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What convinces me that fresh expressions is, in part at least, a movement of the Holy Spirit,
is the extraordinary flourishing of creativity that we've seen in it. People, quite traditional
Christians, are imagining church in ways they could never have imagined it before. It's
as though the Holy Spirit has freed our imaginations and if the purpose is that we want culturally
appropriate deeply authentic Christian communities to engage with those that the Church is not
engaging with at all, I think that's an occasion where the Holy Spirit blesses creativity.
If you are a leader, if you are involved in the birthing of a fresh expression then don't
work out the blueprint and recruit people for it, gather round you those who have at
least a part interest in being part of this and create a setting in which in the presence
of God, their dreams and visions, their ideas, their off-the-wall thinking, their bringing
the gifts they've got can surface. Take time to do it, it's part of the listening that
leads into the founding, but the first thing you've got to know is that no really creative
work of God happens because one person got the bright idea and recruited a team. Something
much richer will come if you release the imagination - free people to think in a way they've not
[thought] before, assure them that it really is allowed, that there's great diversity in
Christ's church and let the Holy Spirit surprise you with the ideas that other people surface.
I think one of the really important and most common sense pieces of advice is use the gifts
you've got, not the gifts you haven't. Once you realise that the Holy Spirit can use almost
any creative gift as the basis for forming relationships and forming community - and
please remember the heart of a fresh expression is a community of people beginning to journey
towards Jesus rather than the formal structure of church or something like that - the moment
you realise, as in stories that we've published, that felt-making can gather a community, baking
bread can gather a community, having skills in outdoor sports can gather a community,
skateboarding can gather a community, being an artist who loves to paint alongside other
artists can gather a community. It's worth doing a little audit: if we forget about church
for a few moments and we ask the question 'what do we love doing, what are the skills,
what are the pursuits that we've got here', I'd be very surprised if God did not intend
some of those to be used as the catalyst for gathering people around you and ultimately
gathering people around Jesus.
I think the area that we need our best creativity for is often hospitality. If through various
networks of interest people are going to gather, first principle of church growth: always do
it with food. But ask the Spirit of God to give you real imagination and perhaps an attention
to detail about hospitality. What would surprise people? What would make them feel particularly
welcome? What would make them think 'I never imagined church might do that'? It might be
that you do something really wacky, it might be that you get things laid out very nicely
or the food is nicer than people might have expected, you've got to be sensible about
a budget. But pray for special creativity about hospitality and welcome. And then as
people gather round you, connect the activities of the fresh expression to their real life
circumstances and joys and sorrows as much as possible. I love the way that Divine Divas
in Tadcaster for instance has gathered round good ways that women gather and like to talk
and suddenly thought we haven't got to be very 'religious' we can just gather people
like this and people know that we're Christians. Or they pick up a TV programme like Loose
Women and turn it into a way of discussing the faith. If to be a Christian is about the
reality of God's love and presence in everyday life once you've come to know him or to know
him again, then connect the creativity to the everyday questions that people have, the
everyday lives they lead and the things that give them joy or give them sorrow.
When you get to the stage that a community is gathering, people are beginning to meet
regularly, you are openly talking about discipleship, please don't switch off your creativity. Don't
work wonderfully creatively so that people gather and have an interest and say now you
are here, give them a five point sermon or present them a package. People these days
need to explore to find out what they believe is true. So enable them to explore. Often
people know little about the faith because they don't know where to look, they don't
know where to find out, they don't know what websites, they don't know bits of church history
or saints, so whether it's prayer stations, whether it's discussion-starters, whether
it's a hunt for information on Wiki[pedia] or something like that, create an environment
where people are learning and making discoveries together and checking out whether the 'starters
for one' you've given them are true. If you start people off as a learning community,
getting excited and wanting to find out more and more for themselves, you'll create in
them an appetite that will continue. I think the other vital thing to do is when people
are engaged in worship, try and involve all the senses. I mean there's books called multi-sensory
prayer and things like that but think of all the different ways people learn, the different
personalities that there are there. How many people will learn best through seeing? How
many through hearing? How many through touch and enquiry? How many need to be still rather
than have loads and loads of words? Creatively construct something where as many dimensions
of as many different people can begin to engage with the Christian faith as you can possibly
imagine. And then add a few!