A man I have really grown to appreciate, and respect over the past 10 years or so is Bishop Graham Cray of the Church of England, and his tireless work around Fresh Expressions that evolved from the Missional Shaped Church document.
He's got a great personality, a contagious imagination, humble...and a fantastic sense of humor. There is a glimpse of his funny side on the video at the end of the post.
At 62 years old, a lot of clergy would be in their retirement slump, but, Graham has a passion for the church and the gospel. He is on the go constantly encouraging new pioneers and entrepreneurs to build something on the fringe that will spark the imagination of a disengaged culture.
There are many folks involved in Fresh Expressions, but, Graham from an idea that evolved out of the ( Missional Church Document ), ( Download Mission_shaped_church-1 , ) has, and continues to nurture the culture from which it's embryonic growth started.
The Archbishop Rowan Williams, says this about Fresh expressions...
But, to live with risk like this, we need to have a clear and robust understanding of what the Church really is. It is not, in the New Testament, a carefully constructed human society, organizing itself in local branches, with members signing up to a constitution. Instead, it is what happens when the news and the presence of Jesus, raised from the dead, impact upon the human scene, drawing people together in a relationship that changes everyone involved, a relationship which means that each person involved with Jesus is now involved with all others who have answered his invitation, in ways that can be painful and demanding but are also life giving and transforming beyond imagination.
The ’strength’ of the Church is never anything other than the strength of the presence of the Risen Jesus. And one thing this means is that, once we are convinced that God in Jesus Christ is indeed committed to us and present with us, there is a certain freedom to risk everything except those things that hold us to the truth of his presence – Word and sacrament and the journey into holiness. These will survive, whatever happens to this or that style of worship, this or that bit of local Christian culture, because the presence of Jesus in the community will survive.
Fresh Expressions, I’ve suggested, has helped us see something of this liberating vision. It’s true, from one point of view, that this takes us beyond a concern with denominational identity; and for some this is worrying. Is it really Anglican, or Methodist, or Baptist? What I hope is that, in the next phase of the work of Fresh Expressions, as it continues to enter more fully into the bloodstream of the churches, we start asking instead – of Fresh Expressions, but also of some of our inherited patterns – ‘Is it really Church?’
In the most recent podcast of Fresh Expressions (UK), Graham Cray has some sofa time sitting down in conversation with others talking about Fresh expressions...its' beginnings, present and future.
Without a doubt we know in post-Christendom, things are not the same, nor can the stay the same. " Church ", is in decline, especially in North America, and Europe. We've hit the ice berg! We can continue to rearrange the deck chairs, and have the worship team play on...or.
More than ever for the church to survive it will need to be sustainable, fluid and missional. Some ships, churches may survive the collision with the ice berg. But, many won't and perhaps it's time to put out some life boats, filled with dreamers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, pioneers and explorers into the changing waters of to day to explore and experiment to build in different landscapes.
I encourage you to listen to the podcast, it is filled with great questions and answers. But, most...I encourage you to dream, not to get lost in your dreams...but to build your dreams.
You can listen to the podcast ( HERE ), click ( 1. December 2009 podcast extra ). Also in the sidebar of my blog, under the heading of Bill Kinnon's Missional Videos, there are 2 excellent videos of Graham Cray in an interview at Wycliffe College in Toronto talking about Fresh Expressions.
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