Thrift

Who knows where we'll be in terms of our cash-related concerns by the end of 2009?

It's definitely a time for careful consideration of everything related to money.

Church of England Newspaper columnist Steve Tilley offered some useful links in his November contribution.

It's now available on his personal blog. Well worth a look.

Here's the cover of CL68, due to hit your doormat in the week beginning 2 February 2009.

I hope you like our 'new look' which has been created to harmonise with new CPAS 'visual image'.

Inside you will find worship resources for Holy Week, Easter Day and Trinity Sunday.

We have interviewed one of the first 'cohort' of Ordained Pioneer Ministers, who is woeking on a new housing development near Peterborough. He's pictured above.

And, as they say, there is much much more....

The right mix

‘We need both a traditional parish doing its work really well and some quite new kinds of venture’ – so said Archbishop Rowan Williams to endorse the Mission-shaped Church report.

CL asked Bishop Mike Hill of Bristol (above) to unpack the leadership challenges of a mixed-economy church.

Bishop Mike, what’s your understanding of a ‘mixed-economy church’?
I think it was the Archbishop of Canterbury who first gave currency to the phrase ‘mixed-economy’ in relation to the Church in the wake of the 2004 Mission-shaped Church report. At the time, I think it was immensely important to give the kinds of ideas that were discussed in Mission-shaped Church the appropriate weight and legitimise, within the Church of England in particular, that there were other ways of being church than what we traditionally know.

The Archbishop was essentially saying that emerging forms of church – ‘fresh expressions’ as many call them – could and in fact needed to co-exist alongside inherited forms of church and in fact should be actively encouraged.

I think this phrase was very helpful. It ensured that Mission-shaped Church did not get shelved, like so many other reports and, secondly, created the space for experimentation in denominational settings – and that is largely happening.

All that said, I also believe that, for the majority of local churches, this kind of language gives them an excuse not to engage with the reality of mission in the myriad cultures of 21st century Britain.

It allows them to fool themselves into believing ‘Someone else in the other economy is looking at mission to those who don’t know anything about Jesus or the Church. So we’re off the hook!’

The truth is that a mixed-economy needs not only to exist at a city-wide or national level but also in the life of every church.

So, in a way, I think it’s time to move the language on so that every church faces the challenge that I heard an American pastor, Craig Groeschel, give this year: ‘If you’re going to reach the people that no one is reaching, you’ve got to do the thing that no one is doing’.

Can you point to any local-church examples in your own diocese of this mixed-economy making an impact for mission?
There are a number of things going on, often focusing on reaching families with young children and relating to school communities. We have a couple of recent church plants meeting outside of church buildings and with much more interactive formats.

You can see a short film about them here.

I think what is a consistent trait is a willingness to try things, and to learn from things that don’t work.

What are the particular challenges of leadership in a mixed-economy set-up?
If we think about leaders in local environments who are both leading the church in inherited mode and pioneering fresh expressions of church at the same time I think the challenges are significant.

This is partly because there will be a tussle for resources, and I don’t just mean money: the energy and focus of leadership, the space given for vision casting about the new thing. Those committed to the inherited form will feel threatened and you’ve got to carry and affirm them while not allowing them to hijack the equal commitment to the emerging form of church.

Leaders have got to create a permission-giving environment where people feel they can experiment.

I think the gifts required for the pioneer leader are different from what we have traditionally valued in church leaders. Pioneers require entrepreneurship.

I believe that any new initiative should have financial sustainability built in from day one. That will probably mean unpaid leadership at first. This is clearly a massive challenge for leaders in a church culture where leadership has been for the paid professional.

Read the full text of the interview in CL68, appearing in the first week of February

Fresh Expressions National Pilgrimage Day

I was privileged to spend today taking part in the first Fresh Expressions National Day of Pilgrimage, in the majestic setting of Coventry Cathedral. The Archbishop of Canterbury led the day.

I'm pleased to report that my personal pilgrimage involved some suffering (standing-room only on the Leamington-Coventry train) plus a good deed to a fellow-pilgrim - my travelling companion and I encountered a lost bishop on Coventry station and were able to escort him all the way to the cathedral. He was SO grateful.

Tradition
The pilgrimage day's 'special feature' was its focus on the Church of England's 'sacramental and contemplative' tradition. More than 400 men and women attended. Fresh Expressions chief the Rev Steven Croft told me that he and his team were amazed by the response - the event was massively overbooked.

Word and action
Our day began at the font (beneath the glorious rainbow sunburst of the great John Piper window) with the renewal of baptismal vows, reminding us of the basic shared truths of our faith.
And, setting a trend for the rest of the day, we were invited to respond with our bodies as well as our minds and voices, this time in an act of submission, formally known as a 'total prostration'.

Stretched out, flat on my face on the floor, isn't my normal 'way in' to an act of worship. But I can't recommend a better way of getting a sense of one's own 'created-ness' - God didn't call his first human 'Adam' (ie 'Earth') for nothing....

Four connections
We gathered in the main body of the Cathedral to listen to Archbishop Rowan's address. Not surprisingly he began with some gentle challenges to our stereotyping use of labels: when properly used, the terms 'catholic' and 'evangelical' belong inextricably together - both, at heart, are about taking the good news (the evangel) to all.

He warned us that all traditions run the risk of becoming fussy and desiccated - we all depend on the renewing, vibrant power of the Holy Spirit.

His went on to outline ways in which the sacramental and contemplative traditions have particular gifts and emphases that can widen and enrich the ongoing work of the Fresh Expressions movement.

1. The catholic tradition has a particular emphasis on the non-verbal as well as the verbal in its sharing of the good news of Jesus. Our society is deeply receptive to symbols - think of those roadside 'flower shrines' at accident sites, for example.
   
2. Linked to this is a central place for sacramental action as part of the proclaiming word. God makes himself credible to us by taking a body of vulnerable flesh. We show our commitments most clearly when we put our bodies 'on the line'.
3. In its celebration of the 'faith journey' of the church's year, the tradition acknowledges that our relationship with God is something that, literally, 'takes time'.... Our culture isn't good at taking time (otherwise we wouldn't be in our current economic mess). Growing in faith is lifelong work - and something that's deeply counter-cultural.
4. At its best the tradition is community-focused, offering a powerful message of inclusion and shared life to our fragmented, individualistic culture. And community doesn't mean a warm huddle - rather it's a place honesty where we are continually being challenged to venture beyond our comfort zones.
   

Archbishop Rowan noted that all four aspects are deeply biblical. And he used a powerful image of the church. The word ecclesia means 'a bringing together' - when God acts it's like the action of a magnet on iron fillings, enlivening and bringing them into dynamic relationship.

He ended with the encouragment that in these and many other ways, churches in the sacramental and contemplative traditions are brilliantly placed to contribute richly to the mould-breaking work of rediscovering what it means to 'be church' at the start of the 21st century. (Click here for full text of the address.)

Abbot Stuart Burns responded with a brief reflection on the missionary impact of the Oxford Movement revival within the Church in the first half of the 19th century. (I was struck by the similarities in terms of zeal and outreach between the intentions of the Oxford Movement and those of the founders of CPAS.) He also warned that passion and dependence up on the Holy Spirit are the 'must have' aspects of any work for God that is to live and grow.

Communion
The morning continued with a service of Holy Communion with the liturgy enhanced by large-screen visuals, traditional music and pulsing ambient backing as well. The Archbishop (the man's singing voice is nearly as sonorous as his speaking voice) seemed unfased by the necessity of wearing one of those Madonna-style head mics. I particularly appreciated the 'body prayer' to the Lord's Prayer, ably led by Philip Roderick.

And then
It was time for lunch - plenty for everyone. I admired the clean-eating skills of the cathedral servers, tucking in to their sarnies while fully kitted out in snowy-white cassock albs (the ultimate holy hoody).

Reflection
It was good to have the best part of an hour for quietness and reflection. I wandered the side aisles and the cathedral's many nooks and corners, pausing at prayer stations and taking part in activities arranged by a variety of FX groups and related agencies. These included: Contemplative Fire, Moot, Dekhomai, Blessed, Feig and Maybe.

Groups
It was good to see several friends of Church Leadership leading some of the afternoon's themed elective activities:

• Steve Croft led 'Why bother with Fresh Expressions?'
• Dave Male led a workshop on 'Ordained Pioneer Ministry and the catholic Anglican tradition.

There were also sessions on:

• Catholic mission: communities learning to share God's love with others
• Monasticism, New Monasticism and the Contemplative tradition
• Body prayer in the Christian tradition
• Technology in worship - Yes you can!
• Looking with Mary to God's possibilities.

Exposition
As the winter twilight deepened, we gathered in and near the candlelit choir for a final act of worship, which, for me typified all that I had experienced during the day - a sense of ancient traditions being rediscovered and re-invigorated with a vibrant, energetic power.

I was moved and humbled by the sincerity and beauty of my fellow-pilgrims' wholehearted response to God, made all the more poignant for me by the realisation that probably few of them fall in to the 'natural constituency' of CPAS.

In that darkened space, the vast figure of Christ in Majesty rising above, one gets a hint of the greatness, mystery and beauty of God.

The numinous, I guess.

It was impossible not to be excited by the potential of a continuing work of God's Spirit in this area of his wonderfully diverse Church.

And onward
We ended as we began, by the font. Bishop Stephen Cottrell sent us out with a reminder of Jesus' question to his friends at a time of difficulty: 'You do not want to leave too, do you?' - and of Peter's simple response: 'Lord, to whom shall we go?'

Millennia later, we find ourselves in a similar place to Peter and his friends. Jesus has, in his unque, countercultural way, totally 'messed up' our lives.

We're not particularly skilled, gifted, vibrant or self-confident - which is good news, because that makes us pretty much the same as the bunch of people with whom he shared the brief years of his earthly work - and whom he invited to be his living Body in the world.

Exciting, huh?

The pilgrimage continues
An important feature of the pilgrim life is the truth that as soon as you think you're doing well, you're probably heading for a fall. (Hear the wise words of Dolly Parton).

You won't be surprised that I exited the cathedral on a bit of a high. Handshake at the door from Archbishop Rowan (those eyebrows - phenomenal). And I scooted for the station.

As if by divine appointment the Cross Country train arrived on the dot. I boarded and found a comfortable seat in a pleasantly uncrowded compartment. Bliss. Guardian Angel being nice to me, or what?

Ten minutes later I realised I was heading north to Birmingham rather than south to my home in Leamington.

Thank goodness I hadn't mis-shepherded another lost bishop on to the train.

I regrouped at Birmingham International, boarding a homeward train jammed with fashionistas who'd spent their day at The Clothes Show.

Did I get a seat? Not a chance!

Resources

Ian Mobsy of Moot

Ian leads the Moot community in London - and was very involved in the planning and running of the day. Check out his blog!

Ancient Faith, Future Mission

Ian Mobsby is editing a book based on the themes of the pilgrimage day. It will be published by Canterbury Press in May 2009. It will include the address from Archbishop Rowan and Stuart Burns' response. It will have additional chapters from Brian McLaren, Ian Adams and Ian Mobsby, Karen Ward, Richard Giles, Carl Turner, Simon Rundell, Michael Volland, Tessa Holland & Philip Roderick, Phyllis Tickle and others.

Fresh Expressions

The website of the Fresh Expressions movement

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A site for leaders of fresh expressions of church.