BOLTON AND ROCHDALE METHODIST DISTRICT

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Fresh Expressions was initiated in 2005 by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York but now involves the Methodist Council, the United Reformed Church and a number of other partners. The initiative has resulted in hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches.  

Archbishop and Methodist General Secretary give backing to FEASTs

Tuesday, 9^th March, 2010  

Addressing a national conference looking at the way ahead for fresh expressions of church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and General Secretary of the Methodist Church , Rev Dr Martyn Atkins backed the development of regional support teams.  

It was the first major Fresh Expressions gathering since the United Reformed Church became a formal partner in the movement last year. URC General Secretary Rev Roberta Rominger also attended the event.  

Speaking to more than 450 delegates at the Changing the landscape conference in Lincoln, the Archbishop said, “As fresh expressions gets more successful, more widely known, more active and innovative, it’s really important to remember that fresh expressions is not first and foremost about capturing a new market for a product.  

“Fresh expressions ought to be, and I hope and pray is, the Church’s way of pushing back against static, infantilising forms of religious belief, pushing back against trivialisation, against the shrinkage of faith and discipleship to boring and manageable dimensions.”  

Describing the Church as an ‘echo chamber of the divine Word’, he urged patience from both traditional and fresh expressions of church. “Fresh expressions is not an instant solution to the Church’s problems of membership and support, or whatever – it’s not a quick fix for the issues and needs of those involved. And that means, of course, that it’s quite a risky territory to be in.”  

Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops’ Missioner and leader of the Fresh Expressions team, said the aim of the day was that the “mixed economy of an enriching partnership between inherited models of church and fresh expressions of church should become a long-term part of the landscape of the Church in the UK focusing particularly on how we can help fresh expressions of church grow through to maturity and sustainability and how we can own and encourage those developments regionally.”  

Dr Martyn Atkins said that partnering in the Fresh Expressions initiative was incredibly symbolically and sustainably important to Methodism. “It’s a means of embodying the covenant relationship between our churches in a particularly apt model of ecumenism for today. The partnership reminds the Methodist movement that it is a movement committed to discipleship. It allows us to express our Methodist ecclesiology which is essentially missional.  

“It provides us with encouragement and an open door to do what we feel God would best have us do, that is namely to seek authentic, culturally sensitive and apt ways of - to use a phrase of John Wesley - of ‘offering Christ’ and creating almost accidentally out of that process Christian communities that enable disciples to come into being in any time and place.”  

He warned, “In a time of decreasing resources - whether of people or finance - we’ve got to resist the temptation to continue to resource what we have long had without asking serious questions of it, and then immediately withdrawing support in tight times from things which are just coming to be. The Church cannot be the place where ‘last in, first out’ is the rule.  

“Consequently we must face the sharp challenge that those expressions of Christian Church that do not appear to enable groups of human beings to worship, love and serve God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and live out their lives as Christ their Lord might choose, as authentic disciples, cannot continue to automatically expect or command the lion’s share of the resources of an official organisation. The Church, whatever else it is, is not a self-preservation society."

The event saw the launch of a five-year strategy to support and encourage fresh expressions of church through FEASTs ( Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Teams).   

FEASTs bring together pioneers involved in fresh expressions of church; permission-givers working within denominational structures to effect change and release resources; and champions for the initiative - even if they may not be pioneers themselves.

Working across both large and small areas, the FEASTs:

·         Encourage prayer for fresh expressions to emerge and for the strategy as a whole;

·         Train, resource and map fresh expressions;

·         Identify and support pioneers.

Overseeing the growth in FEASTs is Fresh Expressions Connexional Missioner for the Methodist Church , Stephen Lindridge. “Some regions and FEASTs have a very clearly defined area and relationships across the denominations; in other cases it is very disparate. Separating Great Britain into seven regional areas is an attempt to tackle this problem.”

FEASTS are already up and running in some areas. Rev Dave Martin, Mission and Development Enabler, Plymouth and Exeter Methodist District, said, “We have been operating FreD ( Fresh Expressions Devon) for a few years now.  It has been an invaluable group from which to launch msm courses and more recently to draw together strategists and practitioners.  We need to keep reminding each other of the worlds we inhabit.”  

Kerry Thorpe, Diocesan Missioner for fresh expressions of church in the Canterbury Diocese, and convener and teacher of a local FEAST, said, “We have been running the mission shaped ministry course in the Kent region for the past two years. We have drawn together leader teams of fresh expressions of church across the Dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester , and in partnership with Methodist, URC, Baptist, Salvation Army. It has been exciting to see these teams grow and develop together, and use the insights learned in their home projects.”   

Canon Tony Hardy, Canon Evangelist, Diocese of Manchester, added, “The FEAST group for Greater Manchester and Rossendale has existed for little over a year but has made fantastic progress. Our local FEAST group has initiated a strategy for training and supporting fresh expressions by working within the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester plus Rossendale valley.”  

The Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev John Saxbee, said, “The Fresh Expressions Steering Group in Lincolnshire was ecumenical from the start, and this has ensured maximum co-operation in sharing ideas and deploying resources.  As a result, imaginative projects, training courses and support structures have been put in place – some of which have been rolled out across the country as a whole. We were one of the first FEASTs, and by God’s Grace we seek to go from strength to strength in the future”.

Changing church for a changing world  

Fresh Expressions and the Methodist Conference  

There was a clear endorsement for the Fresh Expressions initiative from Revd David Gamble, the new President of the Methodist Conference this week.   

Speaking at the annual gathering, this year held in Wolverhampton, the President said that Fresh Expressions is something “to which we (as a church) are committed”.   

David Gamble went on to say that it is the job of every church, every minister and every circuit to consider “where the places are, God is calling them to”.  He added that the Methodist Church was firmly behind the work the national team was doing.  

Bishop Graham Cray, Archbishops’ Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions was the key speaker at a fringe meeting Conference, and described Fresh Expressions as ‘the most tangible expression of the covenant between our two churches’.   Quoting Methodist theologian James Dunn, Bishop Cray added: ‘Methodism reminds us that fresh expressions are not only the way Christianity began but also the way in which Christianity will be revived.’   

He was also keen to emphasise that fresh expressions are not rebranding – not fresh expressions of worship, not fresh expressions of buildings – but fresh expressions of church.  He also claimed that ‘fresh expressions are a spiritual not a church attendance issue’.   

The fringe meeting was one of the most popular at this year’s Conference and was also an opportunity to welcome Revd Stephen Lindridge, who becomes the Methodist missioner on the Fresh Expressions team from September.

"Alive and Kicking"

A DVD of District initiatives 

(details)

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Fresh Expressions Vision Day

A Fresh Expressions Vision Day was held on 5 October 2006 

at Canon Slade School, Bolton

Reports of the Event

Report of the event    (From the "Fresh Expressions" Website)

Reports from local participants

From John Parkin (Bolton Mission Circuit)

Inspirational ‘Fresh Expressions’ Vision Day in Bolton

Over 200 Christians from six denominations met in Bolton on 15 October 2006 , to hear about new ways of being the church.

This popular Fresh Expression Vision Day was jointly sponsored by the Chairman of the local Methodist District, Rev’d David King and the Anglican Bishop of Bolton , Rt. Rev’d David Gillett.

Speaking after an afternoon and evening of presentations, buzz groups and workshops, David King said he wanted to see local Christians beginning to find new ways of reaching out, as they constantly relied on the Holy Spirit. David Gillett said he looked forward to the day when ecumenical teams of Christians were forming fresh expressions throughout the area and especially in the clubbing centre of Bolton .

Workshops included sharing about fresh expressions for older people, fresh expressions in schools, and how to start a fresh expression if all you had was an old building but lots of faith.

Jim Hodgkinson, a Local Preacher from Horwich, was inspired by the day, the vision of the leaders and by the assurance that it is a movement gathering momentum. He said ‘I came away with lots of check lists against which it will be possible to examine our own proposals - really good tools to help us get it right.’

Jim Hodgkinson (left) and Rev’d Otto Ntshanyana taking part in a buzz group

Rev’d David Griffiths, The Anglican / Methodist Ministry Development Adviser for Bury, said ‘Fresh Expressions were what the Church has done over the centuries as it has responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in new ventures of faith and witness. We heard of some exciting examples today of ‘all age’ activity and worship; a bus making contact with elderly people no longer able to get to church; a stall at a village day involving people making a banner of Christian symbols; and worship in a local pub, coffee shop and cafe.’

Margaret Higson, from Edgworth, thought the event was professionally organised. She said ‘It has been inspirational and set my mind wondering how we can achieve new ventures, but also made me realise we need to be patient and be spirit led not self led.’ It stirred up personal thoughts in her that the Church needs to move on. The day gave a few pointers. She said ‘There was no deep theological discussion, everything was down to earth and practical, yet based within the structure of worship.  

From John Parker (Wigan Circuit)

God is at work in his church. Well at least he is in Bolton !

The national Fresh Expression team came to Bolton to lead a vision day. The event proved to be so popular that it was over-subscribed. About 250 people attended.

 The event broke into 3 sections:

1.      Moving on in a Mission Shaped Church

2.      Starting a Fresh Expression

3.      Sustaining a Fresh Expression

 Each of these sections followed a similar pattern:

• Introduction by one of the Fresh Expression national team

• A 5 minute DVD example of a fresh expression

• An interview with someone in charge of a local fresh expression

• A tentative conclusion of patterns to be recognised in fresh expressions

Also between sections 2 & 3 there was a short break to eat & this was followed by a choice from nine seminars which ranged from youth congregations, café church, worship, older folk, church in school, resources etc.

The organisers also managed to fit in some worship, prayer & buzz groups. In all it was a very full 5 & ½  hours. There were a good number of resources for sale. The DVD on Fresh Expressions being a particularly good resource in that it has 14 examples as well as a 30 minute introduction.

Fresh Expressions of church come about by dreaming dreams & then acting on them. There is no hand me down plan, we need to rely on God. They are hard work. Yet the marvellous point in it all is that people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ & often these are folk whom the church would not normally reach. Some of the stories brought tears to our eyes.

The day proved to be encouraging & enriching. It caused everyone to think and it sent us home enthused. We now know for sure God is at work and not just in Bolton .