The day surpassed all my expectations – I knew it was going to be good when we bumped into Bishop Graham Cray (who is an ex curate of St Marks Gillingham) on the tube who then led us, though the rain, to St Barnabas, Kensington. Could he have been sent as a guide from above!? Graham chaired the group which produced the report ‘Mission Shaped Church’ that this conference was based around. Buy the report (I did yesterday and its hard to put down). You can read the first chpter here.

I met up with friends again – Jonny Baker, Jean Kerr, Sue Barter and Leesa Barton from Epping Forrest YFC, who I was able to go for coffee with afterwards and discuss the world issues and put them right. She is a cool friend that’s into Star Wars but sadly is leaving YFC at the end of July to make that leap into church leadership as Director of Mission. She is going to be so cool in this role and I look forward to more coffee discussions in the future. (Thanks Leesa for the chat!)

The day was exciting as I had hoped, but maybe not for the reasons I had thought they might be. Essentially, what was being said from the front and in groups was not very different from what some, in emerging church, YFC and others, have been saying or suggesting for a little while. In the context of the 10th Anglican church planting conference, however, these comments take on fresh significance.

I was mesmorised by what Archbishop Rowan had to say – his style of delivery was spot on and if anyone in the CofE has any doubt whatsoever about this man’s faith then they need to go hear him speak. The centrality of the gospel to this man’s life was obvious just by his presence.

Some things that I would like to pull out from what he actually said that got a resounding YES from me included: (I could write pages here but I have been very disciplined)

We need to be asking harder what church actually is. What was distinctive in those early beginnings when the people who were developing ‘church’ did not know what ‘church’ was.

Church is what happens when the living Jesus is there. It is an event, a place or a network where Jesus is being encountered in a fresh way.

Church is not an institution or a program, it starts with relationship.

We need to look at our structures and ask, ‘do they allow this fresh encounter with Jesus to happen, and keep happening?’

There is a need for graciousness so that we listen to each other, so that we gain a larger picture of who God is and allow him to master more of us.

It is about accepting what is already happening and new expressions as equal. It is not either/or but both – one size, or expression, does not fit all.

He then ended by saying we need to be more permissive and less prescriptive about how we do things.

As I said, none of that will be new to some of you. But this is exciting … these were not words from a YFC conference, these are not words from network discussion lists, these are not words from a group of friends in the pub … these are words from the Archbishop of Canterbury. That excites me because that gives permission for churches to experiment, to look to what they can do to connect with their communities and so be incarnational rather than feel the need to stick to programs.

This is one of the Archbishops priorities and we need to be praying for him so that red tape and other stuff does not deflect him from this task that he sees as vital.

Two final things that excited me particularly this day:

Graham Cray closed by saying ‘In my 34 years of Christian ministry, I am having to run to keep up with what God is doing in the church of England.’ Let the weight of that comment settle a while and then tell me God is not at work in this country!

Cindy Daul from Ignite in Harrow told us of a powerful dance ministry that she has developed. When talking at the start of the Day, however, she said ‘I’m not in this just to convert; I’m in it to be community.’ I wanted to jump up then and say ‘AMEN! YES! SPOT ON!’ But, hey, I am an Anglican at heart after all!