Unbinding the Gospel Project
The Lilly Endowment has awarded a major grant (2008 - ), with two stated purposes:
- to support groups of churches (1000+ congregations) with coaching so they can use the Real Life Evangelism Series (Unbinding the Gospel, Unbinding Your Church and Unbinding Your Heart) in the most systematic and effective ways possible for their own contexts, and
- to help pastors and lay leaders in these 1000 churches to work together as "communities of inquiry," in essence as field researcher partners, as they discover, evaluate and work with the dynamics of congregational transformation through faith development, faith sharing and missional outreach.
Martha Grace Reese, director of the original Mainline Evangelism Project, the research project in which the Unbinding Series is grounded, serves as the director of this new research, the "Unbinding the Gospel Project." Gifted coaches work with Reese on this four-year project.
Reports to Lilly Endowment:
6/4/10: 
2nd Report to Endowment
4/21/09: 1st Report to the Endowment