FALLS CHURCH, Va. — About 35 persons representing several denominations gathered at Columbia Baptist Church Dec. 2-3 to hear Anglican Bishop Graham Cray describe Fresh Expressions. In addition to Baptists from Virginia and Maryland, leaders from Methodist, Episcopal and Nazarene churches were represented.
Virginia Baptists were introduced to the concept of Fresh Expressions last February when Bob and Mary Hopkins, who have worked in the United Kingdom with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, met with leaders from churches, associations and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board (see www.religiousherald.org and search “Fresh Expressions.” Click “exact phrase” then click “Search” again).
The term Fresh Expressions emerged as the Anglican church attempted to infuse the church with the concept and requirements for reaching people who have little background or interest in typical churches. It describes an awareness on the part of Christians that “church” as we have experienced it is not necessarily synonymous with the gospel as it is presented in the Scriptures.
Working with completely new groups that emerge or with inherited (traditional) churches, Cray hopes to convey the theological truth that the church has largely become self-serving and must recapture its spiritual essence. Doing so, he warns, may require sacrificing deeply-held, but incomplete notions of what it means to be the church.
Cray contends that “church” is what happens when people encounter the risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining a deepening relationship with him. Emphasizing that the world is becoming increasingly worldly, he says the time is past when the UK could assume that people living there would understand as a part of their culture what the church was about.
To illustrate the confusion of cultural Christian understanding, Cray shared an anecdote that actually occurred in the UK. A young woman entered a cathedral and asked the priest, “Pardon me, sir, could you tell me what this building is used for?” The priest, observing that she wore a necklace from which a crucifix was suspended, said, “It is about the worship of the one you wear around your neck.” “Oh,” she replied, “I always wondered what the little man was about.”
John Chandler, who leads Virginia Baptists’ Spence Network, believes the concepts of Fresh Expressions can be likened to the earlier church growth work of Donald McGavran and Peter Wagner. They held that missionaries going to a completely different culture should not expect the people there to conform to our expression of church. Rather, without sacrificing the message of Christ, we should adapt the gospel to their cultural expressions. Similarly, as our own culture has become increasingly secular it no longer understands terms we have always used.
Chris Backert, who heads church revitalization efforts for Virginia Baptists, reports surprise at the openness of Virginia Baptist churches to the concept that new expressions of the church may not meet on Sunday and may not have a building. He points to a Chesterfield church led by Matt Senger as an example.
Senger, assisted by his wife and another couple, has been seeking to reach his 183 neighbors.
“Out of default we didn’t have the people, so we started where we lived. Every chance we got we got people together. We didn’t know what we were doing, but people started asking about what we are about. We finally started saying, ‘We are trying to be like Jesus.’ People could understand and connect with that.”
He confesses that by trial and error he has learned what connects and fails to connect with the people who live around him.
“One of the things we tried was a disaster. We thought about having a breakfast and Bible study. Some showed up with the plastic still around their newly purchased Bibles. As we read, one guy said, ‘My Bible doesn't say that.’ He showed up with a book of Mormon. He didn’t know the difference.”
You cannot assume your neighbors know about Christ, Senger cautions.
“We were having people in their 40s and 50s who we were telling about Jesus and when we got to the resurrection, it was news to them.”
In addition to his work with the VBMB, Backert is one of three pastors leading a new group called Imago Dei in the Richmond area.
“We have hosted two experimental Vision Days in which the basics of Fresh Expressions were explained,” Backert explains, “and we have been pleased to see how open churches have been.”
Several additional Vision Days are being planned for the coming year, Backert said.