Research Projects

Allelon is committed to forming a multi-generational movement of missional leaders through its Research Projects. Inspired by the question raised by the late Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, “Can the West be converted?”, our Research Projects are designed to develop frameworks, practices, and resources that address the question of a missional engagement in contemporary Western culture. We believe that forming mission-shape leaders requires that we take seriously an engagement with modern Western culture and the impact it has on how we train leaders and understand Christian discipleship. These projects are formed in partership with local churches, denominations, seminaries, organizations and foundations.

Allelon is sponsoring a multi-year project in partnership with M.J. Murdock Trust, ProVision Foundation, Maclellan Foundation and several other private foundations to address how we resource and form leaders for the mission-shaped church. We believe that the fundamental question to be asked is “What is God up to in our culture and how does the Biblical imagination engage this?” The MiWC Project works with local congregations in partnering countries around the world researching what is happening in the everyday life of congregations and their contexts and the implications of this for leadership development.

SGM Lifewords and Allelon are partnering to deepen our understanding around what a radical cultural engagement with Western culture looks like and how the Bible engages this. We have witnessed the dissolution and deconstruction of the Judeo-Christian narrative in the West and must address the question of the relationship between the Christian narrative and the social imaginaries of our globalized world, in order to better understand the forms of Christian life and witness that need to take shape in our time. The Research Cafe will work towards this end by creating a high level conversation that brings together intellectuals from around the world to address this challenge.