Fresh Expressions 1

Mixed Economy Church

+Graham Cray

Wolverhampton Pioneer Ministries

Fresh Expressions 2

come

attractional method

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engaged method

go and then come

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Street Pastors9

Food banks10

go and then stay

emerging method

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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?”

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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

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Re-generation

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the mixed economyCelebrating and building on what is mission-shaped in traditional forms of church…

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…and finding new, flexible, appropriate ways to proclaim the Gospel afresh to those who do not relate to traditional ways

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

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Fresh Expressions

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 Williams20

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

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Tas Valley Benefice

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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

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Locality• ‘A purely territorial

understanding of locality no longer seems meaningful today.’ Volf

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

holyworshipup

apostolicmissionout

onecommunityin

catholicconnexionof

Becoming mature church

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Grafted

Fresh Expressions 33

Mixed Economy Church

+Graham Cray