Introducing the Imagine Project
Much of what you read on this page you'll find elsewhere on this mini-site in more detail. Here we're trying to give you the shape of the project, describe how it's grown and where we think it's going.
Download Summary of the Imagine Project (pdf file) for a description of the project or the March 2007 Update (pdf file) for latest news.
'Imagine' is an innovative, widely supported initiative to envision and equip the Church for effective mission in 21st century UK through revitalising whole-life Christian discipleship and disciple-making.
It focuses on the 4.5 million people who actually go to church once a month or more and asks what can be done to turn them into missionary disciples.
Its concern is for people to learn to live well for Christ - wherever He has placed them, whatever the prevailing conditions. To connect faith to every aspect of being human. Learning to engaging compellingly with people they meet. Becoming agents of transformation within the fabric of 21st century life in the UK.
In reviewing the reasons why the UK Church has struggled to equip Christians to live the whole of their lives as growing, missionary followers of Jesus in a radically changed and rapidly changing culture we conclude that the core problem is two-fold:
- A theological failure to create church communities that recognise God's interest in every aspect of life.
- A methodological failure to make disciples for all of life.
These are the issues that the Imagine Project is addressing. Whole-life disciple-making is a scriptural, pastoral and missionary imperative. Jesus is not only the truth, He is also the way and the life. Unless our people are helping one another learn to live His way in the power of His life, then there will be little confidence to share the truth.
The Development of the Project
The project is developing as a series of phases. It's currently entering phase 4.
Phase 1: Analysis & Thesis: 2003-2004
Imagine how we can reach the UK written by Mark Greene, LICC executive director, launched the Imagine Project in 2003 as catalyst for debate about mission in the UK today. Published in both magazine and booklet format, its main point was simple:
"The UK will never be reached until we create open, authentic, learning and praying communities that are focused on making whole-life disciples who take the opportunities to show and share the Gospel wherever they relate to people in their daily lives."
In an unprecedented move the Evangelical Alliance gave over an entire issue of their magazine IDEA to the essay. Approximately 60,000 copies of the essay are now in circulation.
Phase 2: Testing the Thesis, Gathering Support: 2004-2005
Imagine's analysis and thesis were affirmed in Phase 2 by two pieces of rsearch:
- A questionnaire survey amongst 800 evangelical Christians - 'What the People Said'
- A series of nine consultations hosted by the Evangelical Alliance with leaders across the contemporary church - 'What the Leaders Said'
This strong endorsement encouraged LICC to raise funds to hire a part-time Director for the Project, Tracy Cotterell, to develop the parameters, partnerships and outcomes for the Project.
Phase 3: Developing a response: 2005-2006
Phase 3 has focused on developing foundational material in order to envision church leaders and their communities and prepare the ground for the practical outworking of the Project in the form of the pilot programme.
This material has included the March 2005 consultation on contemporary whole-life disciple-making and the associated 8 audio CD resource.
The production in Spring 2006 of a DVD resource to enable church leaders to communicate the vision to their communities. It provides a variety of film, print and computer resources to help begin the process of cultural change.
The website was launched, the first series of workshops completed and new partnerships developed.
Phase 4: Experimental Church Pilot Programme: 2007
January 2007 saw the launch of the three-year experimental church pilot programme with the first cohort of churches and work on the starter resources to support the pilot has started.
An outline of the Church Pilot Programme
The primary aims of the pilot church research programme are as follows:
- Challenge 15 churches representing a reasonable spectrum of the UK church to live as whole life disciple-making communities.
- Work alongside these church leaders as they work it into their own lives and out into the life of their church over a period of up to three years.
- Identify the key principles, practices and resources that enable churches to start to live out a growing whole-life discipleship as communities of believers committed to 'all apprenticing together'.
- Present the learnings of this research programme to the wider church world so that others are able to appropriate and apply these learnings without the direct input of LICC.
Anticipated outcomes from the Project
These are likely to include an understanding of the dynamics of culture shift within local church communities, mechanisms to help leaders assess their churches as whole-life disciple-making communities, vision-casting tools for use by leaders, leadership training modules, Bible Study products, a networking of churches together, identification of best practice, key web, print and DVD publications.