What’s Shaping Your Church?
GOSPEL SHAPED
Mercy
Christians have rightly been suspicious of churches that give themselves to political and social campaigns—and seem to lose focus on the gospel at the same time. Over seven weeks explore how a right understanding of the gospel moves us towards ministries of mercy. This track stimulates discussion as to how this looks in everyday life and in your local church context. The Leader's Kit contains everything you need to lead this flexible curriculum.
These main teaching sessions are the core of the material. The DVD presentations last between 12 and 20 minutes, and are broken down into sections to allow for discussion and questions from the Handbook. They include short dramas and interviews. These could be run at a regular Sunday-school hour, at specially arranged meetings, or used as material for your mid-week small groups.
In order to keep people reflecting on the gospel throughout the week, each session includes six daily devotionals for church members to use each day. These are also available to download to an app for smartphones and tablets. Reflecting on Scripture and praying each day will keep people thinking about the issues and questions that were discussed at the main teaching session.
We’ve provided some ideas for passages that an expository series could be based on, so that the weekly preaching is also focused on the theme you are exploring together as a church. Choose the passages that you think will best bring out the themes for your church. There’s space in the Handbook for church members to make notes.
Supporting Bible studies for mid-week groups are also included for those churches using the teaching session material on Sundays. These studies, focused clearly on a single Bible passage, will illustrate the question under scrutiny for the week, and give space for members to ask questions and pray for each other and the life of the church.
All you could need to make the most of this curriculum is contained in the comprehensive Leader’s Guide for each track, including guidance on answering session and Bible-study questions.
More resources to supplement, extend and promote this whole-church exploration are available to download, including talk scripts, feedback forms, DVD trailers, bulletin PDFs and promotional material.
