I have three comments. First, the concern about the plight of the Church which Canon Bird expressed during the Synod debate in February was fully justified. On 29 January the Church Times reported a further decline of two per cent in 2008 in average Sunday attendance. The average age of church members is 65.
Government forecasts are that people of 65 have an expectation of life of about 20 years, so that by 2030 roughly half of present church members will have died. Given an attendance of about one million a week, the target for recruitment, whether by Fresh Expressions or other means, must therefore be 25,000 new members a year for 20 years, just to stay where we are now.
Decline has been the unremitting state of the Church for 100 years; such a rate of recruitment therefore seems highly optimistic.
Second, outreach and mission are not the same thing. Outreach does what it says on the tin. Outreach feeds itself; it is like an octopus reaching out within the limited range of its tentacles to draw food into its mouth. Such is the nature of Fresh Expressions, whether by planting new churches or more innovative means.
http://www.e-mmaus.org.uk/emm_index.asp
Emmaus is an alpha like course from the C of E which might suite some USA churches better
Church of the Word
We are seeing growth in the Church of England, wonderful growth, particularly among the young, but it is coming from church organised initiatives, like Alpha and Christianity Explored. The banner outside a church advertising such a course signals to people outside that here is somewhere where their questions may be explored and perhaps answered.
The problem, is that these moves have not been taken up by the CofE as a whole. Other denominations have been quick to recognise their potential, so you will see them operating in Baptist and Catholic, as well as Anglican churches. We have been really slow.
I have not heard of or looked at Emmaus, which has not appeared on the radar yet for me, so I really can’t say much about it.
It is not rocket science to see what works, and more often, what does not.
maybe….just maybe….it has something to do with faithfulness?