EG Issue 28

A LICC Resource

Edition 28 March 2011

Mark Greene sees a chance for a breakthrough in global mission strategy also inside:

The great response – Stories from people taking steps to tackle SSD Sheila take a bow – Making all the difference in the world at work The KJB at 400 – Antony Billington spots some opportunites

Whole-Life Discipleship – Global Mission

Mission World – One More Wall To Go? Last October, 4000 delegates from 198 countries met in Cape Town for the Third Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization. Mark Greene, who was one of them, thinks it might lead to a significant breakthrough…

1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the world changed.

15 years earlier, in 1974, a different wall came down, and evangelical mission strategy and a huge number of local churches changed radically, and have never been the same since.

And it was a biblical conviction that brought the wall down. Ideas change the world.

The wall that came down was the wall between evangelism and social action.

Until then, many evangelicals had regarded social action as a distraction from the primacy of proclaiming the good news. At Lausanne 1974, however, with Billy Graham and John Stott to the fore, the First Congress for World Evangelization agreed that the evangelistic proclamation of the love of God in Christ must be accompanied by the expression of the love of God in Christ by actively engaging with the physical and emotional needs of people – holistic mission. It may seem obvious now, but it wasn’t then.

Indeed, if you’re in a mainstream evangelical church and you’ve been involved in cleaning up your town or sending teenagers to build orphanages overseas, or if your church took part in Hope 08, then it’s likely you’ve been influenced by the theological conclusions of Lausanne. That meeting triggered a movement that continues to change the world.

Not many meetings do that.

So, with that dramatic history in mind, I prepared to attend the Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town. Would God say something transformational to the worldwide church about how we are doing mission?

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Certainly, as far as the UK was concerned, we at LICC felt there was another wall to come down. At least, that’s what all our research over the last ten years indicates. Here in the UK, the church’s primary mission strategy has been:

‘To recruit the people of God to use some of their leisure time to join the missionary initiatives of church-paid workers.’

tragic waste of the church’s missional potential. Too few Christians have eyes to see what God might be doing in the places they already naturally spend their time, and where they already have relationships with those who don’t know Jesus.

But that’s the UK. When I spoke at Cape Town, I asked the international audience of around 500 people if they had this ‘leisure time strategy’ in their context. The vast majority indicated ‘yes’.

Fewer than ten people were pursuing a different strategy.

René Padilla

It’s a strategy that has yielded much fruit – in evangelism, in social action among the poor, the young, the old, the disadvantaged, as well as in reaching out to the rich, the adult and the privileged.

Praise God for the ability of church leaders to mobilise their communities for such mission. Still, this is mission that most Christians can only participate in during their leisure time. What about the rest of their time?

The reality is that 98 percent of Christians – i.e. those not in paid church work – are not properly envisioned or equipped for their mission in the 95 percent of their waking time that they aren’t involved in church activities, wherever that might be – workplace, schoolplace, clubplace. And that is a

The confirmation that, overall, the global evangelical church has an incomplete mission strategy is an important discovery. Yes, the First Congress had triggered a movement that was underpinned by a dynamic biblical truth, and it had borne much fruit. However, it’s a movement that has primarily found active expression in how Christians use their leisure time, or in para-church activity. The movement hasn’t yet succeeded in envisioning people for holistic mission in all of life.

Importantly, however, this leisure time focus is not the inevitable outcome of the theology that has fuelled the Lausanne movement. On the contrary, Dr René Padilla, the great South American theologian and practitioner,

whose theology and praxis was so influential on John Stott and Billy Graham, clearly understood that mission can and should be pursued wherever God’s people find themselves – factories and fields, schools and offices, labs and government buildings.

The challenge to the Lausanne movement then is not to change their theological foundations, but to extend their life-transforming biblical insights into the way churches disciple their people for everyday mission where they already are.

Just before the Congress I went to a meeting at which Dr Padilla was speaking and asked him why he thought the global evangelical church hadn’t embraced this kind of whole-life mission. His response: ‘because of the sacred-secular divide and our failure to make disciples’. Similarly, on the main stage in Cape Town, René Padilla’s primary concern for the church going forward was:

‘The question of discipleship. Jesus did not send us to make converts, he sent us to make disciples that would learn to obey everything that the Lord Jesus Christ taught.’

René had sounded a warning.

Encouragingly though, there was such a positive response to the session in which I took part, to my section and to the other presenters, that it was repeated by popular demand. Furthermore, the recommendations for action that followed the Congress – the Cape Town Commitment – clearly identified the damage that the sacred-secular divide has done to mission, and made a vigorous call to the church to release the laity and

to take the opportunity that the workplace in particular presents.

The workplace, however, is just one context for holistic mission, and it certainly should not be competing with any other context, still less with local church ministry. Rather, the challenge ahead for the ‘marketplace movement’ is not only how to be agents of gospel transformation at work, but also how to help local churches become the kind of communities that make whole-life missional disciples – wherever people’s frontlines are. We desperately need whole-life disciple-making churches which is, of course, why we see the Imagine Project as so vital.

In sum, the global church needs to bring down the wall of the sacred-secular divide, and broaden its leisure time paradigm to embrace the opportunities for mission that God’s people have in daily life, and develop a more comprehensive strategy. Perhaps something like this:

A New World Mission Strategy To equip the people of God for fruitful holistic mission together in all of their life: - in the local community near the church - in the communities that they are part of day by day away from the church building - in communities beyond their national borders It doesn’t look all that dramatic on paper but it involves the demolition of a very large, very old, very stubborn wall, and it promises the full deployment of 2.1 billion Christians into whole-life mission.

It would be a great s t a r t . A n d w e ’ r e praying for it.

Mark Greene

Further Watching Mark Greene’s Cape Town address can be viewed online: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/ detail/11359

Other Cape Town Highlights to View Online Chris Wright – Integrity, Confronting Idols http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/ detail/11556

North Korean Student Testimony http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11671

Mats Tunehag – Business as Mission http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11371

Further Reading The Great Divide, Mark Greene – see page 9 for details of how to order from LICC The Cape Town Commitment: http://www.lausanne.org/ctcommitment Mission between the Times – Essays on the Kingdom, René Padilla, Langham Monographs, 2010.

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Whole-Life Discipleship – Bible & Culture King James I

1611 and All That With 2011 marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, Antony Billington spots opportunities for whole-life disciples to shape the cultural conversation… sees the 4 0 0 th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible (KJB). It was referred to in the Queen’s Speech, broadcast on Christmas Day 2010, and Radio 4 has already devoted an evening to readings from the KJB. As the year goes on, we can expect a flurry of books, lectures, and exhibitions to mark

the occasion. No surprise, perhaps, for a book that has been continuously in print for 400 years.

Even from unlikely quarters, praise is being heaped upon the KJB. In an interview with The Guardian, Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate and self-confessed non-believer, lamented widespread ignorance of the Bible; Bible

stories are an essential part of ‘cultural luggage’, he noted, recommending that all children should be taught the Bible in school, since without it they cannot hope to understand history and literature. Wellknown atheist Richard Dawkins (being interviewed for the King James Bible Trust) has said: ‘You can’t appreciate English literature unless you are steeped to some extent in the King James Bible... not to know the King James Bible is to be, in some small way, barbarian.’

Whatever one may think of it as a translation, it’s possible that our friends and colleagues will pick up on the buzz about the KJB, and it may provide an opportunity for Christians and churches to shape the conversation in distinctive ways – as we tell its story, reflect on its influence, and celebrate its significance.

A story to tell Of course, the story begins a long time before 1611. Told properly, it’s a story which takes in the development of the printing press, the rise of the English language, and the European Protestant reformation, all set against the politics of the time. John Wycliffe’s fourteenthcentury translation was from Latin, but William Tyndale was the first to translate the New Testament into English from the original Greek (1526). He did so because he wanted open and common access to Scripture – for the ploughboy as well as the priest. And he did so under threat to his life, managing to finish translations of the New Testament and much of the Old Testament before being burned as a heretic in 1536.

When James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the most widelyread English version was the Geneva Bible, put together by Protestants who had fled to Switzerland during the

reign of Queen Mary, later published in England in 1576. It contained marginal notes, some of which undermined the absolute authority of monarchs. At a 1604 conference of bishops, the request for a single, ‘official’ Bible gave James the opportunity to get rid of the Geneva Bible.

The assignment was entrusted to about 50 scholars and churchmen based in Oxford, Cambridge, and London. Staying fairly close to Tyndale’s translation, but drawing on others and revising along the way, the task was completed in 1611. Although James authorised the translation, he seems to have lost interest in the project and it’s not clear he ever authorised its publication. Moreover, it took a while for it to become accepted; only after the English Civil War and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 did it achieve popularity.

An influence to explore With its popularity, the KJB exerted considerable influence – shaping not only Protestant Christianity, but politics, language, and culture as well.

It has been argued, for instance, that the translation of the Bible into the vernacular kickstarted the birth of democracy – in England and later in America. The accessibility of translated Scripture – with every believer having the freedom to interpret the Bible for themselves – fostered a spirit of inquiry, providing reasons to stand against the tyranny of rulers, coupled with the conviction that Scripture was on the side of those who demanded the rights of the individual in matters of governance.

There is ongoing debate as to whether the language of the KJB was already ‘archaic’ in its own time, but its subsequent shaping of the English language is not in doubt. Vestiges of its influence are seen in the continued use of phrases like ‘lamb to the slaughter’, ‘as old as the hills’, ‘written in stone’, ‘sour grapes’, etc. In a recent study, David Crystal counts 257 of them, showing how the Bible ‘begat’ such phrases in the English language – now found in newspaper headlines, TV sitcoms, song lyrics, and book titles.

Beyond language, the Bible has imprinted itself on our culture, reflected (for instance) in art, music, literature, and film. In her recent book, The Writing on the Wall, Maggi Dawn moves through major biblical stories from Genesis onwards – taking in Rembrandt and Banksy, Handel and The Byrds, Jonathan Swift and Dan Brown, The Shawshank Redemption and Doctor Who – showing how the Bible is central ‘I had perceived by experience how it was impossible to establish the lay-people in any truth except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text...

I long that the husbandman might sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle’.

William Tyndale

to western cultural history right up to the present day. This, as we have seen, reflects the concerns of Motion and Dawkins, that not to be biblically literate is to be on the back foot when it comes to cultural literacy.

An opportunity for mission Of course, praising the Bible for its literary merit or cultural influence alone might be to miss the point that it is, above all else, the living words of the living Lord, that it tells the story of what God has done in Christ for the world. Significant cultural heritage aside,

Christians will want to celebrate how God, through Scripture, shapes the lives of everyday people in everyday situations.

Indeed, the story of the KJB fits into the yet larger story of what God is doing in and for the world, in other languages and cultures – which is why the translation of the Bible is bound up with the mission of the church (and why Christians support the work of those engaged in translation and literacy projects). The gospel is ‘translatable’, and translation has been a feature of Christianity from the start, reminding us that the communication and reception of God’s word is not limited to certain cultures or types of people, but open to all. ‘Translating’ the Bible is always a missionary enterprise, whether it’s carried out in Burkina Faso or in Basildon.

2011, then, may provide increased opportunities to share the significance of the Bible with others, and step up in our own engagement with Scripture in the process. With this in mind, LICC is delighted to be one of the partners in Biblefresh – a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence in, and appetite for, the Word of God through 2011 and beyond. The Biblefresh website provides information and ideas for individuals and churches to take practical steps in reading the Bible, being trained in handling the Bible, supporting translation work, and experiencing the Bible in new and creative ways.

Antony Billington

Further reading Biblefresh – www.biblefresh.com King James Bible Trust – www.kingjamesbibletrust.org Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011, Gordon Campbell (OUP, 2010).

Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language, David Crystal (OUP, 2010).

The Writing on the Wall, Maggi Dawn (Hodder & Stoughton, 2010).

Scapegoats, Shambles & Shibboleths, Martin H. Manser (Hodder & Stoughton, 2009).

The People’s Bible: The Remarkable History of the King James Version, Derek Wilson (Lion Hudson, 2010).

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Whole-Life Discipleship – Work

Do loo esn fru k l ’t it t ike om e!

Some people don’t realise the impact they’re having. But when they do…

Mark Greene explores.

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small and brown and covered in fuzz, and approximately the colour of a slightly mouldy potato. I don’t remember what I thought it was the first time I saw one, but if you didn’t know you might well suppose it to be some rare root vegetable that requires 900 hours of boiling and a Heston Blumenthal flair for spicing to make it anything approaching palatable.

You’d certainly get no hint that the inside would have the smooth texture of a peach and a flavour that blends sweetness with a hint of citric tang. If someone hadn’t told me it was a fruit, I’d never have had the pleasure of eating one. All of which might have something to do with the mission of God in the contemporary workplace.

For the last 18 months or so, I’ve been working with a group of thirty-somethings in mainstream jobs. It’s part of a Mission Scotland project to try to identify the issues people in their 30s are facing as they seek to live as fruitful disciples at work. And it’s been hugely enjoyable and enriching.

One of the first things we noticed was one of the most surprising. Although the group were handpicked by Mission Scotland, although they were highly competent, well-taught and part of strong church communities, overall they didn’t feel that they were doing anything particularly special in their workplace, or had anything significant to offer other Christians. They were confident workers but not confident in how God might be using them at work. Were they right, or was this a perfect storm of Scottish selfdeprecation meeting Christian humility?

One of them was a headteacher we’ll call Sheila. She’s led three primary schools and seen them all flourish.

It takes quite a range of leadership and managerial qualities to do that.

Furthermore, bringing hope and success and skills and confidence and new horizons to hundreds of young people and their parents might well be easily described as bringing blessing. How could it be that she might suppose that she had nothing to offer other Christians?

Subsequently, I visited her school and she told me some stories about her work

– everyday stories, really, that genuinely, even now, don’t seem very noteworthy to her and that she certainly doesn’t see as making her anything special.

Here’s one of them.

Something bad has happened in the school. A ten-year-old boy – a particular ten-year-old, who had often been in trouble – has erupted in the playground, swearing and shouting at pupils and staff. A staff member tries to defuse the situation by asking another child what happened. The second child has a good reputation, so the staff member believes them. Another member of staff comes upon the scene and the story is repeated.

At this, the accused loses his temper, and runs off the school premises. Sheila is fetched and goes out to talk to him. He tells her, ‘It wasn’t me, Miss. It wasn’t me.

I didn’t do it. But they wouldn’t listen.

They wouldn’t listen.’ She believes him.

They walk back to the school buildings and she goes to talk to the other child in question. He eventually admits he was to blame, and Sheila tells the other staff that the boy is innocent. And they apologise to the boy. Subsequently, the guilty boy also apologised to the boy.

What did Sheila do? She listened impartially, not letting the child’s trouble-making history prejudice her into concluding that he was the maker of this particular trouble. She made time to listen, because every child is worth the trouble, even the children who are trouble. She sought justice. And a habitual troublemaker tasted what it felt like to be seen as if they’d never done anything bad before, as if the past was in the past, as far as the East is from the West. She sought to make peace and she effected reconciliation. She showed others the ways of the King. She discipled.

And the fruit? Justice was done and the boy was protected, vindicated and honoured. All tasted Jesus’ ways and found them good.

And, yes, Sheila is known to be a Christian.

Still, the most astonishing aspect of this story to me is this: the staff apologised. What fantastic staff! What

an example that is! I have three children aged 14, 16 and 18, and, inevitably, over the years even these paragons of virtue have returned home with tales of injustice and wrongful accusation. Now I am not so naive as to suppose that they were always in the right, nor am I so naive as to suppose that their many, many teachers had always acted justly. Nevertheless, over the years, not one of them has any memory of a teacher saying, ‘I’m sorry.’

How had it come about that the staff in Sheila’s school had apologised?

Well, earlier Sheila had told me that when she had arrived at the school, she had told the staff, parents and pupils that she would make decisions and that she would make mistakes. However, if they didn’t like something she’d done, they should come and talk to her about it. If she was wrong, she’d apologise and do something about it. And that’s what she’s done.

Well, of course, the other staff may well have apologised anyway – it’s a great team. But either way, Sheila has created and modelled a Matthew 18 forgiveness culture. And others have followed. It may not seem remarkable, but it’s worth pondering – I remember a speaker with an MSc in Stress say that lack of forgiveness is the number one cause of stress at work.

For many Christians out in the world, our view of what constitutes ‘good’ and worth talking about has been defined too narrowly – often to overt evangelism. But what about good work done in the name of the Lord? What about being a blessing to those we encounter day by day? What about when we help create a culture that’s more godly? What about those times when, somehow, against all the odds, and against what we are actually feeling, we manage to display the fruit of the spirit in difficult circumstances – love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control in working for a difficult boss in highly pressured circumstances? What about when we speak up for truth and justice?

What about all the ways God might be working in and through us day by day that aren’t directly evangelistic?

If we don’t think any of that is fruit, we’re unlikely to talk about it. We’re unlikely to realise that there is something to give God praise and thanks for, and we’re unlikely to recognise how God is helping us to grow more like his Son. We’re unlikely to rejoice humbly and gratefully in that reality.

And we’re very likely to be discouraged, to feel inadequate and wonder how on earth we can make a difference for God day by day – even though, in reality, we already are. We just don’t have eyes to see what’s already happening.

In Matthew 25 some righteous people turn to Jesus and ask: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ And Jesus answers them: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It wasn’t much – just giving someone something to drink. In fact, it was much less than the people in the Mission Scotland group were doing. Indeed, as the months have gone by we’ve seen how God has been using them in a whole variety of different ways – in the work itself, as well as through relationships.

And I’d say that we have been amazed at how great he is.

But we wouldn’t have seen all those things unless we’d learned that not all fruit looks the same, or even similar.

Mission Scotland If you would like to find out more about how Mission Scotland is working to help churches and individuals live out whole-life discipleship, and about the material being produced, please contact Director-Projects, Sarah-Jane Biggart at sarahjane.biggart@missionscotland.org.uk, or go to www.missionscotland.org.uk

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Whole-Life Discipleship – Resource

The Great Response Last autumn, LICC launched The Great Divide – a new booklet by Mark Greene, outlining the problem of the sacredsecular divide, and what we can do about it…

months and 100,000 copies later, Nigel Hopper asked some of those who ordered copies about why they did so, how they’re using the booklet and about the impact it is having. Here’s what they had to say…

Andrew Belshaw, Padworth Ordered 100 copies I’ve bought them for two distinct reasons. The first is that I am an Elder at Mortimer West End Chapel. We don’t employ a minister and, hence, most preaching is done by 12 of us drawn from the membership. I’ve given each of the preaching team a copy of The Great Divide; I’ve asked them to read it, and when we next meet in April, we’re going to discuss the content and ask ourselves what we need to do as a preaching team to respond to some of the issues which Mark raises.

T he second is that I run something called ‘ T h e Fa m i l y Bu si ne s s’ – a charity that helps people to start businesses (see w w w.t hefa m i lybusine ss.or g.u k).

We provide Christian mentors, who have appropriate expertise and experience, to people who want to start their own business. As well as passing on the basics of running a business, we want the mentors to show their mentees that running a business is a spiritual activity.

We’re having a session in March to talk about just that and we’ll be giving copies of the booklet away then.

Phil Andrew, Reigate Ordered 60 copies I first came across LICC through the Imagine literature when I was a curate at a church in Reading. I remember being inspired and enthused by it then, and being determined to ensure (after 16 years working in industry before

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ordination) that my ordained ministry would not be ‘swallowed up’ by church alone - that I would do all I could not to catch the ‘SSD virus’ (as Mark Greene aptly puts it). I even made time to go and visit several parishioners in their workplace as a means of trying to keep the virus at bay.

Several years on, after fourand-a-half years as vicar of a large and busy parish church, a colleague gave me a copy of the booklet The Great Divide. Whilst I don’t think I have lost that desire to both live and teach the importance of avoiding SSD, the booklet has provided a useful reminder of that resolve, and also of the tendency for SSD to insidiously creep into our thinking and preaching. As a full-time church minister, I recognise just how hard it is to avoid falling into the trap of thinking, deep down, and then passing on the message, that church life is what really counts.

Spurred on by the booklet, we have just started a new sermon series in our main morning services looking at ‘bridging the sacred-secular divide’. Starting with a look at the subject and its origins, we will be exploring SSD and work, SSD and the church, SSD and our view of the world, SSD and recreation, SSD and ‘stuff’, SSD and discipleship, SSD and relationships, SSD and leadership, SSD and Human Resources and SSD and the city (the last two involving lay experts from within our congregation on HR and city planning). So far the series seems to be touching a nerve – both in the listeners and the preachers!

Sharon Fairlie, Cumbernauld Ordered 1 copy I have been attending a weekly Bible study, where one of the speakers brought along your booklet and opened with a quote on SSD & holy hierarchies, which was quite

funny, but serious at the same time! He then went on to talk about SSD and the call to be a whole-life church. He raised a good point that we spend a lot of time praying for healing for the members of the church (which, of course, is important), but we don’t offer prayers for people for when they are at work or going about their everyday lives away from the church. This really struck a chord with me because I run a family business and I’d never heard any pastor or church leader bring this issue up before; so I wanted to find out more.

What I now realise is that, when we set up our business, we didn’t even consider God in the decision-making process. Up until about five or six months ago, we didn’t even consider God in any of our day to day dealings with customers, sup pl ie r s or even the bank, as it didn’t seem like something that God would be interested in. The Great Divide has really given me a deeper understanding that God needs to be central in my business and in my relationships with my family, and that this is something he wants to be involved in. So we now take time each morning to bring the day before God, and ask for his guidance and wisdom to ensure we are doing his will. We are going through a tough time just now, but we know we have committed our lives and the business to the Lord, so whatever happens he will carry us through.

We also have a better understanding that every day is an opportunity to exercise our responsibility to share our faith with others, which, if I’m honest, is easier said than done! But we know

that this is something we can focus our prayers on, and ask the Lord for help.

Nigel Halliday, Greatham Ordered 180 copies Our church has been greatly influenced by L’Abri and the writings of Francis Schaeffer; so we have long emphasised the lordship of Christ over all of life, and there being no sacred-secular divide. When we came across The Great Divide we thought it was excellent (because we agreed with it!). It seemed to us a great opportunity to reinforce the message we have been giving out within the church, and to encourage people that others in the big wide Christian world think as we do. So we bought a copy for everyone, put them on the seats one Sunday morning, and asked everyone to take home a copy and read it.

To be honest, responses were disappointingly muted. Some were very excited; most said nothing – but then they are like that about most of the pieces of paper we give them on Sundays! Hopefully, the copies will surface from time to time in their homes, and in due course they will be read, perhaps several times. We think it was certainly worth investing in the booklet and handing it out – but only as one part of a sustained campaign to get our brothers and sisters to understand that Jesus claims lordship over every aspect of their lives, and to help us think together about what that means in practice for our lives at work, at home and in our communities.

If you’ve been inspired by these stories to join in this mission movement and distribute copies of The Great Divide among your colleagues, congregation and contacts, call LICC on 020 7399 9555 to place your order. Alternatively, you can shop online at licc.org. uk/shop. Generous discounts are available for bulk purchases.

Don’t delay – make a difference today!

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Whole-Life Discipleship – Church

Moving in the Right Circles Chick Yuill recently completed his first year as LICC’s part-time Church-Life Consultant in the North-West of England.

EG caught up with him to find out how it’s going…

EG: Tell us about the progress you’ve made so far with the roll-out of the Imagine Church Project in the North-West.

CY: There are five churches that are fully engaged with the Imagine Church Project, and they represent a broad spectrum of church l i fe – A ng l ica n, URC, Nazarene, an independent new plant, and a congregation in the Oasis network. It’s really encouraging to see these congregations not only benefitting from the resources and experience that LICC can offer, but also discovering for themselves innovative and exciting ways of putting whole-life disciple-making high on their agenda.

I’m also in conversation with a number of other churches who are keen to explore what Imagine has to offer them. In addition, there has been an expression of real interest from the Diocese of Carlisle. The bishop is currently placing a strong emphasis on discipleship in his diocesan strategy, and we believe there are excellent prospects of working together.

EG: Looking ahead, what are the next steps in the development of the project?

CY: The big push in 2011 will be the development of the partnership between Imagine and the Methodist Churches in the North-West. The denomination has committed to the first year of what we hope will be a three year interaction, and I will be working closely with seven churches and one circuit. What 10

makes this so exciting, and potentially so significant, is that, by establishing a number of beacon churches that will demonst rate best practice in disciplemaking, we have a real opportunity to create a ‘viral movement’ within the denomination nationally, and in the wider church regionally.

EG: IVP have just published your new book Moving in the Right Circles; tell us about the book, and your motivation for writing it.

CY: The book is about ‘embracing the discipleship adventure’, to quote the strap-line on the front cover, and examines discipleship as series of everwidening concentric circles.

I put ‘Walking in the Company of Jesus’ right at the centre because I believe that, without that intimate relationship with him, we reduce discipleship to mere activism.

Then I focus on ‘Growing in the Community of Believers’. It’s easy to disparage and even walk away from the church today, but you cannot be a follower of Jesus without being committed to the Body of Christ on earth. This is not a time to retreat from the local church, but to re-imagine it and re-commit to it.

From there I move on to talk about ‘Engaging with the Culture of the Times.’

Too many Christians seem to be wishing that the 1950s would return, allowing them to live in a less complex world. But the 1950s isn’t coming back! Disciples

of Jesus need to learn how to engage with the prevailing culture, without being engulfed by it.

Finally, I try to set discipleship in an eschatological context with ‘Looking to the Coming of the King’. And by that I don’t mean trying to predict dates and events of the ‘end times’. Rather, I try to emphasise that we must live with a sense of energised expectancy, knowing that the partial victories we achieve as we build for the kingdom of God here and now will one day be complete when the King himself ushers in the new heaven and the new earth.

And my motivation for writing the book? Simply that I believe that making disciples who will live well for God in the world as authentic, attractive and life-transforming followers of Jesus is one of the most important challenges we face today.

EG: Finally, what can readers pray for you and your work in the coming months?

CY: Two things, please – pray that The Imagine Church Project will help to create a movement in the North-West that will ultimately make whole-life disciplemaking an unavoidable and integral part of the life of every local church. And pray that, in my anxiety to communicate this, I don’t neglect my own need to walk closely in the company of Jesus.

Chick’s new book, Moving in the Right Circles, is available now. Friends of LICC will have received a complimentary copy with this edition of EG. To order your copy, visit licc.org.uk/shop or call 020 7399 9555.

Last December, LICC bid farewell to Jason Gardner, our Lecturer in Youth Discipleship, who left to start out on a new adventure. EG got in touch with Jason, to talk about his time at the Institute, and what lies ahead…

EG: You’re leaving LICC after ten years; how do you think God has used you and your work during that time?

JG: I think that my work at LICC, and the profile the Institute granted me, enabled me to bring some fresh thinking to the church’s approach to young people in the UK – particularly in regard to generational relations.

I’ve often compared my work as a youth researcher to that of a DJ – selecting the best ‘tunes‘ to bring to a wider audience. I’ve loved being able to take great teaching on the theme of whole-life discipleship and the spiritual formation of young people to youthworkers around Britain. It’s been an amazing privilege to be part of a team dedicated to helping Christians understand what it means to be twentyfirst century disciples.

EG: You’ve just written a book with your wife, Rachel, entitled Rise; tell us about it and how your role at LICC contributed to the content, and how it relates to your previous book, Mend the Gap. JG: In Mend the Gap, I suggested we needed to take off the ‘kid gloves’ when it comes to discipling young people, in order to teach spiritual resilience. Rise: One Life. One Way. One Master isn’t a ‘tough sell’ of what it means to follow Christ when you’re a teenager, but it’s honest about the fact that it’s a real challenge. It’s a book that aims to persuade young people of the truth of Dallas Willard’s fantastic statement about following Christ: ‘Discipleship is about realising that Jesus knows how to live your life better than you do.’

EG: Looking to the future, you’re starting a new venture – Fuse (www. fusethinktank.com) – what is it, what’s the vision behind it, and why is now the time to be launching it?

JG: I like to bring in Winston when asked this question. Churchill said, ‘We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us’. The same can be said of culture; the problem is that culture is rapidly changing, not least as a result of advances in digital technology.

Fuse (a partnership bet ween mysel f and my colleague, James Trafford) is a consultancy and think tank that aims to help organisations discern what ‘shape’ emerging generations are taking and, in particular, how that will effect the way they think, learn and find faith.

EG: What are your greatest hopes and fears for the project?

JG: My hope is that we help organisations, charities and churches find a balanced approach to dealing with the huge changes that are taking place. While there are plenty of strategies out there for connecting with emerging generations, we want to combine that thinking with traditional wisdom and biblical discernment in providing ways forward.

That way we won’t end up throwing the baby out with the bath water (nor the 16-year-old)!

My fears are along the lines of something Bishop Graham Cray said at

a conference for youthworkers at LICC: ‘If we don’t disciple our young people, the culture will’. Making the story of Christianity more of a presence in young people’s lives than the stories produced by entertainment technology, for example, is a real challenge.

EG: What can readers pray for you and your work in the weeks and months ahead?

JG: Discernment is top of the list. It’s a big topic to wrestle with, so it would be wonderful if people would pray that Fuse would find the right areas of research to focus on in order to develop lasting solutions.

As we ‘find our feet’, developing good working relationships with the right organisations is also key. Lastly, for Rise – both Rachel and myself hope that it will encourage many teenagers to go deeper in their Christian experience, in order that they might become ‘stormproof, battle-ready and beautiful to the bone.’

Jason’s new book, Rise: One Life. One Way. One Master is available now. This, along with his first book, Mend The Gap, can be ordered from LICC either online (licc.org. uk/shop), or by calling 020 7399 555.

11

Whole-Life Discipleship – Youth

Moving On

Forthcoming Events Discipling Young People Today April 4, 6.30pm at LICC HQ

Join Jason and Rachel Gardner for an evening exploring the challenges of making mature disciples of young people in today’s world. As part of the evening, Jason will share some of the findings from the youth discipleship project he headed up for LICC, highlighting some of the encouraging initiatives that are taking shape in the UK church.

The evening also celebrates the launch of Rise: One Life. One Way. One Master – a book

by Jason and Rachel that aims to challenge and inspire Christian teenagers to take their walk with Jesus deeper.

Cost: £7 (£5 concessions) – includes a copy of Rise for all guests

The Rise and Fall of the Modern Laity Movement: Lessons for Whole-Life Discipleship Today May 25, 10.00am – 2.30pm at LICC HQ (coffee served from 9.30am)

Join Ben Care as he shares the findings of his research into the post-war lay movement in Europe and America, exploring its origins, motivation and the reasons for its decline, and discussion of the implications for contemporary attempts to mobilise the laity as a frontline missionary force. There will also be an opportunity to hear from other members of the team about an exciting new LICC initiative to promote, resource and equip whole-life discipleship on the frontline.

Cost: £10 (£8 concessions) – includes light lunch

God and the Brain: What Neuroscience can Teach us about People and God June 8, at LICC HQ

Neuroscientists have been striving for decades to understand how our brains work. What happens when we think, learn, or remember? More importantly for Christians, what happens when we worship, pray, or experience God’s presence? Neuroscience brings fascinating and positive insights on these questions.

Join Revd Dr Alasdair Coles as he unpacks the key issues.

The evening will include excerpts from the award-winning Test of FAITH documentary, and opportunities for questions and discussion. For more information see www.testoffaith.com This event, presented by Test of FAITH, is part of the 2011 Pentecost Festival, and is free of charge. For details see www.pentecostfestival.co.uk.

God and the Multiverse: A Response to Stephen Hawking June 9, at LICC HQ

Revd Dr Rodney Holder (The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion) examines the claims made by Stephen Hawking in his book The Grand Design, and explores whether, in the context of modern cosmology, it still makes sense to speak of God as Creator.

This event, presented by Christians in Science, is part of the 2011 Penetcost Festival, and is free of charge. For details see www.pentecostfestival.co.uk.

Toolbox 2011 Last year’s Toolbox courses were both sold out. If the feedback from delegates is anything to go by, then you’ll need to book early for this year’s course: ‘The course was incredibly valuable.’

‘Toolbox has really made me think differently about mission and the community we work in.’

‘I’m now much better equipped for reading popular culture and explaining it in light of Scripture.’

This year, the acclaimed course in engaging with Scripture and culture as whole-life disciples runs in June (13-17) and September (12-16). To request a free brochure or to book your place, please call 020 7399 9555. Alternatively, the course brochure is available to view on our website, where you can also reserve your place – licc.org.uk/engaging-with-culture/licc-toolbox

Be Our Friend – We Need Your Support!

As demand for LICC’s vision and expertise grows, so does our budget. We are currently reliant on donations from individual supporters for half of our required funding each year. More than ever, we wish to encourage all those who are able, to become Friends of LICC – to give regularly to the costs of keeping the Institute’s work going and spreading. A regular gift of just £10 per month can make a huge difference over the course of a year.

To become a Friend of LICC, simply complete the form enclosed with this issue of EG and return it in the Freepost envelope provided. Alternatively, you can download the form from our website (licc.org.uk/licc-friends).

Make a Difference – Leave a Legacy Another way you can help ensure that the work of LICC can continue and flourish is by remembering the Institute in your will.

For details of how to leave a legacy to LICC and enable us to keep on helping God’s people to make a difference, please call 020 7399 9555 to request a legacy pack, or email mail@licc.org.uk.

Connecting to LICC If you would like to find out more about LICC – how to receive our mailings, or our ever-popular weekly emails, ‘Word for the Week’ and ‘Connecting with Culture’ – please call us on 020 7399 9555, email mail@licc.org.uk or write to us at the address below.

The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity St. Peter’s · Vere Street · London · W1G 0DQ (t) 020 7399 9555 (f) 020 7399 9556 · (e) mail@licc.org.uk · (w) www.licc.org.uk Editor: Nigel Hopper · Executive Director: Mark Greene Designed & printed by X1 · www.x1.ltd.uk · (t) 01753 215300 Cover image: Frank Kovalchek · http://bit.ly/bLxbCB All articles ©LICC – use only with prior permission from the publishers. LICC Ltd is a registered charity No. 286102