Ordinangst is a tiny bit worried by the Fresh Expressions movement. He is training with some very wonderful people who are planning to “do” Fresh Expressions church once they are fully dog-collared (probably not literally) and let loose on the outside world. There are a couple of big issues here that Ordinangst would love to hear some views on.
· Is Ordinangst alone in wondering whether the whole Fresh Expressions movement is a bit of a knee-jerk over-reaction in response to heart-stopping declines in punters going to traditional Churches? Wouldn’t it be best to work out ways to encourage parish churches to think radically about their offer rather than encourage Fresh Expressions ministers to set up new expressions of church at Starbucks just down the road? According to the Fresh Expressions website “The initiative has resulted in hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches”. Doesn’t that just present a divided Church (yet again) to the outside world? And it must be heart-breaking for some parish priests if this happens to them. Ordinangst really hopes this isn’t another example of the evangelicals flexing their muscles.
· Ordinangst hopes he isn’t overstepping the mark when he says that he thinks that some bishops and their dioceses haven’t got their minds round Fresh Expressions at all. From a training perspective, Ordinangst can see a calamity or two approaching, where gifted and talented people have been accepted for training on a Fresh Expressions ticket and have slogged their way through theological college and are struggling with their diocese to work out what job they are going to at the end of the process. Worst case scenario is that they won’t get ordained as a result. That isn’t great for the student, and it is a blinking waste of Church funds too.
· It worries Ordinangst that if Dioceses haven’t got their minds round Fresh Expressions, then there is going to be inadequate control over what is being done and inadequate pastoral support for Ministers setting up Fresh Expressions churches. Lots of people training for this kind of ministry are, in Ordinangst’s view, naturally anti-authority. While these lone wolves will do a brilliant job of challenging perceptions of what Church can be, and may well be successful in bringing the the “unchurched” into the fold, Ordinangst thinks they could no more run a church (in whatever guise) than he could run a space programme. Ordinangst shudders to point his dear readers to what happened at St Thomas’ in Sheffield in the 1990s where the young and trendy Chris Brain took his congregation into some sort of heretical la-la land and caused enormous damage to the public perception of the CofE as a result. We need to be jolly sure that this can’t happen again.
· And who is supposed to be paying for all this? And how are we supposed to keep up our church buildings if everyone is going to be encouraged to join a Church in Yo Sushi? Ordinangst happens to think church buildings can be brilliant places to grow congregations and also thinks the parish system has a lot going for it….it worries him that Fresh Expressions could blow this all apart.
It seems to me, as someone who knows little about Fresh Expressions, that people rarely don't come to Church because of the building in which services are held.
ReplyDeleteI can see various Fresh Expressions 'groups' being the first step on a route back to Church (or indeed to Church in the first place). I would have thought that a two-tier C of E, with traditionalists in church buildings and fresh-expressionists in the Costa Coffee next door does more harm then good.
It worries me that we are concentrating too much on the way in which the message is delivered rather than the message itself.
I know nothing more about Fresh Expressions than the description you give in your blog, but isn't this sort of free form movement the logical end point of the Anglican church? Having decided many centuries ago that the Church of England had the authority to establish its own interpretation of what is means to say you are The Church why would you want to stop (or at least constrain) others continuing that process today? While from an organisational perspective i can understand your concerns, i fear from a theological perspective the train left the station in the 16th centuary.
ReplyDeleteIn the US 'Fresh Expressions' is a brand of cat litter. I hope this isn't some kind of metaphor... trying to cover up the cr....
ReplyDeleteI was a member of a Fresh Expressions type church for a few years (albeit not in the Anglican fold). Something I learnt was that non-church people are suspicious of churches that meet in non-church buildings! We started out meeting in a variety of locations and eventually ended up back in our church building because we realised that it was a great resource (PA equipment, heating etc) that we were stupid not to use.
ReplyDeleteWe should never make assumptions about what non-church people are looking for from a church. Sometimes our 'seeker-friendly' activities come across as a bit like a grandma trying to get 'down wiv da kids' *cringe*.
There needs to be grace on both sides of this debate. Established churches should be generous in allowing experimentation in Fresh Expressions. Fresh Expressions churches should be sensitive to how their activities can come across and be able to do their ministry alongside the more 'traditional'.
As usual, grace is the answer.