Fm - Session 12

church

Community Putting the Purposes Into Practice

Session 12

worship and prayer

10 minutes

• Sing 2-3 Worship Songs (project songs on PowerPoint) • Pray out loud for the course and for God to reveal himself through it and have each student pray for his or her neighbor at the same time that God may reveal himself and his purposes in a deeper way, give vision and renewed passion for his work on earth to be done.

review of previous session

xx minutes

Ask students to summarize the most important points of the last session. In case there was no time to end the group scripture studies/dramatization last time, use the beginning of this session to complete them.

video clips: transformation: dream or reality? examples from churches who took god’s purposes seriously xx minutes

In what follows I want to share with you some real-life examples of churches who took God’s purposes for the church seriously. In doing so we will see that it was not only possible for biblical characters to engage in transformation, but that it is equally possible for us to do so. Have participants go to the worksheet “Transformation – Dream or Reality” and ask them to reflect on the questions as they watch the video clips. Show the following video clips from Nuevos Cimientos in one sitting: • Incarnation and Presence: 0:14-8:44 • Community and Reconciliation: 8:45-14:10 • Service and Social Action: 19:29-27:50 • Justice and Advocacy: 27:50-33:06 • Conclusion: 33:19-35:40 After having shown the video clips, ask participants how they feel now after seeing the video clips on four of the eight purposes of the church and having studied different Scripture passages related to these purposes. What struck them most about seeing these different churches engage with their communities?

group activity: homework review and how to become a kingdom church xx minutes

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Living the Story Series

Now that we’ve seen some concrete examples of how other churches are putting God’s purposes into practice we will seek to put even more flesh to the bones of what we studied last week in regards to the purposes of the church. Divide students into the same groups of four to five. If the class is small, do not divide. Have students use the worksheet “Reflections on the Integral Mission of the Church” as discussion guide and discuss their answers to the questions. • Look at the numbers you circled. Share your responses with each other. What do your answers tell you about yourself and your daily life? Discuss your responses with one another. • Look at the numbers you placed in boxes. Share your results with each other. What do your answers indicate about your church? Discuss your responses with one another. • Add all the numbers in circles, and add all the numbers in boxes. What steps could your church take to become more like the Church was intended to be? • If you have identified your church as a lake church, how could you help your church move from being a lake church to a river church? Give participants about 30 minutes time to discuss their responses in their respective groups. If this training is done with a single church, then bring different groups together after the 20-30 minutes to dialog about their reflections, findings etc. as a large group. Facilitate this conversation, while giving the pastor a prerogative.

writing a purpose statement1 For the last part of this session, I would like you to take time to formulate a purpose/mission statement for your Church – if it doesn’t have one yet. xx minutes

Have participants turn to the worksheet “Writing a Purpose Statement” and lead them through the process of writing a purpose statement for their church. If working with members from more than one church, have participants from the same church work together on creating a purpose statement for their church, knowing that they would later facilitate a similar process with other members/ leaders of their church to get more ownership for a purpose statement that all agree on.

homework assignment and application

xx minutes

Assign students to study the article “e Last Days” as homework, to answer the reflection questions at the end of the article, and to come prepared to share their findings with other members of their group. ose

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Living the Story Series

who so desire can also read the article “e Timing of Jesus’ Second Coming”.

closing prayer Ask a participant to close in prayer. 5 minutes

personal notes

total time: xx minutes

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Living the Story Series

endnote 1

We use the word purpose statement in this study – though you could also use the word mission statement.

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Living the Story Series