What is a Pioneer Community?

Pioneer Learning Communities: Learning to start and lead fresh expressions of church

Are you a Pioneer?

Pioneers are missionary entrepreneurs who have the stirrings to go beyond existing church communities to engage in life and ministry with people, fostering fresh expressions of church that connect with those uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the inherited church.

Fresh Expressions Pioneer Communities are one-year, part-time learning communities designed to

• assist teams who want to launch fresh expressions of church,
• help pastors and lay-leaders create Fresh Expressions strategies for their communities and neighborhoods, and
• surround pioneers with a network of fellow sojourners and practitioners of missional ministry.

Over the course of approximately one year, Pioneer cohorts meet for two weekend retreats, a few half-day or evening sessions in their local area, and ongoing connection and support through coaching.

Teams and individuals discern and implement intentional steps toward developing fresh expressions of church appropriate to their unique contexts. Each participant is welcomed into an ongoing peer learning network upon completion of the learning community.

Using as a framework the Mission-Shaped Ministry curriculum first developed in the UK, Pioneer Learning Communities dig into the theological foundations of Fresh Expressions, the practices that lead to contextually appropriate ministry, attentiveness to authentic discipleship, tools for developing teams and leaders, and the steps to forming meaningful expressions of church within a particular mission context.

Virginia PLC Details

Dates

• Retreat 1: October 27-28, 2017
• Retreat 2: April 27-28, 2018

For more information contact Shannon Kiser, Director of Training, at shannon.kiser@freshexpressionsus.org or 804-601-4467.