the future of fresh expressions
the fresh expressions website clearly sets out the goal of 10,000 new fresh expressions of church (fxc) by 2010. see:
http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/section.asp?id=164
i am tempted to go off on my hobby horse of calling into question the strategic practice of setting measurable goals in church life. in our increasingly technocractic cutlure, it seems self-evident (or at least completely unproblematic) to rethink the church as an organization which, like all other organizations, can be described and evaluated by the tools of manegerial science.
the problem with setting measurable goals, of course, is the temptation to do what it takes to achieve them! i'm not talking about the potential that such goals have for employing the 'fud' factor, i.e. casting fear, uncertainty and doubt about present and future in order to move us into action. i think it should be clear that neither the 'fud' factor nor the drive to see numerical growth can be theologically adequate motives for the emerging church. other temptations include turning fresh expressions into another strategic programme of the existing church; or adjusting our numerical expectations to match the reality as it unfolds; or, lastly, widening our definition of what constitutes a fresh expression of church to make sure the target remains achievable.
indeed, one wonders whether the recurring expression on the website - 'fresh expressions of church life' - is an attempt to widen the terms in just this way. in other words, to include diverse forms of missional initiatives being developed in existing churches rather than church planting as such. if church planting is the defining logic of fxc, however, it would seem that emerging church pioneers are justified in saying that such initiatives are not really fresh expressions, properly speaking. a very large number (if not most) of those fresh expressions registered in the on-line directory seem to be of this kind.
but what if the number of fxc plants proper remain quite small? what if only a few churches endure but many more experiments come and go? what if the ratio of missional initiatives to fresh expressions continues to rise, take root, and substantially renew our existing church communities? if this were the case, would freshexpressions.org.uk have failed? or might fxc be fulfilling its providential role in the church catholic?
in other words, if the emerging church conversation is that which exists at the interface of church planting pioneers, missional leaders in the existing church, and the cultural context of the non-churched, then might we not actually recover the truly dynamic meaning of 'tradition' as faithful improvisation on existing church life into a more missional future? the emerging church is then not reducible to fxc 'plants' as such, but is rightly extended to fxc 'life' writ large. as the fruit of this conversation, the emerging church finds its identity in an emerging narrative tradition as a 'mixed economy' of missional church initiatives and fxc plants, the prose and the poetry, the cantus firmus and polyphonic voices of God's witnessing people in the world.
http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/section.asp?id=164
i am tempted to go off on my hobby horse of calling into question the strategic practice of setting measurable goals in church life. in our increasingly technocractic cutlure, it seems self-evident (or at least completely unproblematic) to rethink the church as an organization which, like all other organizations, can be described and evaluated by the tools of manegerial science.
the problem with setting measurable goals, of course, is the temptation to do what it takes to achieve them! i'm not talking about the potential that such goals have for employing the 'fud' factor, i.e. casting fear, uncertainty and doubt about present and future in order to move us into action. i think it should be clear that neither the 'fud' factor nor the drive to see numerical growth can be theologically adequate motives for the emerging church. other temptations include turning fresh expressions into another strategic programme of the existing church; or adjusting our numerical expectations to match the reality as it unfolds; or, lastly, widening our definition of what constitutes a fresh expression of church to make sure the target remains achievable.
indeed, one wonders whether the recurring expression on the website - 'fresh expressions of church life' - is an attempt to widen the terms in just this way. in other words, to include diverse forms of missional initiatives being developed in existing churches rather than church planting as such. if church planting is the defining logic of fxc, however, it would seem that emerging church pioneers are justified in saying that such initiatives are not really fresh expressions, properly speaking. a very large number (if not most) of those fresh expressions registered in the on-line directory seem to be of this kind.
but what if the number of fxc plants proper remain quite small? what if only a few churches endure but many more experiments come and go? what if the ratio of missional initiatives to fresh expressions continues to rise, take root, and substantially renew our existing church communities? if this were the case, would freshexpressions.org.uk have failed? or might fxc be fulfilling its providential role in the church catholic?
in other words, if the emerging church conversation is that which exists at the interface of church planting pioneers, missional leaders in the existing church, and the cultural context of the non-churched, then might we not actually recover the truly dynamic meaning of 'tradition' as faithful improvisation on existing church life into a more missional future? the emerging church is then not reducible to fxc 'plants' as such, but is rightly extended to fxc 'life' writ large. as the fruit of this conversation, the emerging church finds its identity in an emerging narrative tradition as a 'mixed economy' of missional church initiatives and fxc plants, the prose and the poetry, the cantus firmus and polyphonic voices of God's witnessing people in the world.
posted by Phil at
8:49 AM
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