Mission Shaped Church There has been in the last few decades - particularly since the decade of Evangelism

- calls on the Church of England to take mission more seriously - and to offer an honest critique of itself - so that we can begin to grow and move forward Whilst there has been much written about mission in the Church of England in recent years - no critique has been so honest and far reaching - as the report from 2004 entitled Mission Shaped Church and in this next session it is the ideas contained within that report that we are going to be thinking about 1. The Reason for the Report

It was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who commissioned this report - and in his introduction to the report he makes an astonishingly honest comment We have begun to recognise that there are many ways in which the reality of the church can existwhat makes the situation interesting is that we are going to have to live with variety. The challenge is how to work with that variety so that everyone grows together in faith and in eagerness to learn about and spread the good news. Williams was coming from the view that communities in Britain are changing and that the very nature and definition of community is changing. Graham Cray who played such a pivotal role in the writing of this report - wrote some devastating words that hit at the very heart of the Church of England on page 11 It is clear that the parochial system remains an essential and central part of the nation churches strategy to deliver incarnational mission. But the existing parochial system alone is no longer able fully to deliver its underlying mission purpose. These are radical words for the Church of England to grapple with - it is not that Cray is saying that the parochial system no longer works - but that now we need to see the parochial system as one system that offers one particular notion of church - and the Church of England needs to be exploring new ways of being church - along side the parochial system
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2. The Context of the Report Graham Cray again on page 12 One of the central features of this report is the recognition that the changing nature of our missionary context requires a new enculturation of the Gospel within our society. What Graham Cray is saying here - is that church must look different according to its cultural context - and what church may look like in your cultural context - may be radically different from how it looks in my cultural context And so you get this wonderful quote from Graham Cray, again on page 12 that Church has to be planted not cloned. And so church planting and finding new ways of being church - must be carried out in the context of social change The government survey from 2003 called Social Trends - reveals a great deal of social change 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. changes changes changes changes changes changes in in in in in in housing needs and household sizes DIY habits that are now Sunday focused employment, especially the employment of women mobility and freedom of travel family life, increasing divorce rate and Sunday dads free time usage, e.g. TV, game cube etc

The context too is of networking - that we live in a network society As the report states on page 5 Networks have not replaced neighbourhoods but they changed them. And we know that the social networks in which we live may be based around locality - but they are just as likely nowadays to be based around activity - and so people from diverse geographical areas may be brought together around an activity - or maybe never even meet at all as an internet network can provide activity-based society

The impact of that is huge as the report notes on page 7 Community is increasingly being reformed around networks and people are less inclined to make lasting commitments. In addition to the context of social change and the context of networks - the report states that we live in the context of consumer culture It is not surprising that the report should stress this - given the influence of Graham Cray in its writing And you can almost hear Graham Crays voice reading out this quote on page 10 There is no alternative to a consumer society. That is what we are, this is where we are and that is where we must be church and embody the Gospel. The report draws a distinction between consumer society and the ideology of consumerism - but I dont want to go into that debate now - and you can read almost anything by Graham Cray to find out the difference between the two But the context in which we need to become a mission shaped church - is also the context of post Christendom To quote the report on page 11 The Christian story is no longer at the heart of the nation. Although people may identify themselves as Christian in the national census, for the majority that does not involve belonging to a worshiping community or any inclination that it should. If we are living in a post Christian society - then the consequences for the national church are of course huge - and we need to think through on what basis we can call ourselves the national church - especially when the most recent figures suggest that only one million people per Sunday go to the Church of England - out of a total population of somewhere around sixty million The Church of England quite simply is not doing its job - and as the report says on page 12 We need to find expressions of church that communicate with post Christian people.

3. Fresh Expression of Church That being the case the report urges the Church of England to find new ways of being church - and in outlining different models of church the report suggests that there will be five common features of new churches 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. the churches use small groups for discipleship and mission the churches do not meet on a Sunday morning the churches relate to networks of people the churches are post denominational the churches have a connection with the resourcing network - such as soul survivor, alpha, green belt etc

OK, lets move on to look at the various models which the report suggests - could be new ways of doing church For many of us these are not new models of course - but what is most startling is that the Church of England is now officially recognising these as alternatives to regular Sunday morning worship Lets work through them Model No. 1 Alt. Worship Communities These are loose groupings usually of post Christians - who have become disillusioned with mainstream denominations Alt. Worship Communities tend to be a rejection of what is church - and they are based on contemplation and spirituality and new ways of worship Of course Alt. Worship Communities have little sense of mission or even social involvement - and they see their main task as re-socialising people back into the notion of church - through developing strong communities Model No. 2 Base Ecclesial Communities The origins for Base Ecclesial Communities is Latin America - through liberation theology - but they now operate worldwide The aim of course is to identify with the marginalized
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- in an attempt to bring hope and a sense of challenge into local communities - and to use the church as a spring board for working for social justice Model No. 3 Caf Church Caf Church is formed by groups that engage with Caf culture As a model of church there is no corporate worship - and people attending will gather small tables and not sit in pews Drinks and nibbles are available at the start of the session - and people are encouraged to interact, not to be spectators - in this worship time that is usually held in a secular venue rather than a traditional church building Model No. 4 Cell Church Cell Church will be familiar to most of us by now - having been around for many, many years But to remind ourselves Cell Churches are based on two wings, cell and celebration - and the idea is that every cell member becomes involved in ministry - and that every cell is a building block for the church Cell Church is built on a conviction that small church is good church - and that good quality leadership and training will lead to enormous church growth We see in the 21st Century many established churches changing their structures to cell - or planting new cell churches in the local community - or running parallel cell churches to the traditional model Model No. 5 Community Initiative Churches These are never a conscious attempt to create church - and often tend to arise in urban priority areas They usually start out from some initiative for the local community - such as working with marginalised young people - running holiday clubs or sessions for single mothers - work amongst the elderly - or work amongst refugees and so on Model No. 6 Multiple and Midweek Congregations This is based on the traditional model of church
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- where the congregational base is so big - as to warrant multiple services for the development of congregations to meet during the week These churches would traditionally offer three or four services on a Sunday - and have targeted acts of worship such as family services - and statistics suggest that fifty one percent of Church of England churches offer a midweek service - that may be liturgically different from what is offered on a Sunday Model No. 7 Network Focused Churches This new model of church offers mission to a particular social or cultural group - and is shaped by engagement with that culture Because it is such a specifically targeted type of church - it can afford to be counter cultural to mainstream churches These churches often use small groups - and of course Evangelism is high on their agenda - usually with practical service to the local community or the youth group and associated networks Model No. 8 School Based Church Links between churches and schools are increasing - and it is not unusual that out of school groups can become church Not only that we see increasingly that the school buildings are used for worship - which can have the benefit of being a familiar site in the community which breaks down barriers Model No. 9 Seeker Church This is a model which we are all familiar with - based on the Chicago church called Willow Creek The idea of course is that Seeker Churches should be accessible to nonChristians - that preaching should be about every day things - and that creative arts, dance and drama are used - alongside contemporary media In the UK Seeker Churches have been particularly useful at restoring the lapsed
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- but not so effective in working with the non-churched But of course Seeker Churches demand a great deal of energy - since they are relying on constant creativity Model No. 10 Traditional Church Plants There is not much I want to say about Traditional Church Plants - since we are all so familiar with them However, just to say that they are usually located in the same parish - but are responding to the needs of a particular social grouping Church Plants are usually born out of a mission audit - secular venue is usually used - and they tend to be more informal than the sending or planting church Model No. 11 Traditional Church With New Interest This Church of England report suggests that there is an increasing interest in traditional forms of spirituality - such as Cathedral worship and retreats - which they call the New Monasticism It is quite possible they are right - and the likes of Jonny Baker are tapping into this for example through the labyrinth Model No. 12 Youth Congregations Youth Congregations are of course different from youth services Monthly youth celebrations are common - but the amount of youth congregations in the country is difficult to quantify - even though most people would suggest that there are growing numbers There is much debate at the present time - as to the effectiveness or usefulness of youth congregations - and there is much to be said about that although not today Five Values for Missionary Churches The report suggests that there are five core values for churches and wish to be strong in terms of mission 1. focused on God the Trinity
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2. 3. 4. 5.

incarnational transformational making disciples relational

Theology for a Missionary Church What theologies can underpin the notion of mission for the church today? Well the report says that the first theology we need is salvation history The mission of God in creation and redemption - must be at the heart of a missionary church The idea of Christ at work within culture - must be at the heart of a missionary church The Holy Spirit of God at work in the church - must be at the heart of a missionary church Second, the theology for a missionary church suggests - that the church is designed to reproduce The church is people born for mission - and we are born to reproduce to go out into the world to make disciples and to grow Thirdly, a theology for a missionary church - would draw on the creedal marks of the church - the church is one - the church is holy - the church is catholic - the church is apostolic Recommendations from the Report Finally, what did the report recommend? In essence there were four recommendations 1. that dioceses should be encouraged to start new expressions for church This is a bold and courageous statement for the Church of England - and it will be interesting to see to what extent this becomes an increasing reality

2. the ecumenical co-operation is critical to mission That we have many resources to share across denominations 3. That leadership and training is vital Expertise is needed in starting new churches - and we need to be drawing upon the expertise of others to take mission seriously 4. Resources are urgently needed Not surprisingly the report talks about our need for more money - and other types of resources to make this dream a reality In essence then Mission Shaped Church published in 2004 - is a brave report from the Church of England To be sure a lot of its recommendations are not new and many of us have been involved in such initiatives for many years - but what is new is the willingness of the Church of England officially and from the top to embrace and encourage such initiatives - and to say that these must be now considered on a par with the parochial system We can only wait to see how this pans out for the future