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Convictions

Over the last five years I have been on a journey, exploring what it means to be church in the twenty-first century. This short book contains my conclusions. We are living in a time of immense change. As a Church we need to become more like Jesus. We need to live by the priorities of Jesus. We will only find the strength to change if we are deeply rooted in the life of Jesus. We are called to be Jesus’ people.

In one sense I have been on a journey for the whole of my life exploring what it means to be church. But this part of the journey began in 2004 when I was invited to set up and lead a new initiative called Fresh Expressions on behalf of the Archbishops and the Methodist Council. The role of Fresh Expressions is to encourage mission through new forms of church for our changing culture.

Almost immediately I began travelling across the country, listening to what is happening to the Church across Great Britain and beyond. I have covered tens of thousands of miles by rail and road and occasionally by air. I’ve listened to pioneers in Exeter and archdeacons in Newcastle. I’ve spoken with lay people in Carlisle and clergy in Canterbury and everything in between. I’ve spent time with high church folk and with low church, with Roman Catholics and Salvationists, with those who think we should abandon the idea of church altogether and with those who think we should go back to the way things were.

At the end of the first five years of Fresh Expressions, it is clear that the ideas in the Mission-shaped Church report are taking root in a deep way across the Church of England and the Methodist Church and in many other streams and traditions. There are now thousands of fresh expressions of church that are a blessing to their communities. The movement to establish fresh expressions of church seems to me to be a movement of God and part of the renewal of the Church in mission.

But the same question has stayed with me on the long miles on cross-country trains, on motorways, in coffee shops and airport lounges. Whether we are part of traditional congregations or fresh expressions: what does it mean to be church in the twenty-first century? What shapes our vision for life together today and tomorrow? What are we called to be and to do? And where will we find the strength to fulfil that calling? The questions seem to be exactly the same whether you are the dean of a great cathedral or a pioneer growing a fresh expression of church in a soft play centre.

After one trip to talk about fresh expressions of church to a conference in Germany, I came back late at night through Stansted Airport. I was pulled to one side by a customs officer and asked about my business. I explained as best I could that I was a clergyman, that I didn’t have a parish and that I worked for the Archbishop of Canterbury. The man looked increasingly sceptical. ‘Could you prove any of this?’ he asked. All I could produce was a scruffy copy of the email inviting me to the conference in Germany. The man pondered. Finally, he said: ‘I will let you into the country if you can name the Synoptic Gospels’. ‘Matthew, Mark and Luke’, I replied and was allowed to pass, wondering at the quality of education we give to our customs officers.

But as the journey continued I also realized more and more deeply that the customs man had pointed me to the answer to the questions I was asking about the Church. The Christian community finds its identity, its character, its calling and its strength from the person who is revealed in the Gospels: Jesus Christ.

The film Jerry Maguire (1996) begins with the lead character, writing a mission statement in the middle of the night. Maguire is a sports agent. For some years he has had a growing discontent with the way his business works to maximize profit at the expense of clients. The unhappiness builds, until one night at the company’s national conference he writes a short paper in 25 pages with the title: ‘The Things We Think But Do Not Say’. By morning there is a bound copy of this manifesto for the company in the pigeonhole of every one of his colleagues. It pleads for a return to the values of relationships and respecting people at the heart of the industry: less clients and therefore less profit. Maguire comes down the next morning to a round of applause from his colleagues. Two weeks later he is fired. The rest of the film tells the compelling story of his attempt to begin his own business again from these first principles.

This book is a kind of Jerry Maguire memo for the Church in the twenty-first century. It’s written with deep love and respect for the Church. It is written to explain and explore some very deep convictions about the Church in the present and the future.

1.	We are navigating through a time of great change and to navigate well we need to rediscover Jesus Christ as the compass and centre of the Church’s life.

2.	We need as a Church to reflect the character of Jesus to our society. But what does this mean? This is so vital we take two chapters to explore it.

3.	We are called as a Church to do what Jesus did: to build up the Christian community and to change the world. It is neither one nor the other but both.

4.	We will only have the strength to change ourselves or others if we are deeply rooted in Jesus. But how should that happen?

Although I am ordained, I am not writing primarily for ministers. I am hoping that this will be a book that any Christian will be able to read and talk about with friends. Although I am an Anglican, I am not writing only for other Anglicans. Here and there you will find some specific references to Anglican strengths or weaknesses but feel free to substitute your own. Although I am British, I am not writing only for the context in the United Kingdom. The Church is facing similar questions and dilemmas across much of Northern Europe and elsewhere in the world.

While I have been writing this book, God’s call has come to me to begin a new part of the adventure as Bishop of Sheffield. I suspect these convictions about the Church will be tested and stretched in new ways and that I have much still to learn as my own journey continues. May God’s grace be with you as you engage with these ideas and seek to follow the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. His call is the same to every person who reads this book and to every church: ‘Follow me’.

Steven Croft