Fresh Expressions Connects with the Unchurched
Once a month in Casper, Wyoming, 15 people roll out yoga mats inside their homes and hop on Zoom for a session with YogaSoul. It’s a gathering for people who love yoga, appreciate sacred texts, and don’t attend church.
“We always start with a centering practice that could be both yogic and Christian,” said Jessika Girod, an aspirant to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church who coordinates YogaSoul and leads traditional worship at Christ Church in Douglas, Wyoming. “The stillness, the quietness. … There’s nothing you have to do or be. Just dwell in the presence of God.”
As the body loosens up, so does the spirit. Regulars at YogaSoul look forward to gathering in person as they used to before the COVID-19 pandemic. Then they’ll sit on their mats in a circle, have what Girod calls “an embodied experience,” and share in the Eucharist with a priest who practices yoga.
Come for the yoga, stay for the gospel. It’s a soft form of evangelism within an international movement called Fresh Expressions, which fosters Christian community among people who are unlikely to enter a steepled building on a Sunday morning.
“Fresh Expressions is the medicine that’s needed to make the church healthy and strong again in its mission,” said Jon Davis, an Episcopal priest, mission strategist, and trainer with Fresh Expressions US. “We thought the mission was to fill the pews with people, but that’s not the mission. The mission of the church is to fill people with God.” Read More
Image Credit: Matt Lake/Fresh Expressions USA
3 comments:
How far the language of Episcopalians has gone from Holy Scripture! Where in the New Testament did the Lord Jesus Christ ever command his followers to "fill people with God?" The phrase is obviously well-intentioned but it is meaningless. I am rather surprised to find this sort of article on the pages of "Anglicans Ablaze" and I wonder if the editor shares its sentiment.
Charles, I posted that article to give readers an idea of what is happening in the Episcopal Church of late and particularly the shape that Fresh Expressions initiative was taking in that denomination. I post articles on the Episcopal Church and the Fresh Expression initiative from time to time. It tickled me that you suggested that I might entertain similar opinions to the view expressed in the title of the piece. I post links to articles that I think Anglicans Ablaze readers might find informative. Because I post a link to an article does not mean that I share or endorse the views expressed in the article. I express my own views in the articles that I write. For readers who are not familiar with the Fresh Expressions initiative, which was launched in the United Kingdom in 2005, here is a link to a Wikipedia article on Fresh Expression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_expression. Here is also a link to Fresh Expressions UK’s explanation of the difference a ministry and a “fresh expression”: https://freshexpressionsus.org/2019/06/21/how-to-tell-the-difference-between-a-ministry-and-a-fresh-expression/. I leave readers to decide for themselves what they think of the approach and its usefulness in reaching and engaging the unchurched. I post links to articles on Christianity Explored, Alpha, micro-churches, the St. Thomas Mass, and other approaches to reaching and engaging the unchurched and the lightly churched. For readers who are unfamiliar with the St. Thomas Mass, here is a link to the Lutheran Forum’s explanation of the approach: https://www.lutheranforum.com/blog/the-st-thomas-mass. Before trying any approach, a church needs to study the population segment of the neighborhood or community, which it is targeting. This will give the church an idea of what might work with that population segment. There is not point in using an approach that creates barriers between ourselves and the people whom we are seeking to reach and engage. At the same time we want to make sure that whatever approach we use, we do not water down the gospel or essential Christian beliefs. Thank you, Charles, for brightening up my morning for me. I appreciate your comments because they stimulate my thinking.
I would add, Charles, that I don’t view the YogaSoul as a “church” from the point of view of Anglican Reformed ecclesiology articulated in the Articles of Religion of 1571. No gathering of believers. No preaching of the Word. No administration of the sacraments. No church discipline. I would regard it as a quasi-religious gathering. Yoga is not only a form of physical exercise, but it also is a Hindu spiritual practice. The adherents of a number of world religions practice the reading or reciting of sacred scripture, for example, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs. It is not a practice that is confined to Christians. The idea of “filling people with God” I am going to address in an article of my own. It is reminiscent of the Catholic view of infused sacramental grace. I am glad that you brought it up.
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