What is fresh expressions and the emerging church?

Taken from: freshexpressions.org.uk

How do you define a fresh expression of church?

The precise definition of a fresh expression of church has evolved over time. The term is coined by the Mission Shaped Church Report. It’s taken from the promise made by Anglican clergy every time they take up a new post: “to proclaim the gospel afresh in each generation”.So, currently we think this is the most helpful definition:

A fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church.

• It will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples. 
• It will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church and for its cultural context.

Is the opposite of a fresh expression a stale expression of church?

No. The opposite of a fresh expressions is a mature church. Not every fresh expression has developed all the marks of a mature church. These take time to grow. Every fresh expression is on a journey towards maturity.

There is still plenty of life in traditional churches. Our aim is not to grow fresh expressions instead of the traditional churches but alongside them: a mixed economy.

What kind of things are covered by the term fresh expressions?

Mission Shaped Church describes 12 different kinds of emerging churches and new ones are still developing. They cover everything from new midweek services or a different form of Sunday service to new communities based on networks of young people or adults. Some are doing church differently through small communities. Some are meeting in different venues.

Taken from: emergingchurch.info 

By George Lings

Revd George Lings is Director of The Church Army Sheffield Centre, UK

The phrase “Emerging church” is an attempt to express succinctly the re-imagining of church that has been taking place in the last 20 years as a response to our rapidly changing UK mission context. The phrase “emerging church”, in my mind, is too passive and too modest; these ways of expressing church differently have already emerged and are very much claiming to be more authentic church than the inherited models. So keep an eye out for the phrase “fresh expressions of church” that has increasing currency in the circles I move in.

I do not want to say that traditional forms of church no longer connect with anybody. The increase in attendance of Cathedral worship and the creation of new Monastic Orders prove that there is much in the history of the Christian Church that continues to draw. In a nutshell, I have become convinced that the mission of God is our primary calling and that the Church of God is shaped around that mission. We can draw on the traditional forms of worship where they are appropriate but should realise that these forms tend to connect with middle-class, middle-aged, white people with a preference for pseudo-classical music (See John Drane’s McDonaldization of the Church).

What kick-started emerging church in the UK? Our best guesses are:

• The observation that when young people grew up to be “adults”, they didn’t “fit” into “adult church”; a cultural gap not just a generational gap existed. (See Graham Cray’s Grove Evangelism Booklet no.57).
• The church planting trend in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s proved we had good intentions regarding mission but missed the opportunity to think creatively about what sort of churches were needed. (See Stuart Murray’s & my Grove Evangelism no.61).
• The statistical evidence that 40% of the population in England and Wales have never been to Church and have no residuary awareness of Christianity and no experience of church (Gone But Not Forgotten by Francis & Richter). For many, Jesus continues to be as deeply attractive as church is deeply alien.
• A growing unease within Christians that what happens on a Sunday often fails to connect with the other areas of their lives.

What makes something church? It might be as simple as being both Christ-centred and communal. In addition, I value Robert Warren’s definition of 3 intersecting circles of “worship”, “mission”, “community” (with “spirituality” at the heart) but would add the 4th dimension of “intrinsic belonging to the wider church”.

What is it that emerging church is doing differently? To serve a diverse mission context, fresh expressions of church are correspondingly varied. A significant difference in one stream of emerging church is the targeting of a network rather than a neighbourhood for mission; some people (network churches) identify more with where they work and socialise than where they sleep. Another stream is defined by its use of small-group as the context for church (base communities, cell church). Other streams have kept congregation size but have changed where it gathers, when it gathers and what takes place (alternative worship, café church, midweek church, youth congregations). Further still, some emerging churches are embarking on community development where any expression of their worshipping life is low-key and still evolving. Some churches will draw on more than one of these differences as appropriate.