Leaders

• Ask serious questions about how to apply preaching to the different settings that members of the congregation face each week.
• For worship leaders, think about how worship on Sunday connects to equipping people to worship in the whole of life. Remind people that the reason they come to worship is because it is to honour God, but also to equip them to offer their whole worship, their 24/7 worship, to God throughout the rest of the week.
• Visit church members in their workplaces to try and understand that context.

Meetings

• Introduce break out groups on a Sunday service or encourage after service conversation when people can discuss and pray about the implications of the sermon in their situations.
• Set up a small group of diverse members (retired, employed, student etc.) that meet for pre-sermon discussion each month to provide 'live' illustrations that can be called upon during the actual preach of that message.
• Think about the order of prayer meetings - is the predominant time linked to church activity or the activities of the church members when they are away from the church building?
• Hold commissioning services for those starting new jobs - a regular reminder of the vocations we have and the call to be salt and light where we are.
• Include a 'This time tomorrow' slot where a member of the congregation shares what they do during the week, how they approach it as a Christian and the challenges they face.

Groups

• Use the small groups as a context for individuals to think about how the Sunday sermons can be applied in their own lives.
• Set up a mentoring scheme whereby older Christians take younger people under their wings for a period or alternatively, where retired people mentor full-time workers.
• Within house groups find out each others 'calendar stressful times' - times throughout the year when people for whatever reason are particularly stressed.
• Hold panel discussion sessions to identify the key issues with which different groups of members (parents of teenage children, retired people etc) grapple, write up the findings and pass the reports on to teachers and preachers to inform their preaching and teaching.
• Create earthed teaching materials for one home group session and make it available to home groups.

Church Decoration

• Bring the outside in - Think about how the church building could be used to help people reflect on ordinary life rather than escaping it. E.g. Are posters, PowerPoint slides all tranquil, rural, pastoral scenes or do they reflect the urban, fast paced lives that many of us have to lead?
• Put up a map showing where members of the congregation spend most of their time during the week
• If your church has a missionary notice board include a mirror, to remind people that they are also a missionary wherever they are
• Put up the front pages of the Sunday newspaper on a PowerPoint as people arrive to emphasise that they are not leaving behind the isues of the world when they come to church but to engage with them. To download front pages of Sunday papers go to the Sky News site.

Other Ideas

• Publish in the church magazine interviews with members on how they live out their faith in everyday life.
• Review the balance of topics covered in your monthly prayer diary and Sunday service intercession lists in the light of the whole-life discipleship agenda.
• The government ministries cover the whole of life, (health, finance, justice etc.) so one church has used them as a template for prayer - download here.
• On a Sunday morning get everyone to set an alarm for 10am the following day as a reminder to pray for the other church members wherever they are.
• During the week text message church members a passage to read through, a question to consider or a thought for the day to remind them that wherever they are they are part of the body of the church.

A larger shift

A number of church leaders have taken up part-time employment outside of a Christian environment - forcing the church to think about relying on each other more than 'professional' ministry and giving their leaders opportunity to experience 'ordinary' work again.

We hope that these ideas will stimulate your thinking. If you have any suggestions to add to this list email us at imagine@licc.org.uk.