A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the CofE book "Mission-Shaped Church" was published....Well, it was 2004 and peaking into the next decade, it seems worthwhile to take stock and review where mission and church planting is at, particularly for the Church of England. Ben Edson, who has been one of the key leaders of Sanctus 1, a church community sponsored by the Diocese of Manchester, is moving on to new things and is helpfully posting some important reflections on what he has learned. Ben, for me, is a significant voice in connecting inherited church with radical forms of mission and community, and consistently brings critical reflection both ways so these reflections are invaluable. This specific milestone of reflection is mirrored by a number of "Pioneer" initiatives I know around the country, many because of the time-limits on funding. 18 months ago, the first wave of formal Pioneer ministers was ordained. Fresh Expressions, as a hub of resourcing and encouragement, has been collating stories and endorsing new engagements for some years now. Here area number of questions that seem to me to be worth considering at this important juncture:
1. are Pioneer ministers being appropriately trained for the mission they are encountering and engaging with or are they essentially still being equipped for inherited church ministry with a certain degree of freedom that "traditional" ministers do not have? If it is the latter, how does the church endorse and affirm the pioneering (with a small "p") outside current structures?
2. to what extent has the setting up of a Pioneer stream created a gap between them and mainstream clergy so that the latter are deemed not to have a responsibility for mission?
3. there have been some legitimate critiques of Mission-Shaped Church that have highlighted the emphasis on church rescue as opposed to genuine mission into our unchurched cultures; to what extent is the Pioneer and Fresh Expressions movement focussing on "church" as opposed to kingdom?
4. what commitment is there to long term sustainability of pioneering church plants or is there a simple formula being applied that drops financial support after several years?
5. Mission-shaped Church and Fresh Expressions are releasing great permission to innovation and creativity...some of these things are not necessarily "new" but we have to rejoice in the opening up of boundaries that have often been so prohibitive...But is there a clear sense of the relative gulfs between church and various communities in contemporary culture and respective missional engagements? Or are people content to see anything "new" (cafe church, prayer on the streets etc etc) as sufficient to the demands of contextualisation today?
6. what is the normative profile of the Pioneer minister's context and Fresh Expressions initiative? Is there sufficient attention to the inner cities, other faiths, rural poverty, young adults....or is this another exercise in retrieving the lost middle classes to the church?
7. In the permission for pioneers, what is the inherited church and its leadership learning from them or is there a two-tier ecclesiology being birthed?
8. for Pioneer church plants with a very specific demographic, to what extent are principles of broad church being applied so that relationships are being forged across the spectrum of the Christian family?
I could probably add to these questions, and I betray some of my own agendas with these prods. But i do believe these are important questions to be asked about a process that i see as generally liberative and vital. What do you think?
appreciate your blog. Would appreciate swapping links on blogrolls.
I'm just about to post a fairly lengthy post in response to your 10 commandments.
steve
www.emergentkiwi.org.nz
Posted by: steve taylor | November 10, 2009 at 10:08 AM