Roshi's ramblings

Last blog I looked at the aims of transforming Wigan, in this I'll talk about how they plan on doing it. First of all the mathsy bit. They are going to use the Fresh Expressions Pioneer measurements system to keep track of those who begin attending their new schemes rather than relying solely on head counts.  This will let them know once they reach the 10% attendees target. So what will lead to this 10% figure?  Rev. Tim believes that if you let people explore Jesus on their own terms and at a pace suitable for them it will lead to engaged people who will go on to become enrolled disciples - bringing new people in and becoming more involved in the running. This leads to another 2 aims that all fresh expressions should have: Making disciples of Jesus - sowing the seed of faith and curiosity which leads to encounters with God. Growing disciples of Jesus - taking that initial sprouting seed and growing it into a strong tree allowing other seeds to be planted. This is wh...

Session 3 was a choice of workshops  exploring fresh expressions in and around  the Wigan area.  There was a choice of prayer cells, messy church and transforming Wigan.  I already have some knowledge of messy church and cells so I chose transforming Wigan. Behold my rubbish Photoshop skills! The initiative has been set up by the CofE as Wigan lies in the centre of the country and at the point where Manchester, Blackburn and Liverpool dioceses all come together.  It is a scheme supported ecumenically in the area, especially by the Methodist circuit. The vision of Rev. Tim is that within 7 years 10% of people living in Wigan will identify as practising Christians.  It is a lofty goal but one that after hearing his plan could work.  The first and most important point he made was that it won't work if we focus solely on churches.  We need to get out into the wider world if we want to have an impact.  Such is his belief in this that the...

The second session was focused on the values required to successfully create a fresh expression. The danger of a fresh expression is that it turns out to not be God focused and is basically nothing more than a social club. To help avoid this everything you do should be grounded in deep prayer.  You should also ensure you have someone who can be constructively critical of your plans every step of the way to help keep you on track and focused on God's will rather than just your own. The speaker had a great message regarding this: "In an age that café church is cool, make sure it's more than just cappuccino froth!" It is crucial to listen to what God is telling you to do. You aren't going out to enforce your form of worship onto a community, you are going find a way to plant the seed of faith within their preexisting culture by making worship of Him relevant to them.  It all comes back to loving service. Go out and be Christ-like, show you care for and r...

In the first session we were introduced to what fresh expressions actually are and given examples of them. My introductory post covered much of what fresh expressions are in broad strokes. This reflection is about what they are more specifically. The speaker gave us some examples of which fresh expressions were already out there successfully running. I won't go into detail as there's plenty about them at the fresh expressions website.   She then talked about the 3 types of church: Attractional - in this one you aim to preserve the status quo, you invite people to join your church, grow the congregation without any change, they can change to fit you not the other way round.  This is a generalisation of course. Some churches are very skilled at the attractional method, but sadly the vast majority aren't.  Engaged - this church goes out into the community, gets involved and uses that as a basis to get people back into church. This is more successful than attraction...

Today I have been to a fresh expressions vision day at Wigan. The aim of the day was to introduce us to what exactly fresh expressions are and give some basic ideas of how they have been implemented.  Some examples of fresh expressions for those who have never heard the turn are the skate park church Legacy 9xs, the bread making church in Liverpool and indoor play areas like the Ark at Cranbrook which all offer worship alongside social activities. It all comes down to what the Gospel tells us to do. Particularly  Matthew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The plural of disciples is church, and fresh expressions is all about going back to the origins of church. When the disciples  initially wandered the Earth spreading the good news all churches were fresh expressions, each place would worship Christ in a way that worked for them. They did not try to fit a st...

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer. 29:11 I had a chat with my ADDO last Sunday and we decided together that this year I wouldn't be ready to go forward for candidacy.  I haven't yet had enough time for formation.  Granted this is a little disappointing as we as a society are so used to quick gratification, however, I do believe it's for the best and I am very excited about the year to come! Bishop Philip and Rev Cindy have said I am to continue my placement at the Benefice until Advent so I will have had a full year of working alongside my ADDO, developing my calling and gaining further insight into what it means to be a priest.   As I am married and have commitments I cannot take part in one of the 'Years with Christ' that the CofE have      created so this is as close to that as I can get, so I  am going to throw myself into it ...

Last Friday I assisted in the set up and running of the Benefice's Youth Group at the village hall.  I worked with the layperson who has overall charge of the youth activities, a lovely woman called Janet. She already had a rough idea of what she wanted the kids to do during the session, but wanted some activities to keep them excited and involved.  The theme she had decided on was 'stars' so we decided to make the activities have a star wars theme as that is the big film of the moment. First I had to plan which activities we could do.  Enter the trusty friend - Google!  I searched around the web for youth group star wars games and managed to find a few interesting ones.  Janet and I looked them over and decided we were going to do three activities from what I had found: An obstacle course based on podracing, where the course looked a little like a podracer and the teams had to get two cups of water around it multiple times without spilling any. A 'bomb...