{"id":1980,"date":"2018-10-10T16:09:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2018\/10\/10\/it-s-not-another-programme\/"},"modified":"2018-10-10T16:09:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T16:09:36","slug":"it-s-not-another-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/it-s-not-another-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s not another programme\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 September 2018 | Freudenstadt, Germany [Harald Giesebrecht]<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not another programme. Not one more thing on the pastor\u2019s to-do list\u201d, Stephan Sigg told the participants gathered for the iCOR training for trainers in Freudenstadt, Germany the last week of September.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four participants from across TED and EUD, including both Division and Union youth leaders, were assembled to immerse themselves in the secrets of iCOR. The presenters were the European pioneers of the initiative: Stephan Sigg (president of the Switzerland Union Conference) and Bert Seefeld (Youth director of North-German Union Conference).\"iCOR<\/a><\/p>\n

iCOR stands for Inter-generational Church of Refuge<\/em>. It is based on the biblical vision of the Church as God\u2019s family, a safe home where spiritual growth and discipleship happens in the context of loving relationships. This is not a new dream for most churches, but with German and Swiss thoroughness and help from professional \u2018change experts\u2019, Stephan and Bert have developed iCOR into a practical instrument that will turn this dream into a reality for any church board that adopts it.<\/p>\n

This is what convinced many of the participants: the initiative does not focus on what a church should do. \u201cIt is not another programme. Programmes only make sense when they are part of a process,\u201d Stephan said. iCOR sketches a process that goes deep below the surface, into the often-unconscious culture, values and very being of the community. Working both with individual and corporate values, a vision of the future is anchored in the deepest longings of the group. Only when the church together, across the generations, formulates what it would mean to them to be<\/em> the community of Jesus, is there time to experiment with surface changes. But it is up to the individual church what this should look like in their setting.<\/p>\n