Stories of Fresh Expressions
Listening, Loving, Sharing, and Becoming A Church
New forms of church are springing up all over the place. They go by various names - fresh expressions of church, new Christian communities, missional communities, and more. Some appeal to existing churchgoers, but the more exciting ones reach people outside the church.
For example, Knit and Natter in England began when Christine met with three friends and created an opportunity for people to knit for a purpose. They knitted prayer shawls for bereaved people, blankets for the local women’s refuge, and hats for shoebox appeals. And they prayed for those who would receive them.
Before long 30 or more people were involved. Most did not attend church. Short devotions at the end proved popular, which increasingly became the focus of the community’s life.
Blended Church
New communities like this are not bridges to Sunday church. They become worshipping communities where they are. But they also develop links with their parent church or congregation.
The parent - we pray - becomes the hub of a network of new congregations. The congregations form a rim connected to each other, and linked to the hub like the spokes of a wheel.
When a wheel spins, it looks as if the spokes are blending together. And that’s the vision: a blended church in which older and newer expressions of faith develop their own styles of Christian life, but also work together in mutual love and support.
Doubling Your Reach
Christ Church, Bayston Hill in England’s West Midlands started a walking group, Coffee in the Living Room for patients of a medical practice, an all-age Messy Church for 120 people, and groups for youth and older citizens.
All the groups were geared toward people outside the church and aimed to give birth to their own worshipping communities. Over five years, the number of people the church served doubled.
The prayer was that these communities would develop spiritual lives that were appropriate to the people they reached. At the same time, they would support each other and share in the life of their parent hub.
A Missional Journey
How do these new Christian communities emerge? We have observed that they typically follow the journey below.
A Missional Journey ↘︎
Life is more messy than a diagram, of course! So the circles may overlap, pile on top of each other, or sometimes happen in a different order. Quite often, teams re-focus on an earlier stage.
Each circle is not merely a stepping stone to the next, but has intrinsic value. You listen, love, and build community because each of these activities is worthwhile in itself.
This means that each circle continues as others are added in - hence the overlaps in the diagram.
Two Examples
Thirst gave birth to a new Christian community among parents taking children to school.
Sue, listened to the other parents and realized that they wanted to meet up.
So she loved them by borrowing the school staff room once a week, providing refreshments, and hosting those who wanted to come.
A community was formed among parents who came regularly.
Sue shared Jesus by starting an explorers group on a different day.
In time, this became a church for those involved.
But their children and partners couldn’t come, so they repeated the cycle by starting an all-age community on Saturday afternoons, open to everyone.
Hot Chocolate in Dundee, Scotland happened because a group of Christians travelled this missional journey intuitively:
They listened to teenagers in the town center by taking them cups of hot chocolate, and they discovered that the young people wanted a place to meet.
They loved them by offering space in the church for them to hang out.
As they gathered, the young people built a community with the Christian volunteers.
The Christians shared Jesus by inviting interested teenagers to join the team in eating together, planning, and worshiping.
Church emerged as the team became an expanding Christian community connected to its parent congregation.
The community has yet to repeat the cycle, but with a 20-year history, it has become an inspiration to others.
What is special about the journey is that it brings together so many aspects of mission at its best - listening to people, which shows respect; loving others, which can range from pastoral care to struggles for social and ecological justice; building community; sharing the gospel; and helping people to grow in their discipleship as part of a worshipping community.
It is a joined-up mission!
Sharing Jesus
Many people balk at evangelism. But it can be really easy. This is what one rural church did. At the end of their weekly senior citizens lunch, they invited people who wanted to stay behind for just 10 minutes. No pressure! It was entirely optional.
Those who stayed gathered around a table. They lit a candle, played some Christian music, read an encouraging passage from Scripture, invited people to pray silently to God as they understood God or have positive thoughts for a person or situation, and then closed with a blessing.
Half the group stayed behind!
Have a go!
You could do something like that. If you have an outreach activity, you will have already traveled the first three cycles of the missional journey. Why not follow the example of this rural church and add in the fourth - a spiritual extra at the end of your meeting? You could call it Soulspace.
It is really easy. Go to cofe.io/soulspace and you will find it all set out with suggested music, Bible readings, words to say, and so on. A few clicks and you’re ready to go!
Imagine what might happen. After a while, people might ask to discuss the readings. “We don’t understand them.” “We don’t always agree with them.” So you include 10-15 minutes of discussion. (Some brilliant discussion questions are available on the Soulspace website.)
What would you have? Worship in music, Bible reading, sermon in the form of discussion, and prayer - the beginnings of Christian worship.
All the Christian leaders have to do is use the words on the website (or make up their own) and join in the discussion. No embarrassment. No manipulation. This is evangelism made easy.
Anyone can do this!
A family invited friends to play board games. The convener then announced, “If you come at such-and-such a time, we’ll eat Pizza, I’ll tell (or read) a Bible story, we’ll make Lego models to illustrate it, we’ll discuss what we have made, and then I’ll teach you to pray to God as you understand God or to your higher power.” Lego church was born!
Why don’t you do something similar?
Revd Dr. Michael Moynagh is a nationally recognized missiologist. He is a minister within the Fresh Expressions stream of Anglicanism, in which he serves as Director of Network Development and Consultant on Theology and Practice. He is also an associate tutor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and a senior research fellow with Career Innovation. He has authored various seminal texts within the Fresh Expressions and mission-shaped church movements.