How church is always emerging
How church is always emerging
A recent research conversation day at CMS looked at fresh ways to express and think about pioneering and church planting.
by James Butler,
One of our priorities at CMS is enabling thinking and theological engagement around mission and pioneer practice.
One of the ways we have sought to do this is through the doctoral programme that we offer in partnership with the University of Roehampton.
Another way has been through our conversation days where we invite different contributors who have been thinking and researching around mission, church, and pioneering.
In March these two things came together when Paul Bradbury, one of our first doctoral students, gave us a snapshot on his doctoral research and the implications for pioneering and church.
Fresh expressions of pioneering?
Paul has been looking at the experience of pioneers within two Church of England dioceses.
Through listening to what the pioneers do in their work, and how they talk about their pioneering, he is expressing pioneering and church in ways which take seriously the more emergent nature of their work.
He has noticed a tendency when thinking about church planting and new worshipping communities, to turn to models, but what he heard from the pioneers was a much more responsive approach to the formation of ecclesial communities.
He described how:
- pioneers create space through their work for mutual dialogue, where the primary aim is be with each other, and learn from one another;
- this is part of what it means to participate in God’s mission, being together and learning together;
- in this space the pioneers journey with others, noticing how church is coming into being through the work of the Spirit;
- this idea of becoming church allows a much more dynamic understanding of church as a community on the move, rather than a fixed sense of what church is.
His account stimulated a great conversation with people in the room and those online, whose questions and comments encouraged discussion around discernment, the work of the Spirit, what a ‘models’ approach to church planting might offer, and how what Paul was discovering resonated with the practice of many pioneers in the room.
New churches: working with the Spirit
Later in the morning we reflected on the recent book New Churches: A Theology which a number of people from across the CMS network had contributed to, including Cathy Ross, Tina Hodgett, Paul Ayokunle, Paul Bradbury and me.
Through a panel discussion format, the contributors discussed what we had valued in one another’s chapters.
Paul Ayokunle’s chapter explored an omolúàbí understanding of church planting, drawing from a tradition within his own Yoruba Nigerian background.
Through this tradition he expressed an emphasis on both the character of those planting churches, and on the way in which human agency and the Spirit’s agency work together.
In fact, Cathy pointed to an emphasis on the work of the Spirit being a theme across the different chapters we were discussing. We were pleased to have Rachel Edge from SCM Press with us, offering a discounted copy of the book. Do get hold of it and have a read.
We have two Conversation Days a year, which cover themes relevant to mission and pioneering and draw from the wealth of wisdom across our work and networks, particularly connecting it to the pioneer, African and Asian conversations we are developing in our MA programme.
Look out for future Conversations through our Pioneer Newsletter and Events page.
