Pioneer ministry is about connecting with people who are outside of church, and developing new ways to help them explore the Christian faith. In the Diocese of Leicester we believe that there’s no “one size fits all” way of doing Christian community, and encourage our pioneer ministers to be innovative and imaginative. Some of our pioneer communities become what are known as Fresh Expressions of Church.
The closest thing to an official definition of a Fresh Expression of Church is: “fresh expressions are new forms of church that emerge within contemporary culture and engage primarily with those who don’t go to church.”
They can take all kinds of shapes and sizes, ranging from the now reasonably familiar “Messy Church” to café churches, outdoorsy churches, alternative worship communities and more.
There are, however, some characteristics which all fresh expressions share:
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Fresh Expressions are fresh: They’re new, pioneering and innovative and are a response to their context. They rarely look like “church” as most people imagine church.
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Fresh Expressions are there for those who “don’t go to church”: The motivation for fresh expressions is that they seek to engage with those who are either un-churched or de-churched and to introduce them to Christian community and to God’s love.
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Fresh Expressions are church: they’re viewed as church by those who attend and belong.
You can read more about vocations to pioneering on the Church of England Website.