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Who we are | Mission Statement |
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Fresh Expressions, which is headed up by Archbishops'
Missioner, Dr.Steven Croft, is an initiative of the Archbishops of Canterbury
and York supported by the Methodist Council and is seen as a way of putting into
practice many of the recommendations explored in the recently published report
Mission Shaped Church.
What is the essence of the Mission-shaped Church report?
experience
This report was written as a result of the experience of church planters over
the last 15 years. It is an attempt to document and explain what has already
happened so such work will increase and be rightly understood.
diversity
The report acknowledges on p.20 and in chapter 4 the diversity of churches
planted in the last 15 years. The phenomena of cell churches, café churches,
youth congregations, midweek congregations etc. together illustrate there is no
one way of doing church (providing the essential values listed on pp.81-82 and
pp.96-99 exist).
network
This is also a response to the understanding that network communities as well as
neighbourhood communities now exist within society (p.5-7), although less so in
working class or rural areas. The parochial system is only equipped to reach
neighbourhoods. Anglican churches are also needed for networks of people who
spend their lives with others they meet elsewehere.
non-churched
Pages 36-41 of the report describe the non-churched (people who have never had
any regular contact with church) and closed de-churched
(people who have been members of churches but have left feeling damaged or
disillusioned and have no intention of returning) that make up 60% of our
society and look set to increase. These groups are not be reached by
existing evangelistic strategies.
multiplication
This
report is about the multiplication of different types of churches to reach the
different groups within culture.
go, not come
Christians
must go to the places in their communities or networks where people gather i.e.
pubs, schools, shops, cafés, parks, places of work to get to know people without
the ulterior motive of dragging them off to a service at the church, but with
the instinct to begin something new with them.
the evangelist
The more effective the evangelist in working with those beyond the fringes of
church, the more they must understand the importance of creating fresh
expressions of church for those people that are converted.
mixed economy
This report does not say ‘out with the old and in with the new’; it says a
‘mixed economy’ approach is needed. Traditional expressions of church must be
encouraged where they are effective in mission to fringe and de-churched. Fresh
expressions of church are needed in mission to those that traditional forms
cannot reach.
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