Day of lectures will focus on “fresh expressions” of church
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11/10/09
Bishop Graham Cray, a leader in the missional church movement in the U.K., will be the speaker at this year’s Missiology Lectures, to take place Wednesday, November 11. Focusing on the topic “Fresh Expressions of the Church in a Changing World,” the lectures are hosted by Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies.
Bishop Cray’s first lecture, “Cross-Shaped Mission,” will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in Travis Auditorium. The second lecture, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. in Payton 101, will be on “Turning the Ocean Liner: Perspectives from the Fresh Expressions Movement in the U.K.”
The afternoon lecture will be followed by a panel discussion from 4:45 to 6:00 p.m., also in Payton 101, featuring Fuller faculty members Ryan Bolger, Mark Lau Branson, and Barry Taylor in addition to Bishop Cray.
Bishop Cray is team leader of the Fresh Expressions missional church initiative in the U.K. Facing the challenges of engaging in mission in a post-Christian context, Fresh Expressions encourages new forms of church, working with Christians from a variety of denominations and traditions in order to reach the unchurched and “de-churched.” Characterized by principles of listening, service, incarnational mission, and disciple making, the initiative has resulted in hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches.
Bishop Cray was consecrated in 2001 as the Bishop of Maidstone and the Bishop for Mission in the Diocese of Canterbury. Prior to this he was Principal of Ridley Hall in Cambridge, a Church of England theological college, and vicar of St. Michael-le-Belfrey in York. His special concerns are the engagement of the gospel with contemporary culture, youth ministry, and the theology of renewal. He has been chair of the Greenbelt Festival as well as the team that wrote the Mission Shaped Church report on church planting and fresh expressions of church.
Each year the School of Intercultural Studies hosts the Missiology Lectures to explore themes that are relevant to the cutting edge of missiology. For more information on Missiology Lectures, go here.