Resource: Friends of God - a discipleship experience

Many people have a distorted view of God's character that keeps them from being the disciples Jesus calls them to be.
Fortunately there's an effective way to bring them closer to him. Jesus modelled it through a process that's so familiar it's often dismissed.
That model is friendship.

The Friends of God discipleship experience is a 12 Session experience that explores:
SESSION 1:  Discover friendship with God by exploring the qualities of friendship.
SESSION 2:  Explore what nature teaches about God's character.
SESSION 3:  Experience the heart of God by paying closer attention to his Son, Jesus.
SESSION 4:  Practice communicating with God and others through two-way conversations and prayer stations.
SESSION 5:  Explore how the Bible reveals God's heart through the power of questions.
SESSION 6:  Watch a full-length film that explores how discipleship is about relationship, not perfection and performance.
SESSION 7:  Fun experiences that playfully deepen your connection to Jesus.
SESSION 8:  Identify fruit in your life, and discover new ways to abide in Jesus.
SESSION 9:  Share stories of tough AND tender love from God and others, and experience Jesus' love personally.
SESSION 10:  Explore what makes a friend trustworthy and experience a trust-building experiment.
SESSION 11:  Ask for and receive the power of forgiveness.
SESSION 12:  Discover how friendship with Jesus has grown and explore next steps.

The approach in friends of God is:

• Bible study that deepens understanding when paired with reflection and story-telling
• Spiritual discovery that grows through interactive conversation among pairs, trios, and small groups
• Creative, fun discipleship adventures that launch participants into the community

The resource kit includes:

• The Discipleship Experience Leader Guide
• The Discipleship Diary Participant Guide
• Friends of God Session DVDs
• Promo and Session Graphics CD
• Unheard Of - a feature length film
• Heart of Jesus Sticky Note Pad
• One Friends of God Glow Pen
• One Friends of God Go-and-Glow Light
• Three Jesus-centred practical guidebooks: Help! How Do I Read the Bible?, Help! How Do I Pray?, and Help! How Do I Know God’s Will?

Friends of God is available here 

Book: Kingdom Communities

Kingdom Communities
An inspirational and compelling exploration of a spreading phenomenon that is breaking out in the most unlikely of places.

As attendance in churches is in plateau or freefall, small and growing numbers of people are turning to creative and relationally connected communities that shine the light of Christ with great effect and generosity. Kingdom Communities: Shining the light of Christ through faith, hope and love examines the rise of this diverse and organic movement that is popping up in neighbourhoods, regional towns, urban slums, brothels, aged care villages, schools, churches … indeed anywhere!


Using multiple case studies from across the region, Kingdom Communities explores this growing movement historically, biblically and theologically and uncovers the power of distributed networks for holistic Christian mission. In our age of disruption and rapid discontinuous change that has shaken religious institutions to their core, this book is both a challenge and major injection of hope for those who are passionate about the kingdom of God, Christian leadership, the future of ministry and the relational communities that the world desperately needs.

Small Group Study: D360 Nine conversations about whole-life discipleship

D360: Nine Conversations About Whole-life Discipleship is designed as a Bible-study resource for pastors, ministry leaders, teachers and mentors to use in helping young-adult Christians respond to Jesus' Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and develop as full-on, whole-life disciples of Jesus Christ. 
Author Greg Koenig keeps what he calls "churchy language" to a minimum and content can be read at a fairly brisk pace. Plenty of biblical citations are included for readers who enjoy stopping from time to time to study, exchange ideas, or reflect.

Each chapter of D360: Nine Conversations About Whole-life Discipleship is structured as a conversation and features a comprehension section titled Deal With It and a faith-in-action section titled Go and Do.

Although D360's design and structure are fine-tuned for use in a discipling relationship, it can also serve as a powerful tool for an individual who desires to go to the next level in his or her development as a disciple of Christ.

Conversation (i.e., chapter) titles in D360 include: 

• In the Image; 
• Discipleship: A Life of Response to the Work of the Holy Spirit; 
• Christian Learning: Understanding God’s Word; 
• Community: God, You and Others; 
• Prayer: Your Direct Access to the God Who Listens; 
• Worship: It Might Not Be What You Think. It’s More.; 
• Stewardship: It’s NOT (All) About Money?; 
• Disciple-building. And Witness. And Evangelism.; 
• What It All Could Look Like.

For a free sample visit here

To buy D360 visit here

About the authour
Greg Koenig is a preacher’s kid, educator and writer who has dedicated a lot of his adult life to understanding and interpreting faith and the Christian experience from the perspective of someone unacquainted with churchspeak (often also called Christianese).
“The phrase image of God in this book is a good example,” says Greg. “Many of us insiders love to use the term imago Dei, which is the Latin equivalent of the Hebrew b'tzelem Elohim—image, or shadow, or likeness of God. There is an elegance and a mystique to the phrase imago Dei, but the elegance and mystique are not particularly helpful to someone
who is just learning to respond to the message ofthe Bible. That simple message from God needs to strike a chord and then resonate; the language we use must allow it to do that.”

Greg is the servant-leader of the Lutheran Campus Mission Association (GoLCMA.org), an organization dedicated to equipping leaders to reach out with the Gospel in college/university communities. He and his wife Deb live in St. Louis, Missouri; they have four children and (at last count) four grandchildren. 

Online Lutheran Video Courses from Institute of Lutheran Theology

Institute of Lutheran Theology has developed video courses for congregations to use free of charge.  The courses include:

• The only thing necessary - listening to Jesus
• Communications and relationships
• Ten Commandments
• New Testament Survey
• Learning to follow

To view these courses visit http://www.ilt.org/#!courses-for-congregations/c1s8b

Video study: FLOW (For the Life Of the World)...Letters to exiles

FLOW is an engaging film series that explores the deeper meaning of Salvation.
Have you ever wondered, “What is my Salvation actually FOR?”
Is it only about personal atonement, about getting to heaven, or something that comes later?
 Is it just to have a “friend in Jesus?”
Evan Koons and his friends – Stephen Grabill, Amy Sherman, Anthony Bradley, Makoto Fujimura, John M. Perkins, Tim Royer and Dwight Gibson – explore a new perspective,”
the BIGGER picture of what it means to be “in the world, not of it. ”
This seven-part film series and companion Field Guide will help you, your friends, church or organization investigate God’s Economy of All Things – OIKONOMIA (a Greek word that has a lot to say about God’s plan for his creation, the world, and us.)
In FLOW we explore how God’s purposes are woven into every area of our lives: family, work, art, charity,education, government, recreation and all creation!
The Bible calls us Strangers and Pilgrims, living in “the now and not yet” of God’s Kingdom Come on earth.
We are also called to be salt and light, to have a transforming presence among our neighbours.
In seven 20-minute-ish episodes, you’ll learn how our lives lived on earth matter in God’s plan for the world.
Anyone familiar with the Christian faith – whether you’re Baptist or Catholic, Orthodox or Presbyterian, madly in love with your church or just about to walk out its doors – will find wonder and hope along this journey. Rediscover our passionate and imaginative callings as agents of God’s grace in every broken place.
You’ll travel a vast terrain in each episode, so you might want to watch the series more than once. There’s much to discover and ponder anew!

For more information visit their web site http://www.letterstotheexiles.com/

Small Group/Life Group Video studies first lesson free from over 140 bible studies

Zondervan offers the entire first lesson for over 140 their DVD based group Bible studies. No more guessing on the content, instead you get the full video experience by being able to see and evaluate the complete first lesson of each multi-lesson Bible study.
Each video is easy to share with your friends, small group or Bible study. Just hit the "share" button under the video and send it via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
Zondervan video-based group Bible studies are available on DVD. These video Bible studies feature a variety of topics from many authors, and are available wherever small group resources and curriculum are sold including Christianbook.com, Amazon.com and many others

Visit the playlist page https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF50A7F0A0EAB162A
or click the video below

Book: Sticky Church by Larry Osborne

In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne makes the case that closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. He offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the ministry. It's a strategy that enabled Osborne's congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation---without any marketing or special programming. Sticky Church tells the inspiring story of North Coast Church's phenomenal growth and offers practical tips for launching your own sermon-based small group ministry. Topics include: Why stickiness is so important Why most of our discipleship models don't work very well Why small groups always make a church more honest and transparent What makes groups grow deeper and sticker over time Sticky Church is an ideal book for church leaders who want to start or retool their small group ministry---and velcro their congregation to the Bible and each other.

Reviews available for each chapter here

Also available from Australian Church Resources 

Small Group pastors blog

A blog of ideas and information for pastors involved in small groups http://smallgrouppastors.wordpress.com/

Free Study/Small group guides for Grace upon Grace

John Kleinig has produced two free study guides that can be used in conjunction with his book Grace upon grace.

The study guides are available at
Grace Upon Grace Study Guide 1
Grace Upon Grace Study Guide 2

The book is available at:
Australian Church Resources
Concordia Publishing House

Simple Church conference 2008 recordings and free book

The Simple Church conference was held in September 2008

Sessions included
Stories in Islamic Countries
Prayerfully Wrestling with Issues
Conversations with Wolfgang: Leaders of Church Planting Movements
Stories in Asia
The Chinese Phenomenon
Why movements rise or fall
Practical Skills for building House Churches
"The Aussie Church Landscape" Philip Hughes CRA
Highlighting the Aussie Stories
Conversation with Wolfgang: Ministry in Urban Contexts
The Starfish Phenomenon
The World of Difference
So how then should we be?
From what I Hear! Australia & the World
What They Might Look Like
Their DNA
What would it take in Aussie?

For recordings visit: https://secure.lifeexpedition.org/simplechurch/downloads.php#

For the free pdf book visit: http://www.oikos.org.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/the-starfish-vision.pdf

Monthly Feature: Small Groups

SMALL GROUPS HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG TIME

Did you know that small groups in Lutheran church's go back many years.....infact many, many, many years.....
A Lutheran character called Philip Spener encouraged small groups to meet, to encourage growth spiritually in the church. In 1675 he wrote something called Pia Desideria (meaning 'Heart felt desire for God pleasing reform'). The following were the main points:

1. there should be "a more extensive use of the Word of God among us." The Bible, Spener said, "must be the chief means for reforming something." This was achieved through small groups who met for prayer and bible study.
2. a call also for a renewal of "the spiritual priesthood," the priesthood of all believers. Here he cited Luther's example in urging all Christians to be active in the general work of Christian ministry.
3. He appealed for the reality of Christian practice and argued that Christianity is more than a matter of simple knowledge.
4. He then urged restraint and charity in religious controversies. He asked his readers to love and pray for unbelievers and the erring, and to adopt a moderate tone in disputes.
5. Next he called for a reform in the education of ministers. Here he stressed the need for training in piety and devotion as well as in academic subjects.
6. Last he implored ministers to preach edifying sermons, understandable by the people, rather than technical discourses which few were interested in or could understand.

Buy a copy of the book.

A SIMPLE FORMAT FOR SMALL GROUPS

Small Groups can take any format, and are often influenced by the mix of people, the time available and the interests.
But here are two very simple formats...
GENERAL SMALL GROUP FORMAT
Meal/Drink and nibble: Have a meal or at least something to nibble and eat together, encourage discussion around the meal about how your week had been, what people think of news events, how is family life, etc.
A bible reading or presentation on a issue from a Christian perspective (eg. dvd, or somethign someone found and shares) There is no strict rule on what you choose, You may wish to further explore one of the readings from Sunday worship...some reasources relating to lectionary worship are available from http://www.changingchurch.com/ as part of their cctoolkit or from http://www.formingfaith.com/ as part of their faith at home handout or even try http://www.textweek.com/ . Alternatively obtain a video series or if you are looking for other ideas email me richardschwedes@gmail.com . Alternatively you may have particular issues that are relevant to your group that you are keen to delve into.
Talk about it..(usually someone needs to faciliate this in a safe way...ask questions like, what do you think?, what did you get out of it? What didn't seem to make sense?, How do you think this affects our lives? even give examples)
Pray..have a prayer leader who prays aloud, give others the opportunity to do so also but creating a time of silence where they can pray either aloud or quietly (some people are comfortable praying aloud whilst others appreciate the opportunity to pray quietly)
SMALL GROUP FORMAT FOR GATHERING FAMILIES TOGETHER
The idea of this format is to encourage families to come together, but for family meet and eat together for part of the night, and relate to other families for part of the night.
Gathering: Ice breaker games.
Meal: Families from the same family sit at the same table...Propose a question to talk about over the meal. Encourage families to talk about this question and other relevant issues as they eat.
Bible story: Have families listen to a bible story and even read it. Then ask them to discuss it with questions like. What is important for you in that story? Which character do you relate to the most and why? What are something relating to that story you are going to ask God about?
Activity: Do an activity together relating to the Bible Story!!....
Prayer: Pray for each other as a family
GAME TIME: Mix families up (dads in one group, mums in another, sons in another and daughters in another; or 2 or 3 families combine for a group). Play some games that encourage interaction.
PARTING WORDS: Finish the night off with some parting words...Summary of what we covered, and gaining feedback on what people liked and what people would like...and a blessing.

A LUTHERAN SMALL GROUP CONGREGATION

Alleluia Lutheran Church http://www.azalleluia.com is a church organised around small groups/cell groups...Check out their web site to see how this works.

Another congregation with a significant focus on small groups is http://www.trinityomaha.org/lifegroups.htm who emphasis them as life groups.

SMALL GROUP RESOURCES AND IDEAS

http://smallgroups.com/ has a huge range of resources and ideas for small groups and small group leaders. SmallGroups.com is an Internet-based ministry providing training and resources for Christian small groups. Our members are a network of individuals, churches, publishers, and other Christian organizations brought together in one place to provide ongoing training and support for small group leaders and administrators of groups.
http://www.johnmallison.com/cell.htm John Mallison an Australian Church leader has been very helpful to many church leaders in the area of small groups. Check out his book at http://www.johnmallison.com/jmcellbook.htm
BuildingSmallGroups.com located at http://www.christianitytoday.com/smallgroups has a huge arrange of resources relating to small groups...well worth a look at.
Lutheran Church Missouri synod's home page relating to small groups is at http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=956
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America relating to small groups is at http://www.elca.org/christianeducation/educators/trans_formation.html

PUBLISHERS AND PRODUCERS OF SMALL GROUP MATERIALS

Augsburg Fortress books relating to small groups include One Anothering: Biblical building blocks for small groups, Building Spiritual Community in Small Groups, Starting Small Groups and keeping them going, plus a range of their teaching materials including No experience necessary...visit their web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/searchresults.jsp?clsid=113031&searchType=all&searchstring=small+groups&classificationID=-1&x=18&y=9

CPH...Concordia Publising House has a selection of resources that are very suitable for small groups in searching the scriptures. Just visit their web site and explore studies www.cph.org

Zondervan has a wide range of publciations relating to small groups, why not visit their site at http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Search/Search.htm?ViewImages=true&SearchValue=small+groups&SearchContent=Products&SearchMode=Simple&QueryStringSite=Zondervan if this link doen't work go to www.zondervan.com and type in small groups

Willow Creek Association has a strong ministry in the areas of small group ministry, with regular conferences and plenty of material. Infact the Willow Creek church began as a small group. Visit their web site for an overview of their resources http://www.willowcreek.com/googlemini/index.asp?site=willownet5&client=wca_frontend&proxystylesheet=wca_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&filter=p&proxyreload=1&getfileds=googlecat&fromSection=Resources&q=small+group

if this link doesn't work go to www.willlowcreek.com and type in small groups

Serendipty House offers a range of bible studies, issue studies ideal for small groups, plus a range of small group leader materials http://www.serendipityhouse.com

Group Publishing offers a variety of materials that help small groups in the areas of bible studies, leadership, outreach, marriage ministry, volunteer ministires. check out their site at http://store.grouppublishing.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10706

Upper Room Publishing has a specialist area for smal group ministries with free advice, a magazine for small groups and books available at http://www.upperroom.org/fivecircles/walking.asp

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: Believe it or not I have turned up to a small group where the person leading the group has not had the time to prepare for the group and has simply picked up a book. This can cause problems because not all material is suitable for all groups (Some groups even in the same congregation require different material and can cope with different situations). Before using any small group material, please review it and think about whether the material will be helpful. Also not all of the above are from Lutheran resources, but have in fact been recommended from a variety of Lutheran resources so checking is important, not so much to exclude but to put a Lutheran slant on things.

ONE LAST THING: If you have any other recommendations please send them to me at richardschwedes@gmail.com I am sure there is more stuff worth sharing.