After eight years of pioneering and leading Sanctus1 in Manchester, I decided that it was the right time to hand the community over to a new leader. Three months ago I left Sanctus1 in the capable hands of Al Lowe and became the Diocese of Manchester's Fresh Expressions Missioner.

However, I continue to reflect on my experience of Sanctus1 and one area that I've been thinking about is provisionality. I was recently told that the city centre residential community of Manchester has an annual people turnover of 30% - almost the entire community changes in a three year period. This was something that I observed during my time with Sanctus1 - approximately every two years 50% of the community would change. People who had been part of the community for more than four years were a rarity.

This transience created a fragility as people moved in and moved out. New people bring new energy and new life, but losing more established people all the time is draining on established people within the community. It is hard when you build community with one group and then that community disappears around you and a new one forms. Comparisons are always made with what the previous community was like and memory can be rather utopian.

A further reflection is how draining it can be for people who have been part of the community for a number of years, when they are dealing with the same questions that they have dealt with a few years earlier. Questions of identity, faith, purpose, belonging, etc, that they wrestled with before are revisited. This is an important process for the current community, but slightly frustrating for those who have been part of the community for a number of years.

It is also often the case that those who have been established for a number of years carry a lot of the responsibility of the community. When they do not see this level of commitment being shared by others, who are relatively new to the community, frustration can occur.

These are some of the challenges of church in a transient culture. I think that one answer is to develop a corporate patterning of spiritual life - patterns that allow for the instability of a transient context and church. I don't think that we got this right in Sanctus1. It's the tension of catering to the new people, the mission field, whilst nurturing patterns of spirituality that sustain those who are more established.

Ben Edson is the Diocese of Manchester's Fresh Expressions Missioner. He blogs 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.

 

My explorations of fresh expressions in Britain have been remarkably encouraging. Normally, my job has me visiting new ministries throughout the Episcopal Church, constantly in search of what I might share as 'learnings' with the larger church. That persistent search for 'learnings' and new insights suits my job title perfectly as Program Officer for Church Planting and Ministry Redevelopment for the Episcopal Church. In short, I am the Episcopal Church's Chief Cheerleader for new ministry development, and I am based in New York.

This visit to the church in Britain has been marked by gracious hospitality and generosity from leaders in the Diocese of Liverpool, Church Army and The Sheffield Centre, Fresh Expressions and local saints in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Sheffield. I am really grateful.

As I prepared for this trip, I surveyed colleagues and advisors for the questions they wish they could ask of ministry leaders here in the Church of England. What emerged as the key question is based on the belief that the CoE has wrestled with the effects of secularisation considerably longer than we have in the States.

The question goes something like this: 'If you'd known 20 years ago what you know now about the church's needed responses to secularisation, what might you have done differently, in anticipation?' In other words: 'How would you have intentionally prepared faith communities to partner with the work of the Spirit in a rapidly changing world?'

The question is not meant to be heard as: 'What do you wish you had done, back in the day?' as much as: 'How might we (as an institution) prepare our hearts to embrace the new work that the Spirit is longing to engage in us?' I look forward to sharing your responses with our Ministry Innovators back in the States.

With hope, Tom Brackett

Note: Tom received a number of answers to his question while visiting Britain. How would you have answered him? Maybe you could leave a comment.