West Bromwich Network Church

West Bromwich Network Church is a new church set up in January 2007 by Rev. Evan Cockshaw [ [http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=31792 Church Times: Appointments] ] , working on behalf of the Church of England's Lichfield Diocese, in partnership with West Bromwich & District YMCA and the Walter Stanley Trust.

The role of West Bromwich Network Church (WBNC) is to create new forms of church for the 20-30's generation across the deanery of West Bromwich. It has no pre-defined criteria, other than to reach out to an unconnected generation.

Fresh Expressions

West Bromwich Network Church is notable in that it is experimental and is the focus of considerable interest from within the Church of England and Methodist churches. In recent years the Anglican and Methodist churches across the whole of the UK have funded a new movement called Fresh Expressions.

It is no longer enough for the church simply to relate to people because of where they live (although we still need the parish system). The churches need to serve the whole of society. That means relating to networks as well as to areas. [ [http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk Fresh Expressions] ]

The Fresh Expression movement is about redefining church and the style of church. Across the country many hundreds of new communities are forming which would not be recognisable as church to the untrained eye, but they hold in common a Christian spirituality. Few of these Fresh Expressions can afford a permanent and paid staff member or a diocesan or national level of commitment, with most of them being small plants from established local churches.

West Bromwich Network Church is different in that the Diocese of Lichfield [" [http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/pressr/articles/2007/070104b.htm Church leaders welcome Black Country Missionary] " - Diocese of Lichfield, 4 January 2007] advertised nationally for a new Pioneer Leader and committed to a 7 year funding programme for the experimental work of West Bromwich Network Church. This places WBNC at the forefront of the Church of England's and Methodist Church's commitment to innovation and exploration of the Christian faith in 21st century UK.

Future Models of Church

West Bromwich Network Church is one of 4 Pioneer Leader posts created by Lichfield Diocese since 2004. The full title of these posts is generally "Pioneer Leader for new missional communities". The other three posts being in Stoke (Rev. Gordon Crowther), Telford (Mark Berry), and Wolverhampton (Rev. Richard Moy). Together these four posts are exploring new ways of being church in four different contexts over a sustained period, in order that sustainable communities of faith might be developed in each place, and so other churches can learn from their experiences.

It is expected that the success, or otherwise, of WBNC will be used to model other work across Lichfield Diocese and the rest of the UK in years to come. Therefore the work in West Bromwich is closely watched with interest.

Notably, Archdeacon Bob Jackson [ [http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/whoswho/ad_wals.htm Diocese of Lichfield: Who's Who - The Archdeacon of Walsall] ] , author of Hope for the Church [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0715155512 Amazon: Hope for the Church: Contemporary Strategies for Growth] ] and The Road to Growth [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0715140736 Amazon: The Road to Growth: Towards a Thriving Church] ] is the senior member of the management group directly overseeing the work of West Bromwich Network Church.

Launch & Criticism

The launch of WBNC has already raised considerable interest in the national Christian media [" [http://www.christiantoday.com/article/uk.church.leaders.welcome.new.missionary.appointment.to.black.country/9017.htm UK Church Leaders Welcome New Missionary Appointment to Black Country] " - Christian Today, January 8, 2007] [" [http://www.inspiremagazine.org.uk/news.aspx?action=view&id=734 Astrophysicist is pioneer missionary in West Bromwich] " - Inspire] , local media of the Black Country, as well as some critical comment from other streams of the church engaging in similar experimental church planting. Most notably, WBNC is not part of the Emergent Church stream, and has raised some criticism from emergent proponents for not being focussed enough on community and authentic Christianity. This is not really a fair comment as community building and relational faith are core components to WBNC's vision and strategy.

Cell Church

The model employed for WBNC is a cell church model with one or more centralised gatherings. The vision is to create a network of small groups meeting in homes, work places and social gathering points in which people share their faith and their lives together. These small groups will be resourced by one or more larger gatherings such as the All Age worship gathering at Guns Village School.

Affiliations

The church is affiliated to several wider network organisations for the sake of resourcing the ministry with other likeminded organisations. The affiliations include:

*Purpose Driven Ministries
*Willow Creek Association (Member Church)
*Fresh expressions (Registered Church)
* [http://www.run.org.uk/runhome.aspx Reaching the Unchurched Network] (RUN)

External links

* [http://www.wbnc.org.uk/ West Bromwich Network Church]
* [http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/ Lichfield Diocese]
* [http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk Fresh Expressions]
* [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/ Church of England]
* [http://www.purposedriven.com/ Purpose Driven Church]

References