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We recently started a new church fellowship for 18-30 year olds in our church (cunningly called church 18-30). we spent a long time planning and praying about how to do it and what sort of thing to do but weren't really sure what we should be doing. In September, after a few trial services, we just decided to start it and see how it went so we began a weekly meeting/bible study. the first week we had 10 people, the second we had 19 and we are now averaging about 20 with nearly 30 people if everyone turns up. It is already evolving it's own pattern and style beyond anything we planned and it is such an exciting place to be!

our advice therefore is go for it! You don't need to have all the answers before you start, just trust it to God and see what happens!

Over 4 years ago I led a small team (4 couples) who moved to an area 9 miles from our sending church to plant a cell church (of a sort!) into another parish. This was at the Bishop's initiation and with the full support of my sending parish(I was curate there). We audited well and had the support of lacal churches after what seemed a slow process but actually wasn't! 2 of the couples actually moved home, the other 2 did not. Only those who moved have stayed with it, the others having gone back (rightly so) to where they were. As we consider future plants from this one we would only sanction where people are incarnational. We planted into a UPA area and saw the need for building small, relational, supportive, stable groups with some sort of security for people whose lives are all over the place. Hence we purchased, through sacrificial giving of the then members plus finance from sending church and elsewhere, a community house for blessing the locals through a variety of small groups. We now employ a house manager and a youth and children's worker for 20 hours a week each and have also set up a trust fund to secure funding not accessible through being a church. We have, after much angst, become legal by setting ourselves up as a detached part of our sending parish with full autonomy (these legalities will become easier under the new parish measure stuff going through at present). On Sundays we now worship at a local community centre and usually have about 30 adults and about 15 children. Cells have developed to 6 plus a children's group and a youth group but we have had to modify how they function from our initial stereotypical ideas on cell! For info on this see 'comment - things to learn from'! It has been a fantastically exciting and at the same time draining process and we have loved it and want to encourage more churches to consider planting again, since the 1990's initiative never really gained hold. We have done it in fairly low maintenance, relaxed way, have really been encouraged by the diocese, and are working towards self-governing, self-financing and self-propogating mode as we would have wished.

Duncan Petty (minister, Oaks Church, Tanhouse, Skelmersdale) and Ann Petty.

If you want to pick our brains you can get us on 01695 721220; but we would love to pick your brains if you are doing anything similar!

I heard about Lucy Moore's success with Messy Church on the fresh expressions DVD. After buying and reading her book, we decided to give it a try at our parish in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. We are an inner city parish with an aging Sunday congregation. We wanted to reach the families who live all around our church, so we made contact through flyers and promoted it on Facebook. We held the first Messy Church on a Saturday and after some tense and anxious moments wondering, "Will anyone come to this?" we had about 40 kids and 20 parents just stream into our Parish Hall...new families, dechurched families...it was amazing. We held a second Messy Church in October and same thing...new people from the neighbourhood came. We have decided to have Messy Church once a month from now on. The key is getting the word out there...promote, publicize, pray!

We decided this Easter (08) to run a cafe church which was family friendly. We were amazed to find every table full - about 30 people in all. It took a lot of preparation to make sure that during the dvd part of the service (Rob Bell, Rhythms) aimed at the adults, the children had an activity table with extra helpers to keep their full attention. This part worked very well. The only difficulty we encountered was the sound level! I didn't have adequate amplification on the dvd and for me as I tried to lead the service in this environment. We had very positive feedback from the sheets on the tables and will endeavour to put on one service a month like this. At least 4 of the families had parents which do not attend church. We had 5 team members and needed every one of them!

I have found that preventing existing Christians from leaving their church to joining our fresh expressions leads to slower growth but a greater amount of freedom to experiment. It also creates a higher level of trust and cooperation with other local churches (because you are not stealing their sheep) and it prevents the problem that happens about 6 months down the road when the people who were disgruntled with their last church are suddenly, and quite predictably, DISGRUNTLED with your NEW EXPRESSION for the same reasons.

Its best, even though slower, to build up gradually and organically and avoid the quick stimulus of transfer growth which helps the bottom line in the short term, but leads to problems [and stunted growth] in the long term.

I fully agree with your comments here. If it isnot priamarily serving unchurched people then it can not be a fresh expression.

We have recently started an after school children's outreach called Rocky Kidz in an ex-mining village called Grange Moor near Huddersfield. Here we use the media of drama to share the Gospel to unchurched children. This came in response to the (non church) school actually asking for a drama club. We were invited to go into the school for drama workshops in order to promote the outreach. The children seemed to love the workshops - they were engaged in a wonderful way. However the club nearly didn't happen:
We had three trial weeks - during which despite grat publicity, no one turned up. Somewhat disillusioned, I was locking up on the third week - and sent most of the team home. As I locked up I heard a child calling out: "Neil - sorry we are late - we have come to the drama club." Five children had come with their parents and they and their parents stopped for a taster session.

Since then the club has grown and now we have up to 15 children come on a regular basis (not bad from a school of 60 children!). We are now opening another Rocky Kidz at Dalton School and another church in Halifax has heard about it and want to look into doing it there.

The hope is that as the children explore the gospel stories through drama, they will feel the heart beat of Jesus.