gospel community
training manual
Using this Manual
The Gospel Community Training Manual is designed to be used in launching new Gospel Communities. The concept is simple:
For five weeks leading up to the launch of your Gospel Community, work through one of these sessions per week.
Working through each session looks like:
- Reading and reflecting on a few Scripture passages.
- Listening to a 30 minute podcast episode.
- Discussing the passages and podcast episode through discussion questions. This discussion will ideally take place with the other members of your team and your Gospel Community Coach.
- After each discussion, you'll fill in a bit more of your Mission Vision Worksheet. Once you're done with these five weeks, you'll have a fully formed Mission Vision and you'll be ready to start meeting as a Gospel Community.
If you have any questions about any of this, contact Pastor Mark.
Resources
Download your Mission Vision Worksheet here: Word Doc | PDF
Access this entire manual as a podcast: click here
- This Training Manual is the first five episodes of the Sending Space podcast (called "Basics of Gospel Community").
- Discussion questions are embedded in the show notes.
Session 01: The Gospel in Real Life
Read & Reflect: Luke 4:16–22, Ephesians 2, 1 Corinthians 15:1–10
Listen:
Discuss with your team:
What news is being communicated in Luke 4:16–22, Ephesians 2, and 1 Corinthians 15:1–10? What makes that news good?
How has Jesus been good news in your life? (Don’t think of this in cliché religious terms. In your actual real life, how has Jesus been good news to you?)
*Who in your life right now needs good news? What good news are they needing? How is that good news found in Jesus?
*How do you envision your group embodying good news to the people around you? (Think in terms of “gospel fluency”: how might it flow effortlessly through your conversations, your interactions, and every other aspect of your life together?)
Fill in questions 1–3 on your Mission Vision Worksheet
Session 02: Family on Mission
Read & Reflect: Acts 2:42–47, Acts 4:32–35, 1 Peter 4:8–10
Listen:
Discuss with your team:
What are some of the most meaningful experiences with community you’ve had? What made these experiences so powerful?
*What would it look like to establish true community within your group? What potential pitfalls do you want to avoid?
What small but significant lifestyle adjustments do you need to make in order to enable true community within your group and the people you’re inviting in?
*It’s all too easy for church groups to become inward focused, to be a family without a mission. How will you keep the mission central to the community you’re forming?
*What other believers do you know that you’d like to invite to be part of living as a family on a mission?
Fill in questions 4–6 on your Mission Vision Worksheet
Session 03: Intentional Living: Public Space
Read & Reflect: Genesis 12:1–3, John 17:6–19
Listen:
Discuss with your team:
Where do you see your love being out of balance? (Which of the three circles on the Integrating Love circle do you struggle to incorporate?)
Based on what Jesus said in John 17, what does it mean that he was “sent into the world” (v. 18)? What does it mean that we are “sent into the world” just as Jesus was? What are the implications of this?
*How can you begin to build some margin into your life so that you have time to start building relationships with people currently outside of your sphere of influence?
*Where does your life already come into contact with people who don’t know Jesus? (E.g., sports, school, work, recreation, hobbies, neighborhood.) How can you be more intentional when you’re in these settings so as to begin relationships?
Who specifically are you praying for in this public space sphere?
Fill in question 7 on your Mission Vision. Update question 1 if necessary.
Session 04: The Table: Social Space
Read & Reflect: Luke 14:15–24, Luke 19:1–10
Listen:
Discuss with your team:
Which relationships in your life are ready for the next level of invitation? What should that invitation be? (To a lunch or coffee with you? With you and a few members of your group? To a Gospel Community Gathering?)
How are you making yourself available to the people around you so as to deepen the relationships you have?
*How will you structure your group’s social space gatherings so that you have space to invite people into belonging?
In addition to your group’s gatherings, what space(s) do you have or need to create to give you space to invite people into belonging?
*Do you anticipate feeling self–conscious about bringing certain people into your gatherings? Why? How might you need to adjust your social space gatherings (perhaps moving some elements to your sacred space gatherings) so that it becomes a place where all kinds of people can belong?
Who specifically are you praying for in the social space sphere?
Fill in questions 8 and 9 on your Mission Vision. Update question 1 if necessary.
Session 05: Discipleship: Sacred Space
Read & Reflect: 2 Timothy 2:1–2, Matthew 28:18–20, James 1:22–25, Hebrews 10:23–25
Listen:
Discuss with your team:
*Who is in your life right now that is probably ready to go deeper? What would it look like to invest in these people on a more intimate scale?
Based on what you see Jesus doing with his disciples in the Gospels and on the passages you read for this session, what should discipleship focus on?
How might you create an intimate sacred space gathering that actually moves toward this goal?
What would it look like to develop an apprenticeship approach to discipleship as opposed to a lecture approach?
Who have you invested in through sacred space that is probably ready to be challenged to step into a discipling and/or leadership role?
Who specifically are you praying for in the sacred space sphere?
Fill in question 10 on your Mission Vision. Update question 1 if necessary.
What now?
- If you haven't filled out your Mission Vision, do it now: Word Doc | PDF
- You can find continued training discussions through the Sending Space podcast.
- If you're not sure where to go from here, contact Pastor Mark.