Rural Fresh Expressions of Church

The Village and Fresh Expressions: is rural different?  

George Lings, 2005

Sheffield , Church Army, ISSN: 1751-4355

pp 28, £4.00

Rural Cell Church : a new wayside flower

George Lings, 2005

Sheffield , Church Army, ISSN: 1751-4355

pp 26, £4.00

 These two pamphlets are designed to be read together.  They have been crafted by George Lings, the Director of the Sheffield Centre, the Church Army’s Research Unit, as volumes 27 and 28 in the series Encounters on the Edge.  Together they make a contribution to the call for ‘new expressions’ of church issued by the report Mission-shaped Church and form a response to the criticism that this report was far too brief in discussion and evaluation of rural-related issues.

At the outset George Lings describes himself as ‘a townie who enjoys the countryside via television programmes and only actually goes there as an appreciative, but probably still romantic tourist’. Yet he has done his homework well and offers an important perspective on opportunities and challenges in rural ministry and mission.

The opening section of the first volume sets the scene by summarising some key perspectives on the rural church developed over the past two decades by Andrew Bowden, Leslie Francis, Barry Osborne and Anthony Russell.  Good use is also made of statistical evidence published by Peter Brierley, and of accounts of good practice published in Country Way .  The main substance of the two pamphlets comprises two case studies of fresh expressions.

The Village and Fresh Expressions celebrates the ministry of Mandy Wright, a Church Army Evangelist, working in the Holsworth deanery in Exeter diocese.  Mandy’s key achievement has been to establish Sunday 4.6, so named as it is held on the fourth Sunday of the month at 6.00pm.  The new initiative was needed, in Mandy’s words, because ‘the churches are mostly small, cold, elderly and some don’t have any power and I’m talking here about the congregation as well as the buildings!’  Sunday 4.6 takes place in a parish hall and offers ‘an alternative type of worshipping’, attended by an average of 19 people, compared with the average of 13.5 who attend the other services in the deanery.

Rural Cell Church celebrates the ministry of the Revd Sally Gaze, the team rector of the Tas Valley Team Ministry, a multi-parish benefice in Norwich diocese.  Sally’s key achievement has been to establish a pattern of cell groups (serving networks of people as they grow through friendship) and a monthly open event called 4all, which Sally describes in the following terms.

"The skeleton is a liturgical shape from Common Worship.  Flesh comes from a range of sources.  Music, old and new, is either on CD or a keyboard.  People of all ages (notably children) take readings, prayers or act out a bible passage.  The word is often by way of a story of what God has done in local people’s lives."

These two case studies could provide the foundation for the much needed survey concerning where and how the ministry of the rural church is thriving and growing. There is also the urgent need for the critical overview, analysis and evaluation of the diversity of approaches which may be fragmenting rather than consolidating the rural church in contemporary society.

LESLIE J FRANCIS

University of Wales , Bangor        

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