The Imaginary Doorway

ABM’s 2023 Lenten Study available to download in PDF format

Print copies of the book have sold out, but you can download a PDF version at a cost of $5.00 here. 

“The Imaginary Doorway” is another fine piece of Australian missional theology, designed to get your group talking and your mind thinking.

Seven studies that, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week, take us into the lives of seven of the people Jesus brought to wholeness. Seven stories that bring scripture alive and help us to understand that Jesus was dealing with real people, rather than generic characters. Hear anew the stories of Legion, the haemorrhaging woman, Lazarus and Martha, the woman accused of adultery, Zacchaeus, the paralysed man let down through the roof – and that post-resurrection BBQ breakfast on the beach.

Story-based studies that will touch your heart, build your faith, and encourage you on the missional journey. All genuine mission is incarnational and relationally based. As the studies suggest, “If our mission is all about purpose rather than relationship, we miss the point.”

Written by ABM Education Missioner, Stephen Daughtry, with art by Vanessa Daughtry, this will be another beautiful and challenging dive into God’s love.

Download your PDF copy now by clicking here

“Complimenting Vanessa’s evocative images, Canon Steve takes the gift of human imagination seriously, inviting us to experience scripture in a new way – with the authentic potential for new revelation.

“ABM is the preeminent Anglican organisation producing contemporary quality study materials, which enhance the work and witness of God’s Church in the modern world. ABM studies encourage the people of God in their faithful reflection and strengthen their capacity to turn reflection into action for justice”.

The Venerable Sophie Relf-Christopher
Archdeacon of Sturt
Diocese of Adelaide

One of the great failures of the church in our time is a failure of imagination. Trapped in ways of thinking or ways of being the church or ways of reading our sacred texts that belong to an age long past, we have largely lost the capacity to imagine a different or new future for our faith and our church.

The latest study from ABM, penned by Stephen Daughtry with vivid illustrations by Vanessa Daughtry invites us on a journey of imagination, engaging with ancient texts in fresh new ways through story, poetry, music, art and missiology.

Each of the seven sessions of The Imaginary Doorway (ideal for Lent or any other time during the year) takes a well-known story from Scripture and offers an imaginative re-telling of that story before connecting it back into a number of real and challenging contemporary issues.

This is another excellent offering from the team at ABM and I thoroughly recommend it for small groups or individuals who are keen to immerse themselves in the scriptures and begin the work of remedying the failure of imagination that so afflicts the church. Not only is each study carefully written, the beautiful illustrations from Vanessa Daughtry bring page after page alive to further prompt the imagination.

The Right Rev’d Jeremy Greaves
Bishop for the Northern Region
Diocese of Brisbane