Fresh Expressions

New and exciting initiatives are being developed and put in place to attract the interest of people right outside the Church.

The Bishop of Ely has appointed the Revd David Male as half-time Diocesan Fresh Expressions Advisor in the Diocese of Ely in 2006.

This appointment, approved by the Bishop's Council in February 2006, was made possible by funding for mission initiatives from the Church Commissioners. David was previously vicar of 'The Net' Church in Huddersfield, a 'network style' church which he has pioneered and developed over the last seven years. During the other half of his time in this diocese he is employed by Westcott House and Ridley Hall as Tutor in Pioneer Mission Training.

In 2004, the Church of England produced a report called Mission-shaped Church which calls for new ways of approaching mission.

The report maintains that the existing parochial system alone – relying on people coming to church regularly – is not enough.

It is now estimated that some 60% of the nation are highly unlikely to find traditional Sunday worship either attractive or inviting.

Instead, new ideas, called “Fresh Expressions” of church, are being introduced to bring the Church out into the community. They are being developed in partnership with the Methodist Church.

Archbishop Rowan Williams has recently appointed the Revd Dr Steven Croft as Archbishops’ Missioner to promote and develop “Fresh Expressions” of church, to run alongside more traditional models.

Most of the new initiatives are started by ordinary Christian people who simply want to offer something to the communities in which they live and work. Many of these missionary strategies take place on different days of the week and in different places, such as schools and cafés, residential homes, gyms and pubs, as well as churches.

The mission-shaped church is becoming a reality across the country as more people become excited by the idea, but some may feel daunted about how they can actually get started.

This raises huge questions and clearly there are no easy answers.

You can get more information from the Fresh Expressions website.

Support is available for those who are looking at ways of developing “Fresh Expressions” of church. You can contact the Fresh Expressions Advisor for further details.

Contents

• Evangelism
• Fresh Expressions
• Growing Healthy Churches
• Lost for Words
• Parish Evangelists
• Short Courses