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Publications

Church Army’s Research Unit

Church Army’s Research Unit has been researching mission and evangelism for over a quarter of a century. This page contains downloads and links to selected publications from over this period.

2017 to the present day

The Centenary Project SDF End of Project Evaluation and Ten Year Review (2025) – The Diocese of Sheffield’s Centenary Project was set up to support a ‘step-change’ in the diocese’s work with children, young people and families

Pioneering in Ireland (2025) – Learning from Church Army Centres of Mission in Ireland

Time use of part-time ministerial trainees at Theological Education Institutions within the Church of England (2024) – Commissioned by the Archbishops’ Council

Evaluating LEAD: Learning Resources for Growing Leaders (2024) – Evaluating Church Army’s LEAD course for leaders

Seeing the Shoots (2024) – A report for the Scottish Church Planters Network

Church Army Centres of Mission in 2023/24 (2024) – Key findings from the Recording the Journey research project on Church Army Centres of Mission during 2023/24

Evaluation of the Mission Areas and Resourcing Churches Programmes in the Diocese of Bristol (2023)

Church Army Centres of Mission in 2022/23 (2023) – Key findings from the Recording the Journey research project on Church Army Centres of Mission during 2022/23

Missional Youth Church Network Evaluation (2023) – This evaluation report reflects on MYCN’s first four years, reviews its impact and effectiveness, and considers its future development

Growing Leaders on Urban Estates (2023) – Identifying, resourcing and enabling people from urban estates to be relationally effective in leadership, mission and evangelism

Influencers (2022) – Church Army’s Research Unit contributed to this report on peer evangelism amongst young people in the UK

Listening with Love and Faith (2022) – Church Army’s Research Unit contributed to this evaluation of the Living in Love and Faith course

Paid Pioneers (2022) – From the margins to the mainstream?

Zoomed Out? (2022) – Church of England experiences of distanced church amidst COVID-19

The Centenary Project (2022) – Mid-term evaluation of the Diocese of Sheffield’s youth project

‘Good News for Young People?’ (2021) – Report on mission and ministry to children, youth and young families in the Diocese of St David’s, Church in Wales

Mission in a Pandemic (2021) – Church Army Centres of Mission April 2020 – March 2021

A Voyage of Discovery (2021) – Deepening discipleship in Messy Churches and beyond

Pioneering in Portsmouth (2021) – Pioneer ministry across the Diocese of Portsmouth

Pioneer Mission in New Communities (2021) – An evaluation for the Diocese of Oxford

Pioneering Pieces (2020) – An evaluation of the Church of Scotland’s pioneer pilot project

Mission Under Lockdown (2020) – A report on Church Army during the COVID-19 pandemic

God at Work (2019) – Fresh expressions of Church in the Diocese of Leicester

Playfully Serious (2019) – Investigating the effectiveness of Messy Church

A Bigger Difference (2018) – Social action and church growth in the Diocese of Liverpool

Strategic Review (2018) – Dioceses of Meath and Kildare

“Not as Difficult as You Think” (2017) – Mission with young adults

2016 – Fresh expressions of Church reports

The following reports were published in November 2016, and are the culmination of four years’ research into fxC in the Church of England. They provide a broad insight into how fresh expressions of Church develop, who attends them and how they can be sustained. Click the covers or titles to download PDFs of each.

The Day of Small Things – by George Lings

A large-scale analysis of over 1100 fxC surveyed across 21 dioceses of the Church of England.

Encountering the Day of Small Things – by George Lings

A 36-page summary version of The Day of Small Things.

Who’s there? – by Claire Dalpra and John Vivian

This compares responses on church background from 2000 attenders of Anglican fxC with 500 attenders of inherited Sunday congregations.

Sustaining Young Churches – by Andy Wier

This pilot study qualitatively examines how 12 case study fxCs have approached the challenge of sustainability.

What happens after research? – by Elspeth McGann

Is all this research useful? This report examines how 10 dioceses in the Church of England reacted to and practically utilised the investigations of Church Army’s Research Unit into fxC.

Seeing the bigger picture

A four-page leaflet summarising the above reports.

2014-2015 – Snapshots – Stories From the Edge

Snapshots – Stories From the Edge was a free downloadable bulletin, in PDF form, which was released two or three times a year in 2014 and 2015. Each issue was written by George Lings and told the story of a particular fresh expression of Church, or explored the thinking within the relatively young discipline of creating fresh expressions of Church.

Click on each title to download the issue

  1. Issue 1 (January 2014) – Exploring Holy Ground – this issue examines a community called Holy Ground that meets in Exeter Cathedral once a month using alternative worship, café church styles and extended meditation
  2. Snapshots Issue 1 update (December 2015) – Holy Ground has had a new baby
  3. Issue 2 (June 2014) – Surprises in a normal setting – a look at Fun-Key Church in Richmond, North Yorkshire, a monthly congregation that works for young and old, adults and children, with worship aided by craft, music, activities, prayer and fun
  4. Snapshots Issue 2 update (December 2015) – Depth at Fun-Key and diversity across St Mary’s
  5. Issue 3 (December 2014) – Church plants and fresh expressions of Church – how do these terms best relate? – George Lings argues the case that ‘church planting’ is a subset of ‘fresh expressions of Church’ rather than the other way round, and that an interpersonal way of describing church is better than a horticultural one
  6. Issue 4 (May 2015) – Welcoming the black sheep – this issue examines The Order of the Black Sheep in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a fresh expression of Church, with rock music and ‘heavy metal’ roots, which provides a safe haven for those who feel they don’t fit in traditional church or refuse to ‘dress up’ to attend it
  7. Issue 5 (June 2015) – Good practice in deploying and working with pioneer curates – co-written by Ali Dorey and George Lings, this issue gives some guidelines on how best to deploy and map the key relationships of Pioneer Curates and their Training Incumbents

1999-2012 – Encounters on the Edge

Encounters on the Edge was a series of quarterly booklets from Church Army’s Research Unit, exploring the wide range of church plants and fresh expressions to come out of the Anglican Church in recent years. It ran from 1999 to 2012, reaching a total of 56 issues.

The majority of the issues were based on case studies (most in the UK, but some international), reflecting on good practice, and including strategic and theological commentary. Other issues covered generic subjects related to fresh expressions of Church.

Click here to see all issues by theme and in order of release, including download links.