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Preparing carefully for a fresh expression of church is vital. Building a community round Jesus that will draw people into the heart of God's love is so valuable that it is worth taking time to do it well.

We can't emphasise enough the benefits of listening and learning before you start. Digging deep foundations will avoid problems later.

The links below give suggestions about how to prepare for a fresh expression in seven illustrative contexts. We hope that at least one of these pages comes close enough to your situation to be helpful. Maybe you fit more than one context and it would help to read two pages!

The suggestions are meant to spark thoughts and help you avoid forgetting things. They need to be adapted to each situation.

The suggestions arise from our observations of fresh expressions. But this is a quickly changing field and we are far from sure that we have got everything right. Are we being too bold in our generalisations? Have we left important things out? Do you think our suggestions are helpful? Your comments could be of real benefit to other users.

The following overviews apply to seven different contexts.

• Do you want to explore an idea? Perhaps you have an idea for a fresh expression and are wondering how to develop it further.

• Do you belong to a planning group? The group may be exploring the possibility of a fresh expression or a church plant on behalf of your local church or a group of churches.

• Are you in a church planting team? The team may be responsible for starting a church plant or a fresh expression and you are looking for ideas about how to do it.

• Do you lead a church-run group? Perhaps you lead a luncheon club, a women's meeting, an Alpha group whose members resist going to 'normal' church, or some other church group that contains people who don't attend church. You think it might have the potential to become a fresh expression and you want to explore this further.

• Are you considering a fresh expression among friends, work colleagues or some other network to which you belong? How might you go about it?

• Are you a 21^st century 'missionary' – employed perhaps to work on your own initially on a housing estate or among a specific group of people (such as youth or an ethnic group)?

• Have you stumbled into a fresh expression? You never planned to start a fresh expression. It just seems to have happened, and you are wondering what to do next.

We suggest you browse through the material in Going deeper once you have read the most appropriate page(s) above. 

Experience suggests that starting a fresh expression needs careful thought. Sometimes there is more to bear in mind than people realise. The more time spent in prayer and preparation at the beginning the more likely it is that the venture will be fruitful.