Fresh Expressions is an organisation that encourages new forms of Church for a fast changing world, working with Christians from a variety of denominations and traditions. The initiative has resulted in hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches. The national Fresh Expressions website contains lots of stories and information about these exciting new congregations. Visit www.freshexpressions.org.uk.

Here in the Diocese of Rochester we want to encourage every church to be open to the idea of a “Mixed Economy” where Fresh Expressions of Church and “inherited” ways of being Church are valued. The department of Mission & Unity is supporting Fresh Expressions through:

mission shaped ministry (Further info: download document here)

The mission shaped ministry training course is a one-year learning journey in a supportive community to help participants understand what is involved in growing and leading a new church. It starts in September each year with a Saturday when we cover 3 modules. It carries on with one evening a month from October to March. There is a weekend away in April when we cover 6 modules, another Saturday in May and one evening meeting in each of June and July. The cost is £250 per person, which covers all materials, refreshments and the weekend away in April.

mission shaped intro - A short course over five or six evenings to give participants a flavour of Fresh Expressions and to become familiar with the content of the Mission Shaped Church report. For further details please contact the Rev Canon Jean Kerr, Diocesan Director of Mission and Community Engagement, by phone 01634 844508 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Support Networks
A fresh expression will be aiming to reach people who would not normally come to our established forms of worship. As people in the Diocese begin to reach out they find all sorts of challenges, so we have formed a number of support networks:

Messy Church - All-age, creative, hospitable, and Christ-centred. Over 600 have started in the UK. For more information visit www.messychurch.org.uk. We have a Messy Church Support Network in the Diocese of Rochester. These “Messy Meet-ups” enable us to bring our stories and share our expertise. It is particularly helpful for those who are just starting out to hear from those who have been going for a little while. The “Messy Meet-ups” are open to all Messy Church leaders and helpers. For further details please contact the Rev Canon Jean Kerr, Diocesan Director of Mission and Community Engagement, by phone 01634 844508 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Café Church - The café culture has become well established in Britain in recent years. Some café churches have been started in high street coffee shops and some churches have café style worship services to reach people who are not really comfortable with the formality of conventional church services. A number of café churches have started in Costa Coffee shops and there is a national café church network which provides training and information about running a café church in a Costa Coffee shop.  For more information visit www.cafechurch.net. If you want to be included on our diocesan café church mailing list please contact the Rev Canon Jean Kerr, Diocesan Director of Mission and Community Engagement, by phone 01634 844508 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Emerging Church & Pioneer Ministry
As other Fresh Expressions begin to emerge in the Diocese we want to support their growth to maturity. We hope to hold a gathering of those involved in innovative outreach later in the year. If you want to be included on the emerging church mailing list please contact the Rev Canon Jean Kerr, Diocesan Director of Mission and Community Engagement, by phone 01634 844508 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For more information about Pioneer Ministry have a look at this short video from Fresh Expressions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UZNnJlyubQ

Please contact the Rev Canon Jean Kerr if you wish to discuss ideas for Pioneer ministry.

Small Group/Cell Church Training
Most growing churches have outward-looking small groups at the heart of their organisation. In the mission shaped church report published in 2004 cell groups were featured as a new way of reaching the unreached people of England (www.chpublishing.co.uk). Cell UK (www.celluk.org.uk) and ACPI (www.acpi.org.uk) have been providing training for about 15 years now and provide a variety of resources to help churches that want to be more “mission shaped” through mission-minded small groups. For a fuller explanation of cell church visit www.acpi.org.uk.