haigh nicholas~reconfiguring the system
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A Sociological Study of Network SocietyTRANSCRIPT
Reconfiguring the System:
A Sociological and Theological
Enquiry into the Emergence of
Network Church within the
Church of England
by
Rev Nicholas J Haigh B.A. (Hons)
Cranmer Hall,
St John’s College, Durham
September 2004
M.A. in Theology and Ministry
Word Count: 11,989
‘This dissertation is a product of my own work, and
the work of others has been properly acknowledged
throughout.’
2
Contents
Contents
Page 2
Introduction
Page 3
Chapter One: (Experience)
The Development of Network Church within the Church of
England
Page 4
Chapter Two: (Exploration)
A Sociological Description of Network Society
Page 14
Chapter Three: (Reflection)
A Theological Reflection on Network Church
Page 22
Chapter Four: (Response)
Network Church: A Reconfigured System
Page 30
An Appendix – A Transcript of an Interview with the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams
Page 36
Bibliography
Page 40
3
The focus of this study is the emergence of the Network Church phenomenon
within the Church of England over the last ten years or so. The study will
assess this pattern of church life and it will consider the ecclesiology of this
way of being church.
As a methodological basis, the study will use the experience, explore, reflect
and respond method of practical theology, otherwise known as the pastoral
cycle.
Chapter one (Experience) will define the concept of Network Church and
map the growth and development of this way of being church within the
Church of England.
Chapter two (Exploration) will describe the network society context that we
seek to be the Christian Church in, using sociological studies by scholars such
as Jan van Dijk, Manuel Castells, Albert–Laszlo Barabasi and Robert Putnam.
Chapter three (Reflection) will then reflect theologically on the concept of
Network Church.
Chapter four (Response) will respond to the issues raised in the preceding
chapters. It will give a final assessment of Network Church and its future
within the Church of England.
4
Chapter 1
(Experience)
The Development of Network Church within the
Church of England
In early January 2003 after what seemed like a well needed Christmas
vacation (due in part to my first term at Theological College – a bit of a shock
to the system!) I was back to work researching for my MATM Theological and
Practical Reflection seminar. This seminar was to consider whether the
Christian Church is an exclusive club or an inclusive missionary community.
Whilst looking at the Reaching the Unchurched Network (RUN) website1 I
came across a church plant called The Net Church, in Huddersfield, listed as
one of the RUN members. I was intrigued to find this church as I am originally
from Huddersfield and had not heard of it before. Soon after, I rang the Vicar
of the church, Rev. Dave Male, to find out more. Later in that week I went to
visit Dave and by the end of our time together we had provisionally arranged a
four week placement at The Net Church, which I did in September 2003.
Throughout my placement at The Net, I gained the distinct impression that this
way of being church was going someway to being an inclusive missionary
community. I therefore became increasingly interested in the Net’s way of
being church and this interest has led me to this piece of research.
The Net Church is what Rev. George Lings and others have described as a
‘Network Church’.2 Network Church is church, where the explicit intention is
that the social networks (that is relationships) which the people who are part of
the church have and live in, are the primary ministry and mission opportunity
for that group of people. This is in contrast to parish church where the primary
ministry and mission opportunity, or strategy, for a congregation is the specific
1 http://www.run.org.uk/home.aspx accessed 03/01/03
2 It is not clear where, or by whom, the term ‘Network Church’ was first used. My
understanding is that it was either Rev. George Lings or Bishop Graham Cray who first coined the phrase within the Church of England context.
5
geographical area, or parish. In one sense, Network Church is church that
takes extremely seriously the 1990’s research by John Finney that suggested
the majority of people who come to faith do so through and in relationship (or
network) with others who are already Christian’s.3 It must be said though, that
the lessons of Finney’s research and of Network Church are not just helpful
for those who are involved in ‘special’ Network Church plants. These lessons
are helpful to all wanting to be involved in a fruitful ministry in the 21st century.
George Lings says that, ‘Network Church exists for all people whose lives are
connected by a whole host of relationships.’4 Lings continues by pointing out
that Network church, ‘…draws people whose domestic address may be
someway away from where the church happens to meet. Not because they
are being eclectic5 – but because those people have significant bits of their
lives in connection with those running the church.’6 Those significant bits, or
interests, could be sport, business, the internet, parenting or cultural interests,
like clubbing or art. Dave Male says that Network Church is ‘intentionally
networked’, as apposed to an eclectic parish church, ‘…that might work
through network, but actually it kind of does that almost by, not a deliberate
policy, its just the way it ends up working… Network Church is working that
way deliberately.’7
The Network way of being church represents a very large shift of thinking for
the Church of England. A long standing principle of Anglicanism has been its
commitment to be a church that incarnates itself into the locality where people
live. Therefore, under the parochial system, the whole of the country is split
into parishes where each parish church exists for everyone who lives within
that parish. The Network way of being church however, takes into
consideration the cultural changes that have taken place in our society over
the last 100 years or so: the invention of the motor car and computers, to
name just two. These things have influenced the way that we live. They have
3 Finney, J., Finding Faith Today (London: Bible Society, 1992)
4 Interview with George Lings
5 The word ‘eclectic’ when used to describe a church within the Church of England refers to a
parish church that has a congregation that gathers from the wider geographical area, usually because of a certain style of worship or preaching and not intentionally because of the relationships people find there. 6 Interview with George Lings
7 Interview with Dave Male
6
lessened the importance of geographical ‘place’ in our lives and have given us
more of a focus on the networks that we exist within, that is, the relationships
we have in life. The Network way of being church does not change the long
standing Anglican incarnational ecclesiology of church but it enhances it and
develops the breadth of its ministry to all. Through a process of practical
theology, Network Church takes into account the way in which many people
live their lives. Arguably this way of being church makes the Church of
England actually more genuinely incarnational and therefore more Anglican in
nature.
The history of the Network Church phenomenon is described by George Lings
in terms of chapters or generations.8 I will here set out a detailed, albeit
incomplete, history of the development of the phenomenon within the Church
of England.
The first generation is the growth of Network Churches from the grass roots,
that is, from the instincts of individual parishes and pioneer leaders. The
ancestry of these church plants can be traced back as far as the 1920’s. At
that time we see the start of the realisation that the parochial system was
becoming a little outmoded, ‘…with the granting of full parochial rights to those
beyond a parish, who qualify by attendance to join its electoral role.’9 The
granting of full parochial rights to those living beyond a parish was the
acknowledgement of the possibility of different ways of being church in the
Church of England at large. This development, alongside the increase in travel
possibilities (mentioned above) saw the growth of gathered or, ‘eclectic’
churches from as long ago as 30 to 50 years ago.10
In 1994 the General Synod of the Church of England was presented with a
Board of Mission report called, Breaking New Ground: Church Planting in the
Church of England. This report was written in response to the continuing story
of the growth of the first generation of Network Churches in England. At that
time, church planting as a method of evangelism was not new but was being
8 Interview with George Lings
9 Lings, George, Encounters on the Edge No. 7: New Canterbury Tales (Sheffield: Church
Army, 1999) p. 4 10
Interview with George Lings
7
rediscovered by people who were seeking to reach out in love to the
communities where God had placed them. Breaking New Ground says that
between 1985 and 1993 there were at least 177 churches planted in the
Church of England. Four of these 177 churches created some concerns in
neighbouring parishes and dioceses as they had moved beyond the parish
boundaries of the sending church without the consent of the relevant
authorities.11 The Breaking New Ground report was written as a good practice
guide for those who were being led to church planting as a method of
evangelism.
In the first chapter of the report subtitled, ‘A Vision of Church: Territory,
Neighbourhood and Network’, we find a recognition, ‘…that human life is lived
in a complex array of networks and that the neighbourhoods where people
reside may hold only a very minor loyalty.’12 This chapter tells of how the then
Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, spoke at the 1991 Church Planting
Conference of how, ‘Our Anglican understanding of the church is rooted in
Episcopal leadership and parochial structure.’13 The chapter goes on,
‘The church planting movement makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about how these features of the life of the Church of England (Episcopal leadership and the parochial structure) are lived out in contemporary society, and how that life can be accessible to the widest range of people.’14
If we look back at the historical reasons for the parochial structure, we will see
that the structure was about, ‘…ensuring that the Church is earthed in the life
of the community and accepts responsibility for all.’15 That said, and with the
above recognition of the complex array of networks that people live in, the
report acknowledges the need to attend, ‘…to the fact that such rootedness in
community may need to express itself in ways that go beyond the bounds of
the territorial parish.’16 Tricia Voute in an article on Rootedness comments
that, ‘The problem with being rooted in a piece of land (be it a region or nation)
is that its geographical borders become its social, cultural and psychological
11 Church of England, Board of Mission, Breaking New Ground (London: Church House
Publishing, 1994) p. 1, 50 12
Breaking New Ground p. 3 13
Carey, George, et al., Planting New Churches – Guidelines and Structures for Developing Tomorrow’s Churches (Guildford: Eagle, 1991) p. 25 14
Breaking New Ground p. 3 15
Breaking New Ground p. 3 16
Breaking New Ground p. 3
8
borders as well.’17 Point 1.9 of Breaking New Ground says, ‘We need
therefore to find ways to enable diverse styles of church life to co-exist without
always having recourse to territorial, or even denominational, boundaries.’18
For George Lings in New Canterbury Tales points out that the Breaking New
Ground report gives a clear endorsement of the Network way of being church.
He comments,
‘It is a Magna Carta underwriting life beyond the parish boundary, which all prospective network planters need to master… the report came to be written because of cross boundary church plants. What has happened since is the birth of the non boundary church plant.’19
That is, the Network Church plant.
Two of the first generation Network Church plants are in Deal, Kent and
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
The Carpenter’s Arms, Deal began life in 1994. The church was a plant from
St. George’s, Deal, one of four parish churches serving the town. After a
period of numerical growth St. George’s settled at 80% of its capacity in 1989.
A parish weekend in 1992 focused on church planting and later that year the
church was led to look more closely at what God might be calling them to do
in Deal. Of this time Lings writes,
‘During the summer of 1992 a sermon …had struck a resonant note… I coined the analogy that most Anglican worship is suited for people from Radio 3 and Radio 4 cultures. I highlighted the need for supplementary Church of England congregations for people identifying with Radio 1 and Radio 2 – different styles of communication, irrespective of class or intelligence.’20
After much prayer, thought and discussion with the other local churches and
the diocese, Bishop Gavin Reid launched The Carpenter’s Arms as a Deanery
wide initiative on Oct 8th 1994.21 The church met in a youth club building in
17
Voute, Tricia, ‘Putting Up Roots’, Third Way, March 2004, p. 12-15 18
Breaking New Ground p. 3-4 19
Lings, New Canterbury Tales p. 5 20
Lings, New Canterbury Tales p. 6 21
As far as I am aware this was the first church planting initiative in the Church of England to be referred to as a Network Church. That said, in October 1993 at the invitation of the Bishop of Willesden, fifty members of St Barnabas Church, Kensington began a new, experimental church called Oak Tree Anglican Fellowship. Oak Tree was different from a traditional parish church. It is described on its website as, ‘Having no set geographical boundaries, Oak Tree
9
another parish in the town, with the blessing of the local incumbent. The room
was set out more like a café or pub, with chairs around tables to create a more
relaxed atmosphere. No books were used; words for songs and liturgy were
projected by over-head projector. Lings says, ‘The aim was to try to be cringe
free for newcomers, chiming in with Seeker style.’22 The story of the first years
of The Carpenter’s Arms is not all positive. There were hard times, but
generally the blessing far out weighed the pain and difficulties associated with
church planting.
The Net Church describes itself as, ‘… part of the Church of England in
Huddersfield, but with no geographical parish.’23 The Church website says,
‘We aim to help people deal with the realities of everyday life, exploring the big
questions in a comfortable and relaxed environment.’24 After a visit to The Net
Church, Wakefield Cathedral’s Canon Missioner wrote the following:
‘This church without walls recognises that in today’s mobile society to many people, ‘community’ is no longer based on a locality, but on networks and relationships. The Net’s overarching vision is to seek to reach the non-churched, the many in our society who rarely or never attend any kind of religious service.’25
In all that The Net Church does, it seeks to put first those who want to find out
about God. From the small groups, to the Sunday services, to the bi-monthly
evangelistic events, the structure and style of the church is set up to be as
welcoming as possible to the seeker.26 It is important to say however, that with
this emphasis on the seeker The Net does not lose the spiritual depth of
services and events. The difference between The Net and many other
congregations is that people do not have to leave their cultural identity at the
door of where they meet. The Net relates to many people’s contemporary lives
and therefore the relationship they have with others. It relates to the lives of
many who do not see the significance of more traditional church. These points
are illustrated well through the occurrences of a normal Sunday morning
sees the whole of Acton, with its 85,000 residents, as its mission area.’ This would seem to be describing a Network Church. See www.oaktree.org.uk/index1.htm accessed 17/08/04. 22
The idea of Seeker style services came from Willow Creek Church in America. Lings, New Canterbury Tales p. 9 23
http://www.netchurch.org.uk/whatis.html accessed 16/04/04 24
http://www.netchurch.org.uk/whatis.html accessed 16/04/04 25
Taken from a paper written by Canon John Holmes after a Mission Visit to The Net, dated 01/09/03. 26
The Net takes its emphasis on small groups from Cell church principals and it uses many aspects of Willow Creek style seeker services in its other events.
10
service at The Net in 2002 when a now small group leader at the church,
Angela, felt so at ease with the environment that she got up in the middle of
the service and asked to say something. Dave Male tells the story,
‘I was coming to the end of my sermon when a woman raised her hand: 'Dave, can I say something? I just want to tell everyone that I want to become a follower of Jesus.' Not long after that she was baptized, along with her two daughters - and, in a kind of domino effect, three other women came to faith.’27
Dave later discovered that Heather, his wife, had met and prayed for Angela
some nine years earlier when, ‘…as two very pregnant mums who caught one
another’s eyes (they) laughed and commiserated together, before walking
separate ways.’28 Lings says, ‘It is no accident that the Males had lived five
years in Huddersfield before The Net was started. Heather’s work in
Occupational Therapy, their presence at the school gate and the gym all
slowly build networks.’29 And Angela’s story seems to be a result of one of
those networks.
The second generation of the history of Network Church is still being written.
As far as can be seen, this generation is about the intentional planting of
Network Churches by individual dioceses. This does not mean to say that the
time of grassroots planting of Network churches by individual churches and
leaders is over, by no means. The second generation describes the
subsequent period in the growth of the phenomenon in the Church of England
at large.
As far as I am aware, the first steps in this second generation of Network
church planting were taken by the Diocese of Birmingham.30 In April 2000 the
diocesan missioner and Suffragan Bishop asked the diocesan staff to consider
creating a new full-time post, City Centre Deanery Missioner. This post was a
proactive step to look at what could be done about the serious gap in those
attending church from the 20’s and 30’s age group.31 As all this was being
discussed at the diocesan level, Geoff Lanham, a senior curate at St. John’s,
27
http://www.netchurch.org.uk/CLArticle.html accessed 16/04/04 28
Lings, George, Encounters on the Edge No.19: Net Gains (Sheffield: Church Army, 2003) p. 14 29
Lings, Net Gains p. 15 30
Interview with George Lings 31
Lings, Net Gains p. 17
11
Harborne, was taking a sabbatical looking at the implications of post-
modernity in reaching non-church people.32 At the end of Geoff’s study the
diocesan missioner asked him to consider the new post the diocese had by
then agreed upon. Geoff says that after his meeting with the missioner, ‘I went
away and prayed and thought if I never did it, I’d regret it!’33 This was the initial
development of what is now known as B1 Church, Birmingham. Many of B1’s
meetings are held in pubs and hotels of the Broad Street area of Birmingham,
the area of the city centre that many of the church frequent through work and
leisure. Geoff says the church is a Network Church and, ‘... people come
because they perhaps see people in the church who fit … the sort of sub-
culture that they belong to, or people with whom they have a common
interest.’34 B1’s vision statement talks about, ‘… a community of young adults
finding and strengthening faith within contemporary cultures.’35 Geoff sees
‘community’ as key to the continued growth and development of this Network
Church.36 B1 uses many lessons learnt from the alternative worship scene.
Since the conception and early development of B1, Oxford, Lichfield and York
Diocese have all begun similar projects. These church plants are at very early
stages: their leaders Matt Rees, Gordon Crowther and Michelle McBride have
been in post not more than twelve months.37 These ventures are similar in that
Matt, Gordon and Michelle are new to their respective dioceses and so their
first task will include identifying the networks / relationships that the new
church communities will work in and through. In my interview with George
Lings he expressed a concern with the Lichfield and York projects as, the
starting group of planters may be too small and that could create problems.38
32
Interview with Geoff Lanham 33
Interview with Geoff Lanham 34
Interview with Geoff Lanham 35
Lings, Net Gains p. 18 36
Interview with Geoff Lanham 37
I have spoken with all three leaders with regard to these ventures. Details of the Diocese of Oxford plant can be seen at www.home-online.org 38
Lings was relating the two projects to the experience at Tommy’s, a network church plant based in Nottingham that started in 1996 not long after The Carpenter’s Arms. Tommy’s started well, then plateaued and eventually closed in 2000. It was assessed that this was due in part to the starting team not being large enough. Lings says, ‘… when the natural contacts of the people in the team were exhausted they didn’t actually have the capability to generate further contacts. So, there’s a sense in which the pool in which they were fishing dried up.’ Lings gave a short assessment of the Tommy’s story in the interview I had with him. It can also be found in: Lings, Net Gains p. 6-8
12
In one sense the next stage in the second generation of Network Church was
the publication of the Church of England Board of Mission report, Mission-
Shaped Church, in February 2004.39 In his introduction of the report to the
General Synod, Bishop Graham Cray, said that the Mission-Shaped Church
report was, ‘… primarily a report on what the Church of England is already
doing in many dioceses, rather than a recommendation that it begin
something novel.’40 The Mission-Shaped Church working group was set up to
provide a review of the Breaking New Ground report we referred to above.
The group were to assess any progress in the Church of England’s church
planting and consider any new developments in this area of mission.
Mission-Shaped Church was welcomed enthusiastically at General Synod as
was the review of the Pastoral Measure41 to allow the continued legal growth
of fresh expressions of church within the Church of England – Network Church
being one of these fresh expressions.42 The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke
of the Church of England being at a Kairos moment in its history:43 a pivotal
moment where we are, ‘… poised for serious growth and renewal… We are at
a real watershed.’44 In an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury about
Network Church I was able to ask him why he thought we were at such an
important time. He commented,
‘I think this is really the first opportunity we had as a whole church of taking cognisance of what’s been going on in bits and pieces around the country and when you put all that together and you see the range of new initiatives going on, I think it becomes very clear indeed that there is far more than we’ve ever noticed. When I was a bishop in Wales we had Bob and Mary Hopkins from the Church Planting Mission to visit the diocese and they told us that we had
39
Church of England, Board of Mission, Mission-Shaped Church (London: Church House Publishing, 2004) 40
This is taken from a copy of Bishop Graham’s final draft of his speech to Synod, which I was given by him as I held a brief interview with him before the speech to Synod. 41
Diocese and Pastoral Measure Working Group, Archbishop’s Council, A Measure for Measures: In Mission and Ministry (London: Church House Publishing, 2004) 42
The term, ‘fresh expressions of church’ is a term used in Mission-Shaped Church. It is used to refer to all the different shapes of church that MSC talks about. It was used because of its non-use by other networks within the church; therefore, the new activity cannot be linked to just one theological camp within the church. The term also has a clear link to the preface of the Declaration of Assent which, refers to the faith, ‘…which the church is called to proclaim afresh in each generation.’ This has a direct link to the shape of the local church that MSC is concerned with. 43
Taken from Archbishop Rowan’s speech to Synod about the Mission-Shaped Church report 44
Mission-Shaped Church p. vii
13
more than a dozen church plants and we didn’t really know or, we hadn’t identified them as such. Now I think you can multiply that for the whole country in a way and that’s why I feel, (a) there’s an awful lot going on, (b) this is a very good moment for recognising what’s going on and, (c) a very good moment then for asking ourselves, so what do we do about it? And I would really encourage it because this seems to be where the edge of the growth area is in many areas.’45
Network Church is, ‘… church that is intentionally aiming to work through
networks of relationships that are to do with friendship… But also relationships
in terms of reaching into specific networks of people, like sport, or work, or
marriage, or parenting…’46 As we have seen in the above examples Network
Church is not a specifically definable form of church, in that it borrows aspects
of its nature from other models of church like cell, seeker and alternative
congregations. The key to understanding Network Church is grasping the fact
that it is about a move from where people are, to how people are.47 This is
surely a way of being church that the Church of England needs to learn from,
and make use of if its mission and ministry are to be fruitful in the twenty-first
century.
45
Interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams 46
Interview with Dave Male 47
Taken from PowerPoint presentation by Bishop Graham Cray presented at New Wine Leaders Conference, May 2004.
14
Chapter 2
(Exploration)
A Sociological Description of Network Society
As I mentioned in the previous chapter the Church of England’s Breaking New
Ground report recognises that, ‘…human life is lived in a complex array of
networks and that the neighbourhoods where people reside may hold only a
very minor loyalty.’48 The report continues, ‘…it is possible to see that it is
networks which are now the communities to which we feel a predominant
loyalty.’49 This is an acknowledgement of the influence that networks have on
our life: it is recognition of ‘network society’. Chapter two of this study will
describe the network society context within which we seek to be the Christian
Church using sociological studies by scholars such as Jan van Dijk, Manuel
Castells, Albert–Laszlo Barabasi and Robert Putnam.
The term ‘network society’, is used by social scientists to refer to the many
ways in which networks influence society’s life. Networks have, and are still
bringing about cultural change for humankind, causing, ‘…the emergence of a
new social structure.’50 Jan van Dijk says that, ‘A network is a connection
between at least three elements, points or units.’51 Network society, he says,
is,
‘…a form of society increasingly organizing its relationships in media networks which are gradually replacing or complementing the social networks of face-to-face communication. This means that social and media networks are shaping the prime mode of organisation and the most important structures of modern society.’52
Manuel Castells agrees with this, but goes further in his definition by saying
that ‘Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the
48
Breaking New Ground p. 3 49
Breaking New Ground p. 3 50
Mission-Shaped Church p. 4 51
Dijk, Jan van, The Network Society (London: Sage, 1999) p. 28 52
Dijk, Jan van, The Network Society p. 220
15
diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and
outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture.’53
An early stage of humankind’s understanding of networks can be traced back
to the mathematician Leonhard Euler who, ‘… inadvertently started an
immense branch of mathematics known as graph theory.’54 Whilst amusing
himself writing a paper on a Prussian town’s mind puzzle, ‘Can one walk
across the (towns) seven bridges and never cross the same one twice?’,55 he
made the discovery that,
‘The construction and structure of graphs or networks is the key to understanding the complex world around us. Small changes in the topology, affecting only a few of the nodes and links, can open up hidden doors, allowing new possibilities to emerge.’56
Two centuries later Paul Erdos and Alfred Renyi moved graph theory from
studying the properties of various graphs to, ‘… asking the quintessential
question of how graphs, or, more commonly, networks, came about. Indeed,
how do real networks form?’57 Through studying a group of people at a party,
Erdos and Renyi told us that it requires only one link per node to stay
connected as a random network.58They concluded that after placing a critical
number of links between isolated groups you get, ‘… a giant cluster, joined by
almost everybody.’59 This point is taken for granted today, but at that time it
changed mathematical understanding completely and their random network
theory, ‘… has dominated scientific thinking about networks since’.60
In the early twentieth century Frigyes Karinthy, one of Hungary’s most
celebrated writers, wrote a short story about the interconnectivity of the people
of the world. ‘Karinthy’s 1929 insight that people are linked by at most five
53
Castells, M, The Rise of the Network Society (London: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2nd
ed. 2000) p. 500 54
Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo, Linked: The New Science of Networks (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing, 2002) p. 10 55
Barabasi, Linked p. 10 Brackets added. 56
Barabasi, Linked p. 12 ‘A node is a point in a graph or network at which lines or pathways intersect or branch.’ The New Oxford Dictionary p. 1257 57
Barabasi, Linked p. 13 58
That is to say, it only takes one person (node) to communicate (link) with one other person in the group to produce a random network. The childhood game where a group of people all grab hold of other peoples hands in the group and then the group try and unravel themselves enables us to see something of what Erdos and Renyi showed. 59
Barabasi, Linked p. 18 60
Barabasi, Linked p. 23
16
links was the first published appearance of the concept we know today as “six
degrees of separation.”’61 In various American universities in the late 1960’s
the study of the structure of social networks became very popular. The
sociologist Stanley Milgram set out ‘…to find the “distance” between any two
people in the United States.’62 He asked, ‘…how many acquaintances would it
take to connect two randomly selected individuals?’63 Through
experimentation he discovered that it took on average 5.5 people to link two
people in the United States. It is pure coincidence that it was near Karinthy’s
number. Later, through rounding the number up, the term ‘six degrees of
separation’ was first used as the title of a 1991 play on Broadway. Following
the popularity of the play this concept has now been said to relate to the whole
of the world and not just the United States as Milgram demonstrated.64 ‘Six
degrees of separation … suggests that, despite our society’s enormous size, it
can easily be navigated by following social links from one person to another.’65
If then we bear in mind Erdos and Renyi’s demonstration that it only takes
one link to create a random network, ‘As we all have many more than one link,
each of us is a part of a giant network that we call society.’66
The above historical background lets us see the way in which the
technological advances that lie behind our network society context are largely
a development of the way human society is linked, or naturally networked.
Barabasi says that the six degrees of separation concept is a product of our
modern society. He gives the example of how the ancestors of most
Americans lost contact with their networks when they moved from their old
countries. ‘In the subtle social network of those days, it was rather difficult to
activate the links that had been broken when people moved.’67 But, as the
postal system, the telephone and various methods of transport were invented
the numbers of links that people were able to maintain increased and
therefore, ‘The global village we’ve grown used to inhabiting is a new reality
for humans.’68 On top of the above advances, the invention of the computer
61
Barabasi, Linked p. 27 62
Barabasi, Linked p. 27 63
Barabasi, Linked p. 27 64
Barabasi, Linked p. 29 65
Barabasi, Linked p. 30 66
Barabasi, Linked p. 30 67
Barabasi, Linked p. 39 68
Barabasi, Linked p. 39
17
and internet has also increased the number of links between people and
therefore, ‘Our ability to reach people has less and less to do with the physical
distance between us.’69 The introduction of the computer and the internet,
Barabasi suggests, has probably lessened the degrees of separation between
people even more. ‘Milgram estimated six. Karinthy five. We could be much
closer these days to three.’70
‘In a network society the importance of place is secondary to the importance
of “flows”. It is flows of information, images and capital that increasingly shape
society.’71 The term ‘flows’, refers to the ‘links’ that connect people together.
Manuel Castells says that in a network society, ‘… the power of flows takes
precedence over the flows of power.’72 That is to say, the networking mode of
social organisation has existed in other times and spaces but, ‘… the new
information technology paradigm provides the material basis for its pervasive
expansion throughout the entire social structure.’73 Alan Roxburgh says,
‘Culture is now an organised diversity with little sense of defining centre.’74
Castells’ comment about the power of flows taking priority over the flows of
power is an important one if we are to understand the full extent to which
information technology has affected us, both positively and negatively. He
uses the example of the global economy to illustrate this. In the network
society, the financial systems of the world reside in a process, rather than in a
place. London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and others are all linked together by millions
of different links and nodes. These links and nodes are so numerous and
create so many networks between companies and customers that they form
the beginning of the process of the network society. These links and nodes
become the essential places where the flows of information happen, and not
the geographic places of individual cities or towns. Therefore, the power of
flows is important: network society enables a series of flows and these flows
shape contemporary society. ‘Our society is constructed around flows: flows of
69
Barabasi, Linked p. 40 70
Barabasi, Linked p. 39 71
Mission-Shaped Church p. 5 72
Castells, M, The Rise of the Network Society p. 500 73
Castells, M, The Rise of the Network Society p. 500 74
Roxburgh, A., The Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 1997) p. 13
18
capital, flows of information, flows of technology, flows of organisational
interaction, flows of images, sounds, and symbols.’75
It is here that we can now begin to see a few of the negative aspects of
network society, ‘The flow of activity and information includes and excludes as
it finds its flows through the system.’76 Barabasi uses the illustration of the
internet to show this.77 He highlights the divide between the technological rich
and technological poor, who do not have access to the networks and its flows,
demonstrating the inclusion and exclusion created by the internet.78 This
global society that we live in is more connected or networked, more mobile
and has more freedom of choice than earlier generations, and yet at the same
time it is more fragmented and exclusive.
‘Mobility has become a major marker of inclusion or exclusion. Those who cannot move increasingly identify their deprivation in these terms. They are ‘stuck’ where they live, and feel they cannot enjoy life or express themselves fully or get a good job without the ability to maximise the opportunities that are available to mobile people.’79
Robert Putnam is a social commentator who has written extensively and
critically on the connections that come about in a network society. He
comments, ‘In recent years social scientists have framed concerns about the
changing character of American society in terms of the concept of “social
capital.”’80 Social capital is the theory that says social networks have value,
like a screwdriver or a university education has value in physical or human
ways. Putnam says ‘…social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and
groups.’81 He says, ‘Of all the dimensions along which forms of social capital
vary, perhaps the most important is the distinction between bridging (or
inclusive) and bonding (or exclusive).’82 ‘Bridging’ social capital describes
outward looking networks that encompass people across diverse social
boundaries. ‘Bonding’ social capital is inward looking and reinforces exclusive
identities and homogeneous networks. ‘Bonding social capital constitutes a
kind of sociological superglue, whereas bridging social capital provides a
75
Castells, M., The Rise of the Network Society p. 442 76
Ward, P., Liquid Church (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2002) p. 43 77
The whole of Barabasi, Linked: The New Science of Networks, seeks to demonstrate this. 78
Mission-Shaped Church p. 5 79
Mission-Shaped Church p. 6 80
Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000) p. 18 81
Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone p. 19 82
Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone p. 22
19
sociological WD-40.’83 One example of bonding social capital is that found in a
church that has no vision for any kind of ministry or service outside its own
people and is more likely to function as a social club for its members. An
example of bridging social capital would be that found in what a Network
Church is seeking to do. A Network Church’s explicit aim is to not break the
bridges (links) between those in the church network (nodes) and those in the
church members other social networks (nodes). It could however, be argued
that Network church is more bonding social capital focused as by its very
nature it highlights certain interest groups. That said arguably Network Church
creates more ‘bridging’ social capital than ‘bonding’. Putnam says that all
social capital is good for a society, but bridging social capital is without a
doubt better than bonding social capital due to the inclusive and exclusive
nature of the two.
Putnam’s identification of differing types of social capital gives us a helpful
way to see the positive and negative aspects of a network society. The
increase in mobility and the technological advances that we have seen over
the past years has enlarged the possibilities for growth in society’s social
capital bank, that is, if the advances are used in a constructive, inclusive way.
However, the increase in fragmentation that has come about, as mentioned
above, is a clear sign that the increase in mobility and technology has not
been used in an entirely constructive way. There has not been enough
emphasis on aspects of bridging social capital and therefore, we have facts
and figures that say there has been a massive drop in society’s social capital
bank.84 As I mentioned above, Putnam points out that an increase in social
capital is positive for society at large, but an increase in bridging social capital,
which is better in the longer term, is much harder to create than that of
bonding social capital.85 If our society is to be a healthy network society, it
needs to have more focus on bridging social capital, as opposed to bonding
social capital. This is to a certain extent self explanatory, as we know that an
inclusive group or network is far healthier than an exclusive one.86 In his latest
83
Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone p. 23 84
See Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone or www.bowlingalone.com for a clear summary of the facts and figures. 85
www.bettertogether.org/pressrelease.htm accessed 11/05/04 86
See my TPR essay on The Christian Church: Exclusive Club or Inclusive Missionary Community for an investigation of this.
20
book87 Putnam deals with many different companies and organisations that
have increased American social capital stocks through a whole variety of
different ways. He says, ‘The benefits of social capital spill beyond the people
immediately involved in the network and can be used for many other
purposes…’88 ‘Each of the stories in Better Together illustrates the
extraordinary power and subtlety of social networks for enabling people to
improve their lives.’89 Two excellent examples Putnam uses are Saddleback
Church in California and All Saints Church in Pasadena.
‘Saddleback is a highly successful evangelical Christian mega-church, with some 45,000 members and a sprawling complex of facilities on 74 acres of land. Yet it manages to turn its vast crowd of “seekers” into a genuine congregation, and then into committed, core members, by fostering real community through intentionally organizing congregants into hundreds of small groups.’90
At All Saints Church, a very different, theologically liberal Episcopalian
Church, the ‘…staff also adopted the small-group idea as part of their growth
plan, recognising that pastoral care and personal connection would depend
more on the small communities within the greater community as the church
got bigger.’91
The increases in mobility and technological advances that have brought about
the network society that we are a part of are here to stay. Robert Putnam and
his colleagues are seeking to further the positive aspects of network society
and it is of vital importance that the church grasps hold of these and not run
from them. If the Church of England wants to have a voice in network society,
to speak prophetically into the context, it will need to take seriously the above
points of view and particularly these words of Manuel Castells. ‘What I call the
‘network society’ is simply a society made up of networks. It’s a society in
which everything that counts, the economy, technology, politics, the media,
social movements and interpersonal relations, is increasingly made out of
information-technology powered networks.’92
87
Putnam, Robert D. and Lewis M. Feldstein, Better Together (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003) 88
Putnam, Robert D. and Lewis M. Feldstein, Better Together p. 269 89
www.bettertogether.org/pressrelease.htm accessed 11/05/04 90
http://www.bettertogether.org/pressrelease.htm 91
Putnam, Robert D. and Lewis M. Feldstein, Better Together p. 136-137 92
Castells, M. and B. Catterall, The Making of the Network Society (London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2001) p. 8
21
Network church is church that is seeking to take seriously Castells, Barabasi
and Putnam’s insights into society and in doing so is seeking to be configured
differently to the traditional parish model of church. It is seeking to do this by
holding the Christian gospel and the Network society context hand in hand.93
Vincent Donovan, a Catholic missionary who came back to the West uses the
following statement to comment on encountering the youth of the West: ‘…do
not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to
where you are, beautiful as that place may seem to you. You must have the
courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have been
before.’94 This is where network church seeks to be. Alan Roxburgh says that
in the missionary church, ‘The place of leadership is … at the leading edge …
modelling engagement with the culture in the name of the gospel.’95 Network
church is seeking to be at that leading edge, modelling engagement with
culture in the name of the gospel. It may not succeed at this goal for a long
time, but through its seeking to re-evangelise the nation it is hoped that it will
get there.
93
I am not saying here that more traditional parish church is not seeking to be shaped by the Christian gospel, but in many cases it is not seeking to be shaped by network society. 94
Donovan, V., Christianity Rediscovered (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1978, 1982) p. vii 95
Roxburgh, A., The Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality p. 64
22
Chapter Three
(Reflection)
A Theological Reflection on Network Church
Chapter three will reflect theologically on the concept of Network Church. It
was expected that a key focus for this chapter would have been a close
critique of the Church of England Board of Mission Report, Mission-Shaped
Church. Since publication of the work though, it has been revealed that
Mission-Shaped Church provides a good, albeit broad theology of mission.
This is a useful reflection on the wide variety of fresh expressions of church
that Mission-Shaped Church comments on. However, the report does not
present a specific theological reflection on Network Church. Therefore, this
chapter will seek to do that by offering reflections on John 15, the vine
discourse; Acts 2 to 4 and the widely acknowledged notion of koinonia, and
issues of inculturation / contextualization, which are written about in Mission-
Shaped Church.
The Vine Metaphor and Network Church
The metaphor of the vine to describe the people of God is found in many
places throughout the Old and New Testament.96 Our focus for this reflection
will be in John’s gospel. Before we reflect on John’s vine discourses, it is
important to acknowledge that, ‘…the main category for understanding the
Gospel is revelation …Put another way, the major issue in this Gospel is
Christology and soteriology, not ecclesiology.’97 That said, the core of the vine
96
See ‘Vine, Vineyard’, in L. James, C. Wilhoit, T. Longman III (ed.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Leicester: IVP, 1998) for a survey of Old and New Testament usage of the vine metaphor. 97
Witherington, B., John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Forth Gospel (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1995) p. 257
23
metaphor found in John 15 can facilitate and help our reflection on network
church well.
John 15:1-16 is the second of three sections that make up Jesus’ farewell
discourse recorded in the gospel.98 Carson splits John 15:1-16 in two and
comments,
‘The links between vv. 1-8 and vv. 9-16 are intricate. Both sections speak of ‘remaining’, the first of remaining in the vine/Jesus, the second of remaining in Jesus’ love (vv. 4-7, 9-10). Both hold up fruitfulness as the disciples’ goal (vv. 5, 16); both tie such fruitfulness to prayer (vv. 7-8, 16). And both sections are built around a change in salvation-historical perspective, i.e. both depend on a self-conscious change from the old covenant to the new: under the image of the vine, Israel gives way to Jesus, and under the impact of fresh revelation, ‘servants’ give way to ‘friends’ (v. 15).’99
The ‘remaining’ (or ‘abiding’ as in the NRSV) that Carson comments on
springs out of the relationship between the true vine and the vine-grower, that
is Jesus and the Father. There is a firm connection, or link, here between
Jesus and God the Father. Out of that connection grow branches which need
to remain in, or abide in, the vine to live and be fruitful. The branches
symbolise Jesus’ disciples and therefore, in verse 5 we see Jesus’
reinforcement of the ‘I am’ saying found in 15:1: ‘I am the vine, you are the
branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because
apart from me you can do nothing.’ Leon Morris says, ‘…vital contact with the
vine is essential for fruit-bearing. When a branch is pruned part of it is
removed. The part that will bear fruit is the part that remains in living contact
with the vine.’100
This passage from John’s gospel offers a biblical metaphor related to the
ecclesiological nature of network church. The central node or hub of the
network is Jesus, with his many connections or links spreading out to the
other nodes, the disciples. The task of these nodes (the disciples) is to remain
in connection with the central node (Jesus), and to let the life of the central
98
Witherington, B., John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Forth Gospel p. 244 99
Carson, D.A., The Gospel According to John (Leicester: Apollos, 1991) p. 510 100
Morris, L., Reflections on the Gospel of John (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000) p. 518
24
node flow to other potential nodes (those who are part of the disciples social
networks) thus producing fruit. ‘A network-based church cannot be planned. It
must grow. People who are looking for God will connect to the network
because it offers what they want.’101
The importance of flow in a network church is also seen in Jesus’ vine
imagery. As was pointed out in Mission-Shaped Church, ‘In a network society
the importance of place is secondary to the importance of ‘flows’. It is flows of
information, images and capital that increasingly shape society.’102 Therefore,
where John 15: 4 says, ‘Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch
cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me.’, we see a reflection of the importance of flows in network
church. Much like the vine,
‘The networked church would connect individuals, groups, and organisations in a series of flows. Connection would gather around hubs and would be made up of connecting nodes. A hub might be a retreat centre, a sports team, a music group, a record company, a Christian shop, and so on. Connection to individuals and groups would involve sharing the life of God in a variety of ways.’103
The vine imagery even includes something of the more negative, exclusive,
aspects of the network society: those who are not part of the vine, or who fail
to remain in it are excluded. This said, it must be pointed out that this
exclusion obviously does not come about because of the vine not wanting to
grow and produce fruit on the branches: it comes about because the branches
do not remain in the vine and therefore do not bear fruit. This helpfully
encapsulates something of the disciples’ (the churches) responsibility for
growth through mission and evangelism. As the Missio Dei 104 concept sums
up, it is not the church’s mission to the world, but it is the church’s job to
continue, ‘… participating in God’s mission to the world.’105 The network
church way of being allows for and enables disciples to let the life of the vine,
101
Ward, P., Liquid Church (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2002) p. 56 102
Mission-Shaped Church p. 5 103
Ward, P., Liquid Church p. 87 104
See Bosch, D, Transforming Mission (New York: Orbis, 1991) p. 389-393 for explanation of Missio Dei concept. 105
Warren, Robert, Building Missionary Congregations (London: Church House Publishing, 1995) p. 4
25
Jesus, to flow into and throughout them, the branches, to produce fruit. This in
turn enables the network church to grow.
Koinonia and the Network Church
Another helpful theological reflection on Network Church is based in the book
of Acts. Jurgen Moltmann says, ‘It is when we as people follow God’s mission
to other people and put ourselves in line with that mission that we show
respect for the dignity of others’106 In Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37 we see the
believers showing much respect for the dignity of one another. Acts 2:42 says,
‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship.’ The
word fellowship here is a translation of the Greek word koinonia.107 Justo
Gonzalez suggests that this word means more than just fellowship among
friends. ‘There is no doubt that koinonia is fellowship, but it is also solidarity
and the sharing of feelings, goods, and actions.’108 Therefore, another
translation of koinonia could be, ‘participation’.
The network way of being church is very much about participation with others.
It is about being fruitful in and through our lives. Pete Ward says,
‘Individual nodes represent the connection of believers or those with no belief to the communication flow of the network. Membership is no longer measured by attendance at worship. Instead, it is assessed in terms of participation in the network. Much like a website can evaluate its significance in terms of numbers of hits, liquid church will be based in participation in the activities of the network.’109
106
Moltmann, J., The Source of Life (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1997) p.19 107
Gonzalez, J.L., Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit (New York: Orbis Books, 2001) p.50 108
Gonzalez, J.L., Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit p.51 109
Ward’s preferred term for Network Church is, ‘Liquid Church’. He says, ‘I suggest that we need to shift from seeing church as a gathering of people meeting in one place at one time – that is, a congregation – to a notion of church as a series of relationships and communications. This image implies something like a network or a web rather than an assembly of people. An example of this was given to me by a research student who saw nothing strange in the idea of a liquid church made up of informal relationships instead of formal meetings. He explained that before we met for our academic seminar, he was in a coffee shop with one of his Christian friends, As they talked, he said, he felt that Christ was communicated between them. For him this was church. This is the familiar notion to the word fellowship, but when one adds the definite article to the word fellowship, it takes on a different character. ‘The fellowship’ indicates a more structured, static, and formal notion of church. My phrase for describing this shift toward structures, institutions, and meetings is solid church.
26
Gustavo Gutierrez says the philosophy behind the participation in Acts110,
‘…was not a question of erecting poverty as an ideal, but rather of seeing to it
that there were no poor.’111 It has to be said that Gutierrez would probably
have much to say about the network churches and their common life
mentioned in this piece of work but, the philosophy and practise of these
churches is very much to do with participation, being connected or linked
together. Gutierrez also takes his comments further by suggesting that
koinonia is about a union of believers with the Father.112 He quotes 1 John
1:6, ‘If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in
darkness, we lie and do not do what is true.’113 Solle says, ‘Wherever God
acts in a liberating way in and through human beings, there participation in the
liberating action of God, involvement, allowing oneself to be drawn into the
process of liberation; there ‘church’ appears in the full sense of the word…’114
These insights, drawn in part from the perspective of liberation theology,
enable us to see how the early church’s common life, koinonia, clearly sprung
from God’s mission to his world. What’s more, it gives us another helpful way
of describing the theological foundation of network church from within the
scriptures.
Inculturation / Contextualization and Network Church
Our reflections from John and Acts about the vine (connection and link) and
koinonia (fellowship and participation) lead me to consider the important
ecclesiological theme of inculturation or contextualization,115 written about in
Mission-Shaped Church.116 Both of the John and Acts reflections speak of
following God in his mission to the world and contextualization is to a certain
So the move in imagining a liquid church is to take the informal fellowship, in which we experience Christ as we share with other Christians, and say this is church.’ Ward, P., Liquid Church p. 2 & 88 110
Acts 2:44-45, 4:34-35 111
Gutierrez, G., A Theology of Liberation (London: SCM Press Ltd, 5th ed. 1981) p.301
112 Gutierrez, G., A Theology of Liberation p.265
113 There is again here a clear link with our vine reflection from John 15.
114 Solle, D., Thinking about God: An Introduction to Theology London: SCM Press, 1990) p.
137-138 115
Inculturation is a Roman Catholic term; contextualization is the preferred evangelical term. I will use the latter from now on. 116
Mission-Shaped Church p. 90 - 93
27
extent, what comes about from a genuine following of God’s mission. Mission-
Shaped Church says, ‘Any theology concerning the nature and shape of the
Church in a new missionary context must address the appropriate place of
culture in shaping the Church.’117 Put another way, ‘It is impossible to avoid
ecclesiology in the communication of the gospel, for the gospel does not come
as a pure message but issues from, and gives rise to, specific communities;
and such communities will adopt certain characteristics which they believe
express the gospel in churchly form.’118
Addressing the place of culture in church planting is what contextualization is
concerned with. David Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen use the following
definition, which will help our understanding:
‘Contexuality … is that critical assessment of what makes the context really significant in the light of the Missio Dei. It is the missiological discernment of the signs of the times, seeing where God is at work and calling us to participate in it… Authentic contextuality leads to contextualization… This dialectic between contextuality and contextualization indicates a new way of theologising. It involves not only words, but actions.’119
Key themes at the heart of contextualization are connection or link and
fellowship or participation. Network church has at its core an emphasis on
contextualization because it does not look to draw disciples out of the network
context that they live in, but seeks to allow them to continue to live and
participate in that context and bear fruit, that is extend the church network
within that context.
In an interview with Canon Martin Percy with regard to his reflections on
Mission-Shaped Church, we considered the contextualization theme. We
discussed whether Mission-Shaped Church was too mechanistic in its
approach to mission and ecclesiology. Percy suggested that if he was writing
a theology for Mission-Shaped Church he would have started in a different
place.120 He talked about the importance of the stories that make up an
individual culture. Percy was referring very clearly to contextualization and the
117
Mission-Shaped Church p. 90 118
Yates, T., Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: CUP, 1994) p. 127 119
Hesselgrave, D. and E. Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models (Leicester: Apollos, 1989) p. 150 120
Interview with Martin Percy
28
importance context has when we seek to be involved in mission and church
planting. Percy used the illustration of a charismatic church which could not
put aside its ‘romantic theology’ to get to grips with the context within which it
was ministering. Recently I heard Bishop Graham Cray speaking on Mission-
Shaped Church and he agreed with Percy’s thoughts about contextualization,
though Cray felt that the report was theologically adequate. Cray clearly
emphasised the important principle of ‘planting and not cloning’, that is,
contextualizing the gospel in a specific culture, and he encouraged the reader
not to just take a Mission-Shaped Church model off the shelf as it were, but to
really grapple with the context where a plant may spring up.121 Cray also
added to this emphasis by speaking to those from the charismatic tradition
who would seek to, ‘clone and not plant’ church. In a book in honour of John
Wimber, Cray wrote, ‘We honour John best by following his principles of a
culturally accessible church life rooted in a Biblical world view, rather than by
aping his culturally specific form.’122
The importance of the theological theme of contextualization in the planting of
Network Churches is immense. As mentioned before, embodying the gospel
in the Network Society is about a re-emergence of how to be church how
people are, and a divergence from just how to be church where people are.123
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, when asked about this area,
said, ‘I think the church has always done its evangelistic work by trying to
connect to the actual relationships people are in. Vincent Donovan’s book
about evangelism in East Africa brings that out doesn’t it? You work with the
natural unit. If the natural unit isn’t just an area then you have to ask what
is.’124
The above reflections from John 15 on the vine, Acts 2 and 4 on koinonia, and
contextualization give a firm theological basis for the concept and practise of
network church. In the foreword to Mission Shaped-Church Archbishop
121
This also connects with Ward’s understanding mentioned above in the reflection on the vine. ‘A network-based church cannot be planned. It must grow. People who are looking for God will connect to the network because it offers what they want.’ 122
Taken from PowerPoint presentation by Bishop Graham Cray presented at New Wine Leaders Conference, May 2004 123
Taken from PowerPoint presentation by Bishop Graham Cray presented at New Wine Leaders Conference, May 2004 124
Interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams
29
Rowan gives a simple description of what church is. This description
encapsulates something of what the Network way of being Church is seeking
to achieve, ‘… church is what happens when people encounter the Risen
Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in
their encounter with each other…’125
125
Mission-Shaped Church p. vii
30
Chapter Four
(Response)
Network Church: A Reconfigured System
The title of this study refers to, ‘Reconfiguring the System’. To configure
something means to shape or put together that thing in a particular form. In
computing, to reconfigure means to rearrange or reorder a computer system
or element of it so as to fit it for a designated task.126 This piece of work has
been concerned with the reconfiguring of the way in which we are church. It
has specifically referred to the Network reconfiguration of Church seen within
the Church of England over the past ten years or so. This final chapter will
respond to issues raised by our consideration of Network Church. It will
provide ministerial outcomes that flow from the research.
In their book, The Shaping of Things to Come,127 Michael Frost and Alan
Hirsch use the film, Chocolat as a reflection and illustration of what a
reconfigured church could look like in comparison to a more traditional form of
church. Chocolat is set in a French village that is dominated by an austere,
overbearing form of church. The local mayor, the Comte de Reynaud, controls
the whole of the village by controlling what happens in church life. Frost and
Hirsch say, ‘Everything is grey, mirroring the dryness associated with the strict
form of religion that the Comte uses to silence everyone. As a result of this
blanket of austerity, the relationships of the townspeople are fractured and
strained.’128 One day, Vianne Rocher and her daughter are blown into the
town by a, ‘…sly wind from the north.’ Vianne is determined to bring some
colour to the townspeople. She does so by opening a Chocolaterie in the
town, at the beginning of Lent when the townspeople are led by the mayor to
deny themselves worldly pleasures as an act of devotion to Christ. ‘Vianne’s
126
Oxford Dictionary p.385 127
Frost, M. and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003) 128
Frost, M. and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come p. 60. This church is a prime example of Putnam’s bonding social capital.
31
chocolate shop is an antithesis of everything the town stands for.’129 Frost and
Hirsch see the Comte and the church he represents, a church which stands in
the middle of the town square, as symbolising the Christendom-attractional
model of church. ‘It has positioned itself in the centre of things and demands
allegiance and attendance.’130 This way of being has been summed up by
others as the pastoral or ‘come’ model of church.131 But, as Alan Roxburgh
comments, ’Culture is now an organised diversity with little sense of defining
centre’:132 Church has been and continues to be marginalized by society.
Frost and Hirsch think that,
‘Vianne and the chocolaterie, on the other hand, represent the missional-incarnational church… Her shop is a haven, but she doesn’t simply wait for people to enter. She engages the lives and troubles of her community and offers practical help as well as space and honesty and truth telling to happen. She celebrates life, good food, loud laughter, love, romance, storytelling, fantasy and imagination.’133
Frost and Hirsch say that instead of worrying about selling her chocolates,
Vianne sets about building friendships with the community. She creates what
resembles a web or network of friendships.134 This web or network of
friendships that has been built up around the Chocolaterie is what makes the
community much like a Network Church which focuses its attentions on sport,
business, parenting, or another interest, food. Lings says, ‘Network churches
are at the sharp end of learning how we win people through relationships.
They have no other way to work.’135
The above illustration from Chocolat shows what the Network Churches we
have discussed in this study could provide the wider Church of England: a
reconfiguration of the way that we have been church based on relationship.
The vine reflection in chapter three speaks of this. It is not suggested that the
whole of the Church of England should become Network, but it is good to take
note of this way of being as it has at its heart a genuine sense of what church
129
Frost, M. and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come p. 61 130
Frost, M. and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come p. 61 131
Warren, R., Building Missionary Congregations (London: CHP, 1995) 132
Roxburgh, A., The Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality p. 13 133
This is a prime example of Putnam’s bridging social capital. 134
Frost, M. and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come p. 61-62 135
Lings, New Canterbury Tales p. 24
32
koinonia – participation is. Lings says that Network Church is also bucking the
national trend of decline, and surely this is a good thing.136 The continued
growth of Network Church within the Church of England will depend on the
church’s own ability to reflect, research, resource and reconfigure itself again,
then again…
Reflect
Chapter three of this study provides us with a good, albeit not complete
theological resource on the concept and practise of Network Church. This
resource, along with the historical foundations written about in chapter one,
allow us to see that Network Church is not just the latest fashion accessory in
church life, that is, the latest trendy way of doing church which has no firm
theological foundation. The emphasis on relationship and community
participation (koinonia) in Network Church resonates with what the church of
God is called to be and do. This is important to recognise.
In the earlier reflection on the vine we noted that for a branch to produce fruit
they need to remain in connection with the Vine. Practically speaking, network
church and the wider Church of England need not only to remain in
connection with the Vine, but they need to take note of the small degrees of
separation there is between themselves also. Mission-Shaped Church
highlights the importance of the connection that comes about through bishops.
‘The role of bishop as leader in mission is crucial to these developments.’137 It
is therefore, vitally important that the bishops, network church and the wider
church are able to trust, respect and be in communion with each other, that is,
stay in connection with each other. Archbishop Rowan referred to bishops
needing to be sounding boards for those involved in fresh expressions of
church. He described the connection talked about here as being genuinely
Anglican.138
136
Lings, New Canterbury Tales p. 24 The Network Churches I have researched are nearly all growing numerically which is positive. It remains to be seen whether Network Church can totally buck the trend of national church decline. 137
Mission-Shaped Church p. 135 138
Interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams
33
The discipline of rigorous theological reflection is one of the ways a Network
Church could remain in connection with the Vine, the wider church and other
networks within society and therefore, be fruitful in the years to come.
Research
In chapter two we see how over the last 100 years or so society has
reconfigured itself. The church has not. An area in which continuous academic
research is needed to continue the growth and development of Network
Church is social sciences. Chapter two of this work is only useful to the
furtherance of the reconfiguration of the church, if the research is realistic and
up-to-date. The need for a continual reassessment of the world around us
through thorough research is essential. John Stott uses the illustration of a
pair of scissors to show how evangelism and social action can work together
in the mission of God. A pair of scissors illustrates well the way that the social
sciences and theology need to work together in God’s mission too. For the
branches (disciples) of the Vine (Jesus) to produce fruit, they respond to the
environment around them. They are planted in the world, while remaining
firmly connected to the Vine too. This is hard; as it will involve sacrifice of
some of the ways we are familiar with. It is fundamental to realise that if we
want to participate in God’s mission to his world, there is no option though.
Koinonia and inculturation or contextualization is needed.
Resources
In chapter one, we mentioned how the issue of resources for fresh
expressions of church was discussed at General Synod. A vision for the future
of the Church of England was put before the synod, the Mission Shaped-
Church report.139 The synod warmly accepted the report and the Pastoral
Measure review, which provided legal resources for the loosening up of the
law surrounding these new developments. A proposal about financial
resources was also discussed, but it was sent back to the Church
Commissioners to be reworked. Since synod I have not heard anymore about
139
Lings and Hopkins agree with this in Lings, G. and Hopkins, B., Encounters on the Edge No. 22: Mission-Shaped Church: The Inside and Outside View (Sheffield: Church Army, 2004) p. 24
34
this proposed pot of money. If Network Church and the other fresh
expressions that Mission Shaped-Church talks about are to be fruitful these
financial resources need to be released quickly.
Alongside the discussions at Synod Archbishop Rowan was firmly putting his
all behind the vision of Mission Shaped-Church, by talking to the Lambeth
Partners140 about an initiative to encourage new mission developments in
church life. This new initiative, Fresh Expressions,141 has Steven Croft at its
helm. It is to be a research and resource body for the wider church in its
reflection on the way forward. This I hope is one of the resources that will help
to bring about a reconfigured church.
The training of leaders for Network Churches is essential. ‘We are going to
have to look for people who have got some … entrepreneurial skills and are
capable of taking some initiatives and some risks. And that means that
training has to look at itself.’142 Lings and Hopkins talk of the need for
entrepreneurial leaders.143 Over the last few years the mission organisation
CMS has also started to focus on the need for entrepreneurial leaders. The
need for good leadership and training was highlighted in Mission-Shaped
Church;144 point eleven of the recommendations for taking its vision forward
referred to the selection of candidates for ministry. At a seminar, which
Graham Cray was taking about Mission-Shaped Church, he mentioned
discussions that were going on with Ministry Division about the creation of a
new Diocesan Director of Ordinands network for pioneer leaders and church
planters.145 This is greatly encouraging for those who feel called to ministry,
but not necessarily the inherited form of ministry. This will help the furtherance
of the vision to see a reconfigured church.
140
The Lambeth Partners are the group that provided financial support for the previous Archbishop of Canterbury’s evangelism initiative, Springboard. 141
www.fresh-expressions.org.uk 142
Interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams 143
Lings and Hopkins, Mission-Shaped Church: The Inside and Outside View p. 25-26 144
Mission-Shaped Church p. 147 145
Taken from a seminar by Bishop Graham Cray at New Wine Leaders Conference, May 2004.
35
Reconfigure
‘At present, we stand at a watershed in the life of the Church of England… we have to ask whether we are capable of moving towards a more ‘mixed economy’ - recognising church where it appears and having the willingness and skill to work with it.’146
Archbishop Rowan speaks here of a reconfiguring of the system that could
help the Church of England as a whole move forward. I believe Network
Church has much to teach us about our church’s future. Whether we are a
Church that focuses on small groups, Seeker services, young adults, a parish,
business links, or another interest, it doesn’t matter. The important point is that
we allow the lessons Network Church teach us to become true for the whole
church. That is, we allow the renewal of relationship being at the centre of our
church. Network Church could be used by God to reconfigure the system, if
we allow that to happen..?
146
Taken from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s address to General Synod, July 2003.
36
An Appendix
A Transcript of an Interview with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Rowan Williams with Regard to – Reconfiguring
the System: A Sociological and Theological Enquiry into the
Emergence of Network Church within the Church of England.
This interview took place on 13th February 2004 in the York Room,
Church House, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3NZ.
Nick: As you’ve just read I’ve given you the title of the area of study, I just have a few questions the first is, in the foreword to Mission-Shaped Church you spoke of being poised for serious growth and renewal and we’re at a watershed you said, you felt and in your speech on Tuesday you spoke of the Church of England being at a Kairos moment in its history, why do you think that we’re in such an important moment and why should we move forward in the ways that the Mission-Shaped Church report suggests Archbishop Rowan: I think this is really the first opportunity we had as a whole church of taking cognisance of what’s been going on in bits and pieces around the country and when you put all that together and you see the range of new initiatives going on I think it becomes very clear indeed that there is far more than we’ve ever noticed. When I was a bishop in Wales we had Bob and Mary Hopkins from the Church Planting Mission to visit the diocese and they told us that we had more than a dozen church plants and we didn’t really know or we hadn’t identified them as such. Now I think you can multiply that for the whole country in a way and that’s why I feel (a) there’s an awful lot going on (b) this is a very good moment for recognising what’s going on and (c) a very good moment then for asking ourselves so what do we do about it and I would really encourage it because this seems to be where the edge of the growth area is in many areas. Nick: That’s great, thank you. The Mission-Shaped Church report talks much about networks in society and network style of church, and network way of being, why do you think network church is such a important way of being the church for 21st century England? Archbishop Rowan: I think the church has always done its evangelistic work by trying to connect to the actual relationships people are in. Vincent Donovan’s book about the evangelism in East Africa brings that out doesn’t it? You work with the natural unit. If the natural unit isn’t just an area then you have to ask what is. And that’s I think where the network idea comes in. The shadow side of it that has to be tackled as well is church is also about meeting the people you don’t naturally belong with and spending time with the people
37
you don’t particularly like or find congenial and just as in the old days with the conversion of a tribe, the point sooner or later came when you had to make Christian relations with the next door tribe so will network I think. You must keep a very, very clear eye out for signs of this becoming a kind of clique of people of the same age, same culture. Nick: That was mentioned in think? Archbishop Rowan: It was, and right enough I think. Nick: Do you think that network churches can be classed as Anglican when they are so different to what we know or our understanding in our culture as it has been the last X number of years as Anglican and why perhaps you could refer to your Anglican Identities? Archbishop Rowan: I think what counts as Anglican has always a bit more diverse than we suspect. We think now we know what it is because for a 100 odd years there’s been a fairly standard pattern but look a bit further back and it was different again. A couple of things to bear in mind. One is that very central to the enterprise has been this business of relating to a natural community and sometimes that’s still a crude rationalism but at best this is the Church that slots in with the ordinary life of people so this is a new way of doing that and in that sense very traditionally Anglican. A new way of doing the very same thing. Secondly Anglican isn’t primarily one style of worship its the fact that we are a sacramental church, a reformed church with a particular kind of ministerial shape and I’ve seen how that can survive and flourish in very different, very new styles of church life. So I don’t lose too much sleep over that. Nick: So in terms of the shape of being in terms of the structure of service and things, do you think there are any issues there? Archbishop Rowan: I think there are a couple of challenges. There’s one about how important the Eucharist is going to be in new churches. Now some people’s experience suggests that actually people move towards wanting this after a while if they’re listening to their bibles after all they’ll pick up sooner or later that its quite important in the New Testament and that Jesus does say do this so perhaps we’d better do it. So again something to watch out for but it’s not just a kind of endless series of worship services without any particular focus. And then there’s the whole question which interests me a lot of the shape of ministries in new churches and the very considerable new, I wouldn’t say burdens, but opportunities, challenges, to bishop in keeping all these plugged into one community. Now that can be done, it means that bishops have to think quite a bit about what the appropriate kind of support reference panel, whatever is, for a new form of ministry and the bishops need to be willing to be involved in that group for mission, there as a sounding board sometimes. I found one of the most exciting things when I was a diocesan bishop in Wales was being a sounding board for 3 or 4 of these new initiatives and learning hugely from the experience. I think that’s Anglican. Nick: It’s the connectiveness.
38
Archbishop Rowan: Yes, it’s the connectiveness. Nick: I spent four weeks on placement last summer at the Net Church. Dave Male, the leader there, said he felt more Anglican than he ever had done because he felt there was such connectiveness and that, in terms of the support that he’s had, he’s found and received through the diocesan structures. Archbishop Rowan: Yes, this is where the more than local structure comes in isn’t it? And one of the groups I was involved in in Wales, the Wells Centre, Healing Centre, which eventually sponsored an order of people committed to healing, the leader of that, who had been in and out of a number of Pentecostal groups, really set it up as a fairly independent charismatic enterprise said to me a few years after he’d come back into the Anglican fold that he’d found the Anglican environment more supportive than any of the others he’d been in. Although he knew he was pushing against the culture in some ways the structures of support were there. Nick: A question that I was asked when I was going through selection was what do you hope the Church of England would look like in 10 years time if/how the church gets hold of the initiative before us? Archbishop Rowan: I’d like to see alongside the parochial base in every city, and in rural areas too, a number of different kinds of congregation springing up with perhaps every diocese having a group that took some oversight of these new enterprises made sure they were in touch with each other, kept them in the main stream. You need some kind of umbrella to keep an eye on that. I’d like also to see a situation where perhaps not everybody ordained would automatically be ordained to a parish, we’d be able to be a bit more flexible then that. Some people, frankly, are never going to be able to fit into the parish system as it is and it really shrinks them to go through that and, of course, when you’re ordained you’re ordained and in principle you ought to be able to go anywhere. But let’s be realistic, people have always been ordained to jobs as university teachers or school teachers, there isn’t absolutely fixed in stone the notion that unless your a curate there’s a whole range of questions then about professional ministry development which come in and something that was raised yesterday in Synod, is the curacy anyway the ideal form of preliminary training. There’s a lot to be said for it, you put somebody on the bench to watch the person next to them and that’s tremendous and its relational, it’s local. On the other hand people raise the question should people be ordained to a wider area than just one parish? They should be able to draw on the expertise of several people, should they be ordained to something outside the parish system. I think we have to look at that and I expect to see some change in that area, too. Nick: Talking about the training aspects and, again, you strongly mentioned that the other day in Synod, would you mind talking a little bit about that? Archbishop Rowan: I think the culture is still very strongly supportive of a rather solitary style of ordained ministry and training doesn’t always produce cooperative people, collaborative is the buzz word isn’t it? And try as people might it doesn’t always work out. We are going to have to look for people who
39
have got some, I don’t much like the word but let’s use it, entrepreneurial skills and are capable of taking some initiatives and some risks and that means that training has to look at itself in that light. As a matter of fact I believe very strongly in the old fashioned virtues of residential training, properly understood because you’re given the kind of time and space there the idea of which lets you grow as a human being, rather than just acquiring a set of little brownie badges by doing your modules and I find the most difficult problem ahead, as I see it, is how to combine that with the right sort of flexibility, how not to lose the personally deepening and stretching things about residential training without going back to a sort of sausage machine, if that’s what it was but I don’t know, I think the Hind report on training is going to open the door to a lot of thinking about that, it won’t be dull I suspect. Nick: If there’s one thing that excites you at the moment in terms of where we are in the Church of England what would that be? Archbishop Rowan: I think it’s simply the fact that all the bishops and the Synod seem ready to rise to this challenge. We all know the problems, we all know that in some areas and at some levels the numerical decline is a reality. Let’s not be silly about that. But here we’ve got a really carefully worked through vision. We’ve got some loosening up of the regulations and I don’t know what’s going to happen about the spending, we had a difficult discussion this week which I think took us off in a direction that might have actually undermined what we’ve tried to do. We’ve got a lot of thinking to do about that, no I am excited about the fact that Synod seems to be fired by this and …. Yes… Nick: In terms of the wider picture? Is that the thing? Archbishop Rowan: If you’ve got bishops motivated and you’ve got representatives of the church and decision-making bodies motivated you’ve got quite a lot going for you. I take it for granted that there are exciting things on the ground all over the place but I’m trying to focus on one thing and I’ve been surprised and delighted by how much this vision seems to have gathered people. Nick: I really appreciate your time, Archbishop. Thank you. Archbishop Rowan: Your very welcome, a pleasure, nice to meet you.
40
Bibliography
Books: Avis, P., The Anglican Understanding of the Church (London: SPCK, 2000) Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo, Linked: The New Science of Networks (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing, 2002) Barrett, C.K., The Gospel According to St John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (London: SPCK, 1978 2nd edition) Booker, M, and Ireland, M., Evangelism – Which Way Now? (London: Church House Publishing, 2003 Bosch, D, Transforming Mission (New York: Orbis, 1991) Bunting, Ian, (ed), Celebrating The Anglican Way (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1996) Carey, George, et al., Planting New Churches – Guidelines and Structures for Developing Tomorrow’s Churches (Guildford: Eagle, 1991) Carson, D.A., The Gospel According to John (Leicester: Apollos, 1991) Castells, M, The Rise of the Network Society (London: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2nd ed. 2000) Castells, M. and B. Catterall, The Making of the Network Society (London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2001) Chaney, D, Cultural Change and Everyday Life (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002) Church of England, Board of Mission, Breaking New Ground (London: Church House Publishing, 1994) Church of England, Board of Mission, Mission-Shaped Church (London: Church House Publishing, 2004) Cray, G., Youth Congregations and the Emerging Church (Cambridge: Grove Books Limited, 2002) Croft, S., Transforming Communities (London: DLT, 2002) Dijk, Jan van, The Network Society (London: Sage, 1999) Diocese and Pastoral Measure Working Group, Archbishop’s Council, A Measure for Measures: In Mission and Ministry (London: Church House Publishing, 2004) Donovan, V., Christianity Rediscovered (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1978, 1982)
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Drane, J., The MacDonaldization of the Church (London: DLT, 2000) Finney, J., Finding Faith Today (London: Bible Society, 1992) Frost, M. and A. Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003) Gibbs, E. and Coffey, I., Church Next: Quantum Changes in Christian Ministry (Leicester: IVP, 2001) Gonzalez, J.L., Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit (New York: Orbis Books, 2001) Gutierrez, G., A Theology of Liberation (London: SCM Press Ltd, 5th ed. 1981) Hardy, D, Finding the Church: The Dynamic Truth of Anglicanism (London: SCM Press, 2001) Hesselgrave, D. and E. Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models (Leicester: Apollos, 1989) Jackson, B., Hope for the Church (London: Church House Publishing, 2002) James. L, C. Wilhoit and T. Longman III (ed.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Leicester: IVP, 1998) Lings, G. and Murray, S., Church Planting: Past, Present and Future (Cambridge: Grove Books Limited, 2003) Lings, G. and Hopkins, B., Encounters on the Edge No. 22: Mission-Shaped Church: The Inside and Outside View (Sheffield: Church Army, 2004) Lings, G., Encounters on the Edge No. 7: New Canterbury Tales (Sheffield: Church Army, 1999) Lings, G., Encounters on the Edge No.19: Net Gains (Sheffield: Church Army, 2003) Mills-Powell, Mark (ed), Setting the Church of England Free (Alresford: John Hunt Publishing Limited, 2003) Moltmann, J., The Source of Life (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1997) Morris, L., Reflections on the Gospel of John (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000) Moynagh, M., Changing World Changing Church (London: Monarch, 2001) Nazir-Ali, M., Shapes of the Church to Come (Eastbourne: Kingsway, 2001) Pearsall, J., (ed) The New Oxford Dictionary of English (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
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Putnam, Robert D. and Lewis M. Feldstein, Better Together (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003) Putnam, Robert D., Bowling Alone (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000) Roxburgh, A., The Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 1997) Sloyan, G., Interpretation: John (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988) Solle, D., Thinking about God: An Introduction to Theology London: SCM Press, 1990) Voute, Tricia, ‘Putting Up Roots’, Third Way, March 2004 Ward, P., Liquid Church (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2002) Warren, Robert, Building Missionary Congregations (London: Church House Publishing, 1995) Witherington, B., John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Forth Gospel (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1995) Yates, T., Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: CUP, 1994) Films: Hallstrom, Lasse, Chocolat (Miramax Films, 2000) Websites: www.bettertogether.org www.bowlingalone.com www.cofe.anglican.org www.fresh-expressions.org.uk www.home-online.org www.netchurch.org.uk www.oaktree.org.uk www.run.org.uk Interviews: Rev George Lings – December 2003 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams – February 2004 Rev Dave Male – February 2004 Rev Geoff Lanham – March 2004
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Rev Canon Martyn Percy – March 2004 A transcript of the interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury is included in the appendix. The other interviews are available for reference from the author by emailing [email protected] Informal interviews were held with Bishop Graham Cray, Rev Chris Neal, Rev Gordon Crowther, Michele McBride and Rev Matt Rees. These were not transcribed. Field Visits made: The Net Church, Huddersfield - September 2003. General Synod of the Church of England, London - February 2004. B1 Church, Birmingham - March 2004. A seminar by Rev Chris Neal re. Mission-Shaped Church - March 2004. A seminar by Bishop Graham Cray re. Mission-Shaped Church - May 2004. A seminar by Rev Dr Steven Croft re. A Mission-Shaped Church and the futures of Evangelism - June 2004. A seminar by Matt Rees re. hOME, Oxford - July 2004. Documents used: A copy of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Presidential Address to General Synod, July 2003. A paper written by Canon John Holmes after a Mission Visit to The Net Church, Huddersfield dated 01/09/03. A paper written by Rev Paul Dowling for a sabbatical project – ‘Fondant Church: Thawing the Church for Mission in the 21st Century’ dated August 2003. PowerPoint slides created by Bishop Graham Cray from a Network Church Conference at the Sheffield Centre.