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Questions...

I was contacted yesterday by Rev Gareth Edwards, a Methodist Minister in the West Somerset Circuit. He came across us through the Fresh Expressions directory and wanted to ask some questions for his doctoral research. I thought I'd post my reply here to see if you all agree with me!

How is your ‘fresh expression’ authentically church - or even Methodist?
 
Whether we are a church or not is being discussed at the moment... In the sense that we are a community of believers meeting regularly to support each other, then I would say that we are. Part of the idea of SofaChurch was to strip away as much of the churchiness of church as possible to make it accessible to anyone regardless of their prior experience. Most of our regulars do also attend a ‘normal’ church and see SofaChurch as a valuable add-on, rather like the original Methodist movement was an add on to Anglicanism. We don’t try and cover every aspect that you would expect from a normal church.

However, we do have a few people who are a part of SofaChurch who don’t attend a regular church for various reasons. For them SofaChurch is all the church they get!

We are always open to SofaChurch developing into a full church over time. As the (mainly elderly) congregations in our normal circuit churches dwindle, maybe SofaChurch will become increasingly central.

As for its Methodist credentials, we are nicely ecumenical at the moment. We have people coming from a range of churches within our Methodist circuit, as well as Anglicans and Pentecostals.

We do have several core values of the Methodist movement; we are a grassroots, small community looking to develop each others’ faith. We have a strong social justice emphasis and we are very inclusive. We discuss quite complicated theological issues, using reason along with Biblical understanding, experience and tradition. We have informal links with and the support of the local circuit, and hence the connexion. We don’t sing, however! This is mainly to make it as accessible to ‘outsiders’ as possible. I remember that when I first attended church at university I hated the singing in services. On one level it was such an unusual thing to do, without parallels in secular culture. Also, I didn’t know any of the songs, which made me feel like an outsider. It was assumed that everyone knew this large body of songs, and it took a year or so for me to get to know enough.


In what way (if any) is it ‘Mission’?

We see ourselves well placed to meet the needs of three groups who are not currently met well by regular church.

We have set up SofaChurch to be accessible to people without much church background; there are very few of the normal trappings or rituals. We aim to have a very comfortable atmosphere; coffee shop crossed with a lounge. Our discussions and activities are designed to not require any previous theological knowledge, just a questioning mind.

A second target group is those who have become disillusioned with normal church, for whatever reason. We aim to cut away the baggage often present in larger established churches, and people have found this refreshing. One of our regulars had the idea of an ‘Omega course’ - a partner to Alpha, for people near the end of their journey with God who are thinking of ditching their faith. We hope that SofaChurch can meet the needs of these people, and it does seem to be doing so.

Finally, we aim SofaChurch at people in their twenties to forties, an age range that is largely missing from our normal churches. Hopefully, having a strong group of people meeting together will attract more.


I’d love to hear anything else you are able to share about the background and thinking behind your ‘fresh expression’.

My wife and I were originally part of the charismatic movement. As our faiths matured we found ourselves questioning more and more of the theology of the church. However, we did like being amongst lots of young people in these churches. In 2006 our Pentecostal church leaders asked us to leave their church; we disagreed over the infallability of scripture we and may have been seen as a threat.

We then had to find a new church and thought we’d try the small Methodist church in our village. Neither of us knew anything at all about Methodism, and when I researched the beliefs and values I became so excited; it seemed to match my own priorities so well, particularly the social justice angle and the use of reason in addition to scripture. When we started attending the church the people were incredibly welcoming. However, the services were quite old fashioned.

One of our ministers talked to us about his plan for starting a coffee shop in the town centre and wondered if my wife and I would help with the design and planning. It turned out to be a bit too ambitious at the time, however, mainly in terms of staffing. It would also carry quite a lot of financial risk.

I then had the idea for a lower-risk venture. Inspired by a church in America called Solomon’s Porch we had the idea of converting an under-used room at church, decorating it and filling it with sofas and art. and creating a cool space for informal worship. We realised that we could do this relatively cheaply (£1000) and quickly. We thought that it would be better to get stuck in and have a go rather than waiting for a more ambitious plan that might never happen. Also, if we did decide to do something in separate premises later on we would have some experience and a potential congregation to start off with.

We got permission and funding, and two months later we were up and running! We attracted a good group of like-minded people and more have joined since.

The SofaChurch model would be very easy to reproduce elsewhere. Lots of churches seem to have a back room with ropey decor that could be renovated. We are currently thinking about starting a second SofaChurch in another part of Crewe.

Is SofaChurch a church?

One of the definitions I heard of a Fresh Expression was something that had the"potential to become a mature expression of church"

We'll discuss this together hopefully on April 17th, but in the meantime I'd like to hear your views on this.

Is SofaChurch currently operating as church?
In what ways is it / isn't it?
If it isn't a church, should it be?

The Constantinian Fall

When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity around 300AD he ended the persecution of Christians, built churches and made it the state religion.

However, some believers refer this moment as the fall of the church, implying that it all went wrong from this point.

Constantine baptised his soldiers, making them march through a river. But he made them hold their sword hand out of the water, so that their fighting ability would not be compromised. He used the cross as a military embem. Whereas Jesus always emphasised peace and non-violence, Constantine used Christianity to back his military campaigns. This led to the formation of the ‘just war’ theory, the crusades and the inquisitions.

He strengthened the religious structures, constructing grand buildings and establishing the dominance of the clergy. All things that Jesus spoke against.

Before his conversion he followed the ‘sun god’ Apollo. He tried to fuse this belief with his new belief in Jesus to try and unite the Christians with the ‘pagans’. He moved the day of rest from the ‘Lord’s day’ to the day of the sun - Sunday. He fixed the date of Easter around the movement of the sun, and endorsed the celebration of Christmas on December 25th, a festival of the sun god.

Apollo was often depicted with rays of light from his head, which we think is where the idea of halos comes from.

Constantine called and chaired a council of the most important bishops to try and unite their ideas. One product of this is the Nicene creed, which is still used as a central declaration of what we should believe to this day. It was designed to emphasise how Jesus was eternal and involved in creation, countering the contemporary ideas of Arius who held that Jesus was created by God.

However, the creed says nothing of Jesus life or teaching; it jumps straight from his birth to his death. Some say that Constantine deliberately tried to distort Christianity, de-emphasising the challenging parts of Jesus’ message that didn’t fit in well with his empire. To quote Rev Giles Fraser:

Nicene Christianity is the religion of Christmas and Easter, the celebration of a Jesus who is either too young or too much in agony to shock us with his revolutionary rhetoric. The adult Christ who calls his followers to renounce wealth, power and violence is passed over in favor of the gurgling baby and the screaming victim. As such, Nicene Christianity is easily conscripted into a religion of convenience, with believers worshipping a gagged and glorified savior who has nothing to say about how we use our money or whether or not we go to war. And from Constantine onwards, the radical Christ worshipped by the early church would be pushed to the margins of Christian history to be replaced with the infinitely more accommodating religion of the baby and the cross.

(full article here)

We had a go at writing our own additions to the Nicene creed to try and restore the balance. We bashed these out very quickly, so they may not be as polished as they might be, but here is what we came up with...

He lived a life in which he was tested in all ways, as we are, though he sinned not. In everything he chose rather to glorify God the Father in order to bring others to salvation.

He called people to follow him and spread the kingdom of God. He welcomed and healed all outcasts but criticised those who abused religious power.

He told people not to store up treasure on Earth.

Throughout his life he grew in grace and truth, and in favour with God and man.

He spoke of the love of the Father, love of each other, forgiveness, peace and the kingdom of God. He was pure and blameless in all he did.

Some of us thought that the creed was fine as it is, that we can find out about Jesus’ life from other ways including sermons. Others didn’t like the idea of summarising Jesus in a written creed at all.

Incidentally, in my research I came across this by theologian Jurgen Moltmann, who came up with this addition to the creed:

Baptized by John the Baptizer,

filled with the Holy Spirit 
to preach the Rule of God to the poor,

to heal the sick,

to receive those who have been cast out,

to revive Israel for the salvation of the nations,

and to have mercy upon all people.

So, do we need saving from the legacy of the Constantinian fall?

American Beauty

The film for this month on March 13th will be the sublime American Beauty.

All the issues and grittier aspects of humanity which aren't usually talked about 'in church' are there.

Nudity, drugs, prejudices, sexual fantasies, mid life crises, murder, adultery, consumerism, materialism, death, selfishness, masturbation, homophobia and homosexuality - all feature in a narrative which explores the meaning of existence in a society where finding meaning can be difficult.

This makes the film sound rather dark - but it is hugely uplifting, and for many a masterpiece. It is a great film, full of beauty and meaning in its exploration of the ugliness and meaningless which can form the flip side to life. Hugely recommended by many people.

"...but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst..."

Works of Art

The last SofaChurch of the month is something creative. To the left are three works of art created on the last craft session. Being relaxed and different is the intention and the practice, allowing people to be who they are. Isn't this what gatherings of Christians should be about?

Coming up.. The 'Constantinian Fall' and the Nicene Creed

We'll be discussing the effect on the Church of becoming the official state religion under the Roman Emperor Constantine in AD313. If you would like a primer, there is a relevant Radio 4 programme you can listen again to here, which should give some background, but which comes to a different conclusion than I do...

Kitty

Kaitlin Rose Fishburne arrived healthy, heavy (8lb9) and gorgeous at 8.05pm on Friday 29th February. Susie and Kitty are doing really well.

There are some more photos on my Flickr page