About interactivepreaching.net

InteractivePreaching.net is all about promoting the practice and values of dialogical, experimental, communal and practical preaching.

Reflecting this, our site aims to be as interactive and open-source as possible. We intend to address, in numerous ways, the issue of moving beyond monologue sermons and include articles, tutorials, reviews and sermons. In keeping with the spirit of the site, you actually have the opportunity to edit or add to one another’s preaching (think Wikipedia!).

When we move out of Beta stage, we'll be adding a section discussing non-verbal preaching through song, dance, drama, film and so on. There you'll have the opportunity for users to upload and/or view movie clips of interactive preaching.

The site includes a forum to stimulate and facilitate discussion. Our hope is that this will develop as a safe place for practicioners to discuss their experiences with dialogical and interactive preaching and to offer one another tips and advice.

Anyone can access the content on the site, including the sermonwiki. However, you will need to register with the site in order to get the most out of it. Once you're signed-in, you'll be able to create articles join the conversation. You'll see a link to the registration area in the right-hand column, or at the bottom of the site.

The People Behind ip.net

Interactivepreaching.net began following a conference on Preaching in a Changing Culture, in 2006. The conference was a joint venture between The Anabaptist Network and Cell UK. The conference was so well received that Graham Old and Stuart Murray Williams immediately began discussing the development of a website that would carry on the conversation.

The site currently operates under the care of The Anabaptist Network and Urban Expression.

The Anabaptist Network is a loose-knit, relational network of individuals interested in drawing on the insights and experiences of the Anabaptist tradition.

Their mandate is to offer resources and perspectives from the Anabaptist tradition for reflection on Christian discipleship in a post-Christendom culture, where churches are now on the margins rather than at the centre of society. Above all, they want to stimulate and encourage faithful and creative forms of mission, church life and discipleship.

They are not interested in Anabaptism as an end in itself, but as a lens through which to rediscover Jesus and his call to discipleship.

Urban Expression is an urban mission agency that recruits, equips, deploys and networks self-financing teams pioneering creative and relevant expressions of the Christian church in under-churched areas of the inner city.

Other friends and partners of the site include:

Cell UK exists to encourage and promote the development of radical cell churches that work in the corporate and the community. To this end Cell UK provides a range of resources for those interested in cell church, in the process of transitioning to the cell church model or planting a new cell church.

The Anabaptist Network is working in partnership with Paternoster to produce a major series of books on the meaning and significance of the end of Christendom in western culture.

The 'After Christendom' series will explore the implications of the demise of Christendom and the challenges facing a church now living on the margins of western society. The various authors all write from within the Anabaptist tradition and draw on this long-marginalised movement for inspiration and insights. They see the current challenges facing the church not as the loss of a golden age but as opportunities to recover a more biblical and more Christian way of being God’s people in God’s world.

These books are not intended to be the last word on the subjects they address, but an invitation to discussion and further exploration.

Incarnate is a grass-roots network for church planting and emerging church in European Baptist circles.

Chiefly web base with bi-monthly updates of church planting articles, stories and resources across the UK, the network is young but likely to spread in to Europe in the near future.

Felix web Creations are committed to the creation and support of ethical and innovative ventures, both on and off the web. Their primary focus is providing content management and graphic design for non-profits and community development groups.

They work with a team of new media consultants, graphic designers and Systematic analysts who between them have built sites for everyone from Wella Shockwaves to the Ministry of Defence.

Their recent portfolio includes County councils, churches, community development groups, book shops, mission networks, blogging systems, charities, small businesses, individual weblogs and - of course - interactivepreaching.net!