Following the announcement that the Salvation Army are becoming partners in Fresh Expressions, there was a discussion on facebook last week about why Baptists haven't also joined and should they do so. There is a lot of hope set in Fresh Expressions and it has certainly energised the Church of England and also blessed the wider church with things like Messy Church. However, I'm not overly concerned that the Baptists are not partners too. I still believe at least some of Fresh Expressions has been about the Church of England becoming more baptistic in their ecclesiology. I'm not, in saying this, suggesting that Baptists are more missional, better at mission, or doing more of it. I believe there is a lot we can learn from Fresh Expressions and the internal conversation taking place among Anglicans is one worth listening to. There are a growing number of publications, both postive and critical. (For example, on the positive side the Ancient Faith Future Mission series published by Canterbury Press, and on the more critical, the Martyn Percy and Louise Nelstrop (ed.) Evaluating Fresh Expressions and Andrew Davidson and Alison Milbank's For the Parish.)
Regardless of our involvement in Fresh Expressions, there are a number of Baptists doing imaginative and creative mission/church. For example, we could list stories of Church from Scratch (Southend), the Kahaila cafe (East End, London), the Ark-T centre (Cowley, Oxford), Revive (Leeds), the Stowe (Swindon), Hope (Newton Abbot, Devon), RE:NEW (Lode, Cambridgeshire), Jacob's Well (Yate, Bristol) and Chelmsley Wood (Birmingham). These are just a few I'm aware of.
On a wider scale Baptists have been involved in founding various more national-scale missional bodies - Urban Expression, Oasis Trust, the Light project, Northumbria Community, the Cafe Church Network, CVM, and the Incarnate Network.
There are many of us, who find themselves in churches with longer histories, with church buildings, but with a commitment to connect church and community, mission and discipleship, social action and Christian faith.
(Side note :- Roger Standing (new Principal of Spurgeon's College post-summer) has written a new book As A Fire By Burning: Mission as the Life of the Local Congregation (SCM, 2013). I say written, half the book is a collection of stories from different authors describing mission in different contexts. What is great to see is that out of the sixteen, that eight are written by Baptists (including Juliet Kilpin, Simon Jones, Cid Latty, David Kerrigan). Perhaps this is not surprising as Roger is a Baptist, but in the plethora of books by Anglicans and Methodists on mission, it is good to see a Baptist contribution into the mix. The book is best described as a textbook or introduction to issues of mission in the local church. It doesn't do anything novel, but does draw together and summarize the conversation with regard to mission and worship, culture, disciple-making, evangelism, leadership, etc.)
Comments