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Bulletin 101 Date : 19th Jun 2007
Great Expectations

Friends of ours had a new born baby the other day. I went up to them and said, “in five years time I expect this baby to be fully mature with GCSEs and A levels under his belt plus a degree and be ready to start his first job”. Well, this is of course untrue, but if it had been true, my friends would rightly have referred me to the psychiatric ward.

And yet, in the church, we sometimes foster unrealistic expectations when we set about new tasks, especially in terms of starting new forms of church. We can be fooled into thinking that if we set aside a group of enthusiastic people, give them a bit of money and somewhere to meet and a bit of training along the way, then a new church will emerge in a year or two and we can all pat ourselves on the back and move on to the next thing.

Let’s reflect upon history. According to Galatians 2:1 it was more than a decade after his Damascus Road experience that Paul was ready to embark on his first missionary journey. Since his conversion, he had been through a sharp learning curve and had become a prominent leader in a thriving gentile church (Antioch) before he was anything like equipped for mission. Even then we find from his letters that he continued to learn and develop theologically as he planted new churches. Today we are having to adjust to what it means to be a missionary style of church, here in the UK, in much the same way that Paul had to shake off his Jewish concept of faith and develop a Christ-centred vision of offering salvation to the whole world in Jesus’ name.

In Acts 19:10 we read that Paul spent two years at Ephesus alone building the foundations of a new church which started with just 12 men. We also know that another great apostle, John, became a leader of the Christian community in this area and that his gospel emerged from this community. Despite all of this high-profile leadership, in Revelation 2:1-7 we find that the church was still lacking.

Many of the Fresh Expressions of Church which have developed in the UK over the past 20 years have taken years to mature. It may take as long as 3 to 5 years for the DNA of a new church to be clearly understood. During those early years its leaders will have been on a sharp learning curve and no doubt some will have left, and arguments may have occurred (Acts 15:37-40) but through it all, the Spirit of God is patiently bringing to birth a new form of church.

I know of new forms of church in the UK which, after over a decade of faithful service and pioneering missionary zeal, still attract no more than 50 people. To some this may seem like a poor ‘return on investment’ but others who know the context in which the church is growing may take the opposite view.

In the Fresh Expressions of Church movement, one of our most important gifts is patience. If we expect too much too soon, not only will we create a sense of failure and disappointment but we are in danger of destroying the confidence of those who have so faithfully nurtured the new venture. In these days when the general trend for established churches is to lose members, anyone who is brave enough to start a new church will immediately be expected to buck the trend and succeed where others are failing.

The late, great Methodist preacher, Dr. Sangster was once asked, “how long does it take to prepare a sermon?” His reply was “twenty years”. The puzzled questioner looked in amazement and then the great preacher continued, “… because it takes twenty years to prepare a preacher”. I rest my case.