Imagine if these communities were our churches.
Imagine if we were these whole-life disciples.
Imagine it happening in your place.
We believe that these church communities can be formed.
We believe that is happening.
But we know that this will not happen by good intention or hopefulness alone. From our work on the initial Imagine Project to our on-going work with churches, we are convinced that the move towards whole-life disciplemaking begins when certain intentional steps are taken.
The process of change happens not with more activity, but with people embracing the prospect of God using them for his purposes on their frontlines, the places where they already spend most of their time.
If this happens, the role of the gathered church becomes clearer. We come together as God's missional people to reflect on what God has been doing, to worship the God who is at work and to encourage one another to play our part in this.
We will realise that the real action is already happening on the frontline. We may engage in specific mission and service together, but this will never be at the expense of realising that our primary calling is to make a difference where we find ourselves most of the time.
These frontlines matter deeply to God. They may seem 'ordinary' but they offer extraordinary potential for discipleship, for engaging with God in his world, for the sake of his world.
This is a vision that stems from our understanding of the gospel. If we have a vision of the gospel that is too narrow or too small, then we will never be able to understand that the whole of life matters to God. We will all to easily fall into the trap of the sacred-secular divide.
Imagine began as a pilot project with a few churches around the country to discover a process that could be used by other churches wanting to become whole-life disciplemaking communities. Since then we have worked with churches from across the country, across many of the Christian traditions and we've seen churches change and individuals flourish.
The lessons we have learnt and the encouragement we have experienced has informed the Imagine Signposts and Next Steps part of this website.
If this is your first introduction to Imagine, you might like to read more about the project as a whole and the research around which it was shaped:
- Imagine Unpacked - the development of the Imagine Project 2003-2010
- Apprentice '09
- What the People Said
- What the Leaders Said
Or, explore the Imagine Signposts.
