Download View Field Guide Session #1

SESSION 1
EVERY MAN WOMAN & CHILD
EVERY MAN, Woman & child
OVERVIEW OF SESSION
 Intro what we’re doing/what to expect
 Prayer time in small groups
 Content
 Engagement with content
WINS OF THE SESSION
 Experience an intentional prayer time together.
 Buy into giving themselves fully to the first two sessions and making the
“larger” decision later.
 Actively engage with the BIG IDEA of re-examining the nature and purpose
of the Church.
Coaching Tip
Make sure each church has at least two people representing their
church.
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NOTES ON APPRENTICING
We suggest having someone with
you to apprentice as you walk
through these sessions. We have
provided notes at the conclusion of
each session that guide a debrief
with your apprentice.
Make sure that your apprentice
takes lots of notes observing how
you are leading the room which will
enrich this debriefing.
ASSETS NEEDED FOR SESSION
 Two or more people from each church
 Whiteboard and markers
 Video of Christ Together pastors telling their personal stories with EMWC
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BRoad session notes
for facilitator
INTRO
Your story of “Every man, woman and child”
Purpose of learning community sessions
Invitation to more
PRAYER
Groups of 3-4
Three questions
CONTENT
Exercise:
How does the American Church typically define success?
How did we arrive at that conclusion?
By themselves/groups of 3-4/share with whole room
Personal example from facilitator
Questions:
How does God define a successful church?
What does God want to do in our city?
What would it look like if God did what He wanted to do in our
geography?
Relationship + Representation
Ambassadors of Reconciliation
Genesis 1:26-27
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
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Commissioned and Empowered
to Reach Specified Geographies
Every Man, Woman and Child
2 Peter 3:8-9
Acts 1:6-8
video: Pastor Testimony
Owning the lostness of my geography
INTERACTIVE Q + A
What was most helpful or exciting about the content?
What was most challenging?
What question might you ask?
 On your own
 Groups of 3-4
 Whole group
CLOSING THOUGHT
The problem is accessibility, not relevancy.
PRAY
DISMISS
APPRENTICE DEBRIEF
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In-depth Session Notes
for Facilitator:
INTRO
 8 minutes
Facilitator Share your story of being envisioned with “every man, woman
and child” and how it has impacted your personal life and leadership.
Explain the purpose of the learning community sessions.
We are here because the trajectory of the church is deeply
concerning.
While it seems the church might have lost its identity and destiny,
there has been a resurgence of a faithful remnant who is calling for
and living into a reformation that returns to the heart of God’s mission
for the world in which He so loves: the basics of Gospel, Mission,
Disciple-making and a commitment to seeing the Great Commission
fulfilled.
That’s the conversation we want to have. That’s what these first two
sessions together are about.
We are not asking you to commit to all 10 sessions today. After these
two sessions, if your heart and imagination are stirred by what we
are talking about, we want to invite you on a journey for another
8 sessions that will look almost identical in structure to what you
experience in these first two.
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OVERVIEW OF THE DAY
 3 minutes
There are three goals we hope to accomplish each time we get together:
 Spend time in prayer.
 Spend time being reminded of some essential truths and convictions
about God’s purpose for the Church.
 Spend time engaging with that content as a room and in smaller groups.
In addition, sometimes we’ll have something brief to read or watch between
sessions.
PRAYER
 15-20 minutes
We will start with a time of prayer together, remembering that apart from Christ,
we can do nothing. We don’t want to engage in prayer at the beginning of
something just because “that’s what we’re supposed to do.” We believe prayer is
central to the fulfillment of the mission of God.
Break into groups of 3 or 4 around the venue and use this simple format to pray in
groups.
Is anyone anxious or worried?
Each person shares as necessary. Then, the group prays for them. The
model is to discuss and then pray.
Is anyone sick or not feeling well? (Keep it to you/nuclear family)
Each person shares as necessary. Then, the group prays for them.
The model is to discuss and then pray.
Is anyone spending time with someone who might be open to the
Gospel this week?
Each person shares as necessary. Then, the group prays for them.
The model is to discuss and then pray.
Close in prayer for the whole group.
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CONTENT
 40 minutes
Exercise
Two questions set the stage for our conversation today.
How does the American
church typically define
success?
How did we arrive at that
conclusion?
Give them two minutes of silence to
Coaching Tip
Write each question on
a whiteboard to help
facilitate discussion.
write down a few notes.
Have them get into groups of 2-3 and
share their answers.
Have various people in the room share.
Facilitator shares a personal example.
Example from Jeff Shipman: When I planted Crossroads back in 2000
with the EV Free church, I went to a conference and there was a big
sign that said: “For churches over 1000.” It was always intuitive in my
mind that to be successful, I must have a big church. That sign just
confirmed what everything in the evangelical environment had told me.
Transition Statement:
We know what we want. We know what evangelical culture wants. But what does
God want? Are they the same thing?
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY
 In your church team, draw the purpose of the Church on a giant sticky
note without using any words. (5 minutes)
 Each church team shares their picture. (25 minutes)
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Some of the most important questions:
What would it look like if God
did what He wanted to do in
our geography?
How does God define a
“successful” church?
Before we answer these questions, let’s do a thumbnail sketch of where the
American church is today.
The largest denomination in the United States, the
SBC, has had 7 straight years of membership decline
(not citing attendance, but membership, LifeWay
Christian Resources).
Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church,
which is less than half of what people verbally say
(Gallup Research).
19.6% are called “Nones”: Atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.
That’s 46 million people in the USA (Pew Forum on Religion & Public
Life).
The United States is the third largest mission field in the world behind
India and China (Stan Greenberg, Kent Smith, Gailyn Van Rheenen).
31% will say they should share their faith, but choose never to do so
(Barna Group).
What does God want? What is His plan?
To answer that question, we must go all the way back to the beginning.
Relationship + Representation
Read Genesis 1:26-27.
Show from the text how it has been about
RELATIONSHIP and REPRESENTATION from the beginning.
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God created us to live in relationship with Him and to be His image bearers to the
world.
However, in Genesis 3, there was a
great shattering and from that moment,
God has been on a mission to bring His
people back to that place in the Garden.
Coaching Tip
REPRESENTATION
defined: As the people
of God, created and
empowered to bear His
image, we are called to
speak and act with His
delegated authority.
God wants to be in RELATIONSHIP with
us. Jesus makes a way.
God wants us to REPRESENT Him again
to the world He loves. The Spirit of God
inside of us makes this possible!
Ambassadors of Reconciliation
Read 2nd Corinthians 5: 17-21.
Reconciled to God, we are now in RELATIONSHIP with Him. Since we are
Relationship with Him, we can now REPRESENT Him as ambassadors. We are
beacons of hope where we live, work and play.
It’s Genesis 1, isn’t it?
The mission of God is to bring all of His creation back to Genesis 1, and it’s what
we see at the end in Revelation 21 and 22.
This brings us to the purpose and nature of the Church.
Why do we exist here on
earth?
What do we have to do with
God’s mission?
Well, let’s go back to our first question: What does God want?
Every Man, Woman and Child
READ 2nd Peter 3:8-9.
God’s desire is that all would have the opportunity to hear and respond to the
Gospel.
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Paul thinks about how this happens in Romans 10:14-15:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not
believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom
they have never heard? And how are they to hear without
someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless
they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news!'
In other words, those who are in RELATIONSHIP with Him have this sacred task of
REPRESENTING the Gospel.
God wants every man, woman and child to have repeated opportunities to see,
hear and respond to the Gospel.
That’s what God wants from his Church. What will it look like if God does what He
wants to do in our specified geography?
Commissioned and Empowered
to Reach Specified Geographies
Read Acts 1:6-8.
This is fairly simple, right? Wherever you are, wherever YOUR JERUSALEM IS, he
wants every man, woman and child to have repeated opportunities.
God’s people are commissioned and empowered to proclaim and to
demonstrate the Gospel wherever He sends them.
Acts 1:8 is not only descriptive of what happens throughout the book of Acts; it is a
model for how the Church takes responsibility to own the lostness of all people.
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TRANSITION
What if success isn't defined by how big you are, how many churches you
plant, the number of campuses you have, the size of your budget, how cool
your music is, how intimate your fellowship, how much good you do in the
community or how exegetical your sermons?
What if success is defined by whether or not every man, woman, and child has
repeated opportunities to see, hear and respond to the Gospel?
What if it means acknowledging that one church in a place can’t possibly do
that on its own?
What might change for us?
video: Pastor Testimony
Owning the lostness of my geography
INTERACTIVE Q + A
 20-30 minutes
We want to give you some questions to think about and to discuss. We’ll give
the introverts a chance to process internally first by giving the room 2 minutes
of quiet to take notes, and then we’ll unleash some of you extroverts and
widen the discussion. Here are our questions:
yy What was most helpful or exciting about the content?
yy What was most challenging?
yy What question might you ask?
Give them two minutes of silence to write down a few notes.
Have them get into groups of 3-4 and share their answers.
Have various people in the room share.
Facilitate and bat around the content as necessary.
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CLOSING THOUGHT
 5 minutes
Missiologist and President of Saturation Church Planting International, Dr.
Dwight Smith sums it up like this:
Imagine what would happen if every man, woman and child
had multiple opportunities to accept and trust Jesus and they
didn’t have to go anywhere for this to happen.
The problem in America isn’t relevancy. It’s accessibility. 88%
of people come to faith in America because of a relationship.
We’ve got to get the people moving! We’ve got to send them
out.
We are, at this very moment, writing the history of our nation.
In our next session, we’ll look at how that might happen.
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PRAY + DISMISS
Depending on the timing of your session, we recommend going out for a meal
after the session.
APPRENTICE DEBRIEF
If you’re working with an apprentice already, debrief the session with him/her
Go over the “wins” from the session to help form the discussion.
What did he/she think worked well? Give your reflections as well.
What didn’t go as well? What might he/she change?
Give your reflections as well.
Share some of your observations of how you navigated through the session.
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