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Perhaps you are part of a planning group. Maybe a local church, a group of local churches or a denomination has set up a group to explore the possibilities of starting a fresh expression or planting a new church.

The aim is to build a Jesus-centred community that draws people into God's love. How might the group set about its task?

Getting together as a group would be an obvious starting point. As the group forms, members would discuss the task they have been given. How do they understand their terms of reference? The aim would be to be clear about what God is calling the group to do.

Discussing what the group understands by 'fresh expressions' might be especially important. Is everyone on the same page about this? Material in the first section of the Guide might be useful, such as:

• What is a fresh expression of church?
• What Christian principles lie behind fresh expressions?
• How do fresh expressions develop?

The group might find it helpful to ask:

• 'What principles behind fresh expressions most speak to us?'
• 'Are there particular expectations in the church (or group of churches or denomination) that we should keep in mind?'
• 'In relation to our task, what would each of us in the group die for?'

Knowing each other better is an important part of 'getting together'. Discussing these questions could help to achieve that. It might also help the group to clarify further what God is calling it to do. 'In carrying out our task, it's particularly important that we remember so-and-so.'

It is worth spending time on all this. A shared understanding of God's call, and some of the principles behind it, may avoid misunderstandings later.

Getting together → a shared call

This is discussed further in Getting together.

Exploring the possibilities will be at the heart of the group's work. This will involve active listening, out of which - hopefully - will emerge a God-given vision for how a fresh expression might develop. 'We plan to employ a pioneer minister', for example, 'to form a fresh expression of church among the teenagers on such-and-such estate.'

We suggest you listen carefully to:

• the people you feel called to work with.

  What makes them tick?

  What are their longings and hopes, their disappointments and needs?

  What acts of service would show them your love?

  Listening may well include consulting professionals and voluntary groups working with the people you hope to serve.

• the wider church. How have other churches served similar groups of people? Might you visit one or two fresh expressions to stir your imagination? Are there lessons from the church overseas or from what churches have done in the past?
• the local church (or churches or denomination) which set up the planning group. Sharing your thoughts as they develop will help your fellow Christians to pray for you, allow you to draw on their wisdom and ensure your final conclusions don't come as too much of a shock to them!
• Scripture. Bible study and prayer, as part of the group's work, will be an important way of listening to God directly.

Through this '360 degrees listening', you will become aware of possibilities and hopefully a vision will begin to emerge.

 

360 degrees listening

 

'Whom are we called to serve?' will be a key question. Will the venture be serving a neighbourhood or network, and do you understand the people involved?

Identifying a specific group of people is particularly important. Some fresh expressions are unfruitful because the people they seek to reach are so varied that creating community becomes almost impossible. A church planting team, for example, may have lots of contacts. But bring them all together and they have little in common.

Is God calling you to build on your strengths? Perhaps your church or group of churches have many contacts in a network or neighbourhood. It seems to make sense to grow a fresh expression from among them. How well do you know the people you and your fellow Christians are in touch with?

Or is God calling you to serve people with whom you have few contacts, perhaps because they have been ignored by everyone else? Your vision would have to include ways of making contact.

You will also need to be realistic about the time involved. If a fresh expression starts with few contacts it will take much longer to bear fruit.

Likewise, if you are working among people with very little Christian background, you will have to start 'further back' and it is likely to take longer for the venture to evolve into church.This will have implications for the length of time the venture is funded from an outside source, for example.

An easy way to start exploring the possibilities might be to gather together some of the individuals in your congregation(s) who know lots of people. What can they tell you about their networks? Might one or two be interested in the idea of a fresh expression among their contacts?

Exploring the possibilities → a shared vision

This is discussed further in Exploring the possibilities.

Thinking ahead is vital, and will probably overlap with 'Exploring the possibilities'. As a vision crystallises, members of the group may get excited and want to forge ahead. But pausing to think ahead will enable you to flesh out the vision and strengthen the venture's foundations.  

Thinking ahead is about Godly imagination. It is not planning for every eventuality, but asking: 'Can we imagine how the venture would grow into church? What would we have to do for it to travel a path to becoming church?'

The group might look at How do fresh expressions develop? Perhaps it could draw the fresh expressions journey on a flip chart:

 

The fresh expressions journey

 

This diagram is described more fully in The fresh expressions journey - a fuller version.

Members might use the journey to imagine how the venture they have in mind would travel through the four circles. If they can't see this happening, they might want to think again.

Or they might say, 'We're recommending not a fresh expression of church, but a fresh expression of mission. Our proposed acts of service won't be intended to become church in their own right, but we hope they will be stepping stones into existing church.'

A venture that promotes kingdom values would be extremely worthwhile, even if it didn't become church. Not every form of mission has to become a new form of church.

Using the fresh expressions journey, the group might discuss questions like:

• How are we going to build a real sense of community?
• How might we encourage people to explore Jesus -  perhaps through 'God talk', mission worship, creative expressions of spirituality and acts of kindness? (See How do fresh expressions develop?) 
• What might church eventually look like in this context?
• If the venture evolves into church, what sort of relationship will it have with the parent church (or sponsoring local churches or denomination)? How will communion be celebrated? Where will baptisms be held?

Some of these questions might prompt a discussion with those who set up the group. The latter might agree that the issues are important, but that it would be best to return to them when the emerging nature of the fresh expression is clearer.

The group's discussions would be unlikely to result in a rigid plan - fresh expressions tend not to a fixed path. They often emerge in surprising ways.

The discussions could result in a set of values, however. These will be values that help to create the potential for the venture to become an expression of church. If 'vision' is about what you will do, 'values' describe how you will do it. They create the venture's ethos. What ethos would the venture need to draw people into God's love?

Say the group is thinking about a project among homeless people - perhaps a lunch on Thursdays. Whatever happens, the project will have values. These values will reflect the values ('What do we value?') of the people who play a leading role. They will shape the direction in which the project evolves.

They will either be implicit (no one thinks about them) or they can be encouraged deliberately. Being deliberate will enable the group to identify values that will lead the project towards the kingdom of God and help it to become an expression of church. That is why thinking ahead is so important.

The group might ask: 'What do we want the project to look like in one year, three years and five years' time? What values – what DNA - would we have to embed in the project so that it evolves in the way we hope?'

Perhaps the group agrees on the following values (adapted from Grace Church, Bromsgrove):

• 'There will never be a point of no return.' However often individuals fail, the team will never give up on them. This will be an expression of God's grace and acceptance.
• 'Wherever possible, lunch guests will serve as well as being served.'  This will help to build community. Contributing to community will also help individuals to flourish. As they grow in confidence, guests may have the confidence to be more open to God.
• 'The team will consistently seek ways to show that the Spirit can transform lives.'  This will help to create a spiritual dynamic in the venture.

  In the context of a project for homeless people, for instance, the planning group might suggest prayer support be available to individuals, and that after lunch there be a short act of appropriate worship, to which lunch guests would be invited (without any sense of obligation).

• 'Prayer and fasting will be central to the team's life' – a recognition of the challenges the team will face.

The planning group might acknowledge that how these values are put into practice could change as the project develops, and that the values may need to be revised later on. (The same applies to the vision.) But come what may, these values would be at the heart of the project in its initial stages.

Thinking ahead → shared values

This is discussed further in Thinking ahead.

Organising support for the venture will be an obvious task for the group, and may be ongoing throughout the process of starting a fresh expression. The following headings may be helpful (alongside items in the next section, 'Nurturing the team'):

Prayer partners - who are vital and easily forgotten:

• Who will pray regularly for the venture?
•  How will they be kept informed?

Permission givers:

• Do you expect difficulties in getting the backing of the church leadership? Is the leadership aware of your thinking so far?
• What budget does the venture need and who will fund it? (Providing money is a very active form of permission giving.) You may want to beware of too large a budget that makes the venture heavily dependent on outside funding. The project may struggle to become financially self-sustaining.

  For how long will financial support be available? If continuation of support depends on the venture's fruitfulness, how will fruitfulness be measured and by whom? If financial support is to be for a specified period how do you envisage the venture will be sustained thereafter?

• Are the time-scales realistic? Much may depend on whom the venture will be working with. If it is to work among people who have recently left church, for example, the journey to being church may occur more quickly than if the project is among people with virtually no Christian background.

• How will the venture be held to account? How will the church leadership also be held to account for delivering the support it's promised? How can these arrangements be made both effective and easy to put into practice?

• Does anyone else need to give permission?

• How will permission givers be kept informed as the venture develops?

People you are called to serve:

• Do 'opinion formers' among them share your vision? How enthusiastic are they?
• Can you imagine who will volunteer to help – from opening up before a meeting, to looking after the money?
• Do you need a clear identity - a name, logo and perhaps strap line that identifies you, all of which can be used on your publicity and help to build recognition and trust? 'Oh, it's that lot who are behind the Easter party.'

  Near Oxford is the Discovery Days community project, which has the strap line: 'Discover your neighbour, discover your community and discover God'.

  Gently making clear that this is a Christian venture will allow the leaders to develop the spiritual side of its work without anyone objecting, 'But you never said!'

• What publicity will you need? On a housing estate, for instance, a regular newsletter would enable the team to publicise events and consult residents about a new project - 'We're thinking of refurbishing the community hall, and there's a meeting to discuss it...'.

The public. What will you have to do to enjoy 'the goodwill of all the people' (Acts 2.47)? For example:

• How will the venture satisfy legal requirements, such as employment law, health and safety, third party insurance and child protection (if relevant)? Have you thought about charity status so that the project can claim back the tax on donations?
• Have you sought the support, where appropriate, of other churches, voluntary groups and government agencies? Might this include exploring forms of active co-operation?
• Who will need to be kept informed as the venture develops?
• Who will thank individuals the group has consulted and let them know what it plans to do? Courtesies are important - the reputation of the project (and of God) is at stake.

The group may have to decide which of these tasks it needs to do and which can be left to the project leader (and team). To prompt thought by those who lead the venture, the group may want to include a full list of tasks as an appendix to its recommendations.

Organising support → a shared venture

This is discussed further in Organising support.

Nurturing the team that will lead the venture will be a final issue for the planning group. The group might ask questions like:

Who is going to lead the project?

• Will the person start with a team or will they start on their own? A solo pioneer may need a wider range of gifts than someone working with a pre-existing team.
• What gifts and qualities will the person need?
• How will the leader be appointed?
• Will he or she be publicly commissioned in some way?

What initial support will be given to the leader?

• If the leader will inherit a team:
  1. What other forms of support might be needed? For example, might the planning group turn itself into a support group for an initial period?
  2. If there is to be a project team, who will be involved? Has the group any suggestions about what size of team would be desirable? (You may want to read Recruiting a core team.)
  3. Will any members of the planning group be involved? This could be helpful to keep continuity. Can the group think of other people who might want to be involved? A list of possibilities might help the new leader. 
  4. How will the team be recognised by the church? (Might the team be publicly commissioned in some way?)

• If the leader is to gather the team:
  1. Where is the team likely to come from?
  2. Can you envisage the team being drawn from one large network or from lots of smaller ones? One pioneer found it hard to gather a team because the young adults in his area belonged to a multiplicity of scattered networks. There was no large gathering place from which he could recruit a team.
  3. What size of team will be sensible? A large team of Christians risks tying the leader up in pastoral support for the team, organising worship for it, and finding that the team has evolved a Christian culture that is at odds with the culture of the group it is seeking to reach. A small team that draws round itself volunteers from the people it is called to serve may be more effective.
  4. What support might the leader need in gathering a team?

What training might the leader and team need?

• In practical things like health and safety, and child protection (if relevant)?
• Should some of the team go on the Fresh Expressions short course (mission shaped intro) or the part-time one year course (mission shaped ministry)?
• Might the team benefit from some training in personal evangelism?
• What sized budget for training will be available?

What additional outside support might the team require? For example, might the group recommend that:

• the leader have a mentor or coach?
• the team also use a mentor or coach for a while? On-the-job coaching can be a most effective form of training, though - sadly - it is not always available.
• someone in the  team join a learning network and bring lessons back to the team?
• someone in the team keep in touch with practical advice from the Guide?
• How much money will be available for mentoring/coaching and any travel involved in the Learning Network? What financial support will be available? 

Nurturing the team → shared leadership

All this is discussed further in Nurturing the team.

In summary:

• Getting together → a shared call
• Exploring the possibilities → a shared vision
• Thinking ahead → shared values
• Organising support → a shared venture
• Nurturing the team → shared leadership

Sometimes these processes will flow logically from one to another. More often they will overlap or be taken out of sequence. GETON is not a rigid, step-by-step framework. It is more of a checklist to avoid forgetting things and to spark ideas.

If you are planning to appoint a paid person to lead the work and they will not inherit a church planting team when they start, you might find it helpful also to read Are you a 21st century missionary? If you plan that the work be undertaken by a church planting team, you might find Are you in a church planting team? useful.

A number of the principles on this page are illustrated in the story about St Micks, Yarmouth Cove, Australia.

 

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