Twenty-one years ago, the Mission-Shaped Church Report (2004) sparked a quiet revolution. It recognised that the landscape of faith in Britain was changing – and that if the Church was to connect with emerging generations and cultures, it needed to rediscover its missionary DNA. The phrase “fresh expressions of church” was born to describe new Christian communities shaped by God and by the people and places they served.
From cafés and community gardens to skate parks and new monastic gatherings, fresh expressions began to appear everywhere. They were small, experimental, and rooted in everyday life – church for those who would never walk into a traditional building on a Sunday morning. The impact was remarkable. Within a decade, tens of thousands of people who had little or no previous church connection were encountering the gospel through these new forms of community.
A movement growing up
Two decades on, Fresh Expressions is no longer a new initiative – it’s a mature movement woven into the fabric of church life across the UK and beyond. What began as a prophetic call from the edge has now become part of the Church’s wider ecology. Denominations have developed pioneer pathways, dioceses have embedded mission-shaped training, and countless local congregations have learned that there is no single way to “be church.”
But the movement isn’t finished growing – it’s growing deeper. Richard Passmore, the new Partnerships and Development Lead for Fresh Expressions, describes this as a scale mindset: learning not only to scale out by multiplying new communities, or scale up by influencing church systems, but also to scale deep – to nurture the cultural and relational transformation that renews the Church from the outside in.
This kind of deep scaling comes through listening to the edges – something Fresh Expressions has always been committed to. When we listen again: to our neighbourhoods, to the margins, to those of every culture and generation who are already shaping the future of faith in our land, we are invited to imagine a church that reflects the full diversity of the Body of Christ. Our prayer is that we will increasingly become a movement where global majority heritage churches, Pentecostal networks, new migrant congregations, as well as the historic denominations, can all share in the same Spirit-led creativity.
A continuing invitation
What began in the UK has inspired movements across the world, each discovering their own contextual expressions of church. In April 2027, leaders and practitioners from across continents will gather in the UK for a European and Global Fresh Expressions Gathering, celebrating what God has been doing and discerning together where the Spirit is inviting us next.
At 21, Fresh Expressions stands as a sign of hope: proof that the Church can be both ancient and new, faithful and flexible, rooted and responsive. It reminds us that the gospel still finds fresh soil in every culture, and that the mission of God is endlessly creative.
Whether your expression of church meets in a cathedral or a café, in a village hall or on a Minecraft server, this is an invitation to keep experimenting, to keep listening, and to keep joining in with what God is doing.
Fresh Expressions is a Charity and Network in Association with Churches Together in England.
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Rev Simon Goddard, is Resourcing Lead for Fresh Expressions, a role which recently saw him adapting Mike Moynagh’s ‘Godsend’ book for use by children and young people as part of the Growing Faith Foundation’s Flourish pilot, which supports pupils to start new Christian communities in their schools.