Fresh Expressions1 Pioneering Church Diocese of Adelaide.

Fresh Expressions 1

Pioneering Church

Diocese of Adelaide

COULD THIS BE YOU?

• ‘The ministry training that I received forty years ago was for a world that no-longer exists.’ Rev. Professor Eddie Gibbs

SOCIETY

CHURCH

FRINGE

CHRISTENDOM CONTEXT

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SOCIETY

CHURCH

FRINGE

CHRISTENDOM CONTEXT

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SECULAR. PLURALISM

ChurcChurchh

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baptismeducationmarriagefestivalsSundaysicknesscrisisbereavement

baptismeducationmarriagefestivalsSundaysicknesscrisisbereavement

The mission task:from door to fontto communion table &out to the world

The mission task:from door to fontto communion table &out to the world

Culture and the rhythm of the year lead people to the church door

The mission task becomes:•go to where people are•form communities of faith•make disciples there

Culture leads people to many other doors.

MISSIONARY CONTEXT

• ‘Ministers in the Church of England must pursue their vocation increasingly aware of the missionary context in which the church is set.

• In previous generations ministry was exercised in a culture where Christian beliefs and behaviours were the norm: today’s context is more of a spiritual and moral market place.’

‘Culture is now an organised diversity with little sense of defining centre.’Alan Roxburgh

Change the Church’s ‘default settings’

to mission and pioneering.

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MENU

•Pioneering Church

• Pioneering Ministry

•Pioneering Heritage

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PIONEERING CHURCH

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The Pioneer Of Our Faith

Identifies with us - Hebrews 2:10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.Prepares a new way for us- Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

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PIONEERING CHURCH

• A Community of Disciples

• An Incarnational Community

• A Movement of the Spirit

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A Community of Disciples

What is the essence of church?

• ‘If ‘church’ is what happens when people encounter the Risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with each other, there is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style …

WHAT IS CHURCH?

• so long as we have ways of identifying the same living Christ at the heart of every expression of Christian life in common.’ Archbishop Rowan Williams

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Church is ……

• ‘… people with Jesus at the centre travelling wherever Jesus takes us.’ Church Without Walls

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An Itinerant Church

'Jesus never tarries, like foxes and birds, he is always on the move, the kingdom is a movement that requires him to go to those to whom he has been sent. …. The book of Acts witnesses to the necessity for disciples of Christ to, like Jesus himself, be on the move.’ Stanlet Hauerwas

There is something essentially 'itinerant' about Christian ministry and discipleship - flexibility and and lightness of touch - in response to the plight of those to,whom Jesus sends us.

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Itinerent Ministry

'Luke makes the continuation of the gospel mission unmistakeable by having the disciples travel two by two (In fulfilment of Jesus' command in Lk. 10:1) and shake the dust off their feet when they are rejected.'(Acts 13:51 Lk 10:11)' Luke Timothy Johnson

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In the company of Jesus

‘Being where Jesus is means finding yourself in the company of the people whose company Jesus seeks and keeps

So, when Jesus goes to be in the company of the excluded, the wretched, the self-hating, the poor, the diseased, that's where you're going to find yourself.

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In the company of Jesus

This is once again an important reminder that our discipleship is not about choosing our company beyond choosing the company of Jesus.’ Rowan Williams

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Grafted

Paying our debts

‘I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish — hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.’ Romans 1:14-16

Theology Point 1. 23

Sent to proclaim

• Rom.10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13 For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

• 14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

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Mission in the power of the Spirit

• Rom. 15:18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ. 20 Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named.

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The Church’s Challenge

• Who will our current forms of church never reach?

• Do we have a spiritual responsibility to those with no knowledge of the faith?

• Hence – fresh expressions of church!

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An Incarnational Community

We share in Christ’s mission

•‘The mission of the Church is the gift of participating, through the Holy Spirit, in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world.’ James Torrance

•John 20:21f ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you …. Receive the Holy Spirit’

Called to join Jesus

• ‘As a fellow human being with us, Jesus can do no other than draw other human beings into his unique and incomparable work. And so he calls other to join him in the special task of continuing his work … drawing them ever more deeply into his own mission.’ Hans Urs Von Balthasar


An activity of God

• ‘We are invited to participate in an activity of God …..

• We are invited to become, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, participants in the Son’s loving obedience to the Father.’ Lesslie Newbigin


The Unique Event

• ‘When we expound both the what and the how of mission incarnationally, we need to be careful always to emphasize that the incarnation is the unique event that founds and forms the church’s witness.

• The event defines how it is to be embodied and thus communicated.’

Darrell Guder

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Incarnational Mission

• ‘As Christ had entered our world, so we are to enter other people’s worlds. ……

• This entering into other people’s worlds is exactly what we mean by incarnational evangelism. All authentic mission is incarnational mission. We are to be like Christ in his mission.’ John Stott

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‘Christ takes flesh’

• ‘Christian faith is embodied faith; Christ takes flesh among those who respond to him in faith. But there is no generalized humanity; incarnation has always to be culture specific.’ Andrew Walls

• ‘One of the central features of this report is the recognition that the changing nature of our missionary context requires a new inculturation of the gospel within our society.’ MSC


OUR PEOPLE?

• ‘The gap is as wide as any that is experienced by a cross-cultural missionary. It will require a reworking of language and approach, and it is here that both church planting and fresh expressions of church offer real possibilities.’


the word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood… (John 1)

Try this ….Try this ….

The Body of Christ

INCARNATIONAL

• Entering their world.

• Taking it as seriously as they do.

• Helping them to find Christ there.

INCARNATIONAL

• Entering their world.

• Taking it as seriously as they do.

• Helping them to find Christ there.

INCARNATIONAL

• Entering their world.• Taking it as seriously as they do.• Helping them to find Christ

there.

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The Sunday Sanctuary

Research & StatisticsScope There are around

1,000 fresh expressions or new forms of

church

Within at least

40 Dioceses

Research & Statistics

On average, that’s

an additional 40 people attending in these parisheseach week

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Church is ‘for the place where it is

located’• ‘not just latitude & longitude’ but• ‘its place in the fabric of human society’• ‘the whole secular reality, including

physical, social, cultural and political aspects’ as

•‘sign, first fruit and instrument of God’s purpose in Christ for that place.’ Lesslie Newbigin

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Not

• ‘Imports from another “place”’• ‘Survivals from another time’• ‘Static – every aspect is in

process of change’


Not about us

• ‘The character of the local church will not be determined primarily by the character, tastes, dispositions, etc., of its members, but by those of the secular society in which and for which it lives - seen in the light of God‘s redemptive purpose revealed in Jesus Christ for all men.’


More faithful witness

• ‘The continuing conversion of the church to incarnational witness does not mean selling out to the …. cultures that form our context.

• Our conversion is to more faithful witness, to more loving and creative translation of the gospel. …

• God’s Spirit is promised to us for precisely this continuing task …’ Darrell Guder


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A Movement of the Spirit

The Director

• ‘The chief actor in the historic mission of the Christian church is the Holy Spirit. He is the director of the whole enterprise. The mission consists of the things that he is doing in the world. In a special way it consists of the light that he is focussing upon Jesus Christ.’ John V Taylor

The primary witness to the resurrection

• John 15:26-27 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father, he will bear witness to me. You also will bear witness ….’

• 'It is not said that the Spirit will help the disciple to bear witness. ..... What is said is that the Spirit will bear witness and that - secondarily - the disciples are witnesses.’ Lesslie Newbigin

But God ….

• ‘God continues to create new futures in the most inauspicious of places.’

• ‘The biblical narratives are full of stories about places and people without hope who became centres of the Spirit’s creative, world changing, activity.’ Roxburgh + Romanuk

‘Spiritual’

•John 20:21f ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you …. Receive the Holy Spirit’

•‘This is the primary purpose for which the Spirit is given: that we may bear witness to Christ. We must not expect the gift while we ignore the purpose. A church which ceases to be missionary will not be, and cannot rightly expect to be “spiritual”.’ Archbishop William Temple

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'Luke's interest lies elsewhere than institutional arrangement, and his challenge to the church is less to do with how the assembly structures itself, than with the character of the assembly's response to the Holy Spirit at work in the world.' Luke Timothy Johnson

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Responsiveness to the Spirit

'This constant movement and mission depicts a church that responds to the promptings of the Spirit and is not defined in terms of place.' Luke Timothy Johnson'The corollary of itineracy is responsiveness to the movement of the Holy Spirit.' Luke Timothy Johnson

• 'The narrative of Acts suggests that a community truly led by the Spirit will be led in new and surprising directions.' Luke Timothy Johnson


Seeing what God is doing and joining in!

• ‘We must relinquish our missionary presuppositions and begin in the beginning with the Holy Spirit.

• This means humbly watching in any situation in which we find ourselves in order to learn what God is trying to do there, and then doing it with him.’ John V Taylor

God is ahead

• 'God is already ahead of all evangelism, carrying on his mission to the world. …. More often than not respectful discernment will demand drastic changes of heart and mind, as for Peter with his own traditions.' David Ford + Daniel Hardy

• Reconnect


Poole Missional Communities

Community Cafe Wild Spirit


Being and becoming

• ‘The church is “missionary by its very nature” and it becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself.’ Bevans & Schroeder

Expanded by the Gospel

• ‘They were not expanding the gospel as they followed the missional mandate of our Lord across all the safe boundaries of their world. The gospel was expanding them. It still does.’ Darrell Guder


Putting things the right way round

• ‘Our theology would improve if we thought more of the church being given to the Spirit than of the Spirit being given to the church.’ John V Taylor

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Pioneering Church

Diocese of Adelaide

Fresh Expressions1 Pioneering Church Diocese of Adelaide.

Documents

church door slide

heritage slide

spirit slide

style slide

church pioneering ministry

church of england

essence of church

itinerant church jesus