Hello!

Lickey Church sits in such a beautiful and privileged position within the city of Birmingham. We are looking at how we, as a church community, can take our ‘locational responsibilities’ more seriously. We are looking at a variety of different ways in which we can serve both our local community and the wider Birmingham community, with a particular focus on the Lickey Hills Country Park.

Ideas range from Prayer Orienteering on the Hills, and Art Exhibitions within the newly reordered church building, to becoming an Eco-congregation.

We are really keen for our projects to be ‘in conversation with the community’ so if you have any ideas on how we might serve you or would just like to keep in touch about this please contact us by clicking this link.

Click here to see blog entries here from Steve Squires, who is co-ordinating this work within Lickey Church. If you would like to be updated when there has been a new entry in this blog please click this link or follow the online instructions from blogspot.com.

These projects come primarily out of a heart to serve the community and to take seriously our responsibility to show the love of God in practical ways - we feel this best fits under the banner of fresh expressions of church and pioneer ministry. If you want to know more about that please read article below (which is taken from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.

[From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

'fresh expressions of church' are part of a new movement that attempts to make the Christian message relevant to people who are not already part of a church. They are seeking to redefine what it is to be church and create new ways of connecting with their communities around them. Fresh expressions tend to move away from traditional church formats, language and meeting places, but there is no one defining characteristic which is common to all, nor can there be. The 2007 statistical returns from the Church of England reveal that several tens of thousands of people are involved in fresh expressions of church in England.

fresh expressions of church have been created for, among others, skateboard and BMX culture in Essex, cafe culture in Kidsgrove, artists and creatives in London, university students in Southampton, Surfers in Cornwall, asian people in Birmingham & children in Portsmouth.

In September 2005 the Church of England and the Methodist Church recognised this movement by setting up an organisation, 'Fresh Expressions' (capitalised), to monitor and encourage fresh expressions in those denominations. Fresh Expressions has a core team of 15 people and is led by Archbishop's missioner, Revd. Dr. Steven Croft

'Fresh Expressions' (capitalised) is differentiated from 'fresh expressions' (lowercase). The capitalised version refers to the initiative. In lowercase 'fresh expressions' refers to a large number of new initiatives.

Fresh Expressions defines 'fresh expression' as:

    • "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."

Emerging or Fresh Expressions of Church There has been much discussion about whether Fresh Expressions are forms of Emerging Church or Emerging Churches are forms of Fresh Expressions. A growing concensus suggests that the more pioneering forms of Fresh Expressions, such as Sanctus 1 or Moot are Emerging Churches. However, those Fresh Expressions of Church that are mission-shaped but operate out of existing traditional churches tend to have traditional understandings of ecclesiology so are not forms of Emerging Church.

Critics of fresh expressions say that fresh expressions are just entertainment, that they lack what they consider essential aspects of church, such as sacraments, or proper church structures and that they pander to modern western culture.

These photos were taken on one of our early morning walks on the Lickey Hills