Welcome to the Share Community
- an online gathering place where people who are pioneering (or just interested in) new forms of church can rub shoulders with and support each other.You can write blogs, start or join a 'Group' or a discussion 'Forum', invite users to be your 'Friend', use the 'What's new' box to write how you're feeling, share files and photos, or read what others are saying.
To take part, follow these three simple steps:
- Register - The registration page can be found here. If you are already registered with the main Share website, you will still need to register separately with the Share Community, but feel free to use the same username and password. You will need to confirm your account request by responding to an email sent after your initial registration. You will subsequently receive a further email confirming your account has been activated. You will also receive periodic emails telling you of new activity on the community.
- Profile page - Select 'My Account' in the menu bar at the top of the page, then 'Profile', then 'Edit Profile'. Here you can update your profile details, and upload a photo ('avatar') of yourself, if you've not already done so.
- Explore and interact - On the top right-hand side of the page you will see links to different parts of the Share Community. You can see blogs that people have written and groups or forums that users have started. Feel free to respond to these, or set up your own. Remember to invite people to become 'Friends'.
If you have any questions, contact the administrator, Andrew Wooding, at: andrew.wooding@freshexpressions.org.uk
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Dave Roberts and Julienne Jones are now friends 2 weeks, 5 days ago · View
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cathi williams posted an update: 2 weeks, 6 days ago · View
Very confused at the mo – clicked on a couple of blogs that look interesting but there is nothing there, just a title. I’d like to get into some conversations but not finding the place for it. I don’t think i am just being thick – i use a couple of other forums and don’t find them this confusing. Do I have to be someone’s friend to view their blog – is that the issue? If so how on earth are we going to converse with like minded people that we haven’t actually met?
Hello Cathi,
Brilliant question. The fact is that the Share Community is just a few weeks old. A number of blogs have been started by Community Members which as yet have no blog entries in them. If you start a blog or discussion yourself, I promise to reply!
Andrew
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cathi williams joined the group How is the Share Community for you? 2 weeks, 6 days ago · View
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Andrew Dunlop posted an update: 3 weeks, 3 days ago · View
Anyone read the book ”Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church” by Angela Shier-Jones. Any thoughts?
I have. I wrote a review on Amazon which is quite critical and perhaps a bit harsh. There is another review there which is more positive. Take your pick.
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Andrew Dunlop posted an update: 3 weeks, 4 days ago · View
New pioneer minister in northampton on new-build estates. Eager for advice and wisdom. My blog is at http://pioneerminister.wordpress.com
Hello, I’m in Milton Keynes so not far away. We have plans to do similar here, a pioneer minister in the Eastern expansion area. Not quite sure what the timescale is on it tho, not recruiting yet.
might be worth you tracking down Penny Joyce, who led a church plant on a new estate in Oxfordshire under the ’Cutting Edge’ initiative from that diocese. There’s a report by the Diocese on the project at http://www.oxford.anglican.org/mission-and-evangelism/fresh-expressions-of-church/ and I think Penny’s email is pennyre.joyce@btinternet.com . She’s been very helpful to use in Yeovil looking at mission to new estates. She was paid by the church to be a Christian community development worker in a new estate of 1000 houses, and her approach seems to have worked very well.
Thanks David. I knew her a little a few years back when I was in Oxford, and we’ve been in contact since. (She’s one the reasons I took this job!). I hadn’t read the report of her time in Witney so thanks for the link.
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Andrew Dunlop became a registered member 3 weeks, 4 days ago · View
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Beth Keith posted an update: 3 weeks, 4 days ago · View
New Monasticism consultation
Led by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of Rutba House, author of “New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church” and other books.
Come and join Jonathan and leaders of UK-based missional communities to hear Jonathan share about what he’s seen happening in North America, hear from each other what’s happening in UK and explore ways our communities can learn from each other, spending some time discerning together what the shape of new monasticism in UK may look like. We’ll also eat, sing, and pray together.
’I’m feeling like this gathering could have a similar spirit to the one we convened for US communities here in 2004, out of which the ”12 Marks of New Monasticism” came’ – Jonathan
Date: Tues 31st August
Time: 11am-4pm but welcome to stay around longer to continue the conversations and have a curry together
Venue: St John’s church, Church Avenue, Southall, London, UB2 4DH
5-10 mins walk from Southall Railway Station, which is 15 mins from both London Paddington and Heathrow Airport on the Heathrow Connect line
Lunch and refreshments provided (contributions welcome)Local accommodation available overnight if needed.
For further information and to register, contact Helen Sidebotham, uk@servantsasia.org, 07811 939686 and see http://www.jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com
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Nick Armstrong posted an update in the group Rural Fresh Expressions: 1 month ago · View
Often in a village there is ambivalent attitude to church building: lots of attachment to having it there, and even coming in it on certain terms, but as much barrier to traditional church worship for many as in urbs. Of course this has potential to avoid common FX challenges of (a) linking with existing church community and (b) getting existing believers to catch vision of mission-shape. Thus our ’Twenty20Twenty’ monthly FX (posted yesterday on Community) is replacing main service, and seems to be working for us.
Any other stories of working out this compromise? -
Nick Armstrong posted an update: 1 month ago · View
Yes… Twenty20Twenty, a monthly Sunday morning service.
As David Muir suggests, it is basically 3 parts of an hour. But some key values are of greater interest. First is starting with 20-minutes breakfast (self-serve nice coffee, tea, bacon rolls, croissant etc) which means starting in common language which levels all into non-religious but very Welcoming boat. Then call to Worship usually by children (in song) and we urge people to front half of church, for time of worship led from front with very little liturgy (or screen). Then options explained, for third (or Word) section – taking place around church building and house next door: including a talk; a quiet reflective zone with written bits on theme or laptop with slideshow etc; a creative zone a bit like Messy Church making or drawing with some thematic input; and a discussion zone next door, to which often unchurched men seem to gravitate. Finally 5 minutes back together with song and notices and more tea/coffee after. Two things very noticable: one is how different worship is after we’ve started with breakfast and inclusive table-chat; other is how often I’ve been wrong in assuming someone ’trad’ and/or bereaved visiting won’t like it – and they really do. Of course it’s quite demanding on resources, and Alison and I did loads for first few months, but people soon found fellowship in preparing and moving pews/tables together (hurrah for Gopak!). Actually there’s an alternative worship activity in part2 – washing up! – which for one or two fringe people seems to be exactly where they want to be: you never can guess where people will find their safe entry routes.
We’d love to know of others doing something like this in rural setting: Alveley is bigger village (nearly 2000 people) but with only about 40-60 on Sunday morning. Now next village Quatt (200 people) have joined us for it monthly too. Would it work for group or smaller villages? Well, so much hinges on relationship and willingness to venture beyond the border and taste and see…
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Christian Selvaratnam became a registered member 1 month ago · View
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Nick Armstrong joined the group Rural Fresh Expressions 1 month ago · View
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Nick Armstrong posted an update: 1 month ago · View
Hi… We look after two Shropshire CofE parishes (13 years so far), and are on 3-month sabbatical following up interest in Fresh Expressions & Renewal work of the Holy Spirit. Over recent years we’ve been seeking to apply FE principles under the Holy Spirit to a village church, and have run something called Twenty20Twenty for the last 2 years. While it IS on a Sunday morning and it DOES still involve ’come’ (rather than ’go’), it’s certainly not cricket…
We’d love to hear of fresh and different expressions of ministry of the Holy Spirit among children & All-Age settings especially in a rural context.Hi Nick. Good to have you in the Share rural FX network. My guess is that Twenty20Twenty lasts for an hour but split into three sections, but then it’s probably more profound than that…
In my experience, the concepts of ’fresh expressions’ and ’renewal’ are working on different tracks. In fact I think the FX movement is a result of the failure of the ’renewal’ movement to do much more than retain or re-recruit people with a churched background. That’s valuable, of course, but charismatic approaches tend to be driven by listening in to God (within our own frameworks of thought) and then taking that to people, rather than listening in to people (trying to get into their frameworks of thought) and then taking that to God.
Have you looked at the rural section of the Share website? I would be interested in your comments from your perspective. My ’top 10 rural tips’ are on there, amongst other things.
David
Thanks – nicely put about listening to God/people… and yes my sabbatical arose from personal spiritual/ministry journey and growing sense of unease at having to choose one of those over the other. I have seen examples of fresh and mission-focussed charismatic approach (as I’m sure you have!) and feel determined to bring these together. So often it’s the 2nd-hand & 3rd-hand followers in a movement who lose the plot which was grasped very clearly by the pioneers – but movement’s image and popular influence is (as you note) left with a corrupt version. Hey – there’s story of church I suppose! It’s been interesting amid now books to re-read some old stuff from Wimber and David Watson’s bigraphy to see this. I’m very taken with Susan Hope’s book (Mission-Shaped Spirituality) and approach. Thanks for pointer to Rural page I’d not found and 10 tips. We’ve found point about not being trapped by geography absotutely vital, especially for Young People.Yes, projects do lose the plot. But another way of saying it is that the pioneers who grasped it very clearly did not communicate it nearly clearly enough to those who joined it. Or rather, they didn’t share WHY things are done the way they are, so the followers just keeping doing the HOW even when the situation and context changes (as it will).
And yes, I also like Susan Hope’s book. I find that changing the way people pray and worship is the hardest thing, but it is vital as it shapes what they really believe. People love the idea of cafe church, but still want to stand up round their tables and sing Shine Jesus Shine. Finding suitable forms of spirituality that most farmers will actually want to be part of (in addition to attending traditional church at festivals and baptisms etc.) is a key challenge for rural church, I think. The demise of ’weekly public worship’ in rural areas is huge, despite the warm feeling towards the church from farming families.
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Nick Armstrong became a registered member 1 month ago · View
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Nina Spelman became a registered member 1 month ago · View
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Beth Keith posted an update: 1 month, 1 week ago · View
have just posted a write up of a conversation between pioneers working in new housing areas, http://www.sharetheguide.org/perspectives/topics
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H A Bud Tillinghast became a registered member 1 month, 1 week ago · View
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laul posted an update in the group Online fresh expressions : 1 month, 1 week ago · View
The Sheffield Centre’s 6 monthly research bulletin is almost ready – just a final check before its released. It’ll be available by e-mail or on our website http://www.churcharmy.org.uk/ms/sc/sfc_researchbulletin.aspx
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Marilyn Ann posted an update in the group Online fresh expressions : 1 month, 1 week ago · View
Explanation, I have deleted a post I made a little while ago about belonging to online prayer groups. Other members of the group felt I had compromised their privacy. I didn’t seem to be able to edit it so I deleted it.
Basically, there is a whole raft of free discussion forum, blog and chat room software available in the internet. Anyone with very basic computer skills can set these up and have them as public or private as desired. Just google.
The software lends itself to a variety of online prayer types and bible study. Our experience is that it works very well. We are a group with members from different time zones and most of us have never met in real life. We meet regularly for different types of prayer and bible study. Not just intercessory prayer.
sorry you had to do that, i hope you’re not put off using this site because of it.
Laul
No. It wasn’t the site’s fault!
Our group has a chat room where we meet for real time prayer and chat, and a private BB style forum where we share resources and talk about our spiritual journeys and faith matters.
How did you meet up in the first place? Are you all in the same country? What prompted you to start an online prayer group? Glad it’s working for you!
We met through Christian websites, and started praying together over the course of about 3 or 4 years. The current set up has evolved gradually.
We are not all in the same country.
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