St Frideswides goes to Wycliffe
You know when someone says something and you are stopped in your tracks. Yes, that experience.
I was at a Focus Morning on Church Planting and New Worshipping Communities for ordinands (people training for ordained ministry) at Wycliffe College, Oxford to give a presentation on the St Frideswides experience of being a resource church when I heard the quote below.
“Every church was planted once”
However, it was when this next quote was spoken that I found myself wishing Catherine had come along; because then I would have had someone to process with.
We’d both been invited however she had to give her apologies as she was required at a deanery chapter where the new Bishop of Buckingham would be meeting with the Milton Keynes deanery. And here’s the quote:
“Every congregation is exclusive by definition.”
So, I am blogging to reflect on this quote, as I feel it needs unpacking.
If a service meets at 9:15am on a Sunday, then by definition it is the 9:15am service and thus excludes everyone who is unable to come along at 9.15am on a Sunday. And you can play that out to infinity using each unique characteristic of the particular congregation under consideration.
Both these quotes offer justification for church planting or if you prefer the creation of new worshipping communities. To find out more you will need to read Mike’s book Church for every context. And for a different perspective you may want to consider Paas’s Church Planting in the secular West. I have listened to both authors; I can assure you of a stimulating read.
Picture of Mike Moynagh, Sarah Flashman and Ayo
Having been utterly blown away by Mike’s presentation and then having had my realm of possibilities expanded by Revd Sarah Flashman’s insider view of 5 years of the Oxford diocesan experience of growing new worshipping communities. I have to admit to being relieved there was a 15 minute coffee break ahead of my session - Being a Diocesan Resourcing Hub in an urban estate (An inside view of the ministry of St Frideswide’s, Water Eaton, in Milton Keynes).
I can assure you I was delighted when the students closed out my presentation with a warm round of applause.