I recently (re)read three pieces of work, which I think, can readily be juxtaposed upon each other. The first was a recent talk that Rowan Williams gave to a Fresh Expressions gathering in Oxford. The group gathered under the theme of Changing the Landscape: Making the Mixed Economy Work. An excerpt from the Archbishop’s address to the group can be found below, while the full transcript can be found here (the PDF version, here).
The second piece of work is good friend Steve Taylor’s The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change (pub. 2005). In particular his “postcard 6” titled “Redemptive Portals”; and his “postcard 7” titled “Missional Interface”. You can find a reasonable overview of Steve’s book here. An interview (written) with Steve about his book can be found here.
The third was Sheila Pritchard’s essay: Digging Wells or Building Fences.
If you can read these three pieces of work together, layer them over the top of each other, and I think you’ll travel to some interesting places.
Here’s the excerpt from Rowan William’s address:
“…I have absolutely no doubt that the Church, the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, and probably – if the truth be told – the Roman Catholic Church in due order as well, will be looking far less homogeneous in a couple of decades; different kinds of congregations, with different rhythms of life. I believe very strongly that whether we're talking about inherited models of church or fresh expressions, the real heart for the next generation is pretty well bound to be in those small groups of people working at their relationships, at their understanding, together, quietly, in the long term. The cell, in other words. Whether inherited or not so inherited we're looking at that development of mutual formation, mutual shaping of life and possibilities that will take place within the sort of group where people really trust one another.
…I think if we're talking about cultivating the cell and the small group we also need to cultivate, very deliberately, trustful friendships with those who are not in the same style or the same pace; informal mentoring relationships, exchanges of experience.
And all of that I'm assuming is a pattern of life that goes on pretty regularly. And at the other end of the spectrum I think a great deal in our church culture and our wider culture has become, in recent years, a lot more sensitive to festival and celebration. A lot more willing to invest a great deal in the big event and I think we may be looking in the next generation to a church life which swings between those two extremes – the occasional big event where the Nicodemuses and the woman with the issue of blood and so forth are able to see something, to touch the hem, but which don't instantly press them to commitments they are not ready to make and yet, given the chance, to face the reality of commitment. That at one end and at the other, the smaller scale.
…Well I won't tempt fate by trying to sketch out in any more depth or detail what I think the church will be like in 20 or 50 years time. That is a sure recipe for disaster but that's often what I think about, dream about and pray about as a future for our churches in this country. That balance of regular, demanding – let's face it, demanding - small group life are part of it. Moving out from that in the immediate local community, the capacity to be alongside people, nudging them towards new vision and then the big event, the big statement which says, 'This is the kind of thing that we're talking about, this is the possibility we're trying to make real in the world.' And that I think is how I see the mixed economy working. I said earlier that the small group, the cell, may be part of the life of an inherited pattern, it may be part of a much more experimental or exploratory pattern. It doesn't really matter. What matters is the sense of mutual commitment and mutual seriousness and it's that mutual commitment and seriousness that enables creative engagement with the immediate community in the ways we've been thinking about…”
Thanks to Jonny Baker for bringing Williams' talk to my attention.
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