small missional communities

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Comment by Philip Swan 17 hours ago

Pippa, my reflections come from having been a vicar in parish ministry for these 21 years and now facing the positive challenge of a new post which does not carry with it immediate parish or cathedral responsibilities. The positive stuff I was thinking about - which of course are equally possible inside or outside existing structures - include:
opportunities to share with people at key stages of life;
amazing potential within tried and tested structures to be creative, original, provocative and prophetic;
scope for hospitality;
a context through connections with deanery, diocese and wider Anglican communion which can help us not to get too comfortable or predictable...........
YES to your reminder of our call to die to live.

Comment by Pippa Soundy 1 day ago

Philip, I'm looking forward to seeing more missional communities that aren't tethered to the parish system, but could you please say a bit about the 'positive stuff' you have experienced? I hope that we all (traditional forms of church and otherwise) find ways of living well together, and a balanced perspective will help.

Comment by Philip Swan 1 day ago

Thanks all. Getting started is a big deal. Excuse a few rambling random thoughts.Some initial issues we faced include: how to find a property. We wondered about buying but explored one exciting option which turns out to be too expensive for us. So do we look for a benefactor, a Diocese, an organisation to say 'Look, we've got a property - move in. Pay Rent'.
Then as others have asked - how to find suitable people? Who might share the vision. Who'd be willing to pay.
So at this moment in time a residential SMC looks less likely - so many of the models we hear about are networks with the all essential sharing food and drink element. Maybe.
Just back from Partners in World Mission conference and feel so convinced that world mission must connect with mission here - that these Missional networks provide points of continuity with the global scene.
About to leave Parish Ministry after 21 years and can relate to the weariness issue. But plenty of positive stuff too.

Comment by Catherine Grannum on November 18, 2009 at 10:22pm

Thanks very much for that Ross, your advice and encouragement is very helpful, and I'm grateful for your offer of yourself as part of an advisory group. I think I may well be starting along the road towards the situation you talk about ie leaving my church to start a SMC, but I think I've probably got a way to go yet. For a start, as Ian has suggested in one of the earlier discussion threads on this site, you need to have a group of you travelling together. I've only got me. Indeed one of the reasons I was so glad when CMS set up this group was the thought that it might put me in touch with other people who might want to join with me. That might still happen of course. Secondly, what I really want is the sort of small missional community where people actually live together, like the CMS example in Oxford, and a few others I have heard of. The trouble is I only know of examples in other parts of the country, none in London/South East. I guess that leads to the idea that I should be thinking of starting one myself..... I've been praying about it for a while and it seems there's more waiting and gestating to be done. We'll see. But thank you again.
Catherine

Comment by Ross Garner on November 17, 2009 at 7:57am

Hi Catherine. I have spent most of my adult life in the tension between the commitment to the church I have been part of and the call to be part of something new on the edge. As a paid up member of the New Wine Network (been to 17 summer conferences and at least 6 leaders conferences) I have seen how a church with small groups can be vibrant, relevant, spirit-filled and evangelistic. For the past 17 years we have been part of a system that invites people to come to us, join in, get saved, healed and blessed, learn what it means to follow Jesus, and help us to make this a bigger church.

And yet I do not feel called to lead a church like this. I feel called to be a pioneer, to work on the fringe, to help a few other adventurous souls to get out there amongst those who do not come to church and see if we can make some disciples who are not constrained or encumbered by the need to finance, staff and maintain an institutional expression of church.

This is a tension, not least because I am paid by the institution to help churches grow. Thankfully within the Church of England we now have a movement towards a "mixed economy" with "inherited expressions of church" beginning to recognise that "fresh expressions of church" are valid. The way to avoid feeling disloyal to your present church is to seek the blessing of your church leaders asking them to release you from present duties to take part in an experimental "fresh expression" of church known as a small missional community. Ask your vicar or someone appointed by him to give you oversight and set up an accountability framework. Ian at CMS and I could be part of an advisory group that acts as critical friend to the new community.

It is important (if possible) to avoid being critical of the church that is exhausting so many people who are doing their best. Try to phrase it in terms of your own calling and gifting. St Toms in Sheffield who are trying to be both institution and cutting edge in mission teach their people to develop a sustainable rhythm of life and to recognise that they have to find their primary ministry to avoid weariness (see Lifeshapes semi circle and Pentagon).

Comment by Catherine Grannum on November 16, 2009 at 10:31pm

Thanks very much Diane, and thanks Ross for your thoughts on effective small groups. I totally identify with what you're saying about how members of any small group attached to a church would have to spend so much of their energy serving the needs of the larger body, it would make it difficult for the community to function effectively. I hadn't really thought of that in so many words before, but you're right, I've experienced exactly that within my own house group. I am exhausted by church. So are most other people I know. (And the church I go to is a really good church by any measurement you care to use.) But I feel like the sky would fall in if I left, I'm not sure I could carry the burden of guilt at leaving others behind with even more to do while I swanned off to enjoy myself. I guess I'm a classic victim of the pull from the centre that you mentioned. I would like to hear more about your community and how you got to where you are now, would you be willing to tell the story? Catherine

Comment by Steve & Diane Eyre on November 16, 2009 at 4:42pm

Hi Catherine, this time it's Diane adding something into the mix...
I don't really think it's a case of "either/or" in terms of SMC's forming within or outside existing structures - they can form in either way. The big question for those that start within a larger church is how much time and resources does the larger body need and how much does that draw away from the vital and necesssary community-building within the small groups. Our journey has involved both situations - we were part of a housegroup (generally meeting for bible study) that then moved towards being something much broader - much along the lines that Ross has described below. Our aim (and that of the larger church body) was for small groups to be church - the place where we come along side one another in worship, fellowship, ministry and also the place that nurtures and feeds us in order to take God's love into all aspects of our daily lives. As a group we definitely moved a long way down this road, but we also were very involved in helping the larger organisation to keep going and this inevitably impacted on the time we had available for those within and outside the group. Our experience is that once we were no longer involved in the larger organisation (it's a long story!) our community gradually began to flourish. This was primarily because we had more time to get involved in one another's lives - to share some of the real stuff that we were all going through and also to have fun together and to meet and socialise with one another's friends and find new connecting points. Community building definitely takes time and energy and if we are to build something that replicates the picture painted in Karlie's posting - of people who are "vitally related" to one another - the SMC definitely needs to be given time and space to develop and sometimes the needs of the larger church can be very demanding. We have also found that as we have all grown into this community we are taking the things that we find within it into our other relationships - so we are each giving more time to others outside of our group to share the deeper stuff of life with them - both in celebrations and in the really difficult times. Again, that means being able to be available for one another and I'm afraid that I see many of the friends who are still part of the larger church struggling to find that availability because they are busy helping to serve the life of that body.
So if you want to encourage a larger church to build up small group community you maybe need to consider how it might give the small groups more time and space to do this.

Comment by Ross Garner on November 14, 2009 at 7:58pm

As part of my Diocesan role I find that some churches have house groups or bible study groups. I am advocating the use of the 4 W s from the Cell Church movement to "soup up" the housegroups. Welcome encourages everyone to participate and share form their own experience. Worship encourages everyone to be aware of the presence of God in their midst eager to make the meeting a life transforming time. Word asks people what they are going to do in response to the word of God and encourages people to apply it into their own lives (often with prayer for the grace needed). Witness is a time when the group considers how they are ministering to the lost and those who are not part of the church.

Comment by Catherine Grannum on November 14, 2009 at 4:24pm

Thanks for your comments, both. Interesting. Steve's observation that existing churches like to describe themselves as communities, but maybe not everyone would recognise them as such strikes a chord with me. I think, though, that from a reaching-out-to-those-outside-the-church point of view, the best way is for existing structures to be enhanced to take on new capabilities rather than for a new thing to be set up. A new thing runs the risk of fragmenting available resources, confusing people, and setting up a whole load of new conflicts, rivalries etc. I agree that there are many people who might find a small house-church type thing more inviting than anything to do with "the church". But there are also thousands more who are drawn into contact with the church of england each year precisely because of its established, safe, building-based nature. Particularly in rural communities, the village church and the Vicar have an accepted place in the community that is of great value and offers lots of opportunities for leading people towards God. And even in urban/suburban areas, the weddings, funerals and baptisms offer many opportunities. My feeling is that there is potential for existing church congregations/leaders to develop a souped-up version of house groups that would allow both needs to be met. Small missional communities to bond together those already in them and to draw in those outside who prefer the informal and community-based situation, but each of them part of the parish church, to give stability and resources, and to draw in those who would be freaked out by a small missional community but are ok with "church", which they see as safe. There might be lots of people who would start off only being comfortable with conventional church in a building on sunday, but over time might warm up to the idea of giving one of the small groups a try.

I'm not sure what percentage of anglican churches currently offer house groups of some sort? I don't suppose anyone knows. More than half? Less than half? And of those who do have house groups, how far distant are they from the sort of small missional communities which we are all looking to promote? What would it take to move them towards it? I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that I don't think existing structures need to be set aside to make way for something new, instead I think there is the possibility for them to grow into being able to contain within themselves that something new. Thoughts, anyone?
Catherine

Comment by Steve & Diane Eyre on November 9, 2009 at 11:46am

I agree with Pippa - those of us who've been in conventional church and who are exploring small missional communities tend to have hangups or carry baggage which our unchurched friends and neighbours don't.

Part of the problem touched on by Catherine is that we use the word 'community' in various contexts, all the way from a shared living space to a virtual network. Many churches might refer to themselves as community, but visitors may find that hard to recognise sometimes, and members also may find that their church isn't fulfilling their passion for bringing God's love to people.

What to do? If this is the case, one might imagine that God would want us to find other ways to express that love. I think he has put an instinctive need for community in us, and that we can more easily become the people he intends us to be when we are in relationship with others, and particularly with others who are also exploring in this area. Yet so many who are frustrated with their church life feel constrained by what Chris Neal calls the 'gravitational pull' from the centre of the body. I was brought up to believe that it was dangerous to be out of the church, that I would lose my faith and grow cold out of the fire. It's really quite reminiscent of those early maps that said "there be dragons out there". Our experience at 'Imagine' is that our small group life is more challenging, more real and has more outworking in our local and wider community than it did when we were all in church.

So if God is poking you, please take heart from our experience and others. We have become community in a way we hadn't expected, and it's been messy, difficult, joyous and rewarding.

Steve

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