Reclaiming the whole-life gospel
Paul Woolley, CEO of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity
By Paul Woolley | 4 mins
We’ve invited Paul to write this blog as we believe LICC’s new initiative is very relevant to the Jubilee Centre and our own mission, so we wanted to share it with our network.
It’s 40 years since John Stott set up the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) to help people think Christianly and integrate the gospel of Jesus with all of life.
So, in the year ahead, and as we emerge out of the pandemic, LICC is going on a tour of towns and cities across the UK. In the coming months, we’ll be in London, Swindon, Glasgow, Nottingham, Belfast, Cardiff, Salford, and Bristol, with more locations to be announced soon. The aim is to inspire people with how the ‘whole-life’ gospel can transform the way we see our daily lives and work – and how we might partner together to make a difference at this pivotal moment in our culture.
Everyone is invited, and you can see full details and register your free place on the LICC website. But here are just three things to think about that relate to the whole-life nature of the gospel:
Whole-life disciple-making churches are growing churches. The majority of Christians tell us that they feel neither envisioned nor equipped to live as disciples of Jesus in everyday life, but there are some great examples of churches that make this a priority. In those churches, leaders feel released from the pressure to constantly add new programmes to their church offering, people feel validated and empowered to live out their faith in the 95% of their time away from church-based activities, and church communities grow – both in spiritual maturity and numerically. In the next five years, we are working to engage one million Christians with the vision of whole-life discipleship.
Younger generations are looking for deeper discipleship. Whilst 18-35 year olds are amongst the most likely to leave church, they’re also amongst those most open to the whole-life gospel. This group don’t turn their backs on Christianity because they think it untrue but because they don’t think it has anything to say to their everyday lives and concerns. They’ve been offered a ‘thin’ gospel that boils down to ‘attend church, volunteer a bit, and don’t have too much fun’. If we can be more authentic in the gospel we communicate and embody, we have an opportunity to reengage a remarkably open and influential generation.
On earth as in heaven. One of the most misquoted and mistranslated verses in the Bible is from John 10:35. ‘My kingdom is not of this world’, said Jesus. If this were so, it would quickly follow that the life of the kingdom has nothing to do with this world and that the task of Jesus’s followers is to distance themselves from the world rather like the Essenes did in the first century. What Jesus actually said of course was ‘My kingdom is not from this world.’ God’s kingdom comes from another place. It’s not from this world (how could it be?), but it’s unquestionably for this world, and that truth is at the centre of our mission. The task of Christians in every age is to work and pray to bring the life of heaven to earth. Indeed, we pray today as every day that ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.’
Paul Woolley is CEO of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. He was previously deputy CEO at the Bible Society and the founder and first director of Theos, the faith and society think tank. He is married to Ruth, and they have four children.