The Church of England's recent Synod closed with a report on the mission of the church, titled Setting God's People Free.
A key contributor to the report was the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). The main issues raised by the report can be summed up in two clear shifts that it claims need to occur in the culture of the church:
"1. Until, together, ordained and lay, we form and equip lay people to follow Jesus confidently in every sphere of life in ways that demonstrate the Gospel we will never set God's people free to evangelise the nation.
2. Until laity and clergy are convinced, based on baptismal mutuality, that they are equal in worth and status, complementary in gifting and vocation, mutually accountable in discipleship, and equal partners in mission, we will never form Christian communities that can evangelise the nation."
The report is a very powerful call to equip the church for whole of life discipleship as the key to evangelistic fruitfulness.