Mission Shaped Living Leader's Guide

John McGinley

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780830781812
• eBook ISBN: 9780830781836
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

More than just a tool box of 'how to do evangelism, ' Mission Shaped Living will build spiritual practices, vision, hope, and confidence into your life so that sharing God's love with others becomes a joy and not a burden. Society has shifted and the way mission was done in the past is no longer effective. People are looking for authenticity and Christians are looking for a lifelong and deep discipleship that results in effective mission with authenticity. Structured over eight sessions, this leader's guide accompanies the Mission Shaped Living Participant's Guide to provide everything needed to run the course. Mission Shaped Living gives churches, small groups, and individual believers the tools and resources to develop discipleship and an outward focus to reach and bless their communities, cities, and nations.

Session 1

Being Sent

If you don’t think you’ll have time to work through all the elements in this session, we suggest you leave out the sections that have been highlighted in grey.

We are all starting in different places and so each of our journeys through the coming weeks will be unique. There is no expectation of us all starting at the same place or finishing in the same place at the end of our Mission Shaped Living journey, but we have all believed the good news of Jesus Christ and so each of us can take steps forward in our calling to be a witness for him. Like a baton in a relay race we have received the gospel and we are now sent to pass it on.

Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be his followers when they were fishermen. In Jewish culture the young men who showed most spiritual promise in the local synagogue were invited by a rabbi to be their disciple. All other young men were left to continue in their father’s business. So from their vocation we know that these young men hadn’t made the spiritual grade. Regardless, when they met Jesus, they were willing to follow him and learn from him, reminding us that following Jesus and being sent by him on mission is not about our ability; it is simply about being willing to become his apprentice, or a learner, which is all a disciple is.

As we begin this first session try to lay down any anxieties and trust God to lead you and teach you as you follow him.

IN

• How are you?
  If the group is already established, give people a chance to talk and catch up on how they’ve been since you last met. If this is the first time you’ve met, ask everyone to introduce themselves and tell the others a bit about themselves.

Introducing the Course

You may want to include the following when you describe what the course is about:

• The aim of this material is to help you to live as a missional disciple within the places and relationships of your everyday life.
• This is not a training course aimed at preparing us for a door to door mission or a formulaic evangelistic strategy! Instead we hope to enable the Holy Spirit to lead us into patterns of living and relationship which allow us to be the people Jesus is calling us to be, who will lead others to follow him.
• We are all starting in different places and so each of our journeys through the coming weeks will be different. There is no expectation of us all arriving at the same place, but we really believe that each of us can take steps forward in our calling to be a witness for Jesus.

Group Question

Encourage everyone into pairs to answer these questions:

• How did you come to believe in Jesus?
• What difference has he made in your life?

If you think people will struggle with this, you can give them time to think and write some notes, or you might like to let them know ahead of the gathering that this will be discussed to give them time to think about it.

If you have time, invite people to reflect on what they have discussed in their pairs, anything they learned about each other, and something that particularly encouraged them.

Vision Casting

Ask people to read the following passages aloud to the rest of the group:

• Matthew 28:16–20.
• Acts 1:4–8.

It might be helpful to summarise the content of these passages. Here is an example of what you might say:

We have heard some challenging but also really encouraging words that Jesus spoke to his disciples saying that he is sending us as his representatives. In the same way the Father sent Jesus to reveal his love to the world and complete his mission, so he is sending us. The good news is that he hasn’t left us on our own! He has sent us his Holy Spirit and given us his authority. He expects his disciples to make new disciples—and if we thought it was just those first apostles, he then says that they are to teach these new disciples to do what he has told them, which is to make disciples. Jesus understands that to start with we won’t know how to make another disciple but he will teach us and so we have to learn from him. That is really what is meant by the word ‘disciple’: that we will be learners, on-the-job apprentices, who will learn how to lead others to follow him.

Group Question

How do you feel about the fact that Jesus is calling you to represent him and reveal him to others?

Encourage positive and negative responses—allow people to share honestly.

Let’s Get Practical: Recognising Our Missional Context

As we are thinking about how God can use us to share his love and good news with the people we meet in our everyday lives, it’s helpful to name the places and people where we spend the majority of our time. Ask people to write these down, and if there is time get the group to share what they have said.

Group Questions

Do you enter these places with a sense of being ‘sent’ by Jesus?

What are the challenges of being a witness for Jesus there?

You can conclude this section by saying something like: It is important to acknowledge how we think and feel about this. We’re in the process of learning and by agreeing that we have been sent but that it’s difficult, we can relax and simply ask for God’s help.

UP

Prayer and Worship

Pray and bring all that you have been thinking and talking about to Jesus, thanking him for calling and choosing us to represent him, acknowledging our weaknesses and failures in this, and asking for his help.

Read Luke 10:1–20.

This passage provides the structure and biblical basis for Mission Shaped Living. The significance of this story is that Jesus moves beyond on...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Session 1: Being Sent
• Session 2: Confidence
• Session 3: Courage
• Session 4: Compassion
• Session 5: Connecting
• Session 6: Continuing
• Session 7: Conversion
• Session 8: Mission Shaped Living