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OUR BEGINNINGS

Fresh Expressions in the Missional Movement in Southern Africa
Gordon Crowther

 

Introduction
The first motor cars were called “horseless carriages” since here was a new and growing
phenomenon that could only be described with existing vocabulary. By contrast, the word
“computer” has been consistently used since at least the 17th century, once of a person who
calculates, later to describe large mechanical machines and now of tiny implants that seem
to operate most things. The words “mission” and “church” are being taken, with us, on a
surprising journey, led by God, in relating to a changing world. There is continuity and
discontinuity. This chapter will give a brief history of “fresh expressions” of church in South
Africa to help leaders of churches (particularly of the historic denominational institutions)
explore the implications of this “surprising move of God” for our ecclesiology.

 

A mixed economy
In 2004 the Mission Shaped Church (MSC) report was published for the Church of England.
It explored the changing landscape of mission and explored church planting and fresh
expressions of church that were inviting (and challenging) the existing expressions to
“enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide” with corresponding
“lengthening of cords” (Isaiah 54:2). In his foreword to the report, the then Archbishop of
Canterbury, Rowan Williams,  wrote


If ‘church’ is what happens when people encounter the Risen Jesus and commit
themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with each
other, there is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style, so long as
we have ways of identifying the same living Christ at the heart of every expression of
Christian life in common.

He used the term “mixed economy” to describe this diversity of existing and fresh
expressions of church. Not primary and secondary. Not competing but complementary.
Steven Croft  was appointed as Archbishop’s Missioner to build a team to encourage the
implementations of the reports recommendations. This became the ecumenical Fresh
Expressions team.

 

Defining a fresh expression
Croft described a fresh expression as “a form of church for our changing culture established
primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church”    This simple
definition has been helpfully expanded by Michael Moynagh who uses four words which not
only explain fresh expressions but can be applied as assessment indicators of new
initiatives: fresh expressions are to be "contextual, formational, ecclesial and missional" - for
people in context; for forming the gospel of Christ in them and them in Christ; for being fully
the church, and; for being sent in the name of Christ to others.

 

Why fresh expressions?
The story of fresh expressions starts at the end of Christendom, which in the North and
West has seen the institutional church losing its place of influence and relegated to the edge
of an increasingly “secular” society. However, it can be argued that, in the African context,
towards the end of the missionary expansion of the former colonizing nations, indigenous
mission continues exponentially. In 1900 there were 9 million Christians in Africa, but by the
year 2000, there were an estimated 380 million. By 2060 more than four-in-ten Christians
will call sub-Saharan Africa home, up from 26% in 2015, according to a new analysis of
demographic data by Pew Research Center.  However, Dr Jurgens Hendriks, who
researched statistics of churches in South Africa found that, while the number of Christians
is growing, “it is evident that all the established churches that came to South Africa from
Europe and that have retained their European identity and theology, have basically lost their
share of the market”.  Our historic, inherited expressions often have forms of gathering that
are inaccessible to those unconnected to church and the systems and structures for
leadership, accountability and support are often hierarchical, rigid (inflexible), conformist,
culturally specific and resource-hungry. Rapid decline of churches in Europe may have
motivated denominational leaders there to pay attention to Fresh Expressions, but the
purpose is not primarily to address numerical decline or to promote church growth (or,
indeed, survival). The people of the Triune God, who is expansive Love, are called to a
missional ecclesiology – the forms and structures of church orientated towards participation
in the missio dei for the sake of the all people and the earth itself. We go in the way of Jesus
Christ, who said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John
20:21 NIVUK).


A South African story
Here is a story that illustrates how fresh expressions provides a responsible and contextual
response to our diverse local context, even if only in process and before any predicted
outcome that bears the marks of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church”.


A young Malawian man, David, arrived in Cape Town as an economic migrant. He was
disturbed by the limited vision he found among young people in the informal settlement
(called Capricorn) where he stayed. Many did not aspire to more than joining a gang and
making money associated with the drug culture. He wanted to do something to point them
to a future with hope for more. He joined other immigrants and refugees standing on the
side of the road near our church building, waiting for casual employment. One day he came
in to a gathering of church and was surprised to be welcomed, even though the majority
were white people. There he was helped to find work and met a teacher who was working
in a primary school in Capricorn. She took some time to listen to his story and to
understand his vision and was able to obtain permission for David to start a club for the
Grade 7 learners. He recruited two others to help him and they encouraged the learners to
talk about a bigger vision for their lives. The club was called FutureTalk and had the support
of the church, whose leader has a vision for resourcing multiples of fresh expressions. It
became popular, and David was joined by others who came to help. One of those was Paul.
Paul was a member of the church, but as a white man had long sensed God calling him to
cross the divisions of historical apartheid and present social disparity and to move in to
Capricorn. Following the model of Jesus (“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us” John 1:14 NIVUK), Paul rented a room in Capricorn for eighteen months. He met
David and joined his team. Paul also met other people and invited them to take part and to
visit the church. One of those was Ronald.


Ronald had grown up in Capricorn and had been a gangster and a drug dealer. He had been
taught to mistrust and even fear whites. However he felt God calling him to join the church
to help us all to cross our divisions. His local knowledge of Capricorn and strategic gifts
enabled David’s vision to develop further. And his leadership gifts enable the church to
become aware of how to be hospitable to those of differing backgrounds.


The team in Capricorn became aware of boys for whom there was no activity in the
afternoons after school. David was a good soccer player in Malawi. He used his experience
to start a team (called “Future Stars”) and entered them in a local league. The team would
have bible studies after practice. As needs were identified the growing community
responded – camps were organized, youth groups started, an arts group for vulnerable girls
started in a container (“Sisterhood”), Ronald’s mother made a commitment to Christ, joined
the church and started a bible study group in her home, the mothers of the girls wanted
their own group (Sisterhood Mums) and the Capricorn team heard that another place, a
new housing development called Westlake village had similar needs, and so send a team to
start FutureTalk in the Westlake primary school and the multiplying of ministries started
there. All these were connected and resourced through the original church, whose
leadership was willing to allow new leadership to blossom and fresh expressions of church
to develop as partners in the Mission of God. The leaders were discipled through significant
setbacks and personal failure. The resourcing church began to change and grow in diversity
and in navigating the new challenges of being a harbour that launches expressions of the
gospel of Christ for our many kinds of brokenness. The journey continues.


A process of freshly expressing the Mission of God ecclesiologically
The story of FutureLife (and hundreds like it) is of a Holy Spirit-led response to a changing
and increasingly diverse society, compelled by the love of God expressed in the missio dei.
The five marks of mission express the holistic nature of the Kingdom of God which the
church is called to seek first, pray for and participate in.    This is why the first means of
envisioning the churches in South Africa (and now in other African nations) has often been
the Mission Shaped Ministry (MSM) course attended by pioneers, church leaders and their
teams. MSM is resourcing a fresh expressions movement. Participants are helped to link
foundational theological understanding with practical missional engagement in the context
of a diverse learning community (one of the surprising results of the courses in South Africa
has been the richness of partnering ecumenically and the diversity of background and
context of the participants). Modules (there are 34, each designed for a 90 minute session)
cover elements of theological foundation, formation and sustaining of fresh expressions of
church. The course has been contextualized in terms of delivery (can be run over ten
months or occasional blocks), length (with the development of a shorter foundations course
and MSI - Mission Shaped Intro) and content (contextualizing the illustrative stories and
examples). The course continues to envision hundreds of leaders with a wider and more
contextually applicable missiology and a well-grounded ecclesiology.


A brief history of Fresh Expressions Southern Africa (FESA)
On the 6th February 2013, a delegation from South Africa representing Ekklesia, an
ecumenical body serving churches and attached to the University of Stellenbosch, met with
the Board of Fresh Expressions UK at Methodist House, London to ratify an agreement to
launch the Mission Shaped Ministry (MSM) course in South Africa. The key provisos
included a commitment to ecumenical partnership and responsible contextualization of the
course. The South Africans were trained to facilitate MSM and launched two pilot courses
the next month in Cape Town and George. The interest was larger than expected and 62
leaders completed the first courses. Facilitators were trained and the next year MSM were
run in Stellenbosch, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Pretoria as well as Cape Town. To
date courses have run in over a dozen centres across South Africa (including such diverse
places as the Karoo, Khyalitsha, Kloof (KZN) and Polokwane) as well as Zimbabwe (40
participants) with plans for more, including Zambia, Namibia and Burundi.


Alongside the course other resources have been established. These include: “Train the
Trainer” courses to equip facilitators; training of coaches to accompany pioneers; vision
events to introduce Fresh Expressions, and; “Fresh Expressions Area Strategy Teams”
(FEASTS), consisting of church and other leaders to strategically plan and to resource MSM
training and fresh expressions locally. Undergirded by prayer, these are facilitating the
expanding movement, which is networked through a developing structure that has grown
from the first Ekklesia task team.


Fresh Expressions Southern Africa (FESA) now consists of a Board of senior denominational
leaders and a National Executive. The participating churches include the Anglicans (ACSA),
Dutch Reformed (DRC), Baptist (BU), Methodists (MCSA), Presbyterian (UPCSA), Uniting
Reformed (URCSA) and Vineyard (AVCSA), while others are engaged “on the ground”. FESA
exists for the “purposeful accompaniment of missional communities” and serving churches
and denominations as they “rediscover and seek to join God’s mission in the world and in so
doing become co-workers with God in the transformation of their communities in order to
start new missional communities”.    It does this through holding to the values of:


Listening Prayer: Intentional listening to the voices in the community and being
prayerfully attentive to what God is doing.
Inspiring Vision: Sharing the vision and telling stories of missional communities that
transform their worlds.
Equipping and Resourcing: Training, resourcing and coaching pioneering missional
leaders.
Partnering: Building relationships and partnerships that are mutually enriching and
embrace the diversity of our multicultural context.
Contextualising: Freely releasing and sharing resources that are adapted, developed
and contextualised for Southern Africa. 


The response of the governing bodies of the historic churches.
Several historic churches have also encouraged this movement. Bishop Graham Cray    had
visited South Africa several times while leader of the UK Fresh Expressions team (most
notably in 2012 at the invitation of Prof Nelus Niemandt, then Moderator of the General
Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church) and was used as a catalyst to envision academics and
senior church leaders. The following examples are instructive for those responsible for the
governing of other church families.


Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa (DRC)
In October 2013 a “Framework Document on the missional nature and calling of the Dutch
Reformed Church”    was unanimously approved by the General Synod of the Dutch
Reformed Church (DRC). In that very comprehensive report the value of Fresh Expressions
in the DRC was clearly stated and The Synod amended Article 9 of DRC Church Order to
add new church development as one of the responsibilities of every minister and approved
a motion whereby ordination can be extended to second career pastors, theologically
trained youth workers, church planters and community developers.


The Western and Southern Cape Synod of the DRC passed resolutions in the light of the
Framework Document adopted by the General Synod, to enable churches to become more
missional. It noted, with thanks, the development of the fresh expressions movement in its
region and the decline in attendance at in many established congregations. The Synod
therefore accepted the need for developing a variety of church communities (a “mixed
economy”) and set about revising the Church Order to this possible. The Synod accepted the
need for training pioneer leaders to give leadership in developing fresh expressions and
noted, with thanks, that the General Synod 2013 made provision for the training of such
workers as well as ordained ministers. The Synod instructed that attention be paid to
allocating resources to this training.


Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA)
In the same month (October 2013) the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, in his Charge to
the Provincial Synod, highlighted fresh expressions and a motion was presented by the
Bishop of St Mark the Evangelist (Limpopo), the Rt Revd Martin Breytenbach, to request the
bishops to encourage the dioceses and parishes to actively “explore and experiment with
new forms of incarnational ministry, worship and church growth, alongside our traditional
forms”, bearing in mind that “these forms are designed to draw unchurched people into
faith in Christ and into active membership of His church as devoted disciples”.


The Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa which met in September
2016, passed a further motion which gives thanks for the progress made, both ecumenically
and within ACSA in developing MSM and fresh expressions but made no significant progress
in addressing the implications for ACSA.


Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA)
The Methodist Church of South Africa held a Mission Congress from 24 to 27 November
2016 in Pietermaritzburg, under the banner of “Methodists Igniting Mission”. The resulting
report stated: “We believe that Christ, God-made-flesh, calls us to participate in God’s
incarnational mission in our world. To this, we commit ourselves". It also said: “The
resounding refrain at Mission Congress 2016 was that we as Christians are called to Go! To
go among God’s people and see, listen to and experience their needs so as to sharpen our
response. We are called to re-ignite our passion and become more imaginative and relevant
in our responses to current missional challenges.”


Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA)
The General Assembly of the UPCSA 2016 also acknowledged “that the UPCSA is active and
involved in the Fresh Expressions SA movement” and called upon “ministers and lay leaders
to sign up for MSM Courses in centres where these will be run in 2017" as well as calling “all
Sessions and ministers to read and study the concept of Missional Church". The Assembly
noted “that the Church and its members find ourselves in a time of great change and
encourages members to resist the temptation to cling to ‘old ways’ when careful and
prayerful thought is needed as we move into the future."


The General Assembly went further to make practical provisions for financially resourcing
fresh expressions when it resolved “that the [Priorities and Resources] Committee will
allocate its Property Grants in future to offering “Initialization Grants” for new worshipping
communities” and “will investigate changing a significant portion of its Grants in Aid of
Stipend toward ‘Stabilization Grants’ for new worshipping communities”. The General
Assembly also addressed the issues of selection and training when it instructed
the Ministry Committee to prepare and submit to the 2017 Executive Commission
proposals to revise:


a) the mode of training and selection for the ministry of Word and Sacraments, so as
to allow for greater emphasis on the Apostolic and Evangelistic gifts;
b) the content and shape of training to develop ministers as facilitators and to
exercise greater flexibility with regard to
i. bi-vocational ministry; and
ii. the admission into the ministry of people who have already planted churches.


The General Assembly also instructed the Ministry Committee “to exercise greater flexibility
around the admission of people who have already planted churches into the ministry”.


Fresh Expressions conference on the future of the church
From 16-18 February 2016 an International Fresh Expressions Conference was hosted in
Cape Town. The 390 delegates included key leaders of many denominations and countries
of southern and central Africa, UK and Europe. There was a greater cultural, age, race and
gender representation than most social gatherings in the country. The theme of the
conference was "Future Church: discerning the future of the church together". The issues
explored together continue both to challenge us and to invite us to journey, with God, into
an unknown future. Some of the realities require our humble, even painful,
acknowledgement. We were disturbed. We were envisioned. We sensed Jesus’ calling
afresh to be his church and to be sent by him.


We were encouraged to find many others who resonated with the call to be "missionshaped"
and are willing to take this journey together with honest participation. It was
encouraging to hear of new initiatives being dreamed, planned and started around the
country.


We were also challenged to continue this conversation together and to acknowledge and
engage with our contextual realities. Leaders and "permission-givers" in our structures
were exhorted to embrace and to encourage different ways of being church conducting
ministry. We were challenged to hold firmly to the values of a living (and lived-out) faith in
the Triune God, discipleship and disciple making and the discipline of listening to God, to
each other and to our context.


Discerning what God is saying through Fresh Expressions
In the light of the history of Fresh Expressions, the conference on the future church (and
other discussions on embodying the missio dei in new contexts) and the experience of
pioneers such as David and Ronald, here are series of possible responses to what God may
be showing and saying:


Keep talking together
All Christian churches must find ways to continue the conversation on "being church” and
“being sent”. There is much celebration at the richness our diversity and togetherness
brings and a recognition that God is calling us to reach out to each other across the divisions
that have kept us from each other as church. When we talk we find we have common
challenges and it is invigorating to share our encouragements and our varied responses.
The MSM course has brought together a surprising ecumenical and social diversity of
participants. Our leaders are encouraged to make space to engage together in shared
consultation and research; partnership in strategy and in resourcing fresh expressions. And
each instition is encouraged to engage in an internal conversation to address those things
that perpetuate division, handicap a “mixed economy” and restrict missional movement.

 

Courageously address contextual realities
In South Africa we face historic, present and future realities that make “church as usual”
both impossible and a denial of our calling. It was a tribute to the space created by the
Fresh Expressions conference that people felt able to express pain, frustration and
disagreement where honesty and grace were valued. The "elephants in the room" were
named. One student who had been engaged in recent campus protests said that she was
able to express and explore her questions without being personally judged.
Our country is growing in both disparity and polarity socio-economically and culturally. Race
and gender are still prejudicial. There is structured privilege and exclusion. There is growing
frustration at the slow pace of social transformation. Young people feel unheard and
excluded. We need to understand each other better. The message to our denominational
leaders is blunt and clear: the church must engage with the realities of our context and the
need for transformation and lead.


Embrace innovation
Leaders and "permission-givers" are encouraged to embrace and encourage different ways
of being church, and new ways of ministry. This means being hospitable to new ideas,
without judging their origin, creating space for creative missional imagination and for
experiment.


Large corporations typically include a Research & Development portion in their budget
because they know that strategic learning must involve risky investment. So-called “failure”
is regarded as an integral part of eventual achievement. In the Preface to the second
edition of his seminal book on missional ministry among the Masai in Tanzania (Christianity
Rediscovered), Vincent Donovan writes that a young person in an American university,
offered some advice on mission there:


In working with young people in America, do not try to call them back to where they
were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful a that place might
seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you
nor they have ever been before.


This will mean a willingness to examine leadership criteria for selection, training and
formation, the resourcing (including realistic financial budgeting) and authorisation of fresh
expressions and the regulations and ordinances that shape existing ecclesiological
expression (this will include the nature and place of buildings, geographical demarcations of
ministry and the authorization and administration of sacraments).


The momentum of the fresh expressions movement is growing. Unless our denominational
leaders are willing to recognise, release and resource this movement, our denominations
will find themselves like high and hard ground by-passed by the flow of the river. Already
there are those who have found themselves leading fresh expressions of church but unable
to find a place in what was once the parental home.   Unless these communities are
embraced by denominational structures, they risk being isolated, unsupported and
unaccountable, or searching for alternatives.


Faithful in doctrine
Although fresh expressions call for innovation in “style”, it is motivated by faithfulness to
the “substance” of faith in the Triune God. Corporate worship at the conference was led in
three very different styles but all affirmed the faith of the church, rooted in scripture,
affirmed in the creeds and entrusted to us by the spiritual fathers and mothers of our
churches. The future church is neither syncretistic nor novel in its doctrine. The Apostle
Paul warned against those "having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5
NIVUK) and the church is called and sent in faithfulness to and in the power of the Triune
God, even in our own weakness. Leaders are encouraged to lead us in that humble
faithfulness so that the gospel we offer is recognized as coming from God and not ourselves
and that “so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor.
2:5).


Intentional discipleship and disciple making
There is a growing realization that the church has focused on membership rather than
discipleship. Mike Breen says, “If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if
you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples”.   Church practices that encourage
passivity, compliance and conformity do not reflect the missional history or calling of the
church. We should not measure churches by criteria like attendance but rather by
deployment, faithfulness to calling and fruitfulness. We are called to develop churches
which make disciples. That is people on a life-long journey of formation into the character
and works of Jesus Christ as his followers. We are called not merely to add members but to
multiply ministers and missionaries of the Kingdom of God.


The process of disciple making is relational rather than organisational. Fresh expressions
generally exhibit this value. It is reflected in the process of entering a new context, of
crating hospitable space for engagement over meals and around tables, in listening carefully
to stories and story-telling, respectfully making opportunities for questioning and reflection
and in praying for and serving one another and together.


The msm course, coaching and forming new communities are all tools in discipling disciples
who will make disciples. There are no experts for nobody has been in the future church
before us, therefore we walk together as fellow disciples and will not finish the journey until
the day of meeting Jesus Christ at completion.


Listen, pray, listen more, serve
Listening to God, to each other and to our (and their) context is the first and ongoing
discipline in the process of growing fresh expressions.


Listening to God ensures that we “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 NIV), so that we
maintaining a gospel distinctiveness, point to God and continue a journey of spiritual
formation. Listening to God through the Bible helps to shape our ecclesiology (and all our
theology!) and avoid ‘capture’ “to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2 NIV), for example,
the undiscerning adoption of the principles of modern management.


Listening to others is in itself a gift to them, but also enables us to understand, to serve
meaningfully and to build relationship. Heartlines has a project called “What’s your story?”
that is a response to the “trust deficit” that we suffer in South Africa. Ignorance about
others, suspicion of anyone who seems different to us, and fear fuelled by prejudice divide
us. The answer that Heartlines is promoting is to “ask, listen, tell”.


Starting with open and deep listening to God and to the real (changing and diverse) context
around us, combined with a readiness to serve is key. Old models of giving in benefactor -
beneficiary (or provider - client) relationships, which perpetuate power disparities and
dependency are giving way to the mutuality of “serving friends” which becomes a starting
place of a process of discipleship that leads to community-building and fresh expressions of
church were God is worshipped. The key seems to be a Christ-like kenotic relationship
where the church is prepared to give itself away: “Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces
many seeds” (John 12:24 NIVUK).


Invest in pioneers
As a practitioner who has operated mostly in pioneering contexts through my ministry, I
make the following appeals without space for explanation:
Understand the role of a pioneer in terms of biblical apostolic missiology (not Hollywood nor
social misfits);
Give permission and also responsible resource (time, money and access to support
structures);
Love, encourage and affirm lavishly;
Let the pioneers pioneer!


Conclusion
God is calling us in Jesus Christ, not for the sake of the church, but for the sake of South
Africa, Africa and the world. There is a growing momentum, a movement of established and
fresh expressions that together recognise that God is calling the church to more.
The language of fresh expressions has often been received as a refreshing drink to the
thirsty but sometimes also as sand in the eye of the comfortably secure and even as a threat
to defenders of their status quo (much as those who were used to horse-power regarded
horseless carriages with suspicion). God often comes to disturb the comfortable and
comfort the disturbed. This language of fresh expressions asks all of us questions about our
missiology and ecclesiology, and passes a stethoscope over the heart of our theology. But, if
we let the Holy Spirit interpret this “other tongue” to us, (foreign though it may seem at
first), we may find that God is opening a door into a wider landscape, an invitation to
companionship in God’s mission towards the new humanity in the new creation in Christ (2
Cor. 5:17). Our answer is not to “get it right” but simply to get going, looking for the gleam
of the next cat’s eye as we travel the road of our calling. We are called to trust “the God
who makes things grow” (1 Cor. 3:7 NIVUK), and “the glorious riches of this mystery, which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27 NIVUK).

Bibliography


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Measures, N 2010 God’s Stump. The church in all its glory, Lowestoft: Lastword
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Moynagh, M. 2017, Church in Life. Innovation, Mission and Ecclesiology, London: SCM
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Wright, CJH 2010, The Mission of God’s People, Grand Rapids: Zondervan.


Articles/Lectures/Leaflets/Reports
Botha, P 2018, “National Network Team Report of FESA: 1 March 2017-28 Feb 2018”,
presented at Bellville on 13 March 2018.
Crowther, G 2014. The story of church reshaping. Cape Town: FESA.
Hendriks, J 2003,“The future of church and the church of the future” Inaugural lecture,
University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch.


Websites
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Accessed 30/04/2018.
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will-be-home-to-growing-shares-of-the-worlds-christians-and-muslims/# Accessed
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OF-THE-DUTCH-REFORMED-CHURCH.doc Accessed: 29 April 2018.

 


i BBC Magazine Monitor 2016, The Vocabularist: What's the root of the word computer?
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-35428300 Accessed 29th April 2018.
ii Crowther, G 2014. The story of church reshaping. Cape Town: FESA, 4
iii Church of England Report, 2004 Mission-shaped church. Church planting and fresh
expressions of church in a changing context, London: CHP (MSC report)
iv The Rt Revd and Rt Hon The Lord Williams of Oystermouth) was Archbishop of Canterbury
from 2002-2012.
v MSC Report 2004, ibid. vii
vi Now the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, the Bishop of Oxford.
vii The term “Fresh Expressions” is drawn from the Preface to the Declaration of Assent
which Church of England ministers (in the UK) make at their Ordination and Licensing:
“The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church worshipping
the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the
Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to
proclaim afresh in each generation.” (Emphasis added). The first formal definition of a Fresh
Expression was “a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the
benefit of people who are not yet members of any church. It will come into being through
principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples; It will have the
potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring
marks of the church and for its cultural context.”
viii Croft, S 2006, Fresh Expressions. Our Story. www.freshexpressions.org.uk/about/ourstory/
Accessed 27th April 2018.
ix Moynagh, M. 2017, Church in Life. Innovation, Mission and Ecclesiology, London: SCM, 3,
see also Moynagh, M. 2012, Church for Every Context: p. xiv)
x McClendon, D 2017, Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to growing shares of the world’s
Christians and Muslims. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/19/sub-saharan

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