fbpx
0

Category: Worship

Home / blog / Church / Worship
Nov232010

Hallelujah! | The Invisible Church

Many sources are keen to point out that “Christians are being marginalised” within society.  As I said in a recent blog people have become increasingly disconnected from their neighbours, their tangible, real world communities.  This can result in a sense of spiritual isolation and of being the only follower of the way present in each daily encounter you have.  This in itself fosters and reinforces the feeling of marginalisation and as some have [wrongly] said, persecution.

I suspect that this shift in society has resulted in us missing the reality around us as we are disconnected from it:

Nov222010

Fresh Expressions | Fishing Net or Safety Net

I recently blogged concerns about Fresh Expressions moving people from one form of church to another rather than reaching new people.  Share the guide has blogged a brief introduction to a forthcoming grove booklet by Matt Stone asking the question “Are fresh expressions actually being fishing nets and reaching the unchurched, or are they merely safety nets, picking up disenchanted and bored churchgoers?”.  There are some interesting statistics that the study highlights.

Over 87% of those surveyed in every expression, and 100% in three of the expressions, had attended a church before. Hence, they were primarily churched or dechurched, rather than unchurched.

If this is an accurate assessment of Fresh Expressions I have some further questions about the consequences of this. 

  • Is it a problem that Fresh Expressions are reaching the churched or dechurched? 
  • Is this just plugging into the consumerist society in which we are currently living and turning God into a product that we are repackaging?
  • If this is a problem, how can Fresh Expressions more effectively reach the unchurched?

This grove booklet should make some interesting reading.

Oct242010

What is a “Fresh Expression of Church”?

The Fresh Expressions email sent a link to this video.  The issue it highlights was the focus of the keynote address by Graham Cray at Sheffield Diocese day of workshops looking at Fresh Expressions.  His most poignant remark was along these lines (I type from memory):

My advice for people who want to set up a fresh expression is ‘don’t’.  Spend a year or two praying with a group of people about where God is working in your place.  Don’t just try to transplant something from somewhere else.  See what grows out of the area in which you are.