATTICA, NY

2008-06-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,

so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
1 Peter 2:2-3

“Brother, it seems to me that you were too severe on your ignorant hearers.”

This sentiment of Aidan (d. 651AD) spoken on Iona expresses the gospel passion of Fresh Expressions. Recognition of its truth by his colleagues would propel him from Iona off the west coast of present day Scotland to Lindisfarne on the east coast of what is now Northumbria.

FIRST HONEYMOON

While in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, preparing for our visit to “Stuke’s”, on our second day off in a row from my FX pilgrimage, our hosts drove us to “Holy Island” as the locals call it. Lindisfarne is a corner of land jutting out into the North Sea which is cut off from the mainland by the tides twice a day. Monks back then and residents now thereby get regular relief twice a day from pilgrims and tourists: a perfect place to journey in and journey out. What we discovered, almost in passing, was a wholly different type of Fresh Expression, - dispersed communities of fellowship, prayer and mission - most not listed on the official FX site probably because their emergence predates the FX movement (see below).

During our honeymoon long ago, Deborah and I had only seen Lindisfarne from the train on our way north. Back then we enjoyed Edinburgh, passed through Glasgow, even stayed a night at romantic Loch Loman. But once we saw Iona we fell madly with that little island staying an extra four days there. We heard then how Aidan went from Iona to Lindisfarne so we pledged that someday, God willing, we would visit his other eastern "Holy Island" home. As its was, we were headed instead to the L'Abris Community at Gretham, UK.

Twenty seven years later, almost to the day, our wish to return came true.

But an odd thing happened to me when we arrived. A strange longing came over me, beckoning.

“Whom do you seek?”

“Where is Aidan?” I replied. “Or signs of him. Show me where he stayed. Show me his heart.”

The ground resonated with my plea. “Look ever so closely.”

I would have to because whenever and wherever the Normans conquered the Anglo-Saxons in the 12^th century onward, they obliterated any signs of their predecessors. The brutes. I grew impatient. Deborah will tell you I broke free from our party and roamed on my own, dashing about, searching for signs of Aidan on the historical placards put up for tourists.

“So what if these are famed 14^th century ruins. I don’t really care if that part is from the 12^th century – that’s much too recent for me…. Where’s Aidan?”

In the museum, a wax monk pretending to be Aidan mocked my search. I took a picture but wax is not nearly sincere enough.

Set against a half-collapsed Norman wall was the base of a Celtic Cross. 8^th or 9^th century the sign sighed. Sadly I turned away still looking for something, anything that spoke to my longing…

…till there it was – plain as day. I stopped in my tracks – stunned, staring…

I am not usually an excitable man – more of a cold fish actually – with an occasional romantic moment – but this before my eyes was too much… the sign I had been looking for, hoping for, in the last few minutes living for.

There can you see it? Over that wall. Not down there. No, off in the distance.

Facing west peering through the haze over Northumbria I strained to see.

Do you see that horizon?

THAT is what Aidan saw.

“You seek the man? See there his heart for the people who lived in the empty places where he had to walk – between God in this cell in this holy place and the horizon beyond. That is where the Spirit who gave him life is also calling you.”

[See what I saw: double click my picture of Northumbria taken from Lindisfarne. Notice the sandpiper God sent to represent for us the brooding of the Holy Spirit over the scene.]

AIDAN’S HEART

I bought enough trinkets and pamphlets to remind me of the moment and rejoined our party. What can we learn from Aidan’s heart about ministry to those living in those empty places – without benefit of the good news of God in Christ?

“Brother, it seems to me that you were too severe on your ignorant hearers.”

We might quibble with Aidan’s word “ignorant” with it’s negative connotations. Yet the reality is that people who have been Christians for years simply get used to certain ways of doing church. After a time those inherited ways become invisible to us, like wallpaper. We learn to expect “church” to be a certain shape of building, on Sunday morning, while sitting on hard pews (to keep us awake?), where children are shuffled off so the adults can concentrate, and songs are sung together (when besides at the national anthem or at rock concerts do people do that?). and on it goes.

But “ignorant” stripped of its put-down is simply the condition of being uninformed or uneducated, lacking knowledge or information. This is where increasingly the majority of the population is with regard to Jesus.

The man Aidan was rebuking was another monk, a certain Corman. He had tried to evangelize with the old inherited ways he had learned (perhaps). He found the Anglo-Saxons in response “intractable, obstinate and uncivilised.”

Aidan perceived well that the real problem was not the gospel of Jesus at all but the way it was being presented and packaged. Had Corman been truer to the apostles than to the ways he had tried, he might have made better progress.

“Brother, it seems to me that you were too severe on your ignorant hearers. You should have followed the practice of the Apostles, and begun by giving them the milk of simpler teaching, and gradually nourished them with the word of God until they were capable of greater perfection and able to follow the loftier precepts of Christ.”

That observation not only propelled Aidan with twelve other monks from Iona to Lindisfarne into the first Christian missionary outreach into Northumbria, they also express the heart of Fresh Expressions.

Aidan's Seven Principles for Fresh Expressions.

1) “Too severe:” our “inherited” models of doing church sets the bar too high – they are too severe for most non-churched people to venture across.

2) “The practice of the apostles” was far more gentle and flexible: “To the weak I became weak in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” I Corinthians 9:22

3) They need the “milk of simple teaching.” What character that “milk” takes (whole, skim, chocolate) depends on what the people we are trying to reach will tolerate. A mother’s milk is natural food for a baby. What comes most naturally to the people you have a passion to see follow to Jesus?

4) Our nourishment of them must be “gradual”. Many of our notions of church planting are borrowed from the States where remnants of Christendom have survived better than in Canada. There it is a common expectation that a church plant will be self-sustaining within its first five years.

It takes on average four years to go from first exposure to Christ to genuine heart felt faith. it will take some time well beyond that before those same people tithe. If so. we need to reconsider how long a diocese should be subsidizing a fresh work. Grace given the planters would give them more time to nourish the people gradually to maturity

5) It is “the Word of God” that gives life and growth. I would be concerned if some Fresh Expressions set the bar so low that God’s word is silenced lest someone stumble over it. There are numerous creative, inventive, and gentle ways to engage with the text of Scripture. Behold the Lindisfarne gospels and learn! They are among humanity’s greatest artistic and religious treasures. www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/lindisfarne/text.html#

6) We shoot ourselves in the foot, and starve our people if they do not get sound Biblical teaching in some form soon and on to the pursuit…

7) “until they were capable of greater perfection and able to follow the loftier precepts ofb Christ”; that is, until they join us in following Jesus.

Well said, friend Aidan.

The first member of the UK Fresh Expressions Team was way ahead of his time...no, wait...

His counsel was actually perfect for his time...and is so for ours.

THE NEW MONASTICISM
It is no accident that such sage evangelistic practice would come from someone like Aidan who was also a monastic contemplative. The movement from solitude in the cell in these "colonies of heaven" into bold mission to the world is worth noting.

Several of the Fresh Expressions I visited mentioned in passing that they had incorporated into their worship songs and devotions from the Northumbrian Community (NC). The mother house is located just a few miles inland from Lindisfarne but this New Monastic community is mainly dispersed across the UK and around the globe. Since returning to Canada, they have accepted my application to be a "friend" of NC. I have since learned of two other Canadians formally linked to NC, and another who has also been using their Celtic Daily Prayers but without a formal link to NC. All are Anglicans from relatively conservative parishes.

For Celtic Daily Prayers see: www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/

Music downloads can be found at www.northumbriacommunity.org/Downloads/index.htm

but if you'd like to listen now download some of my favourites.
How lovely is thy dwelling place (Psalm 84)
Expressions of faith
May the road rise to meet you

If there is enough interest and God provides musicians willing to take this on, I'd be up for having a session using the Northumbrian Celtic Daily Prayers in a public service with some NC music.

CELLS

Both Cell Churches and the New Monasticism as expressed in the Northumbrian Community speak about cells, albeit the former meaning groups and the latter solitary.

The Rev'd George Lings points this out in his Encounters on the Edge booklet #29 "Matching Monastery and Mission" (p. 10-12). Both Cell Churches and the new monastic "have a concern for discipleship that goes deeper than church attendance, a passion to ask what Jesus would do, the existence of focussed, relationally based groups, a yearning for deeper spiritual life in which the individual takes responsibility but is mutually accountable to others."

"...the renewal of both the church and society will come through the re-emerging of forms of Christian community that are homes of generous hospitality, places of challenging reconciliation and centres of attentiveness to the living God," says Brother Samuel SSF.

Might this sort of thing work out of or in Toronto or any other city?

"The monasterium... provides the still and stable centre, the pool of prayer, psalmody and spirituality from which all can drink and refresh themselves. It sets standards provides models of liturgical excellence and preserves awe and reverence at the heart of worship. Some will want no more than this. Others, at different stages of their faith journey will feel the need to express themselves to God in other less formal and traditional ways.

THIS IS THE KEY BIT, LISTEN UP! :-)

In congregations, cells and house groups connected to the monasterium like spokes of a wheel to a hub, they will be able to engage in more innovative and experimental worship" - and, one should add, could be more adaptable to local needs and cultural currents. (Ian Bradley, "Colonies of Heaven", London: DLT, 2000, pp. 150-151.)

OTHERS

Other dispersed communities are also emerging,
including the Community of Aidan and Hilda also on Lindisfarne. There is a small Canadian contingent with whom I have been in touch. The founder Ray Simpson, an acknowledged authority on Celtic Spirituality, was in Canada in 2007 presenting in Ottawa their community values.

Of these dispersed ecumenical communities, Contemplative Fire is one of the few listed on the official FX UK site. A priest and team of interested people from Toronto has invited Contemplative Fire's director the Rev'd Phillip Roderick to Toronto in December 2008. Details to come. Rev'd Roderick is also an Anglican priest, Celtic educator and percussionist.

In times past, contact with such fellowships could only be sustained by phone calls, letters, local groups and the occasional pilgrimage. Now with e-mail, Facebook forums, dedicated on-line chat rooms, and published materials for home use, an increasing number of people are seeing their connections to these distant bodies as "their only church".

Another form of "the New Monasticism" is the sort of 24/7/325 prayer rooms described on "Punk Monk" by (Anglican) Andy Freeman and Peter Grieg. [Ventura:Regal. 2007.] Like several US modern missional monastic versions (see: http://www.newmonasticism.org), the "Boiler Rooms" of Punk Monk are simultaneously venues for reflective spirituality and also mission, functioning in some ways like 7th century Lindisfarne - except usually in the urban heart of the city?

I am actively seeking people who might come together to form at least one 24/7 prayer room in Toronto this fall. Though the 24/7 movement emerged about 2000 and peaked two years later, though there was a splash of interest in Canada's largest city, no one I know knows anyone doing 24/7 here. Surely they are there, I just haven't found them.

Could there be a permanent "Boiler Room" in the mind of God for the heart of Toronto ?

The need is soooo great in our city.

SECOND HONEYMOON?
I had been joking on our trip with Deborah that this was a sort of second honeymoon for us. Methinks she thought that should be a more intimate journey than this trip (duh!).

Yet when we had returned to our Newcastle home, our host presented us with a bottle of Lindisfarne Mead. Mead is a wine made with honey, perhaps the oldest of alcoholic beverages. It is said that in Anglo Saxon days no wedding would be complete until the newlyweds had quaffed honey wine in the light of the full moon: thus our word “honeymoon.”

As soon as I got back to Toronto we searched till we found local mead: in Beamsville and Alviston, Onartio.

In the meantime, may the sweet taste of the word of God, like honey from the comb, feed your heart and mind – and give you vision for your fresh expression.

And may God be between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk.

ST AIDAN'S PRAYER FOR THE HOLY ISLAND OF LINDISFARNE

Lord, this bare island,
make it a place of peace.

Here be the peace of those who do Thy will.
Here be the peace of brother serving man.
Here be the peace of holy monks obeying.
Here be the peace of praise by dark and day.
Be this Island Thy Holy Island.

I, Lord, Thy servant, Aidan,

make this prayer.

Be it Thy care. Amen.

PEACE WITH GOD IN HIS CELL WAS NOT HIS ONLY GOAL

Legend says that when Satan raised his giant battle-axe against Heaven's gates, God's shaft of lightning struck it from his hand. The flaming axe fell into the North Sea, and was changed into the thousand-acre island of Lindisfarne.

Through the centuries this bit of lore concerning God's victory inspired those who lived on, or visited the island, to keep Satan's power underfoot ...

Lord, show us the things that are binding the work You have called forth on Holy Island.

Help us to loose YOUR work, and let it go in resurrection power.

Meditation for Day 15, Celtic Daily Prayer

Primeval fire fused a cradle of rock.

Borne by the rocking tides,

smooth sand folded its hollows;

frail seeds flew on the winds' shoulders;

blessed by soft rain and warmth of sun,

grass and herb bound the shifting dunes.

Lastly, trusted servants came, led by Christ

to build a home for restless souls,

a beacon to shed forth His light.

Lord of rock and tide, of sun and air,

Bringer of light:

may Your blessing rest on this Your house.

Meditation for Day 18, Celtic Daily Prayer

Expressions of faith

Lord, You have always given
bread for the coming day;
and though I am poor,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always given
strength for the coming day;
and though I am weak,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always given
peace for the coming day;
and though of anxious heart,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always kept
me safe in trials;
and now, tried as I am,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always marked
the road for the coming day;
and though it may be hidden,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always lightened
this darkness of mine;
and though the night is here,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always spoken
when time was ripe;
and though you be silent now,
today I believe.

SEEKERS CHURCH ATTICA NY - A Northumbria Community inspired Church Plant

Church of The Resurrection, Toronto Ontario

Sat. Sept. 20, 2008

Letter to the Genesee Vally, NY Presbytery:

Greetings in the Name of the Lord and from across Lake Ontario.

I am writing to congratulate the Presbytery of Genesee Valley on your bold initiative of “Seekers Church”, Attica, N Y. I commend it to you, as I am also doing in the Diocese of Toronto, as a model well-suited for today’s post-modern anti-institutional culture.

Let me explain.

In June of this year, my diocese sent me to the United Kingdom to explore what the Church of England was doing regarding Fresh Expressions of Church (Messy Church, Café Church, Cell Church, etc.). Along the way several leaders mentioned using inspirational prayers and songs from the Northumbria Community (NC). Once back in Canada and after registering as a “friend” of NC, I discovered to my delight that you had planted a church using the same resources.

I could not wait to visit Seekers Church, nor was I disappointed.

The service in Attica had two components. At 6 pm after brief conversation, we sat in silent prayer for 20 minutes, an innovation especially suited to contemplatives. During the fellowship time which followed, asked how and why they had joined Seekers Church, the attendees were glowing in their enthusiasm. Most striking was the fact that more than half of those present had little or no significant involvement in a church before they joined Seekers. Only the most effective UK Fresh Expressions claimed that high a percentage. It is a stunning achievement.

At the 7 pm main worship service, the Rev’d Bill Hockey adapted the framework of evening prayer from “Celtic Daily Prayer” (a pseudo-monastic devotional which gives the widely dispersed members of NC a common prayer life). Bill is an excellent singer songwriter and a good devotional speaker, but leadership of that service was shared by him and several others. A Bible study has also been launched recently allowing another point of entry for seekers.

Why is this model so effective?

A) The simplicity of purpose: primary emphasis is on seeking the presence of God and is framed by the question: “Who is it that you seek?”

B) At the heart of this spirituality is the truth that each of us is broken in some way. The ground is level at the foot of the cross where the fragile and frail gather in awe.

C) Being a Church Without Walls, there is little to distract one in that search.

D) The informal service with two to three dozen gathered around a simple table, lends a non-institutional feel to the experience.

In Toronto, we find an increasing number of young people questioning whether either the old inherited models of church or newer high powered, high production, mega-church models deliver what they promise. Many today are favouring smaller venues that unite in Christ people from a wide variety of religious backgrounds around simpler expressions of faith and a common mission.

The Rev’d Bill Hockey and I pledged our mutual prayer support. If we launch something along the lines of Seekers Church here, we may need his wisdom and expertise. Such international / ecumenical cooperation may in time benefit us all in the matchless enterprise of the gospel.

With thanks and sincerely yours in Christ,

The Rev’d Dr. Duke Vipperman+

Incumbent, Church of the Resurrection

Chair, Bishop’s Church Plant Working Group, Diocese of Toronto

“STUKES” & CELLS – New Wine on Tyne at St. Luke's

2008-06-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ACTS 2:1-2

June 21

The hard wind was blowing against us, so we leaned forward as we walked up Clayton Road, Jesmond to and through “the Hoppings”. Newcastle’s annual fun fair carnival parked on the expansive moor to the East of Great North Road lay between us and our destination.

The previous night the “Hoppings” was host to hundreds of people screaming with delight on the adrenaline-inducing rides and taking their chances with games, side-show barkers and fortune-tellers. Originally “the Hoppings” were set up as a more family-oriented event than the nearby race tack, where drunkenness once was common. Ironically, we could spare no time for the fair because were we on our way to drink in New Wine on Tyne.

I was a bit surprised to find cattle grazing along the public path. “The Freemen of Newcastle have exercised their right to graze cows on the Moor from time immemorial, the right to do so having originated prior to the Norman Conquest.” http://www.freemenofnewcastle.org/ More disconcerting were cattle with horns, just there to the right.

Don’t bulls have horns? Aren’t bulls dangerous? Whew, I am wearing blue, but why did Deborah wear her red skirt? How long will this take, exactly? How many sets of horns are there? … one…two… six….nine…nine that I could see… we quickened our pace… Fortunately for us the wind kept the cows settled close to the ground. Soon we crossed the bridge over the already busy A127, stepping onto the campus of the University of NewCastle Upon Tyne. There we found St. Luke’s, a once abandoned parish church now full of the wind of the spirit.

ST LUKE’S

We entered the warmth inside through a charming but unpretentious narrow wooden side door to the west – not at all looking churchy- an obvious advantage to those doing a new thing. I have to wonder how non-churched people here would react to being invited to attend St. Luke’s Spital Tonques (it’s official name). Rebranding it was a necessity: first “New Wine on Tyne” or the more recent “Stuke’s” the nickname given it by students. “Stuke’s” gets my vote, too! Their outreach is largely student focussed. Their six cells (men’s, women’s, mixed, and three for students), soon to be seven in the fall, are able to enfold and help the people grow.

“Duke, welcome!” I wondered how awkward it must be to call a Canadian commoner like me by a title reserved here for royalty.

Yet we were treated royally.

The hall was a fresh space, well equipped and without any musty old church smell. A gracious and miraculous gift of £50,000 ($100k CA) at the time of the official commissioning of the work 18 months ago, is allowing the church to fix up the parish hall and some of the upstairs for worship and meeting spaces. Church start time is listed as 10:30 AM for 10:45 – cleverly extending grace to late-comers.

THE REV’D DR. ROBERT WARD

The rector and founding pastor, The Rev’d Dr. Robert Ward, introduced himself and, while the people slowly gathered he quickly showed me the un-refurbished old sanctuary: much work required there but they don’t use that – yet. Robert apologized that many of the students who fill the church had just left the week prior, the spring term being over – and indeed they were at just over half their regular strength (usually about 100 on a Sunday).

The work actually started in 2003 when Rev'd Dr. Ward, for whom a suitable parish had not yet been found, was commissioned by the Pentecostal church they had been attending at the time. But that was it – no team except a few that believed in and gathered around Robert’s vision of planting a cell-based charismatic Anglican church in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In church planting terms, this was an “apostolic” plant where a lone "apostle" launches a new work. It is among the toughest forms of church planting, requiring a leader with profound internal resolve and resilience.

That New Wine on Tyne succeeded without wider church funding or structural support at the start is a testimony to the leader’s determination and perseverance. Robert, with whom I spent that afternoon and later an overnight in their family’s home - expressed clear visions for the church. Among his chief aims is to listen to what God is saying, in scripture yes of course, but also in his heart and in the wisdom, prayers and visions of his people.

Stuke’s success is also a testament to his ability to gather. Indeed Robert sees bringing Christians together in networks of support as part of his calling. Case in point: he promised to try to connect me with John and Carol Arnott of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship who had been at St. Luke’s just a few weeks before (I seemed to have been following in the wake of other Canadians all across the UK!)

Soon the church grew through the expanding of cells using for several years a Council owned meeting room, then an upper room in the St Luke’s Hall, rented from the church. The church then closed & was re opened with Robert as Vicar in January 2007. Now Stuke’s is among the most northernly FX in the UK and, I was told, the only Anglican charismatic church in the area.

MORNING WORSHIP

Among those not there that day were their musicians, so we sang both traditional and contemporary songs a cappella – but their voices were strong. Their projection of words on screen is a familiar sight at the Rez; the service itself straightforward ASB. The expository preaching was longer than at the Rez but a forty-five minute address is not at all uncommon elsewhere, especially in New Wine churches. BTW, Charismatic churches across all denominations in the UK find a supportive rallying point in New Wine http://www.new-wine.org/index.php. Stephen Mawditt of Fountain of Life, Ashill, also sees New Wine as one of his sources of inspiration.

At the peace, I brought greetings from Toronto Diocesan Colin Johnson and my area Bishop Patrick Yu and explained briefly what I was doing in on my FX pilgrimage. This prepared the way for my talk in the evening that turned into my third speaking and teaching in the UK!

UNIQUE LIVING WATER COMMUNION TABLE

At the front of the hall was one of the most original arrangements for a communion table I have ever seen: a sheet of clear plexiglass straddling four columns of six-pack Abby Well plastic water bottles, five packs high. I wondered what the message was: Living water receives and supports the body and blood?

Nice guess… but wrong.

“Stuke’s” is the Fusion Connection church for both Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. http://www.fusion.uk.com/ Work amongst students is a key part of their ministry; bringing together students who share a passion to reach out to their fellow students through cell groups and to support and resource them.” As part of their outreach, the church had sent out lay “street pastors” to hand out free water bottles to the partying (and sometimes inebriated) masses during the final weeks of university. Thus the unique table.

WALLSEND - OFF-SITE RECTORY

It is unfortunate that the housing offered the rector’s family is far off campus at Wallsend, some nine minutes drive-time from the church (named for the end of Hadrian’s wall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian's_Wall).

Viv Gregg, reviewing several studies of third world church plants, concludes that "the extent of incarnational modeling and pastoral leadership from within the communities determines whether the churches will be established" (In Conn, Harvey. Planting and Growing Urban Churches, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997, p. 158). If key leaders do not live among the people they are trying to reach, the size of the church tends to level off at about seventy.

When Deborah and I accepted the call to the Rez, we insisted on the necessity of living in the parish. This has born fruit here. Several people on our block now regularly attend our church – including key leaders. It has also shaped our attitudes about how to be neighbours among these people. In this delicate time in Stuke’s life when it is still forging links with university students, I would urge all concerned to consider enabling this godly man and their family, if they are willing, to seek to live on campus as soon as possible. I sense it will make a significant difference.

EVENING ANGELS

Central to New Wine spirituality is the necessity of moving with the wind of the spirit.

The prophetic prayer circle which met 45 minutes before the evening service prepared us for worship. Originally I was to bring my conversion testimony… But a controversy had arisen the previous week as someone suggested (wrongly) that people should pray to angels. So in addition to a summary of my FX trip, the rector extending great trust, asked me to speak into this issue. Retrieving a Christmas message on angels from St. Luke’s nativity story (an appropriate text given the church I was in!), I said, in brief that 1) angels are spiritual guardians who can set up a safe perimeter much as our military might, 2) bring us messages from God, 3) are there to suggest that there is more to our stories than we usually see, and 4) also show that we are surrounded by mystery. But there is no biblical warrant for praying to angels. None. We just do not have that authority. Pray to God in the name of His Son in the power of the Spirit.

RETURN TO THE SPIRIT’S WIND

Before I spoke, the gentle “Geordie” keyboardist on loan from local Bethshan church ministered to us in song. As he did about a third of those gathered, quietly walked to the back of the church to the carpet provided. There they settled close to the floor, lying quietly, praying and soaking in the silent wind of the spirit. Several churches in Toronto have the same custom so it was not at all a surprise to me.

I was honoured to be asked to go around to each to “seal” whatever the spirit had been doing in them during that time. I have prayed perhaps for thousands of people – but these nine had to have been among the most rested folk I had ever seen. No trouble etched in anyone’s brow but many beatific smiles: bliss lying all around. Surely overstressed university students would find this restful form of Christian spirituality balm for weary souls. We don’t pray like this at the Rez – many of us probably wouldn’t be comfortable with it – but as pastor I long to see my people experience such bliss.

The evening concluded with
them surrounding and praying for me and for why I had been sent over. “I see crowds, many people milling about with different flags.” “I see a garden growing with blessing.” What do those visions captured in prayer and conveyed to me mean?

We’ll need the spirit’s confirming wind to know.

Stuke’s, God bless you all.

The NET - NEWORK-FOCUSSED IN HUDDERSFIELD

2008-06-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

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

“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

RURAL FX: PLANTING A FOUNTAIN OF LIFE - ASHILL

2008-06-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
Psalm 36:9

A NETWORK-FOCUSSED WELL: FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, ASHILL

When I asked those-in-the-know in UK FX circles for recommendations of the most effective Network-focussed churches, I was urged to go see the Fountain of Life church at the Well (their new building). By that time all our Sunday slots while we were in the Norfolk area were booked. So unfortunately we did not have the privilege of attending the Well or see the Rev’d Stephen Mawditt in action. But he did graciously grant us an interview and a tour of their facilities..

Ashill is a rural community about 45 minutes west of Norwich. This church is a new thing the Lord has been in the process of creating since 1996. at that time a difference in vision in two local parish churches led some from each to seek new wineskins. Though there was considerable pain at the time, even Wikipedia notes:

There is also a charismatic congregation [Fountain of Life], which split from the parish church [St Nicholas] in the 1990s. The Fountain of Life church is unusually still on good terms with the local parish church and is still a member of the Church of England. During the divide the church received a great deal of publicity on a national scale due to the rarity of a charismatic revival in a rural Anglican congregation. It was a mechanics garage before it became the home of Fountain of Life [see picture below]. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashill,_Norfolk#cite_note-7

Utmost in their minds was a quest for two things from the Lord:

1) To encounter God more immediately and deeply in worship in the New Wine tradition (see the UK website); that is, charismatic, with prophetic ministry, the healing of soul and body, intercessory prayer, confrontational spiritual warfare and more. They do this through

Personal Renewal

Congregational Renewal and

Structural Renewal which leads to and includes the mission of the church.

2) To engage in the mission of God through whatever network of relationships God leads them into; that is, to influence people with whom they regularly have contact.

They also longed from the start to remain part of the Anglican communion and so became a mission of the diocese. They are now in the process of applying for approval under the Bishop’s Mission Orders for external plants.

By sacrificial giving and miracles of God’s provision, the Fountain of Life finally moved into their own worship facility (the Well) in 2004. Church membership swelled from 90 in 2001, to 130 in 2005, to 220 in 2008. The list or programmes on offer matches those of the Rez in Toronto.

NETWORK-FOCUSSED: MISSION UNBOUNDED

In an article to be published elsewhere later this year, their rector since 2005, The Rev’d Stephen Mawditt, describes how their network has advanced their outreach. Two separate monthly Kidz Klubs (see web site) one held at least seven miles from the church now reach a total of 150 children who once were non-churched. Fountain of Life has a particular passion for reaching those with lower incomes who live in council estates (think Regent Park or Flemingdon Park). Yet they are by no means limited by that – in fact as Stephen said to us and wrote in his article, new efforts are popping up all over.

Stephen’s article (I’ll let you know when it is available) describes many invitations begin given by many people in the church in many contexts to those with little or no faith connections to Christ or His church. As in Southrepps, “network” means mission unbounded by parish geography. Just as Mission Shaped Church argued that parish boundaries ought to be seen as permeable, so your “network” does not at all make you inward-thinking – rather it takes you out into the world in mission.

LIFEBOAT STATION & LIFE BOATS (CELLS)

Imagine it this way. The Church building sitting nearly on its own in the golden fields of Ashill is the hub, the Life-boat station. To that hub, the people come to worship weekly.

Then the people leave going out to their lifeboat cell groups. Up to 78% of the congregation regularly go to one of Fountain of Life’s 17 cell groups. (For comparison, in Canada, though there are some notable exception such as the Meeting House, most parish churches never get anymore than about 33% to belong to a small group.)

To understand the reason for the effectiveness of their outreach you simply must understand that it is not driven by the leaders at the hub (the church centre). Rather, The Cells and each individual within them take it upon themselves to launch projects and engage in one-to-one evangelism. As Rev’d Mawditt put it, they all are leading as followers. Everyone in the church is in a sense a leader in one or other context (family, church, work, leading a friend to faith, etc.). Each person must reflect on the calling and character of a Christian leader and also how each is leading themselves. Mission thus engages the whole church and every member in it and nothing less.

LAKE AND RIVER

Another image mentioned by Stephen was also cited later when I met with by Canon Phil Potter, Director of Pioneer Ministry in Liverpool diocese (and others); This is a dynamic vision of the church seen under the dual image of both Lake and River. A Lake is a body of water which settles in one spot. It becomes a stable source of life and refreshment. A River in contrast is flowing and on the move from one point to another. A lake is fed by river water coming in from one side but it must also send river water out or it becomes stagnant. It is an apt analogy of the living waters of the church. People come to the hub (the lake) to be recharged bringing their gifts and needs with them. They leave as if with the river to continue their mission. Both aspects are fully the church.

UNIQUE?

In Norfolk region and Norwich diocese this commendable work is wholly unique. Yet as I ponder the pleasant yet industrial design of the Well, and consider its mission and ministry, I wonder how different it really is from a host of independent church plant start-ups in North America.

On our side of the pond we do this sort of thing all the time – sometimes even Canadian Anglicans: having a modern centre to worship in would be not that huge a paradigm shift.

If we could just get Fountain of Life’s sense of lay empowerment and ownership of mission for the gospel of God – now that would be truly remarkable!

RURAL FX - SOUTHREPPS - MULTI-GENERATIONAL w/ CELLS

2008-06-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

That evening the disciples came to Jesus and said,

"This place is like a desert, and it is already late.
Let the crowds leave, so they can go to the villages and buy some food."

Jesus replied, "They don't have to leave. Why don't you give them something to eat?"

But they said, "We have only five small loaves of bread and two fish."
Jesus asked his disciples to bring the food to him,
and he told the crowd to sit down on the grass.
Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish.
He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food.
Then he broke the bread and handed it to his disciples, and they gave it to the people.
After everyone had eaten all they wanted,
Jesus' disciples picked up twelve large baskets of leftovers.

There were about five thousand men who ate, not counting the women and children.

Matthew 14:15-21

A breeze carrying a hint of sea salt, fields swaying as red poppies dance. Sheep safely grazing on verdant pastures green. Shoulder high sandstone walls embracing narrow village lanes winding among pleasant county homes. If ever Deborah & I were ever tempted to retire off-shore, it would be to a village like Southrepps.

Massive St. James Parish Church towers over the rest astride the gentle hills.

Other pilgrims before us wrote of St, James, “the mother church of the [ten] Trunch Team Ministry parishes, [as with] all the churches around here welcome pilgrims and strangers, and you go away from all of them with a warm feeling, which is exactly how it should be.”

Yet we did not arrive in the morning but rather the 4:30 pm 4ALL multi-generational worship. This Fresh Expression had been mentioned in Mission Shaped Church and also came highly recommended. They were birthed out of a felt need in the Trunch area for a more contemporary relazed expression of worship. They are now seeing a steady influx of non-churched people. In addition to Sunday services, as in Tas Valley, there is an active discipleship Cell Church structure (4 cells enfolding 50- 60 with financial givings now rivaling the morning congregation). But Cell Church is not how they describe themselves in the FX directory.

Says MSC…

‘4 All’, Southrepps, Trunch Team Ministry

When the Revd David Bartlett became Southrepps Team Vicar, he intended to heed the bishop’s advice not to change anything for a year. However, it soon became apparent that about 20 Christians from different parishes had an unmet need for contemporary worship in which their children would happily share. Some of these families had started to give up on existing church. It was decided to start a service at 4.30 p.m. [in 2002], when it would not conflict with other services in the team and would complement the existing monthly ‘Open Doors’ children’s club, held at that time. The style was informal, interactive and ended with a shared tea. Adults who attended ‘4 All’ were invited to an Alpha course or to join a cell. Just over a year after its start [2004], 70 people were involved on a regular basis. ‘4 All’ simultaneously strengthened the commitment of existing congregation members and attracted new people who would never attend a more traditional service.

Says Sally Gaze…

“The most important ingredients appeared to be love and food.”

NETWORK-FOCUSSED

[BTW: This has nothing at all to do with the Anglican Essentials Network in Canada.]

4ALL reaches out, not geographically, bounded by the parish, but through the network of the relationships its members have with others. That’s how most churches in Toronto, operate: with little knowledge of or reference to existing parish boundaries. Modern commuter life is much more transient and uni-dimensional. You “network” more with your interest groups and those of like mind than thinking of the necessity to connect to the people in our immediate neighbourhoods.

Here in the UK most parishes still concentrate within the boundaries allotted them. This works well for some and those carefully guard against intrusions. But a significant recent pastoral approved the by Synod of the CofE includes regulations for what is called Bishops Mission Orders. These will allow churches with Episcopal permission to plant across and beyond parish boundaries – even over the objection of other parishes’ incumbents.

FUN 4 ALL

Sunday night was a fun-filled, action packed, multi-generational evening with no chance to get bored!

Starting right on time, we first sang a few songs.

Oh, wait. Did I mention the part that Deborah told the rector I played the guitar?

Well, they had a spare and suddenly, I was tuning up and joining in.

“Oh. Let’s make sure we hear you," said the Rector the Rev'd David Bartlett. "Here’s a cable to plug your guitar into the PA.” Yikes.

Talk about welcoming. Be an inconspicuous observer? Forget about it!

During the service I was interviewed by the rector.

“You are from Toronto and you want to learn from us? Well that’s fantastic because it was a spark from the Toronto blessing that got me started along this road. I never went but the fire of the spirit is still burning in me. I am glad we now get to return the favour.“

Yet, there was little “Airport” in their spirituality. A few hands in the air, yes, but we have that at the Rez. Charismatic? Mildly perhaps. The emphasis was much more on enjoying the Lord together. This worship is for people of all ages. 4ALL: get it? Babies, Small children, young adults and some in their 80s.

After my interview and another song, the rector said the Bible story that night was about the feeding of the 5000 and that happened outside so outside we went onto the cool grass all 30 of us (they usually get 40 – but it was Father’s Day):

Children dashing about, and rolling around (with never a discouraging word)

Some adults happily plopping down,

Others whose older knees didn’t bend as well as they used to stood bemused in the evening wind.

All smiling.

After ten minutes of the rector interacting with great humour with both kids and adults, we went back inside for prayer – children listening, or waving flags, or climbing under pews, or colouring in the back of the church – again with blessed freedom

Then we ate – simple homemade sandwich-quarters on white bread, with cookies, instant coffee and tea (all that is called “Tea”).

Deborah and I both thought this was great! Friendly, relaxed, real, all-inclusive, the message not at all dumbed-down. [Tas Valley had less success with this format than Southrepps.] If everyone came to 4ALL there would be 60 adults present plus 40 children.

Many old Norman churches originally had no facilities at all for washrooms or children. What did they do with the kids back then? Or full bladders?

Somehow Southrepps with a Grade 2 historical listing which usually means you can’t do much to modernize or adapt them http://www.heritage.co.uk/apavilions/glstb.html had been allowed to add kitchen and washrooms to one side and a small children’s space to the other. Still, there was no way all forty (40!) children of 4ALL could ever be sent into another part of the church for their own session anywhere in that building on Sunday morning.

A TESTIMONY

We spoke to “Sharon” afterward. You could notice her way across the room – her hands in the air, face beaming with love of the Lord. Once a confirmed and militant atheist, last year someone had invited her to a 4ALL. She says she suffered through it, hating every moment – terrified to speak to anyone. But she found herself returning the next week. Then came the invitation to Alpha. Then during the Holy Spirit weekend in October all the lights came on and she was in the Kingdom.

Deborah and I have from Southrepps the remembrance of a lovely village, the relaxed “real” fun we had in the worship, and “Sharon’s” continuous Christ-inspired smile we’d both love to take home with us.

I would have had more to write on Southrepps but this was David Bartlett's fourth service of the day - and - as soon as this night's 4 ALL was over, he headed off to network with some musicians seeking a new vision. He left with high hopes that God might be part of that vision. These Fresh Expression people - they sure are highly motivated. Every one of them is a hero in my book!

CELL CHURCHES AND MSC

2008-06-26T03:08:00.000-07:00

They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household [oikos]."

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them;
he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—
he and his whole family.
Acts 16:31-34

CELL CHURCH

As I was setting up my itinerary, I consulted people "in the know" in the UK asking for specific recommendations of FXs which were

...effective at enfolding previously non-churched people

…in significant numbers

…with a reasonable possibility of becoming self-sustaining

…and helping people along to mature discipleship.

I scheduled to visit as many of the recommendations as I could. I found as I went around that many (indeed most) of these churches and FXs had in them some sort of "cell" structure. I don't think this was an accident.

Cells are mentioned repeatedly in this FX pilgrimage blog as

"Cell Church" in Tas Valley.

"Cell Church" at 4ALL Southreeps.

"Cells" at “Stukes” Newcastle, and

"Cell Groups" at "Harvest", Broadstairs, or

"Gamma Teams" at Christ Church Central.

"Life-boats" at the Fountain of Life, Ashill.
"Small Groups" at the Net Huddersfield.

Holy Trinity, Brompton has a system of some 60 "Pastorals" that include small groups - but they do more than meet as small groups.

[See also a fascinating note on cells and monastic life by George Lings in the post on Lindisfarne's Aidan; Graham Tomlin in his book on Evangelism, The Provocative Church, discusses Cell Churches positively (pp. 149-152).].

[My short stay in the UK allowed me to see only ten of the hundreds of Fresh Expressions (FXs) of some fourteen models. I chose not to look at youth FX’s such as Legacy BMX or a surfing church. The Goth Eucharist was not on offer where I was during my stay. About 60 or so of the Anglican FXs in the official FX directory describe themselves as being cell churches!]

The Rev.'d Canon Phil Potter, Director of Pioneer Ministry for the diocese of Liverpool, and the Rev'd Canon Paul Bayes, The Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Adviser are both experienced Cell Church planters.

How do cell churches differ from the more commonly known (inherited) church model?"

Many functions of "church" as we know it are downloaded to the smaller groups, e.g.

(a) the individual cells become the basic weekly gathering while "big church", the gathering of all the individual cells, happens less often.

(b) for Anglicans sacraments happen at the big gathering unless there is a priest present at an individual cell meeting

(c) individual cells develop their own sense of mission and specific mission projects and

(d) the individual cells together with the larger gathering have the potential to grow into self-managing, self-financing, and self-propagating churches.

What about communions at the cells? Though it is discussed below as an open question, that has not at all proved to be problematic in the FXs I visited.

Phil Potter's 2001 The Challenge of Cell Church is one of the best and easiest to read books on cell churches among Anglicans I have found. He suggests that in the Anglican context both cells and a regular celebration gathering are needed, much as a bird flies with two wings. The link to the larger body provided by bi-monthly Sunday Eucharists is sufficient. At the Rez, we only have communion at the main 10:30 am service every other week anyway. Further, at the Tas Valley cells, which are modeled upon Phil Potter's book, there was so much to cover in our two hour cell meeting that there did not seem to be enough time to add a communion service anyway.

By the way, in MISSION SHAPED QUESTIONS (Church House, 2008) there is an excellent exploratory article on sacraments and Fresh Expressions (of any sort) by the Rt. Rev. Lindsay Urwin, OGS Area Bishop of Horsham in the Diocese of Chichester. This is a great reflective piece by a Bishop and, I think, written for Bishops.

Is “oikos” too small a field to reach?” “Oikos” is koine Greek for “household” but in cell literature it means a wider “sphere of influence” than your nuclear family. The theory is that as the people in cells develop natural relationships within your “oikos” it is inevitable that some will become curious about and open to your faith in Christ. These people can then be invited to and included in your cell.

But won’t reaching out in your “oikos” limit outreach to one’s own racial and cultural enclave? That might be true in some cities but not in Toronto if one considers one's neighbours and work associates as part of your “oikos”. Immediately around us on Bastedo live Chinese, East Indians, Italians, Koreans, Grenadians, Croatians, Greeks, Australians [I was born in the states], and a few same-gendered couples. All these people are close enough to us that, if we needed, we could walk barefoot to their house to borrow a cup of sugar - they are THAT close. Our street is like most in this city. Loving your neighbour in Toronto means your “oikos” will include reaching someone from most any part of the world. What a great city!

Yet by definition there will only ever be a small number of people in a cell - often too small to be effective in ministries intent on transforming neighbourhoods.

CLUSTERS

A relatively recent development among some churches with a cell structure is Clusters . Bob Hopkins of the Anglican Church Planting Initiatives (ACPI) and Mike Breen of 3DMinistries have written a book on it ["Clusters", 2008, available through ACPI or Church House]. These are mid-size missional communities.

Mid-sized: larger than a cell (that is 20-70)

Missional: Small enough to share a common vision – big enough to do something about it

Communities: this is NOT a programme, but a community of people's united around a common vision. Read more www.acpi.org.uk/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=61

or Buy the book!

BACK TO CELLS FROM MSC

The following summary [without footnotes] is taken from Mission Shaped Church (pp. 52-57)

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf. If you have read that, then skip the rest of this post. It is reproduced here virtually unchanged, for your convenience and because of the potential cell structure has for travelling light in planting, integrating new people with few obstacles except visiting as a guest in someone’s home - but also helping formerly non-churched folks to come to Christian maturity as followers of Christ.

SO FROM MSC…

Cell church offers a seven-day a week system [of church] that mobilizes and multiplies every member for discipleship, ministry, leadership and expansion.14

Cell church represents a ‘two-winged’ approach to church that seeks to emphasize both large and small group expressions of Christian community.

It affirms the following:

_ Cell and celebration (the small meeting and the big meeting) are both

viable expressions of church.

_ Every cell member has the potential to be involved in ministry.

_ Each cell is a building block of church.

_ Cell leader support and training are essential.

Each cell meeting has a structure within it that enables the cell leader to be a facilitator-leader. A typical cell meeting could express four church functions: worship, word, community and mission.

This expression of church is part of a wider movement across a number of denominations and also across the world. Common to all cell church thinking is a recovery of the conviction that the small group is truly church. There are a number of models being advocated, the Neighbour/Beckham model being the most popular in the church of England.16 Some churches are changing existing congregations to a cell model. Others are planting new churches using cell principles.

Cell and other related fresh expressions of church respond well to a culture

in which community and family have been eroded, and also address the missionary need of the non-churched for in-depth discipleship into a previously unexplored faith.

change to cell within existing churches

When existing churches undergo the transition to cell principles they work towards becoming a church made up of small groups. Each of the small groups or cells is in nature and practice a full expression of church. The church-like roles of building community, offering worship, hearing and

applying the Word, and engaging with society are normative for each cell.

Every cell is functionally more than a study group, a task group or even a care group. It acts as the church in microcosm, including the instinct (shared with church planting) that groups should deliberately seek to multiply (principally through relational evangelism) and reproduce new groups.

The alternative is an intentional halfway house, aiming towards a church with small groups, sometimes called Meta Church.17 The principal difference between pure cell and Meta Church is that in ‘pure cell’ the cell is the primary unit of church and everything else serves the life and growth of the cells. In ‘Meta Church’ the congregation is equally valid, and the two modes

of church complement one another’s strengths. Meta Church’s key insight is that small groups are the ideal context for growing skills in local leaders.

can cell church create a growth mentality?

Revd Paul Simmonds, in a Grove booklet on cell church,18 observes that the move to cell helps shape and direct growth, but does not create it. Cell church originally came from parts of the worldwide Church where growth and evangelism are natural and unexceptional. Cell church was devised to cope with the attendant growth.19 Thus it is historically true to say that it was not designed to stimulate growth but to channel and develop it.

cell planting

Cell planting involves establishing a new church around cell church principles. At present two different patterns are emerging.

parallel cell church

One is the creation of a cell-based church alongside an existing church that remains congregationally based. The existing membership has choice about the style or expression of church to which they wish to commit. People are discouraged from hopping from one to another. Those who select cell do so in the knowledge that it is fundamentally built around principles of

discipleship and relational evangelism. So far the two resulting parallel churches have always been different expressions connected to one parish, and serving only roughly the same area.20 A small number of parallel cell churches have a specific youth rather than all-age focus.

A story: St Alkmund’s, Derby

St Alkmund’s is an Anglican church in the Diocese of Derby. Karen Hamblin is director of Youth and Children’s Work. She says: With hindsight I can identify five major factors that moved us

firmly in the direction of Cell:

A desire to see real discipleship and not just consumerism.

A longing to see new young people saved and discipled.

A knowledge that youth had more to give and the need to

find the right vehicle.

An urgent desire to stop the loss of youth from the church.

A desire to see prodigals returning.

We implemented Cell in September 1997. We felt that we had found something that might have the answers to some of our frustrations in that it would: build on the relational youth work already established; fly in the face of consumerism; create huge potential for evangelism and discipleship; allow young people’s giftings to be used and developed in a safe environment . . .

In order to develop all our relationships we divided them into three groups, each with two adult leaders meeting in different rooms in the church. Things improved further when we moved out of the church into people’s homes, creating a far more intimate atmosphere. Small groups meet weekly, in church members’ homes on Sunday afternoons and then come together to the evening service.

Each has a core attendance of 5–6, with up to 8 on each group’s list. Once a month we come together as a youth congregation (called Wired), in order to celebrate small group life; all the small groups contribute to this time and have major input in shaping and leading it.

Each cell has a leader and apprentice leader. This means the group is able to multiply through a combination of evangelism (we hope) and new youth moving in from the younger age group. It also helps us cope with the older youth who leave for university each year. However, it means that we are constantly releasing and training new leaders.

True to Cell church, values form the basis for everything.

Our values are:

Every member ministry

Every member maturity

Jesus at the centre

Sacrificial love

Multiplication

Community life based around openness and honesty.

[NB this parish considered but decided against becoming an overall cell church.]

cell from scratch

The second strand in planting is the starting of a cell-based church, for an area or culture where congregational church life is not the most appropriate model. This approach has been used in urban contexts where the desire is to reach the non-churched. Cell makes it easier to travel light. The baggage of church in these contexts may include hostility to the institution, a sense

of alienation from its bookish organizational complexity, uncertainty about entering a holy building and a profound sense of not having a clue of what to do once there. Some stories stress the counter-cultural advantage of cell: it is an example of authentic and attractive community that may not be found within the secular community. Where the non-churched have no contact with the institutional church, nor any interest in being contacted, then perhaps a relational approach is the only one that can bear fruit. advantages of cell planting include:

_ Cell principles help those fresh expressions of church working in areas,

or with post-Christian groupings, where middle sized or middle class

congregations – and their style – would be culturally foreign.

_ By being small and responsive to members, cells can identify with the needs of an area and work with those seeking its regeneration.

_ Cell assists the multiplication of indigenous leaders, by a deliberate pattern of ongoing apprentice-style training. Finding and forming these leaders is key to the whole process.

_ Cell church can help a number of planted churches break through the small church attendance barrier of about 50 people, by breaking down the unit size and raising the proportion of the church membership engaged in all forms of ministry, including evangelism.

_ Cell simplifies and focuses the inner life of all young churches. This makes it possible to sustain energy for outward-looking activities.

A story: Harvest, Margate

Harvest was planted out from Holy Trinity Margate in September 1998. This was five years after a previous church was planted (St Philip’s, Northdown Park) in the classic mode, which had a new building and a geographical area to serve. Harvest had neither, but was conceived as a network, cellbased, Alpha-style plant. Careful brokering was needed. The idea was new. No one

knew how it would quite work and relate to neighbouring geographical parishes. Fifty-two adults formed the planting core. They met together in six cell groups across the Deanery of Thanet. The cells meet together as congregation on Sunday mornings in a primary school.

Alpha remains the key entry point for Harvest. Members are encouraged to build friendships that enable exploration of the journey to faith. Cells hold regular social events, in homes,

pubs or wherever. Seventy-one people have joined since the start of Harvest. Forty-six have moved away. Every cell has multiplied. Some have closed. Harvest is still learning!

can leaders be reproduced?

Cells, and especially those in areas of social deprivation, have to face the challenge of growing the next generation of leaders. Apprentice training can release gifts in people so that they can lead small groups with the support of a clear structure. The reproduction of quality leadership is a potential Achilles heel for cell. There is, however, the possibility that a very different style of leader may evolve from this process. Too often the Church cannot find leaders because it will only accept leaders who work in a narrowly defined (middle class, articulate) way.

the claims

One of the claims worldwide is that the outward agenda of cells, together with a high internal level of intentional discipleship, is what enables cellbased churches to keep growing. By multiplying members and even more importantly creating more leaders through apprenticeship patterns, they claim the ability to avoid hitting a numerical plateau. A few cell churches in Asia have become the largest churches in the world. In the Church of England, perhaps the largest self-styled cell church, led by Clive Collier in Hazlemere, is 800 strong. Some of the largest Church of England churches, though not fully developed cell churches, are vigorously committed to small groups for both discipleship and making new contacts.

‘yes, but does it fit here?’

Can cell church really be made to fit with English culture? This question is relevant both to churches that make the transition to cell, and to fresh expressions of church. In particular, two cultural questions are asked. In south-east Asia a highly directive style of leadership is normal, with a robust focus on discipleship and evangelism. This style is rejected by some English commentators as a negative and unacceptable form of control.

In addition, cell church emphasizes that the ‘cell’ is the primary unit of church. The instincts of Western Christians are to see the congregation as the primary unit. This problem should not be underestimated. Even those in favour of cell argue that it is folly for a church to try to shift into cell thinking without long and painstaking efforts to ensure the existing congregation has understood the value change involved.

The shift to cell takes much preparation. Some parishes have begun along the path, but

then pulled back, either settling for some cell values or reverting to an earlier pattern of house groups for study and aspects of pastoral care.

so what?

Significant space has been given here to cell thinking and practice. The movement is clear that what it advocates is real church, with cell worship, community and mission, all infused by a Christocentric spirituality emphasizing discipleship. There is less clarity around issues of sacraments, ordained leadership and deeper connection to the wider Church beyond attending area celebrations.

The variety of contexts in which cell has already been shown to work is intriguing. That people have been able to vary the extent to which they adopt its structures widens the attraction. It is the case that, of all the fresh expressions that have been detected, this one has the highest rate

of adoption by the other expressions. Its flexibility and emphasis on core values rather than structural methods tells us that cell is a significant development.

RURAL FX: THE HEART OF GOD & CELLS AT TAS VALLEY

2008-06-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
1 Peter 1:22-23

TAS VALLLEY CELLS & THE REV’D SALLY GAZE

“You could preach”.

I stared at the gracious April e-vite with surprised delight. My first preaching in the UK and it will be at a fresh expression! This is too good to be true. Apparently being sent to them by Bishop Graham Cray and George Lings was all the recommendation I needed.

“And you [both] could stay at the rectory [the four nights you are here]…”

[long stunned silence on my end]

…. The trust and hospitality shown us, Canadian strangers that we are, was truly overwhelming. After my week long exploration of Sheffield, Deborah’s precious yet busy time with friends in London, and the all-day-Messy-Fiesta, we were looking forward to some down time in East Anglia.

The Rev'd Sally Gaze, her husband, Chris, and eight year old Matthew cheerfully made us a part of their home. Our friendly, open and intelligent conversations were something to treasure, as were many moments of shared laughter.

…such as Matthew and Chris arriving home Sunday night from a Father’s day weekend away with a huge fuzzy fish as big as Matthew… [a stranger gave it to them]…

…or watching at the JAM (Jesus And Me) Youth cells meeting a clip from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. Did you know that was filmed just around the corner from the Rez?! We felt right at home!

The genuineness of their love of life and of people was moving.

What I saw is among the most heroic ministries I have ever seen.

TAS VALLEY

On their web site www.tasvalley.org.uk the Tas Valley Team says, “We are a happy family of churches in South Norfolk in the Church of England Diocese of Norwich.

St. Mary’s Newton Flotman

St. Peter’s Swainsthorpe

St, Mary’s Tasburgh (once site of an encampment of Roman soldiers),

St, Mary’s Tharston

St. Mary’s Saxlingham

All Saints and St. Mary’s Shotesham.

I really enjoyed the service at Saxlingham:

...the comfort of fortress like ancient Norman architecture

...the sweet aroma of the sanctuary: a home for centuries of glorious worship.

...stained glass windows with the earliest figurative glass in Norfolk, made before 1250 AD.

...the robed choir numbering nearly as many as the two dozen in the congregation.

...the rope-pulling bell ringers peeling four of the eight church tower bells.

...the mainly older yet still lively and eclectic congregation members .

...and I especially appreciated the noble English gentleman in the choir who said my Father’s day sermon on the Lord’s Prayer was “brilliant, smashing!”

It felt as if I was back home reliving fun times shared when I was rector at St. John’s By-the-Lake Grand Bend, where they and I really hit it off. That they laughed at my funny bits - even more than I had hoped they would - said to me that they were a relaxed church.

The same message was given at Newton Flotman (i. e. "Newton" = "New Town" the most often used name for villages and towns in Britain and "Flotman" = Float man – i.e. Ferry man – so Newton Flotman is “the new town by the ferry”). The village was well established when it was recorded in the Domesday Book (1086), the church dating from the 14^th century. Though warned that the band and some others were away that day, nonetheless, Deborah and I were warmly received. Here there was a small Sunday School called "God’s Special Agents". Here there was much more time to chat. These are loving people meeting in a gorgeous church.These and the other churches are “Growing in God’s Love”. says the website.

The worship at both churches that day was ASB (BAS-ish). All six churches “share the good news of God’s love in Christ and an emphasis on serving our local communities.”

WHY HEROIC?

“The Team” www.tasvalley.org.uk/whoswho.html, serves everyone but the formula for how to cover it all is exceedingly complicated :

...A rotation of BCP and BAS Communions

...Morning Prayers if a priest can’t be there or if it is a Morning Prayer Sunday.

...The rector needs to get to each three times a month.

...Eager and loyal honoraries cover what they can but you don’t want to overwork them

...Then there are diocesan events and “feasts of obligation”

...oh, right, one of the team can’t yet do communions…

...and one of the team just moved on so they are short-staffed

...then consider holidays, vacations and days off (what are those?)

...also local church customs, preferences and village events are intervening

...“No, wait. Church “X” rented the hall two weeks earlier – it can’t be then.”

...then pressing pastoral concerns of members in each congregation

...funerals of the faithful and the occasion humanist service (for non-Christians)

...add local controversies for which the rector’s counsel is urgently sought – now! e.g. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580371/Teachers-seek-end-to-sex-class-opt-out.html

… so a zillion things make scheduling in a multi-point parish harder than an advanced Sudoku…

… and then the Rev’d Gaze launches yet another parallel cell church! (I'll describe how that works below).

It boggles the mind. Why would she do that?

LOVE

That says it in a nutshell. Though there are empty pews in each of these rural churches, some of those who are coming to Christ, especially those with little or no previous church experience, feel they won’t fit in in any church on Sunday Morning.

...Or maybe church presents a different foreign culture

...or there are village, status, class or educational barriers

...or maybe it’s an unbelieving spouse who resents his/her partner being away from with the children on Sundays – their only day to relax together…

… whatever, but if people come to Christ through Alpha or some other way and Sunday AM is not on for them, what’s a pastor to do?

Love says feed them. And so the parallel cell church was launched.

CELL CHURCH

“As well as a church in each village, the Tas Valley cell church lives up to the Norfolk tradition of ‘doing different’. Cells are vital parts of the body – and cells in church life are there to multiply and grow and keep the body healthy. Cells are small groups of people who meet as church-in-miniature.”

All told there are about seventy people meeting in at least some eleven cell groups who regularly belong to the Tas Cell Church. More than half of the members of the cell Church has had little or no other previous experience with "church".

The three cells we visited were a blast. The first two were at the Monday night JAM Youth Group which sub-divides after their opening welcome into as many as three youth cells. On our night to visit, Deborah went to one and I went to another. Some teenagers were absent because they were at the Newton Flotman church preparing for baptism/ confirmation with the rector.

We also went to a Tuesday cell (more below).

There are three cell groups meeting Wednesday night, if you count the occasional leaders’ training.

Plus there are one or two Thursday day time cells including a moms-and-tots as well as a Thursday night adult cell and a Friday multi-generational cell.

PRAYER DAY

On Monday, “Mary” and “Jim” opened up their spacious home for an all day drop in prayer-fest. Their expansive and sensitively landscaped terraced garden at the rear – a green Eden in the lush Norfolk countryside – naturally invited reflection. Indeed, the whole event was so very relaxed and natural.

As soon as we arrived, Sally introduced us to our hosts. We then huddled to pray for God's blessing on the day but by then early arrivals had already been praying for some time.

Poeple came and went as the day progressed - it's a drop-in -when-you-can sort of thing.

The garden was transformed at times into a place of multiple-solitudes: here, a man with a Bible reclining on a lawn chair; there, a woman with head bowed sitting on garden bench;.

Meanwhile an occasional quartet of pray-ers would huddle in unity around some petition.

Post-it notes were available on an end table in the living room for people to write prayer requests. Through the day, people would drop by to collect a few requests and then, going off on their own, offer them in private prayer.

We asked that they remember the Rez in grief over the loss of our dear friend Preston Sewell. It was the day of his funeral.

Tea was available on request or when our host offered. Home made-soup and bread was on offer for those who were staying through lunch.

Conversations were allowed to develop naturally - being respectful, of course, of others' need for silence.

Meanwhile, "Jim" was installing a new shower off the master bedroom - not that he wasn't into prayer - but in celebration that his once "fatal" illness was now in remission. This task he could now do in praise of his Healer!

TUESDAY'S CELL

When the Tuesday night cell met at “Jim” and “Mary’s” home, we knew our hosts and how to find their house. It was good to be back to that place of prayer where we had been welcomed so warmly. We had also met some of that cell's members during the prayer day so we felt right at home. The meeting opened with news that some of yesterday’s prayers had already been answered. Yea God!

What does a Cell group do? Both Deborah and I felt the experience was very similar to what we had known in some small groups we had belonged to in the past.

Yet cell churches intentionally have all the DNA of regular “church”, including all of the following:

We…

Welcomed each other,

Listened to God’s Word,

Worshipped together

and shared God’s love in Witness to the local community and the wider world.

(note the 4 W’s).

Perhaps in the Tas cells there is a stronger emphasis on the group having its own sense of mission and mission activities. But the mainly difference is this: you don’t have to feel you have to attend any of the Sunday morning congregations if you belong to these cell. The cell, with the occasional larger celebration gathering and special events added in IS church.

Here's how they put it: The cell church is “a sister church within the Tas Valley Team, committed to working to complement the ministry of the six parish churches.”

The most important bit is keeping cell values first and foremost in its life; which are

A ll Involved

B ecoming Disciples

C reating Community

D oing Evangelism

E ncountering God

[From Phil Potter’s easy to read The Challenge of Cell Church (BRF, 2001).

GOD LOVES IT SO...

Yet love is not just for the cell:

it is for all.

In Norwich only a mile or so from the massive Cathedral is the little church where the famed medieval mystic and anchoress Julian of Norwich (1342-c. 1416) had her visions and proffered wisdom to any seekers, Bishops and peasant alike. Her writings are the oldest known in English by a woman. In one of Julian’s famed visions, she saw in a large hand a tiny tender vulnerable…

"little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, 'What may this be?' And it was answered generally thus, 'It is all that is made.' I marvelled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nought for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it. But what is this to me? Truly, the Creator, the Keeper, the Lover. For until I am substantially owned to him, I may never have full rest nor true bliss. That is to say, until I be so fastened to him that there is nothing that is made between my God and me."

http://www.umilta.net/westmins.html

At Tas Valley – all of the churches, no matter how small or fragile are kept – because God made them, God loves them and God keeps them.

So often I have watched leaders lay and ordained, with the best of intentions, attempt to bring renewed life to a congregation by the introduction of new liturgies, new programmes, new more up-to-date styles of ministry. No matter how sensitively this is managed it is almost inevitable that some feel that they themselves - clinging to the older things - have been jettisoned in the process.

At Tas Valley new things (ASB, new music) are being introduced to the other six churches – but at a pace they can absorb. Meanwhile, the fresh structures of the cell provide a place for new Christians to grow unencumbered by contentious issues of liturgical reform, or music wars. At the Rez we also moved slowly to embrace and blend all the various elements of the church. Such is what love requires.

God made them, God loves them and God keeps them. Out of such love flows…

MIRACLES (pseudonyms used below).

Whereas Julian of Norwich stayed put in her cell as a spiritual anchor for the people (that is what “anchoress” means), the Tas Cell Church cells are held out in the world in people’s homes – well beyond the walls of the churches.

In the FX DVD one woman at Tas Valley said she first came to her cell for support when her husband was suffering from a brain tumour. She found Christ there as the prayers of her cell-mates played a significant part in her support and his healing.

“Mary” shared a similar story about her husband “Jim” – who once had been given little hope by his doctors but looked mighty fit and well to us by the time we met.

“William” decided to follow Christ during an Alpha course. With great enthusiasm he told me his story, the importance of the cell group to him and how he was one of those to be baptized by immersion on the grounds of St Mary’s Newton Flotman in a fortnight.

“Claire” had been led to Christ by her young daughter “Janice”. “I want to go to God’s house” she said. “Claire” and her daughter both found a spiritual home and life-line in their Cell Churches. On Tues. June 24

“Janice” was among eight people were baptized by immersion and/or confirmed on the grounds of Newton Flotman. Most came to faith and are being enfolded in the cell church.

“Jake” heard about all the good that was being done in the Tas Valley and moved from the village he had grown up in to Tas Valley – a tough decision in that part of the world – His help in the work has made a huge difference.

BUT HOW?

So how does Sally lead all those cells and add them to her schedule?

She doesn’t.

Most cells are led by lay people – who she has carefully trained and for whom she provides ongoing supervision.

It is obviously doable – and great fun.

Bishop Graham Cray says of Fresh Expressions, “What we want is bland not brand”. What he means is that we want styles of ministry that can be reproduced by ordinary people, that are easy to do - and easy in the training and supervision - yet effective for the gospel.

[NB: When a church’s paid pastors end up doing most of the leadership for ministries and / or small groups, not only does the church limit its effectiveness and risk burning out the staff; we also infantalize the church’s members. We need not only to allow significant pastoral lay leadership but also to challenge all God’s people to grow to maturity by extending adult care for each other in Christ. This promises to multiply both ministry in the church and outreach beyond it. Though our small groups are among the healthiest part of our life, we have a way to go at the Rez before we arrive at this blessed place. If you belong to the Rez, might God be calling you to consider this form of leadership? If not you, who? End pulpit pounding here.]

DOWN TIME

We came to Norwich thinking there would not be much to do and we could get some rest. Rest we got – but this was not down time. It was definitely UP time in the Lord.

IMHO our stay in Tas Valley was the heart of our pilgrimage.

MORE ON TAS VALLEY

Tas Valley is a much studied and frequently written about labour of love. I urge anyone with a passion for people - rural or otherwise - who are not yet churched to

… read Mission Shaped Church (2004) (available for free download on-line)

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf on Cell Church. [Rev’d Gaze was one of the working group that put it together.}

… get the George Lings’ booklet “Rural Cell Church” in the Encounters on the Edge series # 28 (2005). It goes into much more depth about the Tas Valley.

… watch the Tas Valley story in the Fresh Expression DVD (2006).

… read Rev’d Gaze’s own book Mission Shaped and Rural (London: Church House. 2006) where she convincingly demonstrates that any of the many and various forms of Fresh Expressions can be done in rural areas.

Thank you Sally, Chris and Matthew and all those others named and not named above for a mindboggling, life-changing and, I pray, Diocese shaping never-to-be-forgotten experience.

The next post is all about cells from Mission-Shaped Church.

You might also read Phil Potter’s The Challenge of Cell Church (BRF, 2001).

A THOT ON EVANGELISM

2008-06-20T01:35:00.000-07:00

When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord,
Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
Acts 8:25

A THOT ON EVANGELISM

Why doesn’t the New Testament mention evangelism much? The passage above is one of the few places that does.

Where is the exhortation we hear so often today, “Go tell your friends about Jesus?” asks Graham Tomlin in The Provocative Church (SPCK 2004). After a careful theological analysis of Ephesians, he answers by citing Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together: “one of the simplest and most effective forms of evangelism is ‘would you like to come to church with me next Sunday?’” Church is where the fruit of Christ’s ministry among us should be most easily seen as He takes sinners such as us and transforms into a new kind of person in Christ. Then our invitations “ring true because it connects with the reality experienced among God’s people.”

If you have a church like HTB or the Rez or St Paul’s Bloor or countless other healthy places, this is a natural obvious strategy.

But what happens when the church itself has become too large an obstacle to climb. This conundrum lies at the heart of the FX movement. In many different forms and variety the church is reinventing itself across the UK so it can better reach and enfold those who find present church culture off-putting, to put it mildly.

My Church – off-putting: really?

Some find our services way too wordy, our liturgy strange - and embarrassing when you get it wrong - and singing together just weird: where else besides karaoke do people do that today? And where do you have to endure longish speeches on subjects you didn’t come to hear about; the sort of thing when it comes on the TV you reach for the remote? and our language as if from another planet.

Crossing the threshold of the church for many means...

joining someone else’s history. If the first rector started there in 1297 AD, how long will it take before you feel like you belong?

... maybe swallowing years of perceived rejection;

...how does the way you speak compare with that of these church people? This is more a British than a Canadian issue. "Almost three quarters (73 per cent) of people in Britain don't like the sound of their own voices. Given the chance to change the way they talk, most Brits would prefer to sound like the Queen." ["One Would Rather Talk Like the Queen", LONDON, July 29, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/]

Status positions within British society are far more easily recognizable by the way one speaks than it is in most places in North America. Brits are far more attuned to that sort of thing and it can become a big issue when considering attending church! What if they all speak like the Queen and me with my Brummy accent! No way.

(BTW: after three weeks of mixing with my delightfully hospitable English hosts, I also found that I didn't like the sound of my own voice either. It makes one hesitate to contribute to the conversation.)

Crossing the threshold of the church for many also means...

...breaking into someone else’s lifelong friends;

...joining someone else’s family – where except for marriage do you do that?

...dredging up interest in new-to-you (and vexing) community issues when you are barely coping with your own;

... immigrating to a foreign culture when there is nothing that dysfunctional about your own, thank you very much (Christ can be incarnate in your own culture, too, you know);

... encountering layers upon layers of hidden expectations;

...and soon upon entry – because you are fresh blood – these new best friends of yours offer you up in sacrifice to membership on the Parish Church Council (“You have so much too offer”) or altar guild or gardeners (“It’s only three hours a week”) or where your own children become the Sunday School and you the superintendent so you never get to church anyway so why not just stay at home…

...all with the most welcoming of intentions.

But is this really how one must (or even should) begin to follow Jesus?

A VOICE IN WESTMINSTER ABBY

Wandering into Westminster Abbey on free tickets granted us because I was wearing my clergy shirt (well, some people find getting into church easy - other couples had to pay $48. CA.), we stood in awe of the lofty sanctuary and vaulted ceilings, the grand tombs of royalty and stately tributes to the faithful departed etched in stone all around us – and beneath our feet.

Am I allowed to walk on these grave markers? Its rude to do so in cemeteries... and If I do, whose sensitivities might I be offending – yikes! It’s like….visiting a new church.

Within eyesight of the imposing white marble monument commemorating the death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham (ah, a Canadian connection), another clergyman, noticing my collar, approached us.

He, too, like others in the stories that follow, was serving in a rural parish in the UK countryside. We described what you will soon read – the heroic efforts we had just witnessed in a week in rural East Anglia. He sighed in sympathy with words to this effect: “People are also coming Christ where we are, but getting them to church – it’s not that easy. If we had to depend on that alone to bring them to maturity as Christians, well… it isn’t going to happen.”

What might one do when the Sunday morning congregation ceases to be missional? When it is unaware of, and unwilling or unable to lower the Himalayan barriers it presents? When it is impervious to quick change – or change of any sort at any rate– yet people are coming to Jesus all around you right now and need a body of believers like themselves to belong to?

When the culture of the rural church militates against the newby growing in Jesus… read on for three rural FXs I visited.

Also see "Guidelines for Dioceses to aid a staged process of transition to maturity and legal recognition for rural church plants," by the Rev'd Sally Gaze

downloadable from: http://www.encountersontheedge.org.uk/MSC/MSCreports/rural%20legal.htm

MESSY CHURCH - Sat. June 14

2008-06-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children.
Deuteronomy 6:5-7

The single most-cited category of Fresh Expression are for Children: 21% (88 out of 450 listed as Anglican). Indeed, an impressive 29% (129) of all Anglican Fresh Expressions say they are either Children's Fresh Expressions and / or Fresh Expressions for Under-Fives and Their Families. Many of these are also School-based and School-linked Churches and Congregations.
[source the FX directory: http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/directory_section.asp?id=16]

By comparison...

19% (82) are communities identifying as having "Alternative Forms of Worship"
14% (60) say they are "Network-Focused Churches"
13% (58) are "Youth Congregations"
12% (50) identify themselves as "Cell Churches."
6% (26) see themselves as "Traditional Church Plants"
3% (12) are listed as "Base Ecclesial Communities."

Children are indeed the church of the present and the future!

What follows is about one of the most innovative and popular forms of Children's Fresh Expressions in the UK.

See RURAL FX - SOUTHREPPS - MULTI-GENERATIONAL w/ CELL... for another model of how to involve children in an FX.

MESSY CHURCH – Sat. June 14.

Near the birthplace of John Bunyan, in Bedford UK (that’s where he wrote Pilgrims Progress, the most widely- read allegory in the English language)…

Deborah I met up at the train station. She had been staying with and seeing friends in London, while I had been gallivanting about Sheffield and Manchester. Did I tell you about the towering tree-less Moorlands or the narrow one-lane Snake Pass? Now there’s a way worth traveling.

Anyway, after checking into our B & B for the night, we found traditional pub fare of fish, chips and peas (and a Guinness) at the Pilgrim’s Progress Pub (apt name, what?).

The next day at MESSY FIESTA, we both had the most fun we had had in a long while. Sixty enthusiasts were there with us, most “newbies” to this exciting family oriented FX: MESSY CHURCH

LUCY MOORE

Honestly, we’d follow the founder of MESSY CHURCH, Lucy Moore, just about anywhere she went: such contagious joy: brilliant, engaging, animated, funny, passionate, profound – and dramatic! She is an actress after all. And so eager to receive – she gave me time for questions both before and after the event. (Maybe endless energy is a prerequisite for FX).

Her story: In about 2003, the church she belonged to in Portsmouth had great facilities and talented people (especially in doing crafts) but few children. The people she and her priest husband were meeting said they found coming to church way over the top. If that was what was required to follow Jesu… well, it just wasn’t going to happen. Gradually they settled on a monthly weekday after-school programme: a middle ground between church and then outside world – but it doesn’t necessarily lead to church – its not that sort of thing.

SAMPLING HOW IT WORKS.

3:30-4 pm they gather, the kids coming straight from school brought by their parents or caregivers. There are games available but there’s nothing organized at this point - no agenda.

Please: no dropping off the kids to go shopping – the staff are not just child-minders. This is ministry for and with the whole family. Parents arrive knackered: “wiped out” - they need time to unwind and have fellowship, too. So others will have set things up. Often such is life that parents say they rarely have time together with their kids. This will be good time together.

4:00-5 pm There are craft stations set up with an eager volunteer at each table who knows how to do the craft; 10 (yes, that’s right, count ‘em: TEN!) crafts account for different ages and genders, talent levels and media. The crafts have been selected to support a theme arising out of a Bible story.

So at this Messy Fiesta, after hearing the history and theory, each participant made expressions of our own hopes for the day by twisting and or combining chenille wire (a. k.a. "pipe cleaners" – but who has pipes anymore?).

To the blue steam ship I had made, John, my mate to my left, added his grey spiraling helix of spiritual growth, and voila! our boat had steam and was ready to sail away!

Later, we painted with bubbles and string and marble paint. Talk about MESSY (it’s where the term comes from). I even made an edible pig-pen complete with pig! [Guess what Jesus story this is about? Watch for it on Sept 7 at the Rez!]

Well, at least I tried to make a pig pen - I am not very good at crafty thingies.

The impact on a person of a little freedom to be creative can go a surprisingly long way in facilitating personal change and drawing out reflective insights. Case in point: Lucy recounted a story from another Messy session when, at the end of a similar craft-time, an octogenarian, a proper English lady, proudly held up her little pencil puppet that she had just made. Smiling from ear to ear, she said to all gathered,

"This is the first thing I have ever made." She took it home with her - you couldn't have pried it from her. Who would want to?

Rhetorical Question: in the way people normally do church, where are adult members of the congregation given freedom to be creative?

Anyway, back to our FIESTA:

BTW, doing the craft BEFORE the story gets you really curious about what it might be. That was clever in creating ownership!

5:00-5:15 worship - a quick song, the creative telling of the Bible story, and, after a brief prayer, the kids race off for food and the rest rush to catch up!

5:15- 6 pm - a meal together. Something simple. And a different crew to clean up! Yea!

Explore their website for more ideas. http://www.messychurch.org.uk/

Such has been the popularity of Messy Church that Lucy has now engaged full time to advance it.

MESSY CHURCH is for people of all ages:

MESSY VALUES:

- Provide an opportunity for people of all ages to worship together.

- Help people of all ages feel like they belong to church and to each other

Ask do they come to this as another activity or do they belong to it?

- Help people of all ages be creative together

- Introduce Jesus through hospitality to people of all ages.

In other words,

chilling together,

creating together,

celebrating together and

chomping together!

I don’t know – don’t quote me on this – but I had to wonder from their questions if some of the participants might have been looking to beef up their own Sunday School attendance – which isn’t the point.

QUESTIONS

Lucy is still working on how to go deeper into Christian discipleship with her many participants of MESSY CHURCH while yet respecting those VALUES. How can you go deeper only meeting once a month? And with so little time during a Messy session to explore the content of the gospel? Can something be done in homes? Cells maybe? To respect Messy values must all the gatherings be multi-generational? What things might adults need to talk through to grow in Christ but hesitate to discuss in front of their kids? Might some things be covered in a family home but then send the kids off to one side or on their own session?

By the way, no one has yet made an Alpha for families. Wazzup with that?

The financial load if you are using your own church facilities is minimal – from $4-8 a head per session (12 session a year). They usually put out a basket for donations, but you don’t charge for MESSY CHURCH. Your wardens will have to find a way to get this funded if your church wants to be the sending /supporting body.

You’ll need to make sure it doesn’t cut into the volunteer base for Sunday School. This takes at least a dozen volunteers but I hear many teenagers love this stuff!

And as with many FX, you probably WILL have to limit the number of church people who you let join or there won’t be any room for the non-churched people you are trying to reach. This is whole lot of fun!

SADLY THE DAY ENDED SOOOO SOON...>

Lucy, sitting on the floor, quietly demonstrated a story for us using felt cloth, nesting cups, gold coins, wooden figures of trees and pigs and a father and two sons (surely you know the story now!) There was only one child there. All the adults sat transfixed as we watched Lucy carefully put out each item and listened to Lucy’s disarmingly simple recasting of the original.

She held out a little green circle. What is that? In the parable it would become a symbol of the farm - but the little girl could see more than we could. She said, "That's the world." Good guess I thought but wait for the story to be told... yet she really was right you know!

While we were afraid to speak, the little girl - hand in the air at Lucy’s every invitation – continued doing major theological unpacking for us all and with stunning sophistication! Humbled, we adults just let it all soak in.

You see, as Lucy says, Church is for life-long learning.

For too long we have required families to head off in two different directions on Sunday mornings to learn the way of Christ. So children and adults have been pilgrims imprisoned in our progress in our separate stations of the church. Why can’t we come to learn of Jesus together and also grow in HIM– our kids and us - together?

As Lucy said: STAY MESSY!

HOW TO DO AN FX

2008-06-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

"He who listens to you listens to me;
he who rejects you rejects me;
but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

Luke 10:16

HOW TO DO AN FX

Based on what I have read and seen, here’s a short list of how Fresh Expressions that reach non-churched peoples (which is the whole point, really) get their start.

1. LISTENING - Have an interest and concern for non-churched people (duh!). But you’d be surprised how quickly this gets lost. The point is not to launch a new way to do church for Christians dissatisfied with their church. STOP starting with the church! Rather FXs are meant to reach the unreached: those who do not yet know Jesus. So get with those people and listen – what are their needs and concerns? The more specific the people group you have in mind the better. Anyone can do this - clergy or laity. Most FX are led by laity – if not at the start then certainly down the line. Listening happens in two directions - to the people and simultaneously to God.

Listening happens within community. Out of the concern you have for people you know, a genuine sense of mutual friendship and relationship grows between you. There must be nothing manipulative about this – it comes from your heart. Identify VALUES you share together, especially ones Jesus has an interest in. Many “experts” over here urged us to start with VALUES not with a certain model (Messy Church, Café Church, Pub Church, Cell Church, etc.) – but with shared values. Thus Fresh Expressions are VALUE-DRIVEN things.

2. SERVICE - Based on those shared values, serve these people seeking to meet the needs you have identified with them. Be always asking as you do what settings might these people initially be most comfortable learning how to become followers of Jesus?

3. INCARNATIONAL MISSION - means not only that your efforts are adapted to reach these people - you yourself are changed in the process. Jesus was God in the flesh - "incarnating" God for us. "God became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood", as "the Message" puts John 1:14. Without losing who you are as a Christian - your identity is always found in Christ - you and your team become - or maybe already are - culturally like these people as God enables. At the very least you live among them sharing their realities as much as is possible.

4. DISCIPLESHIP & WORSHIP

However, in becoming culturally like them you never lose your ultimate goal - that all of you be conformed to the culture of the Kingdom of God. You do that in a way that the people you care about can most easily embrace.

E.g, if they are sports fanatics who play hockey on Sunday am and are not comfy sitting in pews, find another setting and / or time in which they might be more comfortable hearing about Jesus? A sports club? A gym? On the field? A bar? This is where some experimentation is needed. But you might not want to try to reach families with young children in a bar (well maybe you do – but you’d better come talk to me first!).

BIG QUESTION: How would you describe the difference between following Jesus and going to church? The more you explore that distinction, the more you’ll understand what any FX is asking of you. Only later do you move toward finding out how to help these new followers of Jesus worship - expressing adoration to God for Jesus in the Spirit in their own way. What can result is a Fresh Expression of church created by a sense of mission.

This works in that order and rarely in reverse.

All the examples you read about in this blog were developed through a similar process.

Why do we need Fresh Expressions? Why don’t people just go back to church? Here in the UK….

80% of the 80 year olds once attended church. But only

60% of the 60 year olds did and only

40% of the 40 year olds did and only

20% of the 20 year olds (and that’s being optimistic!)

[Source: The Revd. Canon Paul Bayes, National Mission & Evangelism Adviser, Mission and Public Affairs Division, Archbishops' Council of the Church of England.]

The same is likely true in Canada (actually our situation is probably more drastic).

So we simply must discover new ways to reach the vast majority of the population - for Christ’s sake and theirs.

PRESTON SEWELL (1921-2008)

2008-06-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Then I heard a voice from heaven say,
"Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on."
"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor,
for their deeds will follow them."
Revelation 14:13

Dear Resurrection Church Family,

Deborah and I are saddened and distressed about the news of Preston's passing on Friday June 13. Our Pastoral Assistant, Anna Spray, at my request, had been keeping us informed about his sudden downturn and progress. We had been in earnest prayer hoping for another outcome than this. It is doubly distressing being so far away as it is impossible for us to be there in time to share your shock and your grief.

Preston is and was a true friend and colleague in ministry. His blessing, with Edith's, of so many of the new things we were tried through the last few years was a constant source of encouragement. As we said at Edith's pasing, their mutual hospitality and warm enthusiatic greetings helped to unite us as we grew as a church family. It made the miracle of the story of the Rez possible.

This event has been heavy on our hearts over here. Tomorrow at his funeral June 16 at 11 am we will be with you in the spirit of Christ - united in His gospel and the Hope of the Resurrection.

We send you our prayers, blessing and love.

The Rev. Dr. Duke Vipperman and Deborah Vipperman

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.
Even so says the spirit for they rest from their labours,
for their deeds will follow them. Rev. 14:13

SEWELL, Preston J.

PRESTON J. SEWELL Fifty year employee of National Trust and Director of Charitable Trusts at National Trust, member of the Board for Toronto East General, J.P. Bickell Foundation, J. Samuel McLaughlin Foundation, and George Brown College Foundation. Peacefully at Toronto East General Hospital on June 13th, 2008, in his 87th year. Beloved husband of Edith Sewell (predeceased). Loving father of Douglas (Marie) and Bruce (Gloria). Cherished grandfather of Kevin (Heidi), Suzanne (Rob), Nancianne, Marilyn (Nathan), Mary Ellen (Jay), and Emily. Great-grandfather of Jack, Charlie, Thomas, Cliff and Elayna. Friends may call at GIFFEN-MACK DANFORTH CHAPEL & CREMATION CENTRE 2570 Danforth Ave. (at Main St. subway), 416-698-3121 on Sunday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral at The Church of the Resurrection, 1100 Woodbine Ave., Monday morning at 11 o'clock. Interment Resthaven Memorial Gardens. We are grateful for his warmth and generosity. He was a great friend to all who knew him. He will be desperately missed. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Church of The Resurrection, 1100 Woodbine Ave. Toronto, ON M4C 4C7 would be appreciated.

MSM: Dorothy on Leadership

2008-06-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7

‘To put it bluntly: the whole leadership thing is a demented concept. Leaders are neither born nor made. Leaders are summoned. They are called into existence by circumstances, and those who rise to the occasion are leaders’.

Leonard Sweet, ‘Summoned to lead’. Zonderon. 2004. p.12. (Thank you, Phil Potter for this quote.)

At the Mission Shaped Ministry class I took last Tuesday night, the Rev. Martyn Snow gave a brilliant illustration of leadership. What sort of lay leader can do a Fresh Expression? He sited an article by Brian McLaren: Dorothy on Leadership .

And here's the article. from: http://www.brianmclaren.net/archives/imported/dorothy-on-leadership.html

Enjoy!
Dorothy on Leadership

Or “How a Movie from our Childhood Can Help us Understand the Changing Nature of Leadership in the Postmodern Transition”

Brian D. McLaren

Originally Published in Rev. Magazine, November/December 2000

OK, I admit it. I spent most of the 80’s and early 90’s wishing I could be just like Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, or John Maxwell. They were successful. They appeared unflinchingly confident. They were powerful, knowledgeable, larger than life. I’d go to their seminars, and return home feeling wildly inspired and mildly depressed. How could I feel those two things at the same time? If you’ve attended their seminars, you probably don’t need me to explain.

But if you do need me to explain, think back to the Biblical story of David, when he tried to wear Saul’s armor. Imagine that he had actually tried to go to battle with Goliath wearing armor that was XXL when he was a regular M (or even S) guy. He would have come back looking like a partially opened (and partially eaten!) can of sardines.

I wasn’t the only one who thought that the best image of the successful pastor was the CEO, the alpha male, the armored knight, the corporate hero. Thousands of us tried on that armor, and the results – in our churches and in our personal lives – weren’t pretty. Of course, the suit fit some of us (for example, I think that Hybels, Warren, and Maxwell really are XXL’s), but most of us eventually realized that if we were going to be of any use to God, we’d better be ourselves. A novel idea!

About the time I was reaching that conclusion, I was going through my “postmodern conversion.” I was seeing the pattern or matrix of modernity giving way to a new pattern, and I was beginning to see how my whole understanding of Christianity fit snugly within the modern matrix. I wondered how ministry, theology, spirituality, and evangelism would change as the matrix changed. And I wondered how leadership would change too.

Somewhere in the middle of these musings, a strange memory returned … the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when little Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal that the great Wizard of Oz is a rather normal guy hiding behind an imposing image. It struck me that the 1940’s world that produced the film was in many ways a world at the height of modernity, a world enamored with Superman, with the Lone Ranger, with Great Men. It struck me that by exposing the Wizard as a fraud, the film was probing an unexpressed cultural doubt, giving voice to a rising misgiving, displaying an early pang of discontent with its dominant model of larger-than-life leadership. And it made me wonder what image of leadership would replace the great Wizard.

The answer, of course, appeared in the next scene. No, it wasn’t the lion, the scarecrow, or the tin man. It was Dorothy.

At first glance, Dorothy is all wrong as a model of leadership. She is the wrong gender (female) and the wrong age (young). Rather than being a person with all the answers, who knows what’s up and where to go and what’s what, she is herself lost, a seeker, often bewildered, and vulnerable. These characteristics would disqualify her from modern leadership. But they serve as her best credentials for postmodern leadership.

In the world of Christian ministry, we could identify ten Wizardly characteristics of modern leadership. (You’ll notice the masculine pronoun used exclusively here.)

1. Bible Analyst: The modern Christian leader dissects the Bible like a scientist dissects a fetal pig, to gain knowledge through analysis, and in modernity, knowledge is power.

2. Broadcaster: Somehow, when one amplifies his voice electronically and adds a little reverb, his power quotient goes up in modernity. Being slick, being smooth, being big, being “on the air” – that’s what makes you a leader.

3. Objective Technician: The organization (church, ministry, etc.) is a machine, and the leader knows how to work the machine, how to make it run, how to tweak it and engineer (or reengineer) it. It’s the object, and he’s the subject.

4. Warrior/Salesman: Modern leadership is about conquest -- “winning” souls, launching “crusades,” “taking” this city (country, whatever) for Jesus, etc. And it’s about marketing, getting buy-in, selling (and sometimes selling out).

5. Careerist: The modern leader earns credentials, grasps the bottom rung of the ladder, and climbs, climbs, climbs – whether he is a stock-boy-who-would-be-CEO or a young preacher on the rise.

6. Problem-Solver: Come to him, and he’ll fix you.

7. Apologist: Come to him, and he’ll tell you why he’s right and your doubt or skepticism is wrong.

8. Threat: One of the most powerful and underrated weapons of the modern Christian leader has been the threat of exclusion. The sword is normally kept in its sheath, but through mocking caricatures and other forms of rhetorical demonization, a gifted orator can make you fear that if you don’t agree with/follow/submit to his leadership, you’ll be banished – like the Wizard bellowing threats from behind his curtain.

9. Knower: The modern Christian leader is (or appears) supremely confident in his opinions, perspectives, beliefs, systems, and formulations. While the rest of us question and doubt, he is the answer-man who knows.

10. Solo Act: There’s only room for one in the Wizard’s control booth, and there’s only room for one at the top of the church org chart.

When you think of Dorothy, the picture is so different. Basically, instead of sitting pretty in a control booth, she’s stuck in a predicament – still a little dizzy from the tornado, lost, far from home, needing to find the way. As she sets out on her journey, she finds other needy people (actually not people exactly, but you get the point), one in need of courage, another in need of intelligence, another in need of a heart. She believes that their varying needs can be fulfilled on a common quest, and her earnestness, her compassion, her determination, and her youthful spunk galvanize them into a foursome (five, with Toto) singing down the yellow brick road together. Dorothy doesn’t have the knowledge to help them avoid all problems and dangers; she doesn’t protect them from all threats and temptations. But she doesn’t give up, and her passion holds strong, and in the end, they all get what they need. Maybe one of the film’s many enduring delights is hidden in Dorothy’s unwizardly leadership charisma. Maybe people in the 1940’s were just beginning to yearn for a way of leadership that now is becoming ascendant – a post-wizard kind of leadership:

1. Bible Analyst → Spiritual sage: As we move beyond modernity, we lose our infatuation with analysis, knowledge, information, “facts,” and belief systems – and those who traffic in them. Instead, we are attracted to leaders who possess that elusive quality of wisdom (think of James
3:???), who practice spiritual disciplines and whose lives are characterized by depth of spiritual practice (not just by the tightness of belief system). These leaders possess a moral authority more closely linked to character than intellectual credentials; they are more sages than technicians; it’s their slow, thoughtful, considered answer that convinces, not the snap-your-fingers-I-know-that kind of answer-man know-it-all-ness. Dorothy has this “softer” authority, a reflection of her earnestness and kindness as much as her intellectual acumen.

2. Broadcaster → Listener: In the postmodern world, it’s not how loud you shout; it’s how deeply you listen that counts. Just as Dorothy engages her traveling companions by listening to their stories and evoking their needs, the postmodern leader creates a safe place that attracts a team, and then she or he empowers them by the amazing power of a listening heart.

3. Objective Technician → Spiritual friend: Think of the difference between a scientist objectively studying chimpanzees, and a crusader dedicated to saving them from extinction. In modernity, a leader loves his organization and loves his ambition, his strategic plan, his goals; but on this side of the transition, leaders love their teams, and those to whom their teams are sent. (Or, more perversely put – in modernity, I Corinthians 13 would read, “If I have all love and would lay down my life for my friends, but have not knowledge, I am a wispy wimp and a poor excuse for a leader.” Beyond modernity, we return toward Paul’s original meaning.)

4. Warrior/Salesman → Dancer: In a world plagued by ethnic hatred and telemarketers, every voice adding stridency and sales pressure to the world is one voice too many. Nobody wants to be “won to Christ” or “taken for Jesus” in one of our “crusades,” and neither do they want to be subjected to a sales pitch for heaven, that sounds for all the world like an invitation to check out a time share vacation resort. A presentation of the gospel that sounds like a military ultimatum or like a slick sales pitch will dishonor the gospel for postmodern people. Instead, think of leadership (and especially evangelism) as a dance. You hear the music that I don’t hear, and you know how to move to its rhythm. Gently, you help me begin to hear its music, feel its rhythm, and learn to move to it with grace and joy. A very different kind of leadership, don’t you agree?

5. Careerist → Amateur: The root of the word “amateur” is “amar” – to love. Most of us in Christian leadership know that seeing ministry as a career can quickly quench the motivation of love. How can we keep that higher motivation alive? How can Christian leadership be for us less like the drudgery of a “job” and more like the joy of a day golfing or fishing or playing soccer or whatever … not something we have to do, but something we get to do? The professionalization of ministry will be one of the harmful legacies of modernity, I believe … a classic case of jumping from the frying pan of clericalism into the fire of professionalism.

6. Problem-Solver → Quest Creator: The man-at-the-top of modern leadership is the guy you go to for answers and solutions. No doubt, there are times when that’s what we need now too. But postmodern leaders will be as interested in creating new problems, in setting new challenges, in launching new adventures … as in solving, finishing, or facilitating old ones. Dorothy does this: she helps her companions trade their old problems (birds landing on the scarecrow, the tin man being paralyzed by rust, the lion faking bravado) for a new quest. Of course, this is what Jesus does too. He doesn’t solve the problems of the Pharisees (How can we get these stupid crowds to know and obey the law as we do?). He creates new ones (Seek first the kingdom of God….).

7. Apologist → Apologizer: Instead of defending old answers, the new kind of leader will often apologize for how inadequate they are. In modernity, you gained credibility by always being right; in postmodernity, you gain authority by admitting when you’re wrong (think of the Pope’s visit to the Middle East in early 2000) and apologizing humbly. That kind of humility, that vulnerability, was one of Dorothy’s most winsome – and “leader-ly” -- characteristics.

8. Threat → Includer: The only threat Dorothy poses is the threat of inclusion, not exclusion. She basically threatens you with acceptance; you’re part of her journey, a member of her team, unless you refuse and walk away. That kind of leadership strikes me as gospel leadership, and it reminds me of Someone Else.

9. Knower → Seeker: Oddly, Dorothy’s appeal as a leader arises from her being lost and being passionate about seeking a way home. Does it ever strike you as odd in contemporary Christian jargon that it’s the pre-Christians who are called seekers? Where does that leave the Christians? Shouldn’t the Christian leader be the lead seeker?

10. Solo Act → Team Builder: All along her journey, Dorothy welcomed company. She was glad for a team. By the end of their journey, the lion, the scarecrow, and the tin man have joined Dorothy as peers, partners, friends. Her style of leadership was empowering, ennobling, not patronizing, paternalistic, creating dependency. So effective was her empowering of them that they were able to say a tearful goodbye and move on to their own adventures.

I know, you’re thinking, why take a silly kid’s movie so seriously? You’re right – it’s just a movie. But I find the film’s repudiation of more traditional modern leadership to be fascinating, maybe an early expression of a cultural shift that we are more fully experiencing today.

And ultimately, of course, I find in Dorothy’s way of leadership many echoes of our Lord’s. After all, you can never imagine the great and terrible Oz washing his subjects’ feet, or his voice booming out, “I no longer call you servants, but friends.”

Maybe some of us are trying hard to be something we’re not. Maybe we’re imitating styles of leadership that are becoming outdated, inappropriate. That’s not to say we don’t have a lot to learn, but maybe the best thing that could happen to us would be to have the curtain pulled back to reveal us not as XXL superheroes, but regular size-M men and women. Maybe then, with the amplifiers turned off and the imaged dropped, we’ll hear Jesus inviting us to learn new ways of leading in his cause.

From 1982-1996, Brian McLaren was a pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, MD (www.crcc.org). He is now an author, speaker, networker, and board member (www.emergentvillage.org and www.sojo.net). He and his wife, Grace, have four young adult children. He has written several books and his website is brianmclaren.net.

FX - BUILDING PLANES IN THE AIR

2008-06-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

In a sense, once the church is launched, this is what we do. We're not just building a church, we're building a dream...

Watch and wonder...

Thank you Tim Davies for your vision.

SO HERE'S TO A PLACE....

2008-06-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

SO HERE’S TO A PLACE…

Where the grass is always greener

Where there’s light at the end of the tunnel

Where we give peace a chance

Where hope springs eternal

Where love conquers all

We wait in hope for the LORD

He is our help and our shield.

So here’s to a place…

Where we’ve got all the time in the world

Where every cloud does have a silver lining

Where we always look on the bright side of life

Where good things come to those that wait
Where we do to each other as we would be done by

We wait in hope for the LORD

He is our help and our shield.

So here’s to a place…

Where the road to hell isn’t paved with good intentions
Where good hearts aren’t hard to find

Where hope is not abandoned by those who enter there

Where nothing’s too good to be true

Where we don’t have to be cruel to be kind

We wait in hope for the LORD

He is our help and our shield.

So here’s to a place…

Where we don’t have to take the rough with the smooth

Where it’s not a jungle out there

Where we don’t see through rose tinted glasses

Where no-one has to put a good face on it

Where we don’t worry and are happy

We wait in hope for the LORD

He is our help and our shield.

So here’s hoping for…

Sight for the blind and healing for the sick

Freedom for the prisoners and good news for the poor

Release for the oppressed and love for each other

And the coming of God’s upside-down, inside-out, topsy-turvy kingdom.

NETWORK FX in a CAFE- SANCTUS1 ON HOLY GROUND

2008-06-12T01:02:00.000-07:00

"Do not come any closer," God said.
"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Exodus 3:5

Prologue:
I drove past the breathtakingly beautiful Peak District Moorlands wishing I could stop and take it all in. Maybe next time. I had never seen anything like it. High rounded hills devoid of trees, covered instead with inhospitable peat.

The forest cover used to extend much higher than it does now. We humans played a part in denuding these hills. By the early Neolithic period, the burning of woodlands to attract large game animals to clearings helped to reduce the woodland cover to what it is today. As the peat became waterlogged, little else would grow.

Commerce can kill.

I carried on through and past Snake pass (it is as dangerous as it sounds), as I nervously made my way to Manchester. This was the acid test of my abilities to drive in UK roads and to follow Guinevere (our sat nav) as she politely called out her patient instructions.

By God's grace we made it she and I.

After meeting Fresh Expressions director of training, Norman Ivison and FX International Liaison Bob Franklyn at Manchester Cathedral we headed over to Marks and Spencer's (Marks and Sparks) for dinner. Picking up a cheap sweater which would become my constant companion for the rest of the three weeks - it turned cold the whole time - I headed out on foot to find Nexus, home to "one of England's longest-established emerging churches" (J. Drane).

NEXUS ART CAFE (www.nexusonline.org.uk/), home of Sanctus1 (a young adult church), can be found in the Northern Quarter of Manchester – a busy commercial centre.

Manchester's modern sky-line is dominated by lofty business towers almost completely concealing the massive Manchester Cathedral. (In the picture above, it is to the left of the centre and the tall white tower, about a 1/3 of the way in from the far left. Come on, surely you can find it: it's brown, looks old and is 139 feet high - with a clock. See what I mean!)

On to Nexus

Occupying a space beneath a 200 year old building (a Methodist church but you’d never know it), Nexus is "a place of encounter for artists, musicians, dreamers and those who seek an oasis." For the 15-30 who meet there at 7:30 Wednesday nights (from a base membership as large as sixty) it is a holy place. There is also a smaller Sunday gathering beginning to incorporate a few of the members and leaders children.

“Descend the steps to discover ever changing art pieces which inspire and challenge. Meanwhile, fair trade coffee is being freshly ground, a variety of loose leaf tea is brewing away and delicious fresh food is cooking. Listen to music, surf the internet with free wi-fi, read a book, engage with art, or even enjoy a game of jenga. Meet with friends or make new ones.”

So says their home page. And enjoy I did: a delicious red-rocket sandwich (humous, sundried tomato, and olives on multigrain bread) and chai tea – my favourite - served with smiling grace.

SANCTUS1

Nexus is merely the venue: SANCTUS1 is the church; and what a church it is.

"We believe that God is already in the world and working in the world. We recognise God's indefinable presence in music, film, arts and other key areas of contemporary culture. We wish to affirm and enjoy the parts of our culture that give a voice to God and challenge any areas that deafen the call of God and prevent human flourishing."

"This is inclusivity with a vengeance," writes John Drane in Mission Shaped Questions (Church House 2008, p. 97). Dr. Drane describes in MSQ, four marks of maturity for the church that is current with our times: it will

1) be concerned with an organic [global] way of being,

2) look beyond ourselves so as to grasp the big picture of what God is doing

3) be inclusive (as above) and

4) live the story, not just regurgitate it.

Sanctus1 in my experience was all of the above.

"In July 2001, [Anglican] Church Army evangelist Ben Edson was
appointed as City Centre Missioner, to help create a fresh
expression of church for people engaged in a journey of
creative exploration into faith, worship, evangelism, friendship
and lifestyle.

Ben initially met with four committed Christians who had not
found a church. In January 2002 they held their first public
act of worship at Manchester Cathedral, attended by 20
people, and leading to setting up a monthly public worship
service. The core community, who meet on a Wednesday
night, has grown... [meeting] for discussion, worship and friendship.

Public worship services have attracted between 14 and 50
people, and use a DJ playing contemporary secular music,
as well as using video and art. The aim is to provide a
sacred space in the midst of a busy city.
Sanctus 1 has generated a number of insights, in particular
that new creative churches need to re-imagine mission,
worship and community, and that fluid structures are needed
to facilitate long-term sustainability and adaptability. (From Mission Shaped Church, p. 147)

Says Rev'd. Dr. Keith Davies, Chair of the Manchester and Stockport Methodist District, “Sanctus1 is a community of people who gather together to discover more about Christ, culture and community. Sanctus1 seeks to push at the boundaries; exploring God and spirituality within the city, in contemporary film and art, and within each other.

"Nexus is both an exciting project and a vibrant community which the Methodist Church [and their Anglican partners] is proud to support and encourage. It is both innovative and true to the essence of the Christian tradition. I personally value its openness and hospitality and I am delighted to endorse its work and encourage its vision."

Oddly, Sanctus1 does not describe itself as a café church, though I would gladly eat and lounge there anytime.

The common factor that draws its members into this network-focused, alternative worship church is their shared love for the urban-heart of Manchester. Few of the members of Sanctus1 live downtown but many work there. Launched as an attempt to reach young urban adults, and journeying through various spaces in their four-five years of existence, Sanctus1 has, for the last three years, found Nexus a warm inviting home. There is sufficient income from the café to cover its own expenses as well as of the cafe staff. The salaries of the two clergy are provided by their denominations.

People find Sanctus1 through Nexus, and also through flyers posted around town, at the cathedral and various other places. Several said they first heard about it at Greenbelt www.greenbelt.org.uk/, "an independent Christian festival working to express love, creativity and justice in the arts and contemporary culture in the light of the Christian gospel."

So, many of those who find Nexus/Sanctus1 have an affection for Christian things and the art before they arrive. They come because they have not found a home in a local parish. In technical FX lingo, these then might be considered open-dechurched: people who once went to church and might be open to returning if the right thing was on offer.

Our Canadian Anglican church - along with many mainline denominations - does poorly at attracting and holding such young adults. We have much to learn.

"I love this church" said one enthusiast. No singing and no sermon!"

Conversation flowed naturally as people settled into or draped themselves across stylish comfy chairs and sofas spread about. "There is a stage but it has never been used for that," said "Carla". Through the evening she graciously explained to me what was going on and who was who helping me to feel right at home.

The "service" began - both clergy speaking elsewhere that night - volunteer Laura Drane lit the candles – three wicks in one base – invoking the creator, redeemer and sanctifier, and read a responsorial prayer at the end (see the next post: "So Here's To A Place"), as well as the substance discussed clearly identified Sanctus1 as "church" (as did its members in conversation).

Tonight’s session was a riveting two-hour-small-group exploration of what fellow Torontonians Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat presented last week from their new book “Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire.” (This would not be the last time in the UK I would follow in the wake of canucks.)

In groups of three or four we were to identify what Empires we face today and how those Empire's power, control, mythology and imagery could be subverted by the Kingdom of God we proclaim.

Was it this discussion? Or the charming unique eateries we visited all across England? Or "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser? Whatever but on arrival back in Canada I find I have lost all patience with North American monoculture (for one take on what this means see http://patrickdeneen.blogspot.com/2008/04/against-monoculture.html)

Though there was no sermon – is a monologue always the best pedegogical tool for everyone? - The session was carefully organized, and the groups effectively coached. The plenary discussion was fascinating as we each encouraged the other to rage gently against the machine by living different - by biblical kingdom values.

The profound summary MS Deane gave at the end belied the informality of it all. She knew where we would need to be heading and made sure we heard what we ourselves had been saying. The art on the walls, the lyrical arrangement of furniture, the intimacy of the setting and restrained tone of the conversation, all combine to revive the soul.

One may love the urban core but if you are not careful, commercialism can kill the soul as surely as it did trees on the Moorlands. I regret that by the time we left at 9:30 pm I could not join them for the afterglow at their favourite pub. No drinking tonight. I had an appointment with deadly snake pass on my way to my Sheffield home.

"No preaching" – true – but this was Christian substance nonetheless - motivating us all to subversive Christian action against whatever dehumanizing machines seek us out. Sanctus1 is truly holy ground.

So here’s to a place…”

A TALE OF TWO CHURCHES

2008-06-11T01:32:00.000-07:00

Then they called them in again and commanded them
not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John replied,

"Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Acts 4:18-20

A Tale of Two Churches

Several confidants here told me that many of the churches in the Sheffield diocese (www.sheffield-diocese.org.uk/) are on the small size. One presently partnered for support and encouragement with Christ Church Central (ASA 200 and growing) regularly receives only eleven for worship. Many churches draw around thirty. Without have the hard data before me, I take it on good faith what I was told that half of the worshippers of the diocese attend just four of the larger churches.

It is with some surprise and sadness then that I learned that Christ Church Central is actually at the moment outside of Anglican structures.

St. Thomas' Philadelphia is "one of the largest churches in England with more than 2000 attending weekly worship, 70 percent of which are under the age of 35" (Breen & Kallestad, "The Passionate Church", Eastbourne: Kingsway 2005). Though it is listed alongside other parish churches of the Diocese of Sheffield, Paul Maconochie its senior pastor is a baptist minister. The formal link to the diocese is provided by staff member and "mission priest" the Rev'd Anne Maclaurin. The fully integrated Anglican-Baptist relationship (and also with a house church!) is unparalleled in my experience in Canada. I was told they have established their own charitable status as a separate corporation which is not that of the diocese.

I was sent to see what is happening in each because we have so much to learn from them. Yet each was birthed without clarity as to how their planting efforts would eventually be officially received. That did not hold them back – although there has been some pain along the way.

The new policy and procedures outlined in the newly adopted Bishop’s Mission Orders were drafted in part to make it more possible for such exciting ventures to remain in the official Anglican fold. (As far as I can tell, current political debates about same-sex issues in the church had nothing to do with why each church at the moment functions apart from the diocese.) Also with Sheffield’s Bishop Jack just retiring (yesterday was his first full day of retirement), and another Bishop to be selected and appointed, perhaps the new overseer here will be able to discern a unifying way forward for all the Anglican churches of Sheffield.

This is just speculation on my part, but as an ecumenical effort (Anglican, Baptist, Free Church), St. Thomas’ Philadelphia might prefer to retain its independent charitable standing. The cooperative union of these three bodies has enabled them to take over a sizeable chunk of industrial land formerly owned by businesses that sagged for various reasons. The manufacturing sector of the economy of Sheffield is in some transition.

Still Philly’s active and lively partnership with St Thomas Crookes is very encouraging. If you google “St. Thomas’ Sheffleld” you are taken to a page where you can choose either church – and each church refers to the other’s work and ministry with no hesitation. Go there and read for yourself. What a great place to see God’s Holy people active in God’s Holy work.

SHEFFIELD? WHY? PLANTING AMONG APARTMENTS: CHRIST CHURCH CENTRAL

2008-06-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

PROLOGUE: FIRST DAY ON THE ROAD

Our first full day in the UK started with worship at St. John’s, Ealing with my wife and dear friends of hers. She had not seen them in some years – it was a joyful morning! The congregation was very similar to the Rez in many ways – on this Sunday about 200 strong – though the Rez has more children. St John’s, Ealing is gently charismatic and very informal – no robes – though the priest wore clericals. The songs were mostly contemporary. There are many exciting churches like it across London.

So when people asked where I was going to find some exciting Fresh things that God is doing, a look of astonishment appeared whenever I identified my initial destination.

“Sheffield? Sheffield!?! Why?”

Perhaps with famous church buildings like Westminster, or York Minister or Coventry Cathedral, or flagship churches like All Souls Langham, Place, Holy Trinity Brompton, St. Paul’s London - folks just assume there are more logical places for a tourist to go.

But I am not touring church buildings or even church as we have known it. My goal is to discern the future. And much of the future thinking is coming out of out of the way places where God’s people, moved by missional thinking are entering new ground.

So with my new best friend, "Guenevere" - a Sat Nav (GPS) that Bill and Imbi Kinnon graciously loaned us - very politely giving step-by-step directions, my “hire” car took me painlessly from London to Sheffield under clear blue skies.

The scenery was remarkably like that along the 400 from Toronto to Barrie – except for the occasional castle and the absence in the UK of annoying billboards which only commercialize the scenery. I could get to like this – so much easier to see life…

CCC
Life such as Christ Church Central, for example.

Glossop Road is a sort of northern border for Sheffield Town Centre. Above it is Sheffield Hallam University. The University of Sheffield sits along the hill to the south but neither campus is well defined, fluidly blending into the city.

Along and below Glossop Road., are a number of higher end pubs, very swishy. Apartment buildings (flats) are five to ten stories high.

On this Sunny Sunday a few more steps down Edgerton Street is a park where university students and a few young families are at play.

Further south, as the area suddenly turns under-used industrial, on the right is the small Christ Church Central office building. Gracing the front is a large vinyl banner proclaiming, “A church for people who don’t go to church”. Directly across the street is the DQ dance club – the space Christ Church rents for weekly worship.

HOW THEY DO CHURCH

At 4:30 PM the pre-service refreshments are on offer in both buildings and in between right - on the street: a brilliant way to let people slowly gather for church and to greet the curious walking past. It also afforded me the time to chat-up a goodly number of people.

CCC is a plant of Christ Church, Fulwood, launched five years ago with an initial fifty willing souls – mostly on the young side (but at my advancing age that could be most of the population!). The founders sensed that many of the young adults living in the area could be attracted to a church with a different style of church life and culture that that of the local parish church.

Christ Church Central then is "people who aim to make the message of Jesus and the teaching of the Bible accessible, understandable, relevant and available to everyone. Their vision and mission is to take the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to people in Sheffield who don't yet know him, to be just as the sign says: "a church for people who don't go to church".

As this vision began to mature into a possibility, I am told Christ Church Fulwood, made every conceivable effort to get permission to launch across parish boundaries. However, the local parish in which this would happen felt CCC would be an infringement of the responsibilities entrusted to them by the Bishop and the Diocese. Permission was withheld. All across the UK, leaders told me that the recent Bishops Mission Orders were prepared in light of the struggles Christ Church Central encountered (see the next post).

So risking censure and marginalization, but with a clear hope that a new strategy and approach could bring people to faith in Christ and into His kingdom, Christ Church Central was launched anyway.

IT TOOK!

There has been some pain along the way but now CCC is clearly a thriving congregation with an effective outreach to young adults in flats (apartments).

That is why I came to them. In Toronto we have approved the first stage of a potential church plant project, the hope of which is to reach people in apartment buildings. Very few churches are good at that.It is said that people living in apartments are seven times harder to reach than home owners. I was told that Christ Church Central is doing as good a job at this as anyone in the UK.

REACHING FOLKS IN FLATS?

That part of their work used to be stronger even though there are a goodly number of their people in the under 40s who live in flats. It was not for want of trying.

1) Early on some of their leaders and members living in flats sought to make contact with their neighbours. Unfortunately most of that number have moved away.

2) Some Christ Church's members also took out membership in the gym meeting in one high-rise's basement – but then the gym closed.

3) A member named “Rick” said that they are still committed to reaching flats but, in the natural way relationships develop in apartment buildings, it takes about two years to build up sufficient trust with your fellow residents. By then many of the folks you have been nurturing relationships with move on.

Frustrating.

Perhaps if the residents stayed put longer, more fruit could be grown.

[Note - many of those apartment dwellers move on in order to buy their first homes and many stay on in Sheffield. Sheffield has one of the highest rates of any city in the UK at retaining its young people. So some of those who had been living in flats when first contacted by CCC have bought houses and continued at the church. Surely there is success in that. ]

YET LOOK AT THE LIFE HERE!

They are indeed reaching people in flats though it is a slower process than they would like. CCC's members on average are among the youngest I have seen for a self-financing church. There may be others like it in the UK, but in my doctoral research in Toronto, I only found two plants with a congregation this young on average. The closest example would be "Freedomize", but that’s PAOC (Pentecostal) and for a more "artsy" crowd. The newly revitalized Grace Church Toronto has a congregation on average about the same young adult age as CCC.

THE SECRET?
CCC's "secret" of success is not in the special efforts above that they tried. Actually it is no secret: it is...

1) PRACTICAL GOSPEL LOVE, that is, the systematic and careful love they extend to each other motivated by the love of Jesus. At the staff meeting to which I was invited, each apprentice or leader discussed not only programme plans, but also pastoral needs of the people they were looking after. Where are they in the faith? What can we do to help them along? What issues are arising for them? People who had shown up on Sunday just a time or two were given special consideration. How can we come alongside them? Do they have any special needs? Who might be able to befriend them? This was extraordinary care proffered for young moms, teenagers, university students, international students, the homeless, those of Sunday School age - and all. See more at their web site http://www.christchurchcentral.co.uk/ourvalues.html

2) GOSPEL WELCOMING: The people of Christ Church Central are an exceptionally enthusiastic and genuinely welcoming lot! When I arrived somewhat lost and slightly disoriented from my rushed trip north, one person after another came to introduce themselves to me. This was wide spread - hospitality was being extended to me not just among a few but eagerly by several people.

For example, after worship was over I was invited to join them at the Devonshire Cat Pub. Chatting with about a dozen gathered there allowed me to get to know them more personally – and to quaff a pint of “Pale River” a local fav.

Such welcoming contributes to making Christ Church such a hopping place. On the night I attended there were easily 200 there.

A youngish church they have an increasing number of children (there has been a mini-baby boom).

Having filled the DQ Dance Club space, they are planning to launch in October a second worship opportunity:
4 PM would be tailored for young families who need an earlier service to accommodate children's bed-times; 6 PM would be for the rest.

3) GOSPEL DNA
“How have you handled objections about breaking up the congregation?” Everybody seemed mystified by my question. Was I speaking a foreign language? (Well, yes actually but more to the point ...) Everyone at Christ Church just "knows" that multiplying opportunities to enfold new people into the Body of Christ could only be a good thing. That feeling is a symptom of this church's missional DNA. Helping people discover the transforming power of faith in Christ is at the core of who they are as a church. It is on everyone's mind. A practical demonstration of vision ownership: the only thing the pastor Tim Davies did the night I was there was give the notices. The whole evening the leadership was shared - everybody actively and visibly embracing the same vision (see "building planes in the air" on YouTube for what it takes to do an FX! Thanks Tim for that!).

Perhaps the pain of being marginalized by the Anglican institution they loved had ahelped them be that much more focused. Why are we doing this? Because these young adults need the good news of Jesus Christ, and need to learn His way, His truth, His life.

4) GAMMA TEAMS (You’ll never guess what the “G” in Gamma stands for.)
Organizationally, the church is broken down into “Gamma TEAMS” an effective small group structure that meet during the week. Gamma, Greek for G, Gospel Teams! The aim of these are:

Gospel sharing: pro-actively telling others the message of Jesus Christ,

Bible study that teaches, rebukes, encourages and trains in godliness,

Prayer for one another and the church

Christian friendship that loves, supports, rejoices and weeps together

Practically Gamma Teams…

a) meet together mid-week for study sharing and prayer;

b) engage in some form of outreach through natural relational networks (intervening with “the poor”, International Student Ministry, children’s ministries, crib, etc.);

c) and also form task groups for set-up and clean-up of their rented space on Sundays.

When they add a second worship time, people will likely decide which to go to based on which Gamma Team they belong to and what their Gamma decides to join.

It was abundantly clear that the vision for this venture was held firmly by the laity – with clergy and staff supporting and teaching. So the whole church and every member in it has embraced the gospel imperative that led to its foundation.

5) GOSPEL WORSHIP

Everything about the worship was designed to help all hear and take to heart the gospel. As the worship progressed Associate Minister Bill Fearnehough spoke in between

each song, separating it from the next by sometimes a testimony, or an explanation, or a reading. or notice. Founding pastor Tim Davies said that was intentional. The design is to help people concentrate on the content of the gospel not to be swayed or manipulated by emotion. (I knew only one of the five songs - it is a different country after all.)

One of CCC's members, "Stephanie" was interviewed about what it was like to be a Christian at school. She talked about her struggles in being a good student and also for acceptance. But she found that some of her fellow students were curious about her faith in Jesus and were willing to hear more. Her words were an encouragement to us all; even more profound when coming from "Stephanie": she was just eight years old .

The Scripture lesson was read by two of the international students both gradually making progress in their new journey with Christ. Their grasp of English was a little rough and so the lesson was not all that easy to understand but we all had had been given bibles to read. The important point was that that the words they were reading from the Bible were for the whole world.

It WAS refreshing for me as an evangelical to hear Associate Minister Matt Thompson do exceptional expository work on one of the most difficult of Pauline passages (Galatians 4:8-5:1) in just 20-25 minutes. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

This was the first church I have ever visited (and there have been hundreds) in which I has handed at the door only a Bible - no bulletin, nor a hymn book nor notices – just a Bible. Church members receive an e-newsletter during the week so there is little need for wasting paper.

More power to Christ Church Central – we have much still to learn from you.

ALL THE PEOPLE IN MISSION

2008-06-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

Whatever the form of Fresh Expression or church plant, it was obvious at every stop that the most critical factor was...

ALL THE PEOPLE IN MISSION

In church planting we have learned that the most critical factor is the planter. In my doctoral project I wrote...

Said the apostle Paul, “I planted.” God planted the first church in Eden. The eternal Trinity: God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who forever exists in community, desires that his human creation also experience his loving unity of community and thus reflect his glory in and to the world. Paul planted in imitation of this God. There must be someone to plant. Many church-starts that failed often did not have a planter who was called and appropriately gifted...

What Paul planted was the church. His methodology was not the reproduction of institutional structures but evangelism, preaching the gospel of Christ... Those who responded in faith inevitably gathered in the church. Neither churches nor planters should stand alone. They are all part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and need to be in relation somehow to others.

Yet this proper emphasis on the planter can divert attention away from the equally crucial need for each member as well as the whole of the church to be mission-minded.

HOLY TRIANGLE

How the leader imparted this in the places I visited varied from place to place, but the most common language used is adapted from Mike Breen's LifeShapes triangle. (For more on Life-Shapes see below).

The use of the triangle is to suggest that following Christ means living simultaneously in three sets of relationships. Lacking any one point leaves your spiritual life two dimensional at best and unfaithful, lonely, or unfruitful at worst.

In Luke 6:12-20 we read that Jesus went up on a mountain to pray (12), called his disciples to be with him in fellowship (13-16) and came down with them to a large crowd where he would go out in mission (17-20). This deceptively simple triangle sums it up visually.

The top point is UP:
Your relationship with God...

The down point is IN:
Your relationships IN the church...

The one pointing right is the OUT:
You moving outward in mission into God's world.

George Lings taught this at the Toronto Vital Church Planting conference in Feb '08. It was covered at St. Thomas' Pilgrimage by several speakers. It is expanded in detail in Mike Breen's books "A Passionate Life" and "A Passionate Church." The triangle was also dropped in casual conversation with several leaders interviewed. It is covered in Phil Potter's new unpublished book "the Challenge of Change." Steve Croft in Mission-Shaped Questions expands it by adding a fourth dimension: OF, turning the triangle into a pyramid, the church seen as pilgrims through time (p 192). But this observation is by no means new. Andy Freeman with Peter Grieg in "Punk Monk" credit Count Zinzendorf (1700-1760) with an almost identical triangle of priorities: True to Christ, Kind to People, Gospel to nations (Ventura:Regal. 2007. p. 107).

We usually see a pyramid with its base flat on the ground but I much prefer to visualize the triangle on its edge, as Bob Hopkins of the Anglican Church Planting Initiatives picked up from someone at Holy Trinity Brompton.

Seen as a play button (as above), the triangle says a) that the Christian spiritual life is not supposed to be static, but b) is meant to lead to dynamic action, and c) is blessedly off balance! Christ propels us out into mission - into "play" mode!

Not every leader used this image, but every community that was making significant headway with the gospel into the regions of the non-churched had fully integrated into their spiritual life
that outreach for the gospel was a vital irreplaceable part of what it means for EACH and EVERY Christian to follow Christ. Further, every group in a church, whether the group be an intimate gathering of people praying for each other, or a small group/cell (3-12 members), or a mid-sized (20-70) congregational cluster, or the whole celebration size Sunday worship should have its UP, IN and OUT dimensions:

How is our UP relationship with God doing?

What sort of time are we really spending IN the body of Christ?

What is God sending us to do OUT in mission to His world?

UP-IN-OUT and FRESH EXPRESSIONS
How is it that most Fresh Expressions are launched and led by laity? Because they see themselves as the planters! They understand that mission is their task and so they take the initiative. How you discover your mission is another matter, but you simplY must be OUTward bound.

This was true no matter the resulting shape of the Church plant or Fresh Expression.

Read on and you will see.

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Just for fun - to press this image home to your heart - listen to James Blunt on Sesame Street praise his triangle (in a self-parody of his hit song "You're Beautiful"). Precious!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Z6tDSb6c8

Just remember to hit the play button.
(suggested by St. Thomas Philadelphia's Anglican Mission Priest The Rev'd Anne Maclaurin)

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Oh yes, more about LifeShapes

LifeShapes is a set of discipleship tools designed over a decade by Mike Breen formerly of St. Thomas, Sheffield. He chose geometric shapes so that the lessons could be easily remembered. The goal is that at any point in the day or in any situation you can recall any of the major lessons by recalling a shape that sometimes hints at the lesson to be put into action - as the triangle - or sometimes is just the number of teaching points. For example,

Circle - our repeating need to repent and believe
Semi-Circle - the pendulum swinging from rest to work and back again
The triangle (as above)
The square (various stages of the leader / disciple relationship)
Pentagon (spiritual gifts), and so on.

These sets of teachings are meant to free not to bind. None of those who taught LifeShapes at St Thomas' Pilgrimage (and there were about a dozen teachers) were all that dogmatic about what the details of each shape must be as long as the needs of the gospel and growth in Christ was maintained.

Indeed, I found considerable openness to other ways of looking at the teaching embodied in the various shapes.

One lecturer even jokingly referred to the "dodecahedron of simplicity".

You gotta love the freedom they gave to grow with the teaching offered...

...and that sense of humour!