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fresh expressions of church

On holiday a church friend made a throwaway comment to the

vicar about leasing a small property, called Unit 8, on the Hirst

Wood industrial estate. In record time the PCC resolved to

lease it for five years and completed the deal in December.

1997 marked the interview of the worker Tim Sudworth. He

and his wife Nicki moved in and started work in April. By June

Unit 8 had been refurbished by self help teams, aided by local

children who were intrigued by what was going on, was

opened by the local MP and began to function. Over the years

it has evolved children's and youth work, a club for senior

citizens and a midweek chance to learn and pray.

This continuing work has since been renamed `The Source'.

Sometimes, as in the example above, there has been a clear intention to

plant a church through community initiatives. Sometimes the creation of a

church has been a `spin off', and has surprised the group engaged in the

community programmes.

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what is the significance of the community initiative approach?

An increasing proportion of the population is non churched, and in that

context what has been discovered here is of increasing strategic

importance. These approaches see `community', not worship, as the key

dynamic of being church. People involved are deeply committed to mission,

and their actions are good news, as well as prompting opportunities to

share good news.

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multiple and midweek congregations

The strategy of working with multiple congregations has a long history.

Holding 8.00 a.m. BCP Communion in addition to other Sunday services 

is probably the best known example. The monthly Family Service may be

another. The intention is to offer different liturgical and communal styles 

so that different cultural or sociological groups are nourished and sustained

within the same building.

In addition to different congregations using the same building on a Sunday,

there is also a growing interest in providing midweek church. In the most

recent English Church Census, The Tide Is Running Out,

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51 per cent of

responding Anglican churches were shown to offer a midweek service.

Those in the Anglo Catholic tradition are the most prolific providers of

midweek worship: 78 per cent of them had a midweek service, compared

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