Mission Shaped Living Participant's Guide

John McGinley

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780830781805
• eBook ISBN: 9780830781829
• 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 participant's guide is designed to work alongside the Mission Shaped Living Leader'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

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.

IN

How are you?

How did you come to believe in Jesus?

What difference has he made to your life?

Vision Casting

Read:

Matthew 28:16–20

Acts 1:4–8

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

Let’s Get Practical: Recognising Our Missional Context

List the places and main relationships in which you spend the majority of your time each week:

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

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

UP

Prayer and Worship

Pray and bring all that we 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.

The sending of the seventy-two in this passage will form the basis of the structure of the rest of Mission Shaped Living.

Here is a brief summary of how each session title relates to this passage:

Confidence (vv. 2–3)

Courage (vv. 2–3)

Compassion (vv. 8–9)

Connecting (vv. 5–6)

Continuing (v. 7)

Conversion (v. 9)

OUT

Daily Prayer

Write a prayer to pray at the start of every day of the coming week; a prayer that offers yourself to God to be used to share his love and good news with others who you will meet that day.

Prayer of Consecration

Lord Jesus Christ, I am no longer my own but yours.

In gratitude for your saving death on my behalf, I offer my life to you afresh.

Call me to the mission of your kingdom and open my eyes to the spiritual need of those around me.

Give me your love and compassion for the lost, and strengthen me with your grace to serve them and be a blessing to them.

Send me in the power of your Holy Spirit to witness to the gospel and reveal you to those I meet.

Teach me how to make disciples and where I need to change my attitude, lifestyle, and habits.

I freely and wholeheartedly commit myself to this call, knowing that in everything you will give me your inspiration, strength, and grace.

Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it.

Let this covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in heaven.

Amen.

SESSION 1: PERSONAL REFLECTION

An encouraging story:

Edith was an eighty-two-year-old Parochial Church Council secretary in a rural Church of England parish. She attended an MSL group where she was asked to think of people around her who weren’t yet Christians. She didn’t think she knew anyone until people started to talk about her neighbours. She started to pray for the people who lived next door to her and opposite her. One day she saw the young man who lived next door walking with some difficulty past her front gate. She went outside and asked him what the problem was and he explained that he had developed a very painful skin condition. She invited him in for a cup of tea and after she had listened to his story she offered to pray with him. After she had prayed, he said how much better he felt. This was the first informal prayer Edith had ever prayed with someone.

A Focus for Prayer

Read John 20:19–23.

Take some time to reflect on the material from session 1, ‘Being Sent’.

Connect with how you are feeling about Jesus calling you to share his love and good news with others. Don’t try and hide from any feelings of fear or inadequacy—acknowledge them. Hopefully there might a...

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