Reimagining spreads across the country

Last November we reported that the five-part course, Reimagining Church, from the Wycliffe College Institute of Evangelism, was available for free download from the Fresh Expressions Canada website.

Since then, over 200 people from coast to coast have downloaded the materials free of charge, and churches of several denominations have begun to use it to help teach people what it means to be a missional church in the twenty-first century.

On the Fresh Expressions Canada website here, there is a four minute video by Bishop Linda Nicholls, about why she finds the course helpful. She herself has already taught it four times, once in each of her deaneries. It has also been taught by Bishops Philip Poole and George Elliott.

To make the teaching easier, four “instructional videos,” each two minutes long, are available on the Fresh Expressions website, about how to use the course: How does it all fit together? Bringing it home, Building teams, and Making it ecumenical.

Bishop David Irving in Saskatoon is planning to make the Reimagining Church course the main content of that diocese’s synod in September, with a view to helping participants teach the course themselves once they are back in their parishes.

There have also been requests for a video version of the course, with most of the teaching available on video. Plans are under way to create such a version, with the teaching being offered by Bp Nicholls and the Rev Ryan Sim, an Anglican church planter from Ajax, Ontario. Hopefully this will be available by Christmas this year.

Meanwhile, if you have not yet checked out the materials for yourself, they can be viewed on the Fresh Expressions website here.