Sunday 18 April 2010

Welcome

Welcome to the new blog from LICC’s Imagine team.

A Quick Recap…
For those of you who are not familiar with the Imagine project, we are part of the
London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). The project began in 2003 with the publication of Imagine: How we can reach the UK by Mark Greene which argued for the recovery of whole-life disciplemaking as key to reaching the UK with the gospel: equipping the people of God to live with a vision of the Lordship of Christ that impacts every area of life as they engage day by day, in different contexts, schools, homes, daycentres, offices…

Since then the work of the Imagine project has led to two pilot projects, working with churches across the UK, exploring the ways in which churches can equip their people to engage fruitfully and faithfully in life as disciples of Jesus.

Why Are We Here?
Our intention in this space is to provide a context for exploring the wider dimensions of whole-life discipleship and engagement with others exploring similar territory. We hope to focus on seven areas in particular:

1) The Biblical and Theological Impetus for whole-life discipleship.
2) Missional Ecclesiology – how communities can support the growth of missional whole-life disciples.
3) The 10-110 Relationship – understanding and strengthening the relationship between the church gathered and scattered.
4) The Art of Culture Shift – the process by which communities transition to becoming whole-life embracing.
5) Leadership and the Disciplemaking Task – the implications for leadership in the whole-life disciplemaking church.
6) Life on the Frontline – engaging with life in the 110, at home, work and in leisure and exploring the implications for disciples of Jesus.
7) The dynamics of Growth and Maturity – exploration of the factors that contribute to or hinder growth.

Along the way, we also hope to use this blog as a context for sharing the stories of how people are growing as missionary disciples, examples of creative thinking from churches, and to draw attention to resources, books, articles and examples of good practice that we come across.

Meet the Team
The Brains, the Brawn and the Beauty who will be contributing to the blog…although there has been much disagreement as to who is who:

Neil Hudson is Imagine Project Director and facilitated the initial Imagine pilot project. He also continues to co-lead a church in Salford. At present he is busying himself producing a report on the Imagine project for publication at the end of 2010, since which he has offered other staff members cups of coffee on a more regular basis.

The charismatic Duracell bunny that is Chick Yuill leads our work in the North-West Pilot Project which commenced in 2009. He has spent 35 years in full-time church ministry and is well known to many as a speaker and writer.

Ben Care
, who glories in the title of Imagine Project Facilitator, is involved in research, project evaluation and exploring the dynamics of change at a congregational level. He also smugly contents himself with being the only team member who can operate a PC...most days.

We hope you will accompany us on this journey and contribute your thoughts and ideas and that you will draw our attention to people and resources that we may not know about, so please do comment.

For more information about the project visit the Imagine area of the LICC website.

No comments: