+Graham Cray
Mixed Economy Church
Fresh Expressions
1
Wolverhampton Pioneer
Ministries
Fresh Expressions
2
attractional method
come
5
engaged method
go and then come
8
9
Street Pastors
10
Food banks
emerging method
go and then stay
12
The Church’s Challenge
• Who will our current forms of
church never reach?
• Do we have a spiritual responsibility
to those with no knowledge of the
faith?
• Hence – the mixed economy.
Paying our debts
• ‘I am a debtor both to Greeks and to
barbarians, both to the wise and to
the foolish — hence my eagerness to
proclaim the gospel to you also who
are in Rome. For I am not ashamed
of the gospel; it is the power of God
for salvation to everyone who has
faith.’ Romans 1:14-16
Theology Point 1.
14
++Justin Welby
• Fresh expressions and
pioneer ministry are
ways in which we say,
how do we ensure that
people find the grace
and love of God, and
see the treasure that
there is in the gospel of
Jesus Christ, in ways
that they can find
accessible?”
Fresh Expressions
15
Incarnational and
transformative
• ‘Christian mission engages people in
their in their immediate
circumstances and cultural setting,
even if it aims to transform these
into something more appropriate for
holy living.’ FEMC 6.5.9
Fresh Expressions
16
Re-generation
Fresh Expressions
17
the mixed economy
Celebrating and building on what is
mission-shaped in traditional forms of
church…
…and finding new,
flexible, appropriate
ways to proclaim the
Gospel afresh to those
who do not relate to
traditional ways
18
The mixed economy
“ Signs of hope… May be found in the
development of a ‘mixed economy’ of
Church life. There is an increasing
pluriformity in Welsh culture and
society, and in order that we might
participate effectively in God’s mission,
we need to consider the possibility that
there are ways of being Church
alongside the inherited parochial
pattern
Rowan Williams ‘Good News in Wales’ 1999
19
Mixed economy
• ‘The constant interplay between the
steady, faithful, ongoing, apostolic
life of the church and the edgy and
exploratory and new life that we see
in some fresh expressions is a vital
part of the health and wellbeing of
the Christian church.’
Rowan Williams
Fresh Expressions
20
Mixed economy
• ‘A mixed economy church should not
mean parallel spheres of ecclesial
life and mission having little in
common……
In a mixed economy church each
part belongs to the other part …’
FEMC 6.4.1
Fresh Expressions
21
Tas Valley Benefice
Fresh Expressions
22
Mixed economy
• Ephesians 1:9 he has made known to
us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure that he set
forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the
fullness of time, to gather up all
things in him, things in heaven and
things on earth.
Fresh Expressions
23
Mixed economy
• 2:17 So he came and proclaimed
peace to you who were far off and
peace to those who were near; 18
for through him both of us have
access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer
strangers and aliens, but you are
citizens with the saints and also
members of the household of God.
Fresh Expressions
24
Network and/or
neighbourhood?
• ‘ … given the erosion of
neighbourhood community, it seems
unlikely that territorial based
mission alone will be able to reach
all sections of a deeply fragmented
society.’ FEMC 6.5.6
Fresh Expressions
25
Locality
• ‘A purely territorial understanding
of locality no longer seems
meaningful today.’ Volf
Fresh Expressions
26
Locality
• ‘Locality is a relational space based
partly on neighbourhood and partly
on social networks. …
Localities overlap with one another;
they are fluid but not without
recognizable structures and
patterns.’ FEMC 6.6.1
Fresh Expressions
27
Locality
• ‘A mixed economy church in the
context of locality would combine
territorial mission and network
mission in an integrated and
creative way.’ FEMC 6.6.4
• The emerging shape of parish and
deanery.
Fresh Expressions
28
Connected
• A fundamental feature of authentic
church is connection to the rest of
the Church.
• It is the catholic, in one, holy,
catholic and apostolic.
• Isolated contextual churches create
a distorted form of corporate
Christian life.
Fresh Expressions
29
Catholicity
• ‘Each local congregation must be knit
by bonds of mutual recognition and
mutual responsibility with the Church
in all places and all ages.
• These bonds must not be so
interpreted that the life-style of
another place or time is imposed upon
the local congregation as a condition
of recognition.’Lesslie Newbigin
FrNsh Expressions
30
Becoming mature church
holy
worship
up
apostolic
mission
out
one
community
in
catholic
connexion
of
3
Grafted
+Graham Cray
Mixed Economy Church
Fresh Expressions
33