Show notes:
Fiona Barber shares her journey of building faith-filled communities in new housing developments. Discover how intentional relationships, community gatherings, and fresh expressions of worship are forming outside traditional church settings.
- Guest: Fiona Barber
- Episode host: Mark Robinson – fx Comms
- Join the discussion on our Facebook group
This is an automated transcript and may not be fully accurate.
00:00:25:05 – 00:00:29:12
Speaker 1
Fiona. Good morning, and welcome to the podcast.
00:00:29:14 – 00:00:31:02
Speaker 2
Good morning.
00:00:31:04 – 00:00:33:22
Speaker 1
How are you this fine, glorious day?
00:00:33:24 – 00:00:38:17
Speaker 2
I’m all right. Thank you. Looking forward to having a good chat about what we’re doing here.
00:00:38:19 – 00:00:58:09
Speaker 1
Indeed, indeed. Well, you know, why don’t we just get straight into it, as I often like to do, and tell us and tell us a little bit about where you are. And tell us a little bit about your community and would really love to hear about, how and why it started.
00:00:58:11 – 00:01:23:13
Speaker 2
So, I’m a, just to third year curate, in Derby. And I’ve been placed in my curiosity in a parish that has, a massive amount of new housing that’s being built, for 4500 homes will be added to our parish. And, by the end of my, well, in about ten years, I would imagine, way below my curiosity.
00:01:23:15 – 00:01:53:03
Speaker 2
So, there was I used the word vision for this, but it’s not really the right word, I suppose, because it was the idea of what could be. There is no vision because we can’t see what’s going to happen here. There was an intention of seeing how we could reach this new housing. And that’s something that a lot of parishes, a lot of people across the country are facing in the areas that they’re doing ministry.
00:01:53:05 – 00:02:21:18
Speaker 2
So we, but the diocese were brilliant. We proposal forward and they purchased a house in the new housing. And I think that’s key to our story. It’s not that I’m ordained. This is about anybody who wants to do it, wants to reach a community. The key to the story here is that I live here. So although everyone knows who I am, I am actually a neighbor first and foremost.
00:02:21:23 – 00:02:47:12
Speaker 2
And that’s been key to what’s happened here. So when I first moved in, I was one of the first of the first five houses in this part of the new housing that was already, one of about 130 houses opposite ours that had been built. And then a little bit further down the road, another 150 houses. So there was some formed communities already, and this was a forming community.
00:02:47:14 – 00:03:23:01
Speaker 2
So our stories, quite a specific, this loads of different ways of reaching and out to new housing. But this is quite specific in that I live here and it is just forming. And when I arrived, I discovered that, it’s a very multicultural, estate. And people have a real desire to build long, long. So I set out not really knowing what I was doing and just, you know, we talk about seeking and joining in with what’s God’s doing.
00:03:23:06 – 00:03:43:24
Speaker 2
And that really, really was a sense of that here. This is a very windy place. We noticed that because the fields at the moment, which sadly will be built on, but the wind comes off the fields, we hear it so often and it’s, it blows. Can Zebo around quite a bit as well. I just get a real sense of that.
00:03:43:24 – 00:03:53:06
Speaker 2
That’s the Holy Spirit that winds that. That just reminds me, on a daily basis, that God was here already and we literally are joining.
00:03:53:06 – 00:03:54:16
Speaker 1
In the home.
00:03:54:18 – 00:04:16:05
Speaker 2
It feels a bit uncomfortable being in a place where you have no idea what you’re doing, or where you’re going or what it’s going to look like, but just being led by where what God is doing already. And that has been I’ve been here 18 months now and and there’s a real sense of, of God leading us.
00:04:16:07 – 00:04:38:02
Speaker 1
I do I love that that that reminder of just wherever, wherever you go, wherever there are groups of people or. Yeah, wherever there are groups of people, community just forms around whatever it is. And it’s not that thing of us. I always think of that stuff of we’re made in the image and likeness of God, and we’re made to be in relationship with God.
00:04:38:04 – 00:04:57:09
Speaker 1
And so for me to be in relationship with God, we’re made to be in relationship with each other as well, obviously. And so our desire to be in relationship is what drives community. It’s a base thing, I think. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t want to be in community of some sort, even those of us who might be introverts.
00:04:57:11 – 00:05:08:08
Speaker 1
I still love community. I like to love my own love as well. But yeah, it’s not something of, yeah, the natural thing of just where we’re made to be in community. Right?
00:05:08:10 – 00:05:40:21
Speaker 2
Yeah, definitely. And so many people who have moved here, we’ve started sort of gathering people, to build intentionally, to build community. And so many people keep saying, I’ve lived in other places before, and I’ve not even known my neighbors names. And that maybe something to do with their character that, you know, they may be introverted, they may be shy, but here they’re feeling comfortable enough to come out and join with other neighbors for a cup of coffee and a cupcake under a gazebo.
00:05:40:23 – 00:05:56:19
Speaker 2
And just chat and get to know people. And there’s been a real, a real sense of desire to belong from people from all countries, all faiths, no faith. People just want to get to know each other. Belong.
00:05:56:21 – 00:05:57:16
Speaker 1
Well.
00:05:57:18 – 00:06:36:13
Speaker 2
We we start. I started, you know, to try and gather people, at Easter last year with, sort of meet your neighbor. So there were only 24 houses. However, 18 people came for a cup of coffee at our house, and I thought, yeah, this, this is this is something I mean, it was a massive risk to do this with no idea whether it would work, because we didn’t really know what we were doing with that, to just sort of test the water and start to see and having that the, the ability to just start off by building community and seeing where God went with that was a real gift.
00:06:36:15 – 00:06:58:04
Speaker 2
I think for me, having that intention, it takes the pressure off a bit. You’re building community, you’re a neighbor, and that sort of happens naturally anyway. But to do it intentionally, to be gathering people and encouraging people and keeping an eye out for like, you’re we use the language of gatekeepers, and, people of peace don’t wait.
00:06:58:06 – 00:07:20:06
Speaker 2
And that became very obvious very quickly here. There was a there’s a gentleman who is I refer to him now as a blue sky thinker. He has the big ideas. He was he wanted when we met that very first Easter, he said, why we get to have a summer street party? It’s going to be like Glastonbury. And I’m thinking, okay, we could do that.
00:07:20:08 – 00:07:59:06
Speaker 2
And then very quickly started to recognize those people that then say, oh, yeah, we could do this. We could do it down there, because that’s a safe space where the kids could run around and there’s no cars and and started to spot people who you can connect with and link in with and encourage. And I have found that they do look to me to, guide stuff and help stuff happen because they know what my role is local being one of the local, because priests, pastors, wherever they call me, all sorts of names, or polite, I will add, well, to my face anyway.
00:07:59:08 – 00:08:25:00
Speaker 2
But they’re doing this and we’ve had we had the street party. It was amazing. I’m sure actually everybody came. It was about 50 houses by that point. And I met people that I hadn’t connected with yet. And at the street party, there was a conversation about how can we keep connected and have conversations and like people say, could we could we set up a WhatsApp community group?
00:08:25:02 – 00:08:43:16
Speaker 2
And I knew nothing about that. I said, right, I’ll try and work out how that will work. And we’ve got that now. We’re up to over 100 houses now, and we’ve got this amazing, really active WhatsApp group. Sometimes there’s a lot of chat about cats, but it’s it’s a connection.
00:08:43:18 – 00:08:55:09
Speaker 1
People complain about parking because I know our, our local group is often 90% about someone’s parking or a strange bunch of youth trying to sell mops.
00:08:55:11 – 00:09:13:03
Speaker 2
That you just you do get that as well. You do get that as well. But it’s just that that sense of being alongside people. And it’s been really helpful for people at times when people have, have, have felt unnerved by something when there’s been someone around that they don’t know. And, so it’s it just connects people, doesn’t it?
00:09:13:05 – 00:09:41:17
Speaker 1
And I ask and, and I realize this might be a red herring, but it just, it’s struck me because it’s it’s new housing as opposed to sort of established a state ministry or even even like established villages and that kind of thing. How much do you think people are more open to community or less open to community because of the fact it’s it’s new housing and it’s a it’s a new estate.
00:09:41:21 – 00:09:46:21
Speaker 1
Does that does that play into that at all or not at all? Yeah.
00:09:46:23 – 00:10:08:19
Speaker 2
Yeah definitely. That’s that’s what we found. And we didn’t we hadn’t really thought that was a thing. And it’s definitely a thing. People have moved. Some have only moved from, from just, you know, within the parish really from Cinderford where we are. Some people have moved quite locally, some people have moved from the other side of Derby City.
00:10:08:21 – 00:10:36:21
Speaker 2
But we’ve also got, there’s a family who moved, directly from Nigeria, way and there’s a lot of people who have come from quite a long way away. But even though some know this community, all the relative local community already, it seems to be that when you move house, it’s a key thing in your life. And it’s a key time to reevaluate, what you’re doing, whether that be socially, whether that be work wise, just everything.
00:10:36:21 – 00:10:57:05
Speaker 2
It’s sort of like as if everything’s been thrown up in the air if you’ve ever moved house, you know. But that’s exactly how it feels because it’s all drop down. You’ve no idea where the thing is, but it seems to be this, this, mental position that you find yourself in a new place, a new thinking, new people.
00:10:57:07 – 00:11:21:03
Speaker 2
And I’m sure that that is key to this, the ministry that we’re doing here and the, the, the reaching out to this community, it’s because it’s brand new and people are really open to that building. And I’ve said it before that, that there’s this sense of wanting to belong here with these people and this place. What does it actually look like to live here?
00:11:21:05 – 00:11:22:03
Speaker 2
00:11:22:05 – 00:11:53:15
Speaker 1
That’s really exciting. I can I can imagine you’ve I can imagine you’re bubbling overseeing the potential of of what can happen and what might happen. And where the spirit might be blowing, like, actually, literally and figuratively and spiritually and let me ask then about, what’s again, I realized because you’ve said already that it’s this is very new and you’re still figuring out what it looks like and where it’s going.
00:11:53:17 – 00:12:25:24
Speaker 1
What is what does it currently look like? Well, tell me a little bit about what what sort of what day to day sort of you find yourself doing and what you’re the community that you’re seeing forming or the community of space loosely that you’re, you’re seeing forming. What does that look like? And, and sort of that bearing in mind again, context of our audience, people thinking about, some people be familiar with fresh expressions and that it can be anything but a lot of people who won’t be familiar and we’ll just think of it as being churches.
00:12:25:24 – 00:12:44:20
Speaker 1
Just the one thing of being in a big, old, dusty building with pews and so in that context, what does what does it look like? And have you got a vision as to where you, you think it might be going? Caveat it could be very different in, in six months time, a year’s time. But yeah. What do you think.
00:12:44:22 – 00:13:17:14
Speaker 2
So I think there’s there’s two aspects here. There’s the community which is a secular thing. It’s, it’s it’s the people that are in this place. Our intention here is to, to build, grow, encourage a new worship in community. And we have no idea what that will look like. And that is our intention to have no idea what it will look like to literally be led by what the reality is on the ground.
00:13:17:16 – 00:13:47:00
Speaker 2
And we had no idea timescales either. So it became apparent that community building in itself, as in building a community here, was was happening quite quickly going. And within that I was starting to meet people who were Christians that were moving onto the estate. And there’s always this when you’ve got this intention of a new worship community, you can’t help but start to imagine what it may look like.
00:13:47:02 – 00:14:23:12
Speaker 2
Well, we’re we’re limited by what we’ve experienced before. And as you said, you know, we have this, I grew up in a Christian family, so I have I’ve grown up going to church on a Sunday morning. That is my my understanding of church. So I’ve been really, really challenged to think differently about what church could be. So I sort of thought, let’s, let’s gather some of these Christians together, see if they’re willing to gather and just start to pray and talk and get to know each other and see where that leads.
00:14:23:14 – 00:14:43:13
Speaker 2
So I had a chat with one family. What actually started with, I had this bright idea of doing a lunch group because that’s very church isn’t that’s, you know, that might gather the Christians together. And I put it out in the WhatsApp and one family said, oh yeah, we’d love to do that. But because we’ve got small children will come, we’ll alternate each week.
00:14:43:15 – 00:15:00:12
Speaker 2
And the result was one came one way, one came the other, and that was it. So I said to them, I said, look, this isn’t really working, is it? It would let me have a rethink and I’ll come up with something else. If you have any ideas, you know, shout out. So I recognized initially that that had failed, but that’s fine.
00:15:00:14 – 00:15:17:00
Speaker 2
You we try things, it doesn’t work. That’s okay. And I thought, well, actually people, people like to gather over food. So such this family, would it work with you if you bought the boys and we had, you know, jacket potatoes we gathered and there’s a couple of other people that I know who are Christians on the estate.
00:15:17:06 – 00:15:35:17
Speaker 2
And I’m like, yeah, that would be brilliant. So I messaged her to chat with a few people and, the week of Easter. So the other end of lent, I gather those people together in my house for Jackie potatoes. They bought the toppings and there was 13 of us that gathered.
00:15:35:19 – 00:15:36:09
Speaker 1
It’s.
00:15:36:11 – 00:15:58:20
Speaker 2
Yeah, from the youngest was seven. The oldest was much older. And it was just it was Holy Week. It felt significant. And someone said to me, there’s 13 of you that feels, you know, that feels a bit significant, don’t you, that it’s number. Yeah. I, I wish I hadn’t worked with me at all. And it was really lovely.
00:15:58:20 – 00:16:23:09
Speaker 2
And we just ate together. We used to we used table talk as a conversational. So for those that don’t know table talk, it’s just two cards that you pick one off the pile. And it’s a question and it just starts conversation. And the was one for families. So the, the the two youngest who seven and ten, they were picking the cards off and they were hosting that bit for us.
00:16:23:09 – 00:16:47:24
Speaker 2
And we just it was just a way of getting to know each other better. And we decided that we’d do it the next month as well. Then, which we did, and we shared bread and wine, not in, official communion way. There were no special words. We all recognize what we were doing. And I think I just said, let’s do this to remember why are we gathering who aren’t?
00:16:48:01 – 00:17:09:24
Speaker 2
But one of the key things with that was, and I didn’t mention I forgot. How can I forget this? It’s a key thing. So just before we gathered that first time in Holy Week, it was meeting for a cup of coffee with to the ladies of the estate who are the doers of everything around her. And, I just happened to mention or some of us that are Christians are gathering next week for a just meal, Jackie potatoes.
00:17:09:24 – 00:17:32:00
Speaker 2
And we’re just going to explore what it means, maybe here to have a faith and maybe think about what it would be to gather as Christians. So I think that’s really exciting for me. And they said they looked at each other. Neither had any background in church, no faith. Well, they just noticed each other. And one of them said, can I come at the other one?
00:17:32:02 – 00:17:35:23
Speaker 2
Yeah, I’d be really interested. Actually, I can.
00:17:36:00 – 00:17:36:24
Speaker 1
It’s.
00:17:37:01 – 00:17:47:00
Speaker 2
It was just this it was just a throwaway comment for me. My my intention. My intention hadn’t been to encourage them to come with God’s intention had.
00:17:47:00 – 00:17:48:02
Speaker 1
Been to.
00:17:48:02 – 00:17:59:20
Speaker 2
Encourage them to come. And they’ve been to everyone. I think where we’re coming up for our fifth one, next week, where one of those ladies is hosting it this time.
00:17:59:22 – 00:18:25:03
Speaker 1
Amazing. It’s it’s really interesting the, the intentionality of, of sort of being open and seeing what happens. I think sometimes we can. Yeah, we can be quite rigorous. And sort of even even those of us who are, open to doing things creatively and we are still always influenced, like you were getting at where influenced by how we’re brought up and our traditions that we came up in.
00:18:25:05 – 00:18:57:04
Speaker 1
And so just letting the spirit do the spirit things and what happens, it’s it’s a common pattern, isn’t it? And so really, really lovely to hear the stuff that you were just like, oh, well, let’s see what if this happens and then that blows up and starts becoming this thing is, is it’s hugely exciting. Let me ask though, because I see one of the things and this wouldn’t be a surprise to you, but as you said, you’re you’re a third year curate, Church of England curate.
00:18:57:06 – 00:19:19:01
Speaker 1
And, you know, I, I resonate with that because my wife is also a third year, church we can curate and say that comes with all sorts of responsibilities, with the Church of England, and accountabilities and all the wonderful, beautiful structures that that come with parts of that training and, and all of that, how how do you manage?
00:19:19:01 – 00:19:39:22
Speaker 1
Because they’re at they’re within all the big denominations. There are expectations. And and also there’s, there’s you know, like, like I’ve said before, there’s sometimes, people don’t quite get it, you know, whether that’s those people who are in charge or that you’re accountable to or not. You know, sometimes it’s just people in the parish next door don’t get it.
00:19:39:24 – 00:19:55:12
Speaker 1
And how do you. How do you compute this stuff? How do you how do you translate what you’re doing as a ministry to to those people?
00:19:55:14 – 00:20:19:20
Speaker 2
Yeah. It doesn’t come as a surprise, that question, because it is that’s one of the massive challenges and what we’ve tried to do here is to begin to explore, I’m going to use the word model, but I don’t like the word model because there is no model here. We’re not creating something or looking into something that can be used somewhere else.
00:20:19:22 – 00:20:43:15
Speaker 2
It’s something that could potentially inspire people to do something along these lines or try it themselves. But we’ve we’ve been sort of working on a model because we’re Church of England. We are within a parish. We’re very lucky that this new housing is all within our parish boundary. And and for Church of England, that is, is, is makes life easier.
00:20:43:17 – 00:21:07:12
Speaker 2
It it it shouldn’t make any difference really whether you’re crossing parish boundaries. But it it does within the Church of England. So we’ve been working on what phrase people might have heard of mixed ecology. And so the, the inherited church or the church of this parish is the church that I am training with it. So I do a lot of stuff there as well.
00:21:07:14 – 00:21:43:11
Speaker 2
But we are a working on this mixed ecology of lots of different expressions of church that are different but are connected. So within this parish we have a worshiping community that gathers on a Sunday in a building, but we also have a worshiping community that gathers at different times of the week in a local residential care home. And we have our intention is to have a worshiping community that is gathering in different ways down here on the new housing, but we’re all connected.
00:21:43:13 – 00:22:02:12
Speaker 2
So that is that helps with, safeguarding. It helps with finance that the parish is financially supporting this at this stage. And that’s a decision that the, the, it’s an early piece of the church council. Agreed to support it financially.
00:22:02:14 – 00:22:03:15
Speaker 1
What does the LEP stand for?
00:22:03:21 – 00:22:33:13
Speaker 2
Sorry local ecumenical partnership. So we’re Anglican Methodist and you all say which is exciting because we have input from all those denominations as well. Yeah. So it helps with accountability. It helps with prayer support and, and all that. But that’s the the way we are seeing how, a fresh expression of church can be supported, held accountable.
00:22:33:15 – 00:22:50:15
Speaker 2
And have safeguarding support as well surrounding it. But in this mixed ecology, within this, within this area, which just happens because on Church of England to be a parish. So we’re all connected in. But it all looks so very different.
00:22:50:17 – 00:23:05:14
Speaker 1
Tell me you’ve spoken a little bit about challenges. What what other, if anything, we may have covered in the. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about the other challenges that you’ve, you’ve experienced.
00:23:05:16 – 00:23:41:02
Speaker 2
I mean, some of the challenges for me personally has been that thinking out of the box and, and changing my thinking about what church is and reading about that and helping myself to to understand a bit more about that, but also that, that feeling. There’s so many times when I feel like I’m doing nothing, I think I’m doing that listening part of of the fresh expression cycle that just just being here and we’re so wired for doing, we don’t give enough, enough, credit to the just being.
00:23:41:07 – 00:24:05:17
Speaker 2
So that personally was a massive challenge when I first started here. And I was banned from church as well on a Sunday. That was a challenge. So the vicar that I worked with said, yeah, you’re not allowed here on Sunday. Every other Sunday. And I literally sat here and thought, what do I do there? Got to church on a Sunday morning, but my entire life had what do I do?
00:24:05:19 – 00:24:16:09
Speaker 2
And, you know, I began prayer walking and just being, you know, going for a wander. So it’s it’s a personal challenge of our own to our own thinking.
00:24:16:11 – 00:24:17:05
Speaker 1
00:24:17:07 – 00:24:48:03
Speaker 2
But also as you, as you invert as well as the challenge of people not getting it. And there’s this, this gravitational pull back to the inherited mind. You still get people saying, but when will they come to church on Sunday? No, no, that’s not what this is about. Well, this is about people finding God where they are and that is accessible to them in the lives that they are leading.
00:24:48:06 – 00:24:57:06
Speaker 2
People that would never cross the threshold of a church because maybe of past experience or misconceptions.
00:24:57:08 – 00:24:57:21
Speaker 1
About.
00:24:57:21 – 00:25:05:08
Speaker 2
The number of times that people said to me here, and I take it as a compliment, oh, you’re not what we expected from a discussion.
00:25:05:10 – 00:25:08:00
Speaker 1
And yeah.
00:25:08:02 – 00:25:36:03
Speaker 2
And it’s, it’s that, you know, we’re we’re breaking down misconceptions. We’re breaking down barriers to people getting to hear God’s story just by being where they are, as opposed to asking them to come to be where we are and shaping it about around the way people are comfortable. Instead of saying, well, this is how we do it, this is how it’s done.
00:25:36:05 – 00:25:44:11
Speaker 2
But people, a lot of people sort of higher up in the hierarchy don’t don’t get that. You think, because how do you measure that? How on earth do you measure that?
00:25:44:13 – 00:26:04:23
Speaker 1
And, I think it’s it is worth mentioning because this is something that comes up time and time again, and especially for people who are pioneering in the Church of England. Right. And where and I think it’s part of the the fact that the Church of England is such, I was going to use the word ancient institution, but I guess it is.
00:26:05:00 – 00:26:26:00
Speaker 1
But I don’t mean that negatively because, yeah, I’ve, I’ve certainly grown to appreciate the Church of England and all of its systems and structures for some of the stuff that is really, really helpful. And the fact that it’s a network of communities in every single town and all that sort of stuff, that’s all that stuff’s incredible. But we know it’s the bigger the organization, the harder it is for a change to happen.
00:26:26:02 – 00:26:46:00
Speaker 1
And and that’s okay. And I think I’ve, I’ve sort of with, with people I speak to within the Church of England and even people with, with other, some of the other bigger denominations who struggled to get their head around this thing. And, and these ideas of doing it differently and not measuring in the same way. And when they ask those questions.
00:26:46:00 – 00:27:08:04
Speaker 1
But how do you measure I just saying, well, we don’t measure not in that way. But it’s, I think it’s trying to translate into this isn’t a threat to the status quo necessarily. I, I always like to quote, Sean Doherty from Trinity College, who, where, where my wife studied, who always had the phrase both.
00:27:08:04 – 00:27:32:00
Speaker 1
And, you know, it’s both the traditional forms of church and the established forms of church, and it’s giving space for these new things. Yeah, yeah. Because there’s new things will form the future of the church as well. And it might only be a flavor, but that’s okay. But in the context that you are in and other practitioners are in, it’s really important that those are not rogue entities of the church.
00:27:32:00 – 00:27:54:03
Speaker 1
They are really important parts of the church where people are being ministered to. And people who would not hear the story of the gospel are hearing. And that’s that’s really important, even if it’s one. Yeah, yeah. The. Yeah. Leaving the 99 for one. It’s it’s all part of that. Yeah. And tell me a little bit about because we’re running out of time here.
00:27:54:05 – 00:28:22:08
Speaker 1
Good time, good shots. Tell me again, in the context of pioneering again, I ask people, this, this, this as people, the same question. Pioneering tends to be a lonely place, because, again, most, most people are coming from an established denomination, but doing something different. And so sometimes there’s not necessarily the same support depending on what people are doing.
00:28:22:08 – 00:28:39:14
Speaker 1
Sometimes there’s lots of support. And so regardless of what little or abundant support you’re getting, how do you keep yourself? Well, in this space of being a pioneer and your own doing this stuff differently.
00:28:39:16 – 00:29:13:23
Speaker 2
That is that is one of the challenges. It can feel like a very lonely place to be. And I suppose our, model, that word I don’t like. Well, with being a mixed ecology, it is brilliant. In this, in this context, in that I’ve got the support of the church community within, within this locality. So to be connected in with, a worshiping community that is already established, is a real support, both spiritually and, you know, knowing that I’ve got my back in there praying for my little eyes.
00:29:14:00 – 00:29:31:23
Speaker 2
It’s brilliant. But I talk a different language to them and have to be careful how I present things, because I talk a different language. So I’ve found I’ve connected him with, Pioneer Networks, connected him with a mass, which is the Christian Mission Society.
00:29:32:00 – 00:29:33:11
Speaker 1
With no.
00:29:33:13 – 00:30:04:14
Speaker 2
Just to having that a sense of belonging for yourself, with people who think like you and are talking in the same way that speaks, but talk the same language. And I think that’s really important to be connected either locally with other pioneers. That’s not always the case that you’ve got many within the Church of England. There is, something called green House, which is a network work to support people who are working at new worshiping communities or fresh expressions.
00:30:04:16 – 00:30:27:01
Speaker 2
So that’s I found that really brilliant to be connected in with. So I’m meeting people locally who are working at completely different contexts, but trying to reach out to to people in a do church in a different way so that connect finding your people, find your tried to be there to support you. And I really, really commend people to do that because it is it can be lonely.
00:30:27:03 – 00:30:59:22
Speaker 1
Yeah. As we come into land because we’re nearly up with our time. My favorite question. Not my favorite question. A significant question, is we know people listening to this will be at different stages of considering what fresh expressions is to them. Some people will be where we talk. You referred to the fresh expressions journey before, but being at the listening stage, other people are at different stages and that some people will be able to do it again.
00:30:59:22 – 00:31:19:05
Speaker 1
Stage. And then indeed, there’s going to be some people who will be listening who like, be like, I’m not satisfied with how church works. And I think this might be for me, but I’ve no idea what I’m doing. Or they may have little nuggets of ideas to those people, which I realize is a great way. The people.
00:31:19:07 – 00:31:30:06
Speaker 1
What do you say to them and to inspire them to, to give it a go, do it again, crack on, keep on truckin. Whatever it might be.
00:31:30:08 – 00:31:58:23
Speaker 2
I’d say that if you feel God is calling you to either a particular context or to, explore a different way of doing church, obviously first pray, pray, pray, pray, pray in that context. So if it’s a particular context, prayer, walk that context. Find others. Talk to people, Christians that you know who who may also hold this this same interest as well.
00:31:59:00 – 00:32:30:12
Speaker 2
So find people that you could do this with. So it’s not so lonely who you can bounce ideas on. And, you know, just go for it. Because if it’s of God, God will. God’s there. Already. We are joining in with what God is already doing. So just go for it. It’s a risk. But if it flops, if it fails, that doesn’t matter because you’re exploring and just see where God leads you because it can be to amazing things.
00:32:30:14 – 00:32:40:03
Speaker 2
And we have no idea what comes next, so just go for it is what I’d say amazing?
00:32:40:05 – 00:33:07:18
Speaker 1
Fiona Barber, thank you so much. That has been brilliant. Some some wonderful nuggets for, I think for me to take away and I’m sure for others to take away. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for joining us. And, yeah, we the team of fresh refreshments will be praying for you. Praying that you. Yeah. Pray that you see what God’s doing and that you you keep in tune with that as, as clearly you already are.
00:33:07:20 – 00:33:10:06
Speaker 1
But yeah. Be blessed. Thanks for being on.
00:33:10:08 – 00:33:13:17
Speaker 2
Thank you so much, Mark. It’s been a real joy. Thank you.
00:33:13:19 – 00:33:16:04
Speaker 1
Awesome. Speak to you soon. Take care.
00:33:16:06 – 00:33:24:01
Speaker 2
Bye.
00:33:24:03 – 00:33:49:03
Speaker 1
If you want to catch up and find out more about Dave’s community, you can find them on Instagram at Soul Community S.A. If you want to connect with us, you can do so via our socials and through our main website. All of that is on Fresh Expressions or UK. And finally, if you’ve been inspired by what you’ve heard today but you’re unsure of where to start, godsend is our amazing tool kit for creating new Christian communities.
00:33:49:05 – 00:33:57:03
Speaker 1
There’s loads of practical advice and real life stories. It’s a brilliant starting point to visit godsend Dot cloud. Take care.