At Christ City Church we have four values:
1. Community (having good friends)
2. Discipleship (growing in our relationship with God)
3. Mission (helping others come to know God)
4. Leadership (training people up to serve)
One of the primary ways we express those four values is through City Groups. Find out why City Groups are important.
In this blog post I want to give City Group leaders (or those considering starting a City Group) resources that they can use to ensure that leading a City Group is lightweight and low maintenance. We don’t want leaders spending hours of time in preparation for a City Group meeting – 1-2 hours is fine. As Mike Breen says
If the Missional Community can’t be led by people with normal 9-5 jobs who aren’t paid to do it, it’s not lightweight and low maintenance enough. It’s got to be simple and reproducible.
So here are some resources we have within Christ City Church – do ask Steve if you want to borrow one. If you’d like something that isn’t on the list below, contact Steve and he’ll look into buying it and adding it to the church library.
Tim Keller DVDs
- Gospel in Life DVD and study guide – the best resource for any City Group starting out: 8 ten minute videos, with a nice study guide to help you.
- Prodigal God DVD and study guide – great to understand the difference between religion (legalism), irreligion (license) and the gospel (grace) from Luke 15 and the Prodigal Sons.
- Generosity DVD and study guide– how to view our money and our hearts and giving. It’s so important we have submitted our wallets to Christ.
- The Reason for God DVD, study guide and book – brilliant for both learning how to engage with sceptics and their objections to Christianity, both in terms of the arguments and the manner of our discussion.
Francis Chan – Crazy Love & Forgotten God Videos
Both are fantastic resources to help you grow in your relationship with God, especially if you have been a Christian for a while and it’s gone stagnant. And his book ‘Forgotten God’ is super helpful for understanding the person and work of The Holy Spirit.
- Read a chapter of the book each week (chapter 1 is free online here)
- Use the study guide, which is free online here
- Watch the 10 video episodes, one per week
- Forgotten God – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuqx3geNeG0 (and ask Steve for the book and the interactive guide)
The Good Book Guide – Bible Studies
There are Bible Study Guides by The Good Book Company on every book of the Bible and theme you can imagine, for example…
- David – God’s True King
- Ephesians – Your Place In God’s Plan
- Philippians – Shining with Joy
For something more in depth, they offer another Bible study series:
Tim Chester Resources
- A Meal with Jesus by Tim Chester – a brilliant little book on the meals in Luke’s Gospel and how meals help us express grace, community and mission. You will need to think of questions to go alongside the book.
- Exodus Study Guide – Liberating Love
- Psalms – Soul Songs
Faith & Work Resources
- Every Good Endeavour by Tim Keller – a book to help you connect your work to God’s plan for the world. You will need to think of questions to go alongside the book.
- James – The Bible and Your Work study series
- Provision and Wealth – The Bible and Your Work study series
Sharing The Gospel Resources
- Just Walk Across the Room – Bill Hybels, Study Guide
- Evangelism Study guide from the book of Acts – great for mobilising personal evangelism.
- Two Ways To Live – Know and Tell the Gospel, participants guide and DVD
- Go Fish – by Andy Stanley
Andy Stanley Resources (North Point)
- Bible Study – e.g Galatians PDF
- Topical -e.g Relationships
- All – Many other Group Resources
Other Great Resources
- Discover your Mission: 5 Practices To Change Your World by Dave Ferguson (a great resource for thinking about missional communities at a high level, with 6 short chapters with discussion questions at the end based on bible passages)
- The I AM Sayings of Christ (from the 8 I AMs in John’s Gospel) – here is a free copy of study 1 if you want to get a feel of it
Christ City Church Resources
Watch this space; we’ll soon start producing our own resources.
And if you still need something more specific or different to what’s suggested above, talk to Steve and he’ll help you work out what’s best for your group.