The emphasis of the Imagine Project to date has been on local church culture: cultivating an eco-system in order to enable whole-life missionary discipleship to flourish. But clearly, it's important to think about what kind of people such a culture might form.
'The prophetic word about our culture is about what it means to be human' - Robert Warren
There are many ways in which we might describe a disciple of Christ - by their fruitfulness, their faithfulness, by their character, by their Christ-likeness. By their faith skills, by their relationships, by their prayer life or by their Biblical knowledge. All of these are valid and important and indeed we will probably never get to the end of describing someone who walks in the way of Christ, just as we will continue to grow in our knowledge and experience of Christ himself.
'It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds and stewards of the new day that is dawning. That, quite simply, is what it means to be a Christian, to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which he has thrown open before us.' - Tom Wright
In the following pages you will find ways to think about how we can flourish as followers of Christ in today's contemporary world.
Go Further
To read more about the character and characteristics of whole-life disciples click here. or read stories of people and churches who are learning to live and grow as whole-life disciples.
Or check out what some of the core issues are that people face if they want to thrive at home, or church, or work or in their own personal spiritual life issues. more..
Read the article by Philip Meadows, 'The 'end' of discipleship: John Wesley's vision of real Christianity' first published in the book Let My People Grow.
The 'Looking Wider' area in our resources also gives some pointers to helpful material that shapes our understanding of what thriving disciples might look like. more..