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The third tributary consists of fresh expressions of church. The term was first used in print in the Church of England’s 2004 report, Mission-shaped Church, which has been highly influential. The term deliberately echoes the Preface to the Declaration of Assent, which Church of England ministers make at their licensing and which states:

The Church of England . . . professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation.

The term ‘fresh expressions’, the report proposed, ‘suggests something new or enlivened is happening, but also suggests connection to history and the developing story of God’s work in the Church’ (Mission-shaped Church, 2004, p. 34).

Since the report’s publication, all manner of initiatives have described themselves as ‘fresh expressions’, including the redesign of a church notice board! So to draw some lines round the phrase, in 2006 the Fresh Expressions team – formed by the Church of England’s archbishops and the Methodist Church to encourage and support the development of fresh expressions of church in the UK – offered the following definition:

A fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church.

 It will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational

 mission and making disciples. It will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church and for its cultural context (Croft, 2008c, p. 10).

Since the report, fresh expressions of church have multiplied across a growing number of denominations, including the Church of Scotland, the Congregational Federation and the United Reformed Church, and overseas. New forms of church – many not calling themselves ‘fresh expressions’ – are emerging in Australia, New Zealand, North America, other parts of Europe and in some places in the global South.