Mission Leaders Encourage Churches to Seek 'Fresh Expressions'

|PIC1|As a follow-up to the Mission-shaped Church, which was published in 2004, Church Army's Sheffield Centre team members George Lings and Claire Dalpra have teamed up with Steven Croft of Fresh Expressions to produce the booklet Starting a fresh expression.

Mission-shaped Church has had a huge impact on the UK Church, selling over 18,000 copies. The book has encouraged many believers to step out in faith to start new forms of church and pursue fresh expressions, new ways of being a church amidst the changing culture.

Starting a fresh expression is practical 13-page guide to help Christians start that new step.

|AD|Commenting on the guide, Sheffield Centre Director George Lings says; "This booklet puts research into the hands of local leaders. The Sheffield Centre has observed a way to start church which is truly shaped by a mission process and we have learnt lessons that overturn some of the inherited ideas on what church is. I am delighted that through this booklet we can share some of the wisdom people are learning about what being church is."

In addition, Starting a fresh expression is aimed to be read and discussed in groups or used as part of a training event or Church Council meeting. It also accompanies the DVD expressions, which was launched last month by Church House Publishing, and featured Church Army evangelist Ben Edson and Mandy Wright and their projects Sanctus 1 in Manchester and Sunday 4.6 in Devon.

Copies of Starting a fresh expression are available from Church House Publishing for £5 for a pack of 5 at www.chpublishing.co.uk
or by calling 020 7898 1451.

Supplementary material and a downloadable Powerpoint presentation on starting a fresh expression can be found on the fresh expressions web site www.freshexpressions.org.uk/starting.