such as liquid church (Ward 2002) and new monasticism (Cray, Mobsby and Kennedy, 2010).
Church for Every Context also dialogues with wider streams of theological literature, not least on the nature of the church, the mission of God, contextualization, the church as the carrier of the Christian story, and Old and New Testament studies. In addition, the book plunders insights from commercial and social entrepreneurship to throw light on how contextual churches start and grow, and draws on complexity theory, especially complex responsive process theory, which emphasizes the role of conversations in organizational life.
I write as a Church of England minister who is a member of the UK’s national Fresh Expressions team, which since 2005 has encouraged new forms of church for a fast-changing world.7 This inevitably means that my perspective has something of an institutional feel. However, the church is not primarily an institution, but a variety of interlocking relationships. History is full of ecclesial institutions emerging and dying. There is nothing sacrosanct about today’s denominations. So although I write from within one particular institution, which I believe still has something to offer the world, I have sympathy for critical voices outside the denominations. My passion is the mission of the church.
Like many in the emerging church conversation, I have a low-church evangelical background, but in the early 1990s my journey took me to a more sacramental church, where we pioneered – in today’s language – several fresh expressions of church. Though my voyage resonates with many in the conversation, I have not travelled to the radical shores a number have reached. Some in the conversation would think me rather tame, whereas several of my evangelical friends would wonder if I was conservative enough.
I have used the phrase ‘new contextual church’ to span churches founded by people who would describe themselves as conservative evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics, radical emergents, new monastics or some other label, while being willing to stand under this umbrella term. The book is an apologetic for these new types of church within the mixed economy.
Further reading
Gay, Doug, Remixing the Church: The Five Moves of Emerging Ecclesiology, London: SCM, 2011.
Lings, George and Stuart Murray, Church Planting: Past, Present and Future, Cambridge: Grove Books, 2003.
Mission-shaped Church, London: Church Publishing House, 2004.
Questions for discussion
Of the four tributaries described in the chapter, which would you most identify with and why?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the definition of new contextual church offered here?
What examples of new contextual church have you experienced or are aware of? In what ways do they fit the chapter’s definition?
1The Church Army’s Sheffield Centre has a hard copy and an electronic database of over 40 of these. See www.churcharmy.org.uk/ms/sc/fxcp/sfc_onlinelibrary.aspx.
2This is based on the summary of the definition of fresh expression used by the Fresh Expressions team. See www.freshexpressions.org.uk/about/whatis.
3Kilpin and Murray (2007, p. 7) describe these plants as clones, but this is unhelpful. A clone would be genetically identical to the parent church, whereas these church plants were not clones in the literal sense of having all their genes in common. They innovated in a number of ways, such as recognizing the diversity of their mission contexts, being lay led with a mission team rather than a single leader, carrying out serious mission audit and in some cases pioneering different forms of worship. I am grateful to Bob and Mary Hopkins for pointing this out.
4The definition is a modified version of the one used by Fresh Expressions. See www.sharetheguide.org/section1/1.
5Church Times, 16 December 2011.
6 www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories.
7 www.freshexpressions.org.uk/about.
Part 1
Past and Present
1
Saint Paul’s New Contextual Churches
Evangelical critics of the emerging church conversation, such as D. A. Carson (2005), frequently complain that participants are not biblical enough; in their eagerness to connect with contemporary culture, contributors tend to lose their scriptural moorings. Critics from the more Catholic end of the spectrum, such as Andrew Davison and Alison Milbank (2010), accuse fresh expressions of church (and no doubt would include the emerging church conversation) of paying insufficient attention to the church’s tradition.
To help ensure that Church for Every Context is rooted in Scripture and has a strong eye to the tradition, Part 1 begins with a discussion of Saint Paul’s approach to church planting. Chapter 2 provides some historical precedents for contextual church. Chapter 3 recounts Britain’s recent experience of fresh expressions of church, while Chapter 4 puts these developments into a sociological perspective. The purpose of these chapters is to place new contextual churches in their historical and contemporary setting, and to show that church reproduction is intrinsic to the church’s missional life.
Starting with Saint Paul is no accident. He is widely regarded as one of history’s most fruitful church pioneers. So it is natural to ask what his experience can teach us. Eckhard Schnabel (2008) has recently provided a comprehensive description of Paul’s approach to mission, while Loveday Alexander (2008), James Dunn (2008), Richard Bauckham (2011) and John Drane (2011) have used New Testament material to reflect on fresh expressions of church and church pioneering.
In
