Resourcing Christians for the next 50 years

We do it in several ways.

First, we help you locate the faith in history. The modern Western tradition is not the only tradition in history. In fact, it’s rather recent – some historians say as recent as the last 200 years.

Second, we help you recognize how the modern Western tradition comes from a wave of the Enlightenment that hit America’s shores 200 years ago.

Third, we help you discover how Asian, African, and European Church traditions operated before the Enlightenment. We help you discover their view if human nature, and how it informed the gospel, discipleship, and cultural transformation.

Fourth, we help you recognize the benchmarks for flourishing in pre-Enlightenment Asian, African, and European Church traditions

Fifth, we help you discover how, for 1,800 years, pre-Enlightenment Asian, African, and European Church traditions changed the world for the better.

Sixth, we help you discover older models for cultural impact – and the length of time it takes for these kinds of sustained cultural changes to be established.

Seventh, we help you build the necessary capital – social, cultural, financial, networks – to achieve culturally wide impact for the gospel change

Eighth, we help you discover how science is catching up to scripture – how findings in neuroscience and organizational culture are, in fact, seamless with the gospel

We can only help churches that want to make sense of the faith in a post-Christian society.

These churches recognize our location in history – that modern Western Christianity is in exile. If your church recognizes this – and wants to do something about – we can help.

We want to help, we have found that the few churches recognizing exile don’t know what to do about it.

We do.

We widen how your church imagines the gospel. Human nature. The cross. Discipleship. Cultural impact.

And nothing we share is original. It’s how Asian, African, and European Church traditions operated before the Enlightenment.

We also help churches translate the bible into the language of the boardroom. This is how first century Christians were described.

“For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country language or customs.  They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life.

Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man’s lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other manners of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth.”

(This anonymous “Letter to Diognetius” paints a remarkably positive picture of the early Christians living in and among their unbelieving colleagues.  This letter is a testimony to their use of peculiar and conventional language.)

We help church leaders see the church as an institution – and how all institutional leaders are products of the institution they work in. They’re insiders. We help church leaders see how insiders bias their left hemisphere – and how the left sees about 40 percent of a problem. The other 60 percent goes unseen. It requires outsiders, prophets. CI is a prophetic organization serving the church.

We help churches like yours discover your largely unseen operating system. We help widen your imagination, seeing the 60 percent that modern Western Christianity has forgotten.

We accomplish this through interactive workshops and educational models designed to widen the creative and intellectual capacity of your leadership and staff.

The best way to explore working with Clapham Institute is to read, listen, and learn.

1. Start reading Clapham Institute’s Blog.  This is a free resource.
2. Start listening to The Morning Mike Check podcast.  This is a free resource.
3. Download the white paper “Widen Our Imagination.” This is a free resource.
4. For individuals:  Sign up for our Learning Lab educational/coaching program. This is a three year educational service that dives deep into the faith.
5. For churches:  Send us an email with your biggest “pain points” (the things that you are most concerned about) and we’ll start a confidential dialog that may lead to an interactive workshop and educational model.

We’re not looking for just anybody, we’re looking for Christians and churches that have a deep desire to innovate and transform.  If you’re in need of reframing the faith, let’s get connected and get to work.