Image Bearers: Restoring Our Identity and Living Out Our Calling

Restoration is one of the basic building-blocks to Christian growth: it affects the way we relate to God, to ourselves, and to others. When we allow God to restore us, shape us and refine us into the people we were made to be, we can enjoy His presence more fully, live more freely, and reflect His image more closely.

Drawing on the work of a close friend and counsellor, Ruth Miller, who died in 2013, Image Bearers has been inspired by Ruth's significant ministry of individual counselling and pastoral healing. Beginning with a theological framework for restoration, each chapter builds on the brokenness we experience in life - our anxieties, fear and failures - and equips us with spiritual practices to improve our prayer, evangelism and pastoral care, giving us a greater vision for God's restoration in our own lives.

 Image Bearers is written for anyone wishing to grow into greater Christian maturity. In this joint venture, Rachel Atkinson and Michael Lloyd encourage us to live lives that are theologically grounded and practically applied; restoration cannot simply be taught but must be experienced, lived and modelled.

Rachel Atkinson works alongside her husband, Phil, in leading St. Mark's Coventry, a City Centre Resource Church planted by HTB in 2017. She holds a Doctorate in Ministry, and has served on the teaching staff of Spurgeon's College and St. Mellitus College. Her particular interests are in mission, evangelism, and spiritual formation.

Michael Lloyd is the Principal of Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the problem of evil - giving him the infamous name amond his students, Dr Evil. Michael has taught theology at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and airs his views on the GodPodcast.