The Call to Uncompromised Faithfulness: A Bedrock of Fresh Expressions

“How will that be sustainable?”

That was the first question most of my ministry colleagues asked early on when I shared the call and vision I believed God had placed in my heart for a community that would become a fresh expression of our faith - a new, unconventional Christian community of love and grace that is inclusive, accessible, transformative, and connectional. Fresh Expressions often gather somewhere in the community, outside the walls of the traditional church, and have an unconventional leadership structure and unique definitions of what constitutes worship (think yoga church, bar church, etc.).

I can admit that I expected my colleagues to challenge my particular vision of Dinner Church - a church that would share space with a co-working company and give away 80% of its tithes and offerings to restore its community - I knew it was a bit radical. However, the nature of their challenges and concerns did little to dissuade me from pursuing my vision. In fact, their arguments fueled my desire to plant such a community because none of the points my colleagues had anything to do with potential pitfalls around faithfulness or missional impact. What I heard instead were the often-touted criticisms of fresh expressions.

Statements like:

• potentially more short-term

• no one has done [that] before

• won’t grow quickly enough

• won’t generate enough revenue

• risky

• too hard

• won’t attract or appeal to typical church-goers (hear: tithers)

• unlikely to “succeed”

Here’s the thing about fresh expressions, though: the soil where fresh expressions typically germinate have little to do with inherited church goals of comfort, numerical growth, and generating large amounts of money. The fresh expressions soil is usually spiritually, locally, and organically curated. The fresh expressions soil is seeded with a deep passion for anti-church or church-hurt folks, a desire and calling to do something new and risky, a vision for diversity in call and shared leadership, and above all (for me anyway) a call to uncompromised faithfulness that prioritizes focused impact over and above numbers, money, and status.

In my case, I felt that I couldn’t continue to faithfully live out my own call to ministry while fighting the uphill battle of greed, consumerism, pride, and superficial community that the model of the inherited church tends to gravitate toward. It was far too soul-sucking. Please hear me. I didn’t say that building-based, inherited, or conventional church models are greedy, prideful, consumeristic, and have a superficial community. However, in my decades of ministry experience in the conventional church, the models or inherited ways of doing church can open the door wide for these pesky temptations. And one of the goals of an aware leader in such a context is to fight against these pro-culture but anti-gospel tendencies. Some leaders prayerfully put on their spiritual armor and do this well. Sadly, I’ve seen so many other leaders consistently fall prey to the temptations of greed, consumerism, pride, and superficiality. So with eyes wide open, I felt called to plant a fresh expression that diminished these temptations from the outset.

Some examples of these inherited ways are:

• The budget is spent mostly on internal preservation (buildings, staff, and overhead) rather than external impact (usually 89-90%)

• Worship is often set up like a theatre, with rows of spectators facing a stage

• Leadership and ministry are often pastor and staff heavy, rather than lay-heavy

• Most of the ministries are internal facing and designed for already-Christians, rather than external facing for following God into God’s restorative mission and justice out in the world

In planting a fresh expression in my context, the deep spiritual stirrings of my soul and convictions of my heart had to win out over my ministry reputation, financial security, and fear of “failure.” The energy and commitment in this season had to be unilaterally directed to one goal and one goal only: faithfulness.

Faithfulness to radical integrity over deception, which can be a consumerism-killer. No, I won’t tell people what they want to hear to try to grow a crowd. Instead, I must commit to costly truth-telling, regardless if it scares away people interested in superficiality. (see John 6:25-71, Matthew 27:22-23, Mark 15:13-14, Luke 23:21, John 19:6).

Faithfulness to community over concert, which can be a greed-killer and pride-killer. Don’t come here for the professionally demonstrated “excellence” in music, preaching, or production. Instead, to participate in this faith community is to practice growing in love through discussion, common service, and inviting authentic offerings of worship from all ages, abilities, and clergy/lay status (Acts 2:46, Ephesians 5:19, 1 Corinthians 14:26, Colossians 3:16, Mark 12:14, James 1:27, Matthew 9:13, Matthew 6:2).

Faithfulness to disciple-making over “fan-based first” approaches, which can be a superficiality-killer. Quality over quantity. Is it awkward to sit around a table and get to know others? That’s a great place for discipleship to happen. Is it uncomfortable to be transparent and wrestle with doubt and spiritual questions? That’s where genuine faith can develop. (John 12:33, Acts 5:29, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 28:19).

Jesus’s top priority in his own mission was faithfulness to the will of the Father.

Not crowd-pleasing, or fame, or wealth.

Faithfulness will also be the evaluation for God’s people who long to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant…come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25).

Fresh expressions are often lay-led and don’t require leadership to be seminary-educated. And I still don’t know how this journey into the unknown will play out for my faith community or for me professionally. But I chose to enter into the unknown of planting a fresh expression because of the deepest, most resonant value God put in my calling for this season: faithfulness at all costs.

The more fresh expressions practitioners I come to know, the more I see that faithfulness is part of the bedrock of fresh expressions.

About the Author:

Amie Martin is in awe of Jesus and hopes to encourage his body the Church to more faithfully reflect him in the world. She is an ordained elder in the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church and planting pastor of 80-Twenty United Methodist Church in O'Fallon, MO.