jonnybaker

fresh expressions of church - changing the landscape

it was very encouraging this week to read of the positive reflections on fresh expressions of church at the general synod of the church of england - the general synod paper is here. in 2004 a report was published calls mission shaped church which reflected on the new things that had bubbled up around the edges of the church and basically said they are good - let’s have more new alongside the old or traditional. and they came up with the phrase fresh expressions of church. synod this week were told how in fifteen years 50000 new people have been added to the church and 15% of congregations are fresh expressions of church, which is around two dioceses. you can read a c of e news summary here which includes a motion passed which celebrates fresh expressions, asks for a report back on the new project led by heather cracknell, and my personal favourite point -

encourage every parish and diocese to be part of this movement forming new disciples and new congregations through a contextual approach to mission with the unreached in their community

that would be great! and why wouldn’t a parish and diocese want to be? but i especially like that the church writ large is naming a contextual approach to mission - thank god! it’s jargon of course but some jargon is helpful and the critical bit is the word context - mission should take the culture, the context, the way people do stuff in their locale seriously and share christ and develop church in ways that relate to and indeed grow in the soil of that local context and culture. ideally whatever grows should become led by people who are from that place and culture as soon as possible. (it was also what one of the key figures in cms history henry venn said was at the heart of mission practice developing the indigenous church). that is what a contextual approach is. and it means letting go of our taste, our preference, our way of doing things and the expectation that people should have to become like us in order to follow christ.

bishop martyn snow looks like he had a speech up his sleeve but didn’t get to share it at synod so has posted a facebook post of his reflections. it’s such a wonderful and positive post. he sees this as the most significant development in the church for decades. he kindly said i could post his reflection here so it is below but i also recommend you read through the comments on his post. he pulls out three lessons for the church - that it is a movement led by ordinary people and not professional priests; contextual mission - so we need to learn lessons of how to translate; and vulnerability - these things are small and fragile. on that last point he notes that there is not a lot of funding that has enabled this. that in itself is quite a complicated thing to get at what the investment has actually been from local churches, individuals, grants, salaries and so on. but it is small by comparison with what gets spent on other priorities in the church. 

of course you would expect me to remind me that if you are interested in contextual mission the pioneer training at cms has that at its heart - we love contextual mission. it's what we are all about - so get in touch if you are interested in exploring that further. 

bishop martyn snow's reflection on fresh expressions of church posted on facebook 9 july 2019

The strange irony of General Synod debating fresh expressions of church, straight after a 'business as usual' budget presentation.

I believe fervently that the Fresh Expressions movement is the single most significant development in the church in this country for decades. Having talked for many years about the importance of evangelism and the ‘re-conversion of our nation’, this predominantly lay movement, has quietly got on with the task. Eschewing the big events, mass publicity and big spending of some initiatives, the movement is teaching us about what Pope Francis calls ‘The Church’s Missionary Transformation’. This wonderfully ambiguous phrase – is the church the agent of the transformation of others or is it the subject of transformation – leads me to suggest that there are three specific lessons for the wider church.

Firstly, this is predominantly a lay movement. Fresh expressions of church offer us a living model of what can happen when God’s people are set free to be leaders in mission, when clergy and lay work in partnership, with a genuine sharing of gifts and true mutuality. Clergy are set free to be enablers of others – lay people are set free to use their God-given gifts, and their experience in networks outside the church. Both are needed.

At a time when the church is being forced to recognise the very damaging effects of clericalism – where a culture of deference has contributed to abuse, and difficulties in the reporting of abuse, and the poor response to the reporting of abuse – our recognition of lay ministry needs to be more than a patronising, ‘isn’t that interesting’. We simply must find ways of learning from fresh expressions and enabling their approach to ministry to shape that of the wider church.

And secondly, I would invite us to notice how the principle of contextualisation also opens our eyes to new insights. Contextual mission lies at the heart of the Fresh Expressions movement and ‘The Church’s Missionary Transformation’ is a helpful title for a church reflecting on what it means to be a Christian presence in every community.

As the missionary bishop Lesslie Newbigin reminded us, there is no such thing as a pure gospel – there is only a gospel enfleshed in culture and context – the gospel has to be embodied in a cultural context. And Andrew Walls, historian of Christian missions, writes “Divinity is translated into humanity, but into specific humanity, at home in specific segments of social reality. If the incarnation of the Son represents a divine act of translation, it is a prelude to repeated acts of re-translation.”

I put it to you that one of the most critical tasks facing us today, if we are to be a Christian presence in every community, is to learn again what it means to re- translate the gospel into every context and every culture that is now part of our wonderfully diverse nation. And as we translate, so we are transformed, or we might want to say, converted.

Finally, I would also note that the Fresh Expressions movement is teaching us about fragility and vulnerability. Most fresh expressions of church receive almost no funding. Most Pioneers receive little formal training beyond mentoring and coaching from other Pioneers. As a result, a fair proportion of fresh expressions of church only last a few years. But their very fragility and vulnerability is an important corrective in the Church of England.

There is a slight irony to the way the General Synod debate on Fresh Expressions followed straight after the Archbishops’ Council budget presentation. We welcomed the news of additional money from the Church Commissioners which will allow us to spend ever increasing amounts on exciting mission initiatives and training new clergy – all good. But there are some us, including bishops like me, who want to ask whether all this money is blinding us to what God is doing at this moment in our history. Could it be that the move of the church to the margins of society is a move of God? Could it be that the ending of our powerful status as a key institution governing the hearts and minds of millions of people who have little personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, is a good thing, which we should embrace?

Fifteen years after the Mission Shaped Church report, it is right that we should pause to thank God for this truly wonderful move of Gods Spirit. We should celebrate it - and I am actually quite pleased that Synod was being asked to do little else but notice it, celebrate it and bless it – countless Christian disciples getting on with mission in their local communities, in their own networks, growing faith with children, ‘turning up the volume’ about BAME inclusion, avoiding clericalism, operating within the simplest of legislative structures, often working ecumenically, with almost no money spent on training, support or deployment. Yes, we should celebrate the beginnings of ‘The Church’s Missionary Transformation’.

HUI - my next 4 days

excited for the next four days as at cms pioneer we are hosting a gathering to share learning about training and education for mission. it's called hui - see below for why - here's the spiel we sent out about it. 

New imaginative approaches to mission and church have emerged in range of contexts round the world. Alongside that, new approaches to mission education, leadership training and theological education are being explored. In Western contexts it feels like the old models don’t work so well any more but equally new ones are quite fragile and exploratory. In the global South there is less baggage and new approaches areemerging out of energy for mission or finding ways to do things that are authentic to the locale. At CMS in England we have felt our way towards a new approach to training which is now in its ninth year and has been something of an exhilarating ride. Over the nine years we have had lots of international visitors who want to talk about training/education that is focused towards pioneering mission* and have enjoyed those conversations very much. Hui is a Maori word for a gathering where there is mutual sharing and exchange of ideas and learning and we thought it would be good to have one of those for mission educators or whatever you want to call yourselves. It’s as simple as that really!

*It’s actually hard to know what language to use to talk about it! For example mission education sounds like it’s training for people going to another country (and of course it can be but often isn’t). Theological education or ministerial formation also sounds heavy (though theology and ministry are key aspects of the conversation). We have used ‘pioneer mission leadership training’ but appreciate that is particular to our context and a bit long. But whatever we call it, at heart it is about wanting to help people see and imagine through a lens of mission and to be enabled to participate in that mission in good and transforming ways.

hopefully we'll tweet with #HUI2019 so do follow along and i am sure we'll collect contributions and musings to share at a later stage

pioneering in europe

this week i have been at a conference in utrecht on pioneering and fresh expression sof church hearing stories of how people across europe are starting new things and working with their denominations to create space for that. i have written something about it on the cms pioneer blog including links to some of the strategy of the protestant church in the netherlands which is very helpful i think.

wilding the church

really loved this piece from paul bradbury on wilding the church where he takes the example of wilding knepp estate in sussex and allows it to spark his imagination and make connections to the ecology of the church environment which might benefit from some wilding and wild theology.

fiesta - pioneer festival in london in july

i'm looking forward to fiesta in london in july - a festival for pioneers, activists and others wanting to make their community a better place. it's being hosted by earlsfield friary and will be great food, music, spirituality, conversations and the like. book in here . grace are taking part on the sat night and i see harry and chris will also be performing. i am a big fan of alastair mcintosh who is going to be the resident wise elder for the weekend. 

candid beer launches today - another make good idea finds legs!

excited today for mark and jess bamping who launch their community hub - candid in stafford. yes mark loves beer and i am sure will brew as well as serve up decent local and creative independent craft beers. but the driver is community and rather than calling it a cafe or pub it's a community hub. mark brought the idea to our make good week a while back now and when he made his pitch he was coincerned about loneliness and thinking that men in particular will gather around doing stuff together (such as brewing beer) so it seems thayt this has developed into the design of the space and there being a room for groups and activities as well as a larger table to gather round. i was hoping to get to the launch but couldn't make it but will raise a glass of craft beer today to toast candid beer on their launch and hope to visit before long.

there is a make good week coming up at cliff college 13-17 may and there are a few spaces left so if you have an idea for a project or enterprise to make good in the world then sign up!

art [pioneering] matters

i love artists - the way they see, think and make. so much so that i am happy to say 'yes' if anyone asks me if i am an artist. i have blogged before about books about artists - notably think like an artist, and the creative stance. as you probably know if you read this blog regularly i train pioneers people who have ideas for making the world a better place, people who see possibilities and then build things out of their seeing, people who imagine and can gather communities of people who follow christ which don’t require them to leave their culture behind. whenever i read a book about artists or art i find myself replacing the word art with mission or pioneering. it’s quite a fun game to play. for christmas this year my son harry gave me a book art matters which has four essays or reflections by neil gaiman illustrated by chris riddell. one off the pieces is called make good art and is the text of a speech neil made in 2012 at the university off the arts - the text and video are here. it’s absolutely brilliant - do digest it in full its own right. but i have taken the liberty of taking a few of his quotes and switching the words the arts or art for pioneering or pioneer. i have placed them in brackets so it’s obvious. anyway see what you think…

When you start out in [pioneering] you have no idea what you are doing. This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not.. If you don't know it's impossible it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.

If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go and do that.

When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thickskinned, to learn that not every project will survive.

I decided that I would do my best in future not to [pioneer] just for the money. If you didn't get the money, then you didn't have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn't get the money, at least I'd have the work. Every now and again, I forget that rule, and whenever I do, the universe kicks me hard and reminds me. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I spent on any of them.

I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something.

Do the stuff that only you can do. The urge, starting out, is to copy. And that's not a bad thing. Most of us only find our own voices after we've sounded like a lot of other people. But the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So [pioneer] as only you can.

Where would be the fun in making something you knew was going to work?

People keep working, in a freelance world, and more and more of today's world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. 

That was the hardest lesson for me, I think: to let go and enjoy the ride, because the ride takes you to some remarkable and unexpected places.

The rules, the assumptions, the now-we're supposed to's of how you [pioneer], and what you do then, are breaking down. The gatekeepers are leaving their gates. You can be as creative as you need to be. The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. [Pioneer]

nomad - happy ten years!

happy ten year anniversary to nomad podcast - it's wonderful and a massive achievement to have produced such an interesting and dynamic conversation, communication and community. 

it explores christian faith in today's world. their strapline is stumbling through the post-christendom wilderness, looking for signs of hope. it's honest, searching, and on a genuine quest. each episode carries an in depth conversation with someone for about an hour and is topped and tailed by the hosts chatting about it. typically the people interviewed have published a book though not always. i have by no means listened to all the episodes but every so often catch up with it and dive in. sometimes i might listen to a big hitter like walter brueggemann but another time i stumble across someone i have never heard of because the theme grabs my attention. one of the recent ones i listened to was edwina gateley on missionaries, mystics and mother god which you have to listen to if you haven't. i loved her and her story - she is a northwestern english saint for sure. she probably wouldn't use the term but she is an incredible  pioneer with some classic elements of a pioneer's journey in her story. i noticed she has a poetry collection called there was no path so i trod one! because they are not bound by the constraints of pleasing a political church environment or denomination there is a great freedom in exploring issues fearlessly and honestly - the interview with vicky beeching was one example of that. i have also had the honour of being interviewed a couple of times which i have enjoyed.

but rather than going through my favourite episodes to celbrate, i have been reflecting how people are interacting with it and how it is becoming quite a thing...

at one level it is just a podcast and because the content is consistently good it's growing followers. it helps that tom wright has been interviewed and drawn in listeners as is explained in their epic 10th anniversary edition of 3 hours and 37 minutes (i was driving to cumbria so found myself listening to the whole thing!).

at another level it is part of a changing environment in which people are working out how to follow christ and connect with others. there are huge numbers of people who follow christ but do not engage with traditional patterns of church attendance but they do meet with friends to discuss faith over coffee or the meal table, they listen to podcasts, they attend festivals and read books and chat online. the podcast interview with steve aisthorpe, the author of 'invisible church' really lifts the lid off this area of a new kind of practising of christian faith. the stats are huge on this in both the uk and america - there are a lot more followers of christ not in church on a sunday, not because they have given up but they are making faith in other ways and often because church as they have known it is not working for them any more. i have written elsewhere that this is one of the current mission movements that not many people are paying attention to. 

for some of those people nomad and things like it are so helpful - people in that space identify with it and feel they are not alone or mad. nomad have developed a listener map so that you can add your postcode and then be connected with other listeners and there have been meet ups and gatherings. there is also now a listener lounge and a book club online. 

it is also interesting to me that tim nash who is one of the key players and who puts energy into this full time (i think) was part of an experiment in the methodist church called venture fx who invested in around a dozen pioneers to go and experiment with new forms of church and mission over 5-10 years. this has allowed tim the space to invest in this which has been a great gift and i hope the methodists have taken note and are feeling good about it. in a year or two that money will run out so nomad have been developing a business model whereby people can donate and in exchange for that get access to the listener lounge and other content. i have no idea of the scale of that but it is an enterprise model along with some merch they are selling. 

on monday we are hosting a conversation/research day on mission and church at cms which i am looking forward to (it's sold out so if you're not booked in there are now no spaces - sorry). i am looking forward to the day very much and it will be great to catch up with pete ward who is a good friend but now lives a long way away so i don't get to see enough! it seems to me that this is a great example of what he has called liquid ecclesiology. he has developed a way of thinking about christian community that takes seriously the fluid nature of culture. church is always constructed in relation to culture and must remake itself in every age. pete draws on missiologist lamin sanneh to suggest that the church tends to absolutise its own way of doing things and resists the call to translate afresh. but if the church is to move forward it must engage in that translation and needs prophets to lead her there. 

anyway all that is to say that as best i can tell as i pay attention it seems to me that christ is present in what is spinning in and out of nomad. it is a kind of liquid ecclesiology as far as i can see, a translating afresh. on their tenth anniversary podcast a listener asks if it is church and they say it is just a podcast. i think that's a wise answer but it's not really true or at least there is a lot more going on! in parts of the church huge sums are being spent on big churches - we're talking millions of pounds on city centre buildings, staff, sound systems and so on. the rationale is that these churches will grow fast and reach new people and they will also then plant out other churches. i don't really want to get into a debate about that here. but i would imagine nomad is resourcing thousands of christians and seekers and it costs peanuts - well a salary. 

anyway happy tenth anniversary nomad! thank you for what you do and make. i agree with a quote on the web site - flippin love nomad!

that old chestnut - church?

since we began the pioneer training we have hosted a day each year where we explore a question or theme in relation to pioneering mission. these have led to various publications. this year we landed on mission and church as the theme to explore which in some ways is an old chestnut but anyone pioneering inevitably comes up with all sorts of questions navigating church. for example, yesterday with students we had a day with sue steer (who is taking part in this day) who is two and a half years in to building community relations and networks in a new housing area and she was sharing the questions and challenges around church, what's naturally occuring, timescales, what it could look like and other peoples expectations and imagination. it's always a rich packed day and the line up this year is great. do come along! my advice is book early because it will probably sell out. there's more info here and you can book here.

bath and wells holy rumpus

i went to university in bath and lived there until i was 30 during which time we did a load of youth work and mission. i have a big soft spot for it and many fond memories and indeed many friends there. so i am doubly pleased to let you know that a holy rumpus is taking place as a partnership between bath and wells diocese and church mission society (who i work for). this will be a pioneer hub that initially will run a year's training over weekends and evenings i.e. will be good for those working full time. it all kicks off in may - more details are here. go sign up!

pioneer ministry and innovation

the latest issue of anvil journal is out today and themed on pioneer ministry and innovation. paul bradbury is the guest editor and has done a great job. i am loving being an editor of anvil together with cathy ross because we have worked out it is more fun and less work if we invite other people to edit issues (though we do edit some ourselves!). it also makes for a richer journal overall. it has honestly surpassed my expectations for what we would do with it.

innovation has become a live topic in missions at the moment - it's certainly an area i love instinctively and i have blogged about innovation a few times (scroll down here see four pieces on innovation). mike moynagh's latest book explored innovation so it's great to have him contributing an article on the six processes of innovation. paul bradbury's article is a taster of his forthcoming book - i have had a sneak preview of the book which is fantastic. he considers the old testament prophet ezekiel as an example of the kind of leadership which might spark our imagination - leadership in exile from a place of relinquishment. i have seen some discussions this week about ordained pioneer ministry and think paul's thinking really offers some clues for people puzzling that out. richard passmore, whose thinking is always so interesting, talks about the growth of fresh expressions in third spaces in cumbria and how cultivating newness can be helped by a second operating system. i confess to a vested interest as we are working with richard to help develop it  - watch this space. i also loved the quote "i may not be doing anything as mad as richard but i'll give this a go"! then there are some reflections on practice from lucy moore and katrina moss and an article on the role of enabling or advocacy to support pioneers and innovators. all topped up with the usual book reviews and it is free, downloadable as articles or as a whole and nicely put together by the comms team at cms. anyway enjoy and massive thanks to paul who is becoming one of our best reflectors on pioneer ministry (as well as being a practitioner of course) in this country i think.

on imagination and mission - a chapter in missional conversations out today

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I'll meet you there. Rumi

it was this quote by rumi that sparked ric stott and i to have a conversation about imagination and creativity in mission. that conversation is published in missional conversations: a dialogue between theory and praxis in world missions which comes out today. i am very excited to be part of this book which has been pulled together by two of my friends and colleagues at cms - cathy ross and colin smith. the book takes nine contemporary contexts for mission such as the environment or migration and two writers explore that theme, one from a theoretical and one from a practice based approach. in our case ric and i couldn't work out which was which so we went for a slightly different approach going to and fro between us in conversation.

there is a book launch on nov 27 at cms in oxford at 4pm - see invite below. if you're anywhere near oxford do come along. it's currently reduced price on scm web site i noticed.

steve bevans gives it a lovely endorsement:

Cathy Ross and Colin Smith have put together an amazing collection of essays in these pages. Not only does their conversational method match their understanding of mission. Their content is fresh, exciting, imaginative, and in some cases groundbreaking. This is a pioneering book in every sense of the word. It's certainly the best collection of essays in missiology that I have read in a long time.

download the invite to the book launch here

 

pioneer hub starting in london

i'm pretty excited about this new partnership as two of my passions collide (london and pioneering!)

pioneer hub to start in london

pioneer youth ministry training

if you are involved in youth ministry and would like to do some training we run a certificate at cms through durham university which has a route through it for youth ministry (and one for children and family ministry). we put together a video with john who helped us shape it and teaches on it. he works with frontier youth trust and through that and the streetspace network is connected with and networking youthworkers who are working with young people beyond where the church is currently focused. in my view the church has taken it's eye off the ball of this one - there is less training around, less posts and where people do create posts it's harder to find people who are experienced to take them up. this is our small part of trying to help see that change. it's not too late to sign up for september but get in touch soon!

future present is here!

good news - following the crowdfunding future present has been printed and has landed at proost hq - i have yet to see a copy but it exists. i can't wait! those of you who have ordered copies they will soon be winging their way to you...

the next level

eight years ago i set up pioneer ministry training at cms which has been a blast. each year it's grown a bit and we have gradually added in new things. it feels like the year ahead is going to be one of growth and change which means it will be busy but exciting. but all that to say that our latest addition is that we are adding in a bundle of new modules at oxford at level 6 in university speak. what that means is degree level so you can now do a BA with us rather than a diploma. because it is in common awards. this means if you have done a diploma in durham university through another college you could come and continue to BA as long as it is within 5 years. we are waiting to hear for definite but we expect that you can also do level 6 as a stand alone award - a grad dip. or as with all modules you can simply audit any module of interest. we have deliberately added in modules that are covering new themes. 

sarah clarke who leads the undergraduate programmes in oxford has blogged about what they are here. get in touch a.s.a.p. if that's of interest as we'll be kicking those off from september and of course you can still do certificate, diploma, post grad certificate, post grad diploma and MA. just doctoral work to go i guess!!!

Pioneering youth ministry - Anvil edition

A new edition of Anvil Journal is out - online and free. It's focus is pioneering youth ministry guest edited by John Wheatley.

one week three steps twenty two days

so we're one week into our first ever kickstarter campaign to raise money for the print run of future present - a zine that has 14 contributions exploring a better world. it's going to be full colour and look and feel great. i'm excited about it. it turns out the kickstarter thing is fun, addictive and nerve racking in equal measue.

the fun part is simply seeing what happens - knowing you are putting something out there and hoping this will enable it to become something real.

the addictive part is the temptation to keep looking to see if anyone else has pledged to buy one or more - i've had to shut the page down in my browser!

the nerve racking part is whether we will make it - it's all or nothing in that if we raise the money we're good to go. if not zilch!

the good news is we are on the eight day of 30, now have over 100 backers and are more than halfway to the target which feels amazing. but we want to keep it moving forwards and need your help.

i have three hunches - 

• that there are loads of people who have seen it and think i'll do that and haven't yet got round to it - if that's you then please get round to it!
• that lots of people think that the campaign is asking for a gift - it isn't. it's asking for you to pre-order a copy. plus it's postage free and as good a price as you'll get. the larger pledges are really good deals especially if you are not in the uk. so why wait?
• the third is that there are lots of people who haven't yet heard about it because we all live in small worlds. we're shouting about it in our small world but please let people know in your world too and spread the word

thank you if you've read this far! if you want a simple take on what future present is about it is these three steps above...

Stefan Paas in Luton June 20th

a great opportunity to hear, meet and discuss with stafan paas his ideas on church planting. his latest book is the best i have read on the subject. he writes as someone who is passionate about it but realistic and critical. the section at the end of his book on innovation i particularly liked where he uses ideas of incubator, laboratory and free haven to explore ways of thinking about creating new communities. i am going - maybe see you there?

get your tickets here

future present kickstarter goes live

i have been working on a side project with a few friends - future present. it's a full colour zine that seeks to imagine a different kind of world. we're running a kickstarter campaign to fund the print run through pre-orders! the simplest pledge is only £10 which preorders you a copy of the full colour zine. or there are some fairly sweet deals for 10 copies which you might like to think about especially if you are outside the uk. i have never done one of these before so looking forward to the next 30 days to see what happens. reminds me of blue peter and the totalisers if you are old enough to remember that! steve collins has done an amazing job on the design - go visit the future present kickstarter page here

big thanks to proost for partnering with cms pioneer on this project.