Ministries Restoring Sacred Imagination

Most Christians know Bible stories; far fewer inhabit them imaginatively. The Bible Project has become a powerful means of spiritual formation by helping people see Scripture as a unified drama of God's Kingdom. Their stunning visual storytelling doesn't merely explain the Bible — it retrains the imagination to perceive reality through its narrative world. ⁱ

Long before “deconstruction” became fashionable, Eugene Peterson warned that pastors were losing their imaginations to metrics, management, and religious busyness. The Peterson Center pushes back by cultivating contemplative, poetic, deeply human ministry. In an age obsessed with efficiency, they insist spiritual formation begins by learning to see differently before acting differently. ⁱⁱ

Church decline has produced endless strategy sessions — but perhaps the deeper crisis is imaginative exhaustion. The Hub for Reimagining Ministry gathers leaders asking a radical question: what if the future church cannot be built with inherited assumptions? Renewal may depend less on innovation techniques and more on recovering Kingdom imagination together. ⁱⁱⁱ

i.   Nancy and I were just in Portland last month where the Bible Project folks have their headquarters. The growth of the Bible Project itself is enough to inspire you.

ii.   How we miss his voice and pen (keyboard). Speaking of imagination, in his memoir The Pastor, Eugene tells about making up stories of outrageous behavior at his new church plant just to see if the denominational big-wigs were reading his reports. They were not. The book is worth the read for that story alone.

iii.   Imagine letting the Gentiles in. Letting women lead and teach. Imagine turning the other cheek, or going the extra mile. Imagine being worth ‘many sparrows.’ Imagine the Gutenberg Press making the Bible available to millions. Imagine universities, or hospitals, or universal literacy. The church at its best has always been a triumph of the imagination.