Missionshaped church

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Mission-shaped church

• Presentation to
• CBDTI
• Rydal Hall
• Friday 6 May 2004
• Fr. Damian Feeney

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mission-shaped church

• Church planting andfresh expressions of church
  in a changing context

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mission-shaped church
We believe the Church of England is facing a
great moment of missionary opportunity, and we
recommend our report for the consideration of our
church Bishop Graham Cray, chair of the report
working party
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Mission-shaped church is not..

• A complete theology of Mission
• The total answer
• The definitive last word

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Mission-Shaped Church might be.

• A contribution to the ongoing debate
• A relevant piece of questioning
• A stepping stone on a journey

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in a nutshell

• Our society is changing rapidly
• We are called by God to meet the needs of our
  society with the love of Christ
• So we need to understand what is changing in
  society, and what may need to change in the way
  we do church

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a changing context

• Housing is expensive and people spend time on
  maintenance and DIY
• More people are working, especially more
  womenWeekends a time to work till you shop
• People move around more and drive further
• More children visit family members and absent
  parents

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a changing context
These and other factors affect what people do at
weekends and squeeze out time for Sunday church
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a changing context

• We live in an increasingly fragmented society
• People meet through networks, not just in their
  neighbourhoods
• People increasingly spend their free time
  shopping, or in leisure centres, or watching
  television at home

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a changing context
All this changes the waypeople feel
theybelongand do things together,and it
challenges traditional church attendance
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a context that excludes

• Those who are poor feel excluded from all this
  choice
• For both the rural and the urban poor, the
  neighbourhood may be all they have
• But many poor people feel trapped by this and
  are driven into isolation
• Traditional community resources, including the
  churches, are no longer helping as they used to

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mission-shaped church

• So it seems that people dont make time and space
  for God in the same ways any more
• And yet their need for God remains
• As Gods people we are called to go and meet them
  where they are
• Who are they?

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Simple?
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who needs us?

• Regular attenders whose commitment needs to be
  recognised
• Fringe attenders who may be being pulled away
• Open de-churched why did they leave?
• Closed de-churched what happened and why?
• Non-churched who need to experience the Gospel
  in a way that makes sense to them

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mission-shaped church
Mission is finding out what God is doing, and
joining in
(The Archbishop of Canterbury in the General
Synod, Feb 2004)
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mission-shaped church
We have to ask whether we are capable of moving
towards a mixed economy church
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mission-shaped church
recognising church where it appears and having
the willingness and the skill to work with it
(The Archbishop of Canterbury in the General
Synod, July 2003)
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the mixed economy

• Celebrating and building on what is good in
  traditional forms of church

• and finding new, flexible, appropriate ways to
  proclaim the Gospel afresh to those who
  have left and to the non-churched

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the mixed economy

• Its not the CHURCH of GOD that has a MISSION

• but the GOD of MISSION who has a CHURCH!

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The Five marks of Mission

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
• To respond to human need by loving service
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation
  and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

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the mixed economy
recognising church where it appears

• A simple picture, then?

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well
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mission-shaped church

• A ferment of different expressions of church,
  living as Christians together
• With values in common, and with the
• same goal

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values a missionary church is

• focused on God the Trinity
• incarnational
• transformational
• making disciples
• relational

mission-shaped church, pp.81-2
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approach shapes of life

• Relating to networks of people
• Not usually meeting on Sunday mornings
• Often emphasising face-to-face relationships in
  small groups
• Growing from gentle and small beginnings

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mission-shaped church
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fresh expressions where we are
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the heart of it dying to live

• The incarnation and the cross are at the heart of
  a mission-shaped church
• Listening to our community and to God
• Being prepared to lay down our preferred ways
  of being church,for the sake of those we are
  sent to serve

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mission-shaped church

• A strategy in each diocese for the mixed economy
  church
• A readiness to explore and to bless church
  planting and fresh expressions of church in each
  deanery and parish
• Both new and old accountable to the bishop, held
  and supported within the Anglican family

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questions for us

• How can we listen better to our communities and
  our context?
• How will we bless and encourage fresh expressions
  of church where we are?
• What resources can we offer to build a
  mission-shaped church here?
• What help do we need?

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our synods response

• We commit ourselves
• to explore more fully the changes in our own
  neighbourhoods and networks
• and to encourage and support the development of
  appropriate church planting and fresh expressions
  of church in our deanery and in our parishes

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mission-shaped church
Mission-shaped Church is published by Church
House Publishing, price 10.95p. This
presentation is based on one prepared by the
Mission Public Affairs Division of the
Archbishops Council