The Guide contains how-to-do-it advice on starting, developing and sustaining fresh expressions of church based on shared experiences.
More about The Guide
A weekly guest blog.
'Decline can be avoided, detected and reversed.' So begins Jim Collins' latest book How the Mighty Fall, based on four years of research into companies which found that decline is 'largely self-inflicted'.
Below is a re-wording of the main findings, using 'church language' to see if it helps our exploration of inherited church and fresh expressions.
The five stages of decline that proceed in sequence
Stage 1: Churches become insular
Church members believe their church is 'entitled' to exist, losing sight of the true factors that originally established it.
When people are saying 'We're established because we do these specific things' instead of the insightful 'We're established because we understand why we do these things and under what conditions they would no longer work', decline will very likely follow.
Stage 2: Undisciplined growth
When a church grows beyond its ability to fill key leadership roles with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall.
Stage 3: Denial of risk and peril
Internal warning signs mount, yet membership and attendance remain strong enough to 'explain away' disturbing data or to suggest that the difficulties are 'temporary' or 'cyclic'.
Church leaders start to blame external factors such as culture rather than accept responsibility.
The vigorous, fact-based dialogue that characterises healthy churches disappears altogether.
Stage 4: Solution grasping
Church leaders respond by grasping for quick solutions - eg, introducing a new charismatic visionary leader, instigating a dramatic cultural revolution, or merging established churches.
Initial results may appear positive, but the results do not last.
Stage 5: Irrelevance or closure
Repeatedly grasping for quick solutions erodes financial strength and individual spirit to such an extent that all hope of building a great future is abandoned.
In some cases, the church leaders just sell out; in other cases the church atrophies into insignificance; and in the most extreme cases, the church simply closes.
Specific findings relevant to fresh expressions of church
It's not as simple as 'they failed because they didn't change'. Churches that change constantly but without any consistent rationale also collapse. There's nothing wrong with keeping specific practices, but only if you understand the 'why' behind those practices, and thereby see when to keep them and when to change them.
To disrespect the potential remaining in the inherited church - or worse, to neglect it while focusing on fresh expressions in the belief that the inherited church will continue almost automatically - leads to decline. Even if you face the impending demise of the inherited church, that's still no excuse to let it just run on autopilot. Exit definitively or renew obsessively, but do not ever neglect it.
Hope
With a map of decline in hand, churches heading downhill might be able to reverse course.
The signature of the truly great is not the absence of difficulty, but the ability to come back stronger than before from even cataclysmic catastrophes.
Will Sudworth, volunteer leader, Café Sundae, Altrincham.
If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Karen Carter. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Church Army, Fresh Expressions or any of its partners.
Those of us in the church need to wake up to the fact that many people don't feel comfortable with any of our traditional ways of doing things. They also don't have a clue what we stand for.
The Wesley Playhouse may look nothing like a traditional church - with its children's soft play area, climbing frames, ball pool and café in the middle of it - but those who come along to our Playhouse Praise once a month see this place as their church, and so it is.
A fresh expression of church should be one that understands a generation and culture that's very different to what we may know and recognise. The young families I come across don't know what to sing and they don't understand our words. Why should they?
On Mother's Day we're laying on a four-course meal for mums and their families. It's a chance for people to relax while we wait on them. It should always be about service.
We have already had several christenings here, but we have just taken bookings for two more.The families had initially asked at other local churches but had been told that it couldn't happen because the godparents hadn't been baptised. They were being pushed to get to a place where they didn't want to go.
I'm not saying that we're the cheap and cheerful option; I'm saying that we welcome people even if they don't call the ceremony a christening because they don't know the 'right' word. It is completely alien to them. Ours is a consecrated church building so we're happy to arrange christenings, explain what it's all about in their terminology, and develop relationship with them.
Why in traditional church do we ask people to make promises that we know are not going to be kept? Yes, I'm aware that people will have been through some sort of baptism course and are meant to appreciate the seriousness of what they're saying, but we have to get real – that is not what happens in many cases at all.
The church will feel that it has done what it is meant to do by making them go through the hoops; in turn the people will promise to turn to Christ and renounce evil, etc. The uncomfortable fact is that these lies are told in front of God in church and that's an accepted part of Christendom, but, more often than not, the words mean absolutely nothing. That's not because the people don't want the very best for their child, and they certainly wouldn't want to lie to God, but they can't really relate those words to everyday life.
In the past I've asked children in schools, 'What happens in church?' Their answer was, 'You go there to die', because they associated church with funerals. Now a lot of people go straight to the crematorium without having a church service, so the church is not even where you 'go to die' any more.
We've got to change our ways, care for the people, fund risky initiatives like ours, and give thanks for the chance to do it.
Caroline Holt, The Wesley Playhouse Outreach Manager, Howden Clough Methodist Church. There is more about The Wesley Playhouse on the following page on Share, and its own website is here.
If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Karen Carter. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Church Army, Fresh Expressions or any of its partners.
Over the years I have done a number of things in ministry that are very challenging. These have included successfully 'Wimberising' a typical Episcopal parish by introducing healing ministry, worship bands and other influences from the Vineyard. We also built new parish facilities and relocated.
However, these things were nowhere near as challenging as planting a new church to reach people no other church is reaching.
The reason why is because our parish structures assume a population which is attracted to church already. The difficulty we find is that one of the fastest growing sections of the surrounding population (in my opinion) is the group that is not attracted to any Christian church. Changing the structures most Episcopalians, and probably most Americans, have in their mind as to what a local church is supposed to be like is far more difficult than building a new facility and moving to a new location.
In 2005 I moved to the Phoenix area and began work to plant a new church in the Diocese of Arizona. Most of the people who initially joined in with the new work had this picture of church:
priest + building + liturgy = church
I quickly began to see that something new was needed. Bob Hopkins and Mike Breen gave me a new model, or operating system, in their book clusters: creative mid-sized missional communities, 3DM Publishing, 2007. We have since been working to understand and implement:
faith + community + action = church
This is a profound change! A community of faith equipped and ready for action will make people with no church connection thirsty for what it has. For those who are used to a priest-centred way of operating this can be a very uncomfortable change, for both the priest and the people.
To pursue this new operating system I have a two-part strategy. The first part is to decentralise as much as possible. When we started out we had monthly dinners for the whole congregation to attend. We are now beginning to identify and train leaders who will host these kinds of dinners for their neighbourhoods instead of only church members. It takes a lot of encouragement for someone who is used to asking the priest about almost everything to begin thinking about what is the best kind of activity to serve their own neighbourhood. It is, however, the way to faith + community + action.
The second part of my strategy is to have our staff leaders spend more time in the community during the week. Our children's ministry team leader is gearing up for an adaptation of the 'Messy Church' approach. Our youth ministry team leader is preparing to volunteer in the local high school to meet students who know nothing about Jesus.
It takes a long time to change the operating system.
Revd John F Maher, Jr, Prince of Peace Episcopal Church, Peoria, Arizona, USA.
If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Karen Carter. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Church Army, Fresh Expressions or any of its partners.
Graham Cray told General Synod last week that a crucial factor in the spread of fresh expressions has been 'a new imagination about the form or shape of church'. He is right. We have seen over the last half decade an exploration emerge which concerns not just the stylistic aspects of our gatherings - music, dress, structure, location, etc - but concerns the very substance of what it is to be church. The question is, if this is good, how deep are we willing to go?
At the heart of the matter is how we have sought to be community and how this journey has led us into a new romance with the God who is by nature community. We have had a new encounter with God as Trinity, not a hierarchical Trinity with God the Father as the CEO, Jesus as middle management and the Spirit on the factory floor, but with the Trinity as the root of radically mutual community ... of the meal table, not the boardroom table!
This is changing how we see and do leadership within communities, where we put the emphasis on the flow of gifting rather than the authority of a title or position. Each of us surrenders our gifts to the community and so each of our gifts, rather than being lost becomes animated from use and spreads through the community. When a prophet is willing to give their insight then all our eyes are opened in new ways; when the artist creates, we all find new ways to express ourselves.
So, how deep are we willing to let this change affect us? How much of our systems and structures are we able to challenge? Can we let a 'ground up' shift impact how we think about every part? Can it change the way we think about leadership, about ordination, about our structures?
A colleague of mine from Lichfield Diocese, Revd Richard Moy, challenged Synod why it 'locked its trainee clergy away for three years in a place full of other Christians'. I agree. We need to reflect on how we train our leaders, but have we got to go deeper? In this changing world, which will force our church to change, is it time to release leadership, to give it back to communities, to create a new way for sustainability which does not rely on a professional body but on equipping and resourcing communities to lead themselves?
After a recent visit from our new bishop, one member of safespace said how great it was to share with him as he was not at all 'bishopy'! Is it time to reflect the shift from hierarchy to community, not only on the ground but can we as a church become a community of communities, where we rely on each other, where we support each other and allow the quietest voices to be as significant as the most powerful ones?
Mark Berry, Pioneer Leader, safespace, Telford.
If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Karen Carter. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Church Army, Fresh Expressions or any of its partners.
It was a cold Thursday evening at the end of January when, rather than putting my feet up in front of the fire to watch some mindless TV, I was setting off for a cup of coffee in Stafford and visiting the newest church in town.
Twilight @ Costa is the name given to a fresh expression of church that has been running for 13 months. It is a monthly gathering with music, DVDs, quizzes, conversation, speakers and copious amount of coffee.
The aim of Twilight, which meets from 7pm, is to try and be a church community outside of the traditional thoughts of church, ie, day, time and building. Over the year we have attracted people from various churches, de-churched people and people who just wander in because they fancy a coffee at Costa. Interestingly, many people with little or no inherited church connection return regularly. That is where the 'problem' is now beginning for us.
Of course, that is what we wanted when we set out on the good ship Twilight. We realised that you can have the best services, welcome, refreshments, buildings, and flower rotas in traditional church but there will still be great swathes of the community who will not darken our doors.
Our desire was not to invite them in to our current set ups but to go out and meet people where they are. We haven`t always got it right and have made changes along the way but at least we are seeing the development of a new kind of church community.
Now that we have made those connections, the challenge really begins. What do we do with them? The temptation to go down the inherited church route is great but one that we are resisting, in favour of a genuine desire to be a new church community. It is at this point that we have to exercise our faith as, if we are honest; we have no idea where this new church will be in 12, 18 or 24 months' time.
I am really excited by that approach as I believe that, in our desire to understand and operate our beloved mixed economy of church, we are discovering the need to exercise our faith in a real 'Help, we don't know where this is going' sort of way. Surely that is a good thing.
As we sit and strategise over our mission opportunities, there has to be room for the element of: 'That's a good idea, but I`ve got no concept of how it will work or end up.' To me, that feels the right thing (and also the brave thing) to do with any new expressions of church we feel led to pioneer. Sometimes we have to just get on with it, and it is within the journey that we find God at work, not necessarily in the arrival.
Revd Jeff Reynolds, Superintendent Methodist Minister (Stafford).
If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Karen Carter. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Church Army, Fresh Expressions or any of its partners.
