Page 23

the story since Breaking New Ground

Even to `congregate' looks increasingly inadequate to convey the deeper

dynamics of church. The term `Christian community' is both more generic

and more flexible.

The words `congregation or worship centre' reveal a particular

understanding of what church is, and exhibit a view of church that remains

attached to the `come to us' mission model. It thinks in terms of Sunday, 

of corporate worship and holy buildings dependent on ordained leaders. 

All these are now challenged as defining marks of what it is to be church.

Furthermore, those expressions of church seeking to connect with people

from post Christian cultures would say that the provision of worship is not

the right starting point.

14

`Establishing' has some triumphalistic and even mechanistic connotations.

A more contextually sensitive approach would use words such as `evolving'

or `beginning'. Furthermore, church planting resists being seen as part 

of `Church Growth', with its evangelical associations. A full variety of

ecclesiastical traditions have been church planters, and the label `Church

Growth' can suggest church planting is about adding to the number of

existing churches, whereas at best it is about multiplying diverse future

churches.

what is `proper' church?

In 1994, another assumption was that `church plants' might be bridges to

bring people back into `proper' church.

This image of bridge assumes the Church acts like a magnet and all that 

is necessary is for human beings to be brought near enough to feel its

irresistible attraction. It is as though the Church has ignored what most

Western people know:

Since the seventeenth century more and more people have discovered,

originally to their surprise, they could ignore God and the Church and 

yet be none the worse for it.

15

Magnets are useless at attracting non ferrous objects, and many churches

are not attractive to post Christian people. Part of the paradigm shift since

Breaking New Ground is the discovery that fresh expressions of church are

not only legitimate expressions of church, but they may be more legitimate

because they attend more closely to the mission task, and they are more

deeply engaged in the local context, and follow more attentively the pattern

of incarnation.

23