Here is some information to help you to evaluate Foundations21 and to consider some of the ways in which it might be a resource for your church or group.
What is Foundations21?
It’s BRF’s free online resource for Christian life-long learning and discipleship.
It’s a unique resource for people to use alongside the Bible to enable them to move forward as 21st century disciples.
If you have any questions after reading this page, send us a message via the Contact us link at the top of the home page.
Foundations21 provides:
• 12 themes to explore
• 3,500 pages of content
• Over 6 hours of video
• Links to over 7,500 other websites
• Reflection exercises
• Daily devotional material
• And much, much, more!
Discipleship and Mentoring
Church leaders have told us that they would love to be able to give more time to nurturing the Christian growth of individuals within their churches, but they just don’t have that time.
Foundations21 provides a framework that could make this easier and offers an approach that could be used more widely within the church as a whole.
We say to those who register:
'We encourage everyone doing Foundations21 to find someone to act as their mentor. By ‘mentor’ or ‘friend/mentor’ we mean a more experienced Christian who they know and trust – someone to whom they can send their thoughts and ideas; someone who in turn will support, encourage and help them on their discipleship journey. As they will be in touch with their mentor mainly by email it doesn’t matter if their mentor doesn’t go to the same church or even live nearby. In fact, the mentor could live in another country!'
Foundations21 is optimized for the majority of computer users, i.e. Windows, Internet Explorer, Javascript and Flash. Some people have used other browsers, and other systems, such as Macintosh, but we have not had the resources to specifically optimize the site for these.
Foundations21 is intended to provide a framework for Christian life-long learning and discipleship. Here are just a few groups of people who might benefit:
• Adults who have recently completed a Christian basics course
• New Christians
• Adults who have just been confirmed or are thinking about adult baptism or confirmation
• People who are considering coming back to church or who would call themselves seekers
• Those who are retired and have a bit more time to study and explore. They are one of the fastest growing group of internet-users
• Those who are home-based looking after childen or dependent adults. This is one of the largest groups of internet users
• Those who aren’t regularly able to attend midweek groups or perhaps even Sunday services, due to their circumstances
• People who live abroad for part of the year
• People who work abroad on a short or long-term basis
• Children’s, Youth and Messy Church leaders
• Members of the Armed Forces who often move from location to location
• Mission partners who are isolated and who might appreciate the fellowship, support and shared learning that is possible through Foundations21
• Busy preachers and leaders who need help preparing talks and Bible study material
Take a quick look inside
1. If you haven't registered yet, watch the video: Adrian Plass introduces Foundations21. It's at the top of the homepage. If you have already registered you can see it here.
2. Browse the rest of the homepage to get a feel for Foundations21. Note how it can be used for small groups for mentoring and for preaching and leading.
3. If you haven’t already done so, click on Join now for FREE, to register and access all that Foundations21 has to offer.
4. Then go to New to Foundations21 for help to get you started.
Navigate around the site
We recommend that evaluators use the Interactive Overview to grasp the scope of Foundations21. You will find it half way down the home page in the Exploring Foundations21 section. It is also an easy way to navigate directly to Pathways, Waymarkers and Videos as these are live links. See more on navigating Foundations21 here.
Other things not to miss
• The Prayer and Reflection resources offer daily Bible reading notes, a Quotation, a Psalm and a Promise, as well as a Region of the week to pray for.
• Resources such as the Cyclopedia, Maps and Timewall.
• Features such as My Gospel Learning Style,Faithline and My Journal from the top pull down menu bar.
• My Journal records the assignments and notepad entries users have completed in the Waymarkers. (Entries can be ordered by Date, Subject or Location within Foundations21.)