RICHMOND — Fresh Expressions, the two-year-old church renewal collaboration of Baptists and other Christian groups, positioned itself for additional growth Oct. 15 at the first meeting of its recently-formed board of trustees.
The eight-member board, which reports to the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s executive committee, surveyed the organization’s accomplishments the past two years during what was essentially an orientation and organizational meeting.
Chris Backert
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“It was mainly to orient the board and for them to be on the same page with what we’ve done so far,” said Chris Backert, the organization’s coordinator.
Fresh Expressions, which aims to help churches engage postmodern culture through new creative communities of faith, is an offshoot of a movement begun nearly 10 years ago among Anglicans in the United Kingdom. It caught the attention of Baptist General Association of Virginia leaders, who believed North America’s mission challenge resembles Britain’s. Eventually the BGAV developed Fresh Expressions US, which now receives additional support from Anglican, Nazarene, Presbyterian and other groups.
Earlier this year the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s executive committee created a governing board of trustees to provide clear focus and to develop financial support. Members are:
- Ray Bearden, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodbridge, Va.
- Tory Baucum, rector of Truro Anglican Church in Fairfax, Va.
- Todd Gaston, senior pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford, Va.
- Steve Hartman, senior pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Richmond.
- JR Woodward, pastor of Rhythm Church in Miami.
Backert is an ex-officio member of the board, as are two Virginia Baptist Mission Board staff members — executive director John Upton and Wayne Faison, team leader of its courageous churches team.
Backert said the board is seeking additional members to bring gender and ethnic diversity.
Filling out Fresh Expressions’ staff roster are Ben Jamison, who coordinates efforts in Virginia, and Gannon Sims, who coordinates communications.
Much of Fresh Expressions’ strategy is centered on Vision Days —one-day awareness events — and learning communities, year-long processes to equip lay and ministerial leaders to develop fresh expressions of church in their context.
Backert said two new learning communities will begin this January — one in the Northern Virginia suburbs and another in Trenton, N.J. Scholarships are available for BGAV-affiliated churches, he added.
In February, a Vision Day will be held at First Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., sponsored by the BGAV, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, the national CBF and the Center for Congregational Health.
Another awareness event is planned at a breakout session during the BGAV’s annual meeting, Nov. 13-14 in Roanoke, Backert said.
Recently-released statistics indicate more than 2,000 fresh expressions of church have developed in Britain since 2004, each with an average of 25 to 40 participants, said Backert. A total of 66,000 people are involved, 75 percent of whom were not professing Christians or associated with a church until their participation in one of the new communities of faith.
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.