How to

become a whole-life
disciplemaking church
Mark Greene, Executive Director
1. Release the vision root it in
the whole-life Gospel its Jesusfollowing, its cross-shaped, its Spiritempowered, its central, its missional,
its liberating. Its for everyone and it
needs everyone: cleaners and
accountants, builders and barristers, 7
year olds and 77 year olds. Its for
out there as well as in here, its for
others as well as us, it takes a long
time and its hard. Its a revolution,
its the way things are meant to be
and its urgent
2. Focus on fruitfulness this isnt
about making the church run more
smoothly but helping Gods people
be more fruitful in all of life M & M
& M & M &* modelling godliness,
ministering grace, making culture
anew, being a mouthpiece for the
Gospel

the coffee rota* to the sermon,*

make sure the yeast gets kneaded into
every cranny of church life
7. Celebrate progress, tell the
stories frontline testimonies FTs.
No FT, no progress. Youll know
youre succeeding when people tell
the stories of whats going on out
there: at the school gate, in the
supermarket, the office, the club.
Invite the stories and make sure they
are told in a way that connects clearly
to whole-life principles. These are
stories about God at work
wonderful fuel for praise in prayer
and worship

3. Find and empower the

championing team the SWAT
team who really, really want to make
this happen. Make sure there are lay
and church-paid members
4. Create a new community
conversation help each other
express it and imagine its implications
and challenges together use the
DVD*, the questionnaires*, small
group materials*, prayer meetings,
special meetings, fridge magnets,
whatever gets everyone talking to
everyone
5. Start small but strategic let the
yeast get to work, help the whole
church identify and introduce
mustard seeds, Trojan mice, one
degree shifts* that carry the new
DNA
6. Learn to see everything through
the frontline lens this is a process
not a programme, so everything may
not change but the way and the why
you do everything probably will, from

8. Cultivate a Biblical imagination

teach, preach, pray, chat with the
aim of developing a gospel-shaped,
whole-life,
Spirit-filled,
Biblical,
Biblical, Biblical imagination
9. Expand the pastor/people
contract from PC world*
pastoral care to dynamic all-church
pastoral care/pastoral equipping for
all of life. This isnt just about the
leader adding pastoral equipping to
their role, its about the whole
community recognising the kind of
people that the pastor is there to help
you become and the kind of people
you are there to help one another
become

10. Walk the talk and remember

this walk is costly. Its often
uncomfortable learning to do new
things and its uncomfortable being
Gods person out in some pretty
difficult places. Its a cross were
taking up, not a hobby. Work out
how the pastor and the paid team
need to change their week to
understand the front-lines the people
are in, and to identify the skills and
perspectives and prayer the people on
the frontline need, and the skills and
perspectives and prayer the leaders
need
11. Love one another. Crawl,
stumble, walk in grace and in step
with the Spirit whole-life
discipleship is not intended to be the
latest new salvation by works, a whole
set of hurdles to jump, a whole new
way to feel inadequate and guilty. So
cheer one another on. Youre all
learning to change and God is your
gracious Father, not a finger-wagging,
grumpy old head-master. This is a
life-long journey a long walk in a
new direction, not a sprint to be
completed by next September
12. Never surrender the leisure
time/neighbourhood Christianity default setting is very strong. Fight for
the whole-life Gospel life in prayer,
fight for it in Bible study, fight for it
in song choice, fight for it in home
groups, fight for it in bulletins and
announcements
and
web
communications, fight for it in
business meetings and training
programmes and budget allocation;
never surrender. Never surrender.

* To learn more visit www.licc.org.uk/imagine-church

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