BuildingBridges

[58.1] FUTURE CHURCH CONVENES

More than 60 people from across Britain and Ireland gathered at High Leigh conference centre ear Broxbourne to take part in Building Bridges of Hope's latest 'Future Church' conference. The theme was 'sharing faith and values' - something that many BBH-related churches have said is a clear priority, but which many find difficult in practice?

Offering a series of 'postcards from the edge' (stories of emergent and transformative church), Stuart Murray-Williams commented that effective evangelism requires repentance at its heart. In a society where Christian language, the Christian story and Christian institutions can no longer be taken for granted, our practice has to be imaginative and people-centred. It also has to acknowledge past mistakes without wallowing.

And Anne Richards offered a setof biblical questions which, she said, faced both those inside and outside the church. Those who speak Gospel words need to listen to what those they converse with are really saying. We must not put words in people's mouths and erect barriers that may not be the true obstacles.

The questions are: 'Where are you?' (from Genesis). 'Who do you say that I am?' (from the Jesus). And, 'Who are you looking for?' (from the Risen Christ - new words in a new life, spoken by someone who had been silenced by death.)

After a short break through to 4 November, Building Bridges will be sharing a range of stories, examples, ideas and experiences from the conference.

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[57.1] BBH AT SOUTH OXFORD BAPTIST CHURCH

Background

South Oxford Baptist Church was established 65 years ago on a residential estate at the edge of the city. We are a small congregation, numbering about 30 members, and have experienced a decline in numbers over recent years. The congregation encompasses a broad range of ages, with ‘over 65’s’ forming the largest group. The proximity of members to the church is similarly varied, with some, mainly the older members, living within walking distance of the church building, whilst the majority live several miles away (including the nearby town of Didcot, some 12-15 miles away).

We have been involved with BBH as a pilot project since April this year [2004]. A group of six has met with our Accompanier on four occasions (in May, June, July and September).
Our particular hopes for the period of accompaniment have been:

· identifying and expressing a collective vision for the church.

· exploring new ways of engaging with the local neighbourhood, including those groups who currently use the church premises at different times of the week.

What have we discovered?

Early on in our journey, the group felt that whereas the church had originally been planted with a view to mission in the locality, the profile of both the church and the neighbourhood had changed over the years. As a result, the church no longer had a clear sense of purpose. Several of the more recent members do not live in the local area, and several people had come and gone, often because of they have come to Oxford to work or study at the university, which by nature is a community which people “pass through.”

We sense that South Oxford Baptist Church has also become a place where people “pass through.” Whilst this has enriched the church’s life at different times, it has also created an unsettled atmosphere that makes it more difficult for the church to recognise and own a vision for the future.

A decline in numbers underlies the ‘coming and going,’ and we are also aware that having fewer families with young children than in the past has had a negative impact on the church’s life. Despite these limitations, there are certain key values that we would be keen to hold onto, particularly:

· being a caring and friendly place where people can learn about God in creative and accessible ways, and where together we can explore what it means to be disciples of Jesus in the places we find ourselves.

· Being a place where people of all ages and backgrounds feel welcome.

Our aim to be a ‘place of welcome’ has been an issue for which our time of accompaniment has been particularly helpful. Searching questions from our accompanier have provoked us to ask challenging questions of ourselves:

1. Are we really as welcoming as we would like to think, both with each other and with newcomers to the church?
2. How well do we know each other?
3. Do we understand ‘welcoming others’ as primarily reactive (i.e. welcoming people who turn up on the doorstep on a Sunday morning) or should we explore the notion of ‘welcome’ as something we need to be more proactive about (i.e. enabling others to experience our welcome even if they were not actively seeking us).
4. What are we welcoming people to? – the life of this church?
5. Or should we understand ‘welcome’ as ‘welcoming people to the Gospel, and the meaning of Christian discipleship?’

· Being a church that responds to needs at a local, national and international level.

So far, we have focused on how we engage with the neighbourhood around us. Since fewer church members now lived in the locality, we felt it important to get a stronger sense of its profile and facilities, something we did by looking at local area statistics and walking around the area. We discovered an area of great social and cultural variety, which lacked a focal point such as community centre for meetings and activities.

Our plans for the future include discerning how our values might be articulated in a statement of vision, and considering how the various gifts found in the church might be used in an ‘outward-looking’ way that offers genuine service to the community.

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[56.1] POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

The 2004-5 BBH Future Church Conference meets at High Leigh on Wedsnesday and Thursday of this week, preceded tomorrow by the Building Bridges of Hope project's four nations coordinating group. Once again it will be an extraordinary cross-section (some 65 in number) of people from different Christian traditions across Britain and Ireland.

BBH consultant Terry Tennens, whose contract has been extended by the ecumenical Churches' Commission on Mission to March 2006, says: "This promises to be an exciting event. There has eer been a more challenging time for Christian mission and ministry."

Material from the conference will be streamed on to this weblog.

The theme of the gathering is 'sharing faith and values in a post-Christendom setting'. Among the speakers are Stuart Murray-Williams of the Anabaptist Network, Helen Cameron (Salvation Army) and Anne Richards, mission theology adviser to the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England (Unit on Mission and Public Affairs).

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[55.1] NEW BBH VIDEOS ON THE WAY

Developing Shared Leadership I and II – videos (November 2004) £8.99 each or £14.99 for the set.

Exclusive footage from the 2003-4 ‘Future Church Conference’ of Building Bridges of Hope, the leading ecumenical project for missional church. BBH explores the practicalities of mission accompaniment today. In the first video (55 minutes) eight church initiatives across Britain and Ireland share their insights.

The second video (89 minutes) looks at the ‘how and why’ of empowering church leadership with vision and values.

Containing a group study leaflet, these videos are hands-on rather than ‘made for TV’.

More information about availability shortly.

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