Why we must measure more than just ‘bums on seats’ in Fresh Expressions of Church

Since the movement began, Fresh Expressions of Church (FXCs) have received a variety of endorsements as well as criticism from christians and established church bodies in the United Kingdom. On the one hand it has been praised as a contemporary and highly impactful way to engage with local unchurched and dechurched communities. Whilst on the other hand it has been labelled as an “abandonment of stability for novelty and given liturgy for ‘choice’”, resulting in “banality and pastiche, as well as a frail and atomized subjectivity”.¹

However, as is all too common within church and Christian circles, these debates rely extensively on subjective criteria and vague and varying definitions of success. Here there is no clear definition, with measurable outcomes, as to what a successful or unsuccessful FXC might look like. Similarly, when evaluating whether these outcomes have been achieved, arguments resort to the subjective realms of philosophy and theology (as in Davidson and Millbank’s critique of Fresh Expressions),¹ or to high- level outputs, ‘bums on seats’, and anecdotes (as in Church Army’s ‘Evidence about fresh expressions of Church in the Church of England’ report in 2015).²

Whilst both types of evidence are valuable in their own right, they must be appreciated in combination with clear definitions of success, as well as clear robust impact evidence. This is what the Fruitfulness Framework, and this report, aim to do.

Fruitfulness framework

Based upon an extensive literature review, as well as several workshops with FXC practitioners, the Fruitfulness Framework is a new tool to help FXC leaders measure and improve the health and impact of their FXC Community. Instead of just counting ‘bums on seats’ the framework asks questions about five main dimensions of participants’ lives: their relationship with God, with self, with other FXC members, with their FXC’s vision, and with their local context.

Throughout 2021, in partnership with the Church of England, Eido Research piloted this framework with 19 FXCs and 218 community members across the country. The results, now available in this report, shed light on the true impact of FXC communities.

Table shows the five main dimensions of the Fruitfulness Framework

Lives transformed…

Initial results from this tool show that there is significant positive impact in the lives of FXC community members. This is true across the five main dimensions of the Fruitfulness Framework, as has been shown to occur in their relationship with God, with self, with their FXC community, with the FXC vision, and with their local context. Whilst this impact isn’t entirely explained through the participation with the FXC, there is substantial evidence to suggest that FXCs are the main causal mechanism by which this positive impact is occurring.

Example graph from the full Fruitfulness Framework report

Keys to success…

Results also start to shed light on the keys to creating this impact. Here data suggests that the best action an FXC can take to enable members to experience personal change is to ask them to serve in a way which recognises their particular gifts and skills. Individuals who felt that their FXC did this were more than double as likely to see personal change as those who did not.

Participants who felt that their FXC asked them to serve in a way which recognised their gifts and skills were twice as likely to see personal change as those who did not.

FXC members who felt their FXC had impacted their social lives were also more than twice as likely to have experienced personal change.
Participants who were new to church (i.e., who had never previously attended church, or who had not attended church in the last two years) saw the most change. These differences derived from the fact that respondents who had not previously attended church tended to give themselves lower scores for the period before they attended an FXC; their scores at the time of taking the survey were comparable to those of other respondents.
Participants who had previously attended church did scored 5-15 per cent higher on measures of spiritual disciplines, such as prayer and reading the Bible.
Younger congregation members were slightly more likely to experience change than older members. The group most likely to report personal change was respondents between the ages of 25 and 34.
Churches with a higher proportion of women were slightly more likely to see change across all their members than those with more even distributions. This is likely to be skewed by three or four churches with very high proportions of men or women.
Respondents from smaller churches reported more personal change. This was only a slight difference, but it suggests that larger churches may not always be at an advantage in helping members grow spiritually.

Conclusion

If FXCs are going to be able to stand up to criticisms of being based “on a defective methodology”,¹ there needs to be a robust definition of success as well as a system to capture and evaluate their impact.

The Fruitfulness Framework has in many ways started to achieve this goal. However, further research and use of the Fruitfulness Framework is recommended to continue to build upon these initial findings. Eido and the Church of England will be conducting this research in 2022.

For more information please click here.

To read the full Fruitfulness Framework report click here.

Eido Research exists to help Christian organisations measure and improve their impact. We do this through impact strategy workshops, impact evaluations, and needs assessments.