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We've been through the identifying a need and planning and preparing to meet it stages. We have time, day, place and people ready to go, and prayers and support from the parent church. What we need help with now is making an overtly Christian context without being "too church" and risking being offputting to those with little or no previous involvement in church. In other words, how do we make it clear in a non-threatening way that Jesus is part of the group, the reason for it and one of the members?!

Many thanks for any suggestions,
Cerian, Sian and Alice

I want to share my experience of Jesus which I guess would be called mission. Fresh Expressions I guess is mission as well. There is no doubt that St Paul had an uphill struggle to get to the Hierarchy (Gal. 2:1) St Paul was surely a fresh expressions man. He used his knowledge of the times and his understanding of people to get the gospel message across - in whatever way he could. He planted here there and everywhere realising it is horses for courses. However, he preached the same gospel (Eph. 4:4-6) which was not watered down. Why do our Fresh Expressions seem to offer a quick fix and a 'happy Meal' like McDonalds rather than a nurturing over a longer period. 'Softly Softly' but Honestly Honestly. Have I missed something here?

Hi all,

I'm interested in the history of the above religion and was wondering how Primitive Methodists would have celebrated Christmas. I live in an area where this was practised (late 19th Century) and I'm facinated as to how Christmas was percieved religiously.

Great site by the way.

Leigh

We have just held our 8th Messy Church - in a year - we host them each school holiday - and we are discovering the older boys don't want to return - but their Mums/ Dads ?grandparents etc and sisters do return. ANyone got any hints or tips - or anything that has worked for you - to help us make Messy Church enjoyable for boys aged 10+. We really don't want to get the computer games out though!

A couple of ladies having attending an exploration course would like to acknowledge this step of faith they have made. Both were baptised as babies. One was confirmed as a young teenager but left soon after. We are planning a BBQ but want to have something as part of that to mark the occasion for them. Anyone done this kind of confirmation stuff where more traditional stuff just int right?

Has anybody worked out to be insured or outside of church activities when normally as C of E we would run an activity by the PCC and Ecclesiastical Insurance would cover the event. I don't have a PCC or one particular church behind me, rathr a deanery of churches. I know I can do risk assessment and what's reqired of me in terms of safe quarding but some of the events I do are in an open field or in a pub beer garden, or just along the street in a village. Any suggestions would be very helpful, thanks.

I've been pondering connections between the urgency of environmental issues and FX. Been thinking about what a 'green' based Fresh Expression of church might look like but not found anything come up on the site under 'environment', 'green' etc. I feel God may be calling me to this area and am interested in linking with anyone else thinking in a similar way. What might a fresh expression arising around green issues look like? Has anyone tried?

As a confirmed petrolhead & having met many others [Christian & other], I am eager to explore the idea of running something which mingles the mission role I am engaged in & my interest in cars. Has anyone heard of or experienced anything similar, or anything which has a different focus [motorbikes etc]but uses a model I might use? John

We are preparing to begin a school based congregation.We want to find out from the school community what they think . Does anyone have experience of doing this which they could share?

Hi guys, beautiful site, thanks. We are a group of friends who've been meeting together for about a year expressing church by trying to allow space to love each other, love God and love our community. This mostly involves talking (sometimes about God) and eating, telling godly play stories to the children, and working on developing a fair trade cafe for the villages. Surprisingly, this seems to be attractive as church, and we are growing. We now have 6-7 regular families, which including children can be 27 people if everyone comes, and we have at least two other families who are interested. BUT we can't really invite them because they won't fit into any of our houses. What do we do? Split up? Limit numbers? Move to a village hall and change our character completely? I think this is a common problem/stage (thank God!) and would really appreciate other people's stories/advice.

I'm trying to build a network of Christian Goths in the UK. I've got links to a few like the Goth Eucharist in Cambridge, Asylum London, and Ara Nights Manchester..Oh and I believe Coventry cathedral are doing a Compline service on Wednsdays for Goths... anybody else?