- The Apprenticeship Series
- Christian – It’s not what you think
- The Divine Conspiracy: Jesus’ Master Class for Life
- Sacred Secrets: A living proof live experience
- Wonderstruck
- The Me I Want to Be
- Go Fish
The Apprentice Series
The Apprentice Series is a series of 3 books which sets the curriculum for Christlikeness. Each chapter deals with false concepts and the true one, namely the narrative of Jesus. Through real life stories, participants are invited to examine the false ideas and narratives that hinder our lives, and then replace them with the true narratives found in Jesus’ teaching and the rest of the Bible.
Each chapter contains a Soul Training exercise with reflection questions for the reader to imbed the narrative of Jesus more deeply into his minds, body and soul.
Included is a Small Group Discussion Guide on the soul training exercise and the chapter with a selected passage.
1. The Good and Beautiful God – falling in love with the God Jesus knows
By James Bryan Smith
‘God wants me to try harder.’ ‘God blesses me when I’m good and punishes me when I’m bad.’ ‘God is angry with me.’ We all have ideas we tell ourselves about God and how he works in our lives. Some are true – but many are false. These thoughts determine not only who we are but how we live.
In this book you are invited to put your ideas to the test to see if they match up with what Jesus himself reveals about God.
Book Chapters:
- What are you seeking?
- Soul Training: Sleep
- God is Good
- Soul Training: Silence & awareness of Creation
- God is Trustworthy
- Soul Training: Counting Your Blessings
- God is Generous
- Soul Training: Praying Psalm 23
- God is Love
- Soul Training: Lectio Divina
- God is Holy
- Soul Training: Margin
- God is Self-Sacrificing
- Soul Training: Reading the Gospel of John
- God Transforms
- Soul Training: Solitude
- How to Make a Pickle
- Soul Training: Slowing Down
2. The Good and Beautiful Life – putting on the character of Christ
By James Bryan Smith
“I have never met a person whose goal was to ruin his or her life. We all want to be happy, and we want it all of the time.” The problem is that we have bought into false notions of happiness and success. These self-centered decisions lead us further into the vices that cause ruin: anger, lust, lying, worry and judging. Eventually we find ourselves living a beautifully packaged life of self-destruction.
Following the Sermon on the Mount, this book guides us to look behind these character flaws and to replace our false beliefs with Jesus’ narratives about life in the kingdom of God.
Book Chapters:
- The Good and Beautiful Life
- Soul Training: Writing a Letter to God
- The Gospel Many People Have Never Heard
- Soul Training: Play
- The Grand Invitation
- Soul Training: Hospitality
- Learning to Live Without Anger
- Soul Training: Keeping the Sabbath
- Learning to Live Without Lust
- Soul Training: Media Fast
- Learning to Live Without Lying
- Soul Training: Silence
- Learning to Bless Those Who Curse Us
- Soul Training: Praying for the Success of Competitors
- Learning to Live Without Vainglory
- Soul Training: Secret Service
- Learning to Live Without Vainglory
- Soul Training: De-accumulation
- Learning to Live Without Worry
- Soul Training: Prayer
- Learning to Live Without Judging Others
- Soul Training: A Day without Gossip
- Living in the Kingdom Day by Day
- Soul Training: Living One Day Devotionally.
3. The Good and Beautiful Community – following the Spirit, extending grace, demonstrating love
By James Bryan Smith
“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Gal 5:6) Apprentices of Jesus are not part time do gooders. How do I live out Jesus’ kingdom vision in my family? What impact will my life with God have on my life at work? This book helps us learn how to live as apprentices of Jesus in our ordinary everyday lives and impact the world in which we live.
Book Chapters:
- The Peculiar Community
- Soul Training: Two by Four
- The Hopeful Community
- • Soul Training: Sharing Your Faith
- The Serving Community
- Soul Training: Treasuring Our Treasures
- The Christ-Centered Community
- Soul Training: Loving Those We Disagree With
- The Reconciling Community
- Soul Training: Experiencing Reconciliation
- The Encouraging Community
- Soul Training: Finding an Accountability Friend
- The Generous Community
- Soul Training: Finding an Accountability Friend
- The Worshipping Community
- Soul Training: Worship
- Writing a Soul Training Plan
Christian – It’s not what you think
By Andy Stanley
According to Andy Stanley, the words used to describe Christians today often bear no resemblance to what Jesus wanted his followers to be known for. In Christian, participants will learn:
- What one word should be descriptive of every Christian
- How Jesus followers should treat those who are outside the faith
- Why people love Jesus but can’t stand his followers
In this study, Andy explores the truth and fiction behind one of the most famous brands in all of history.
8 DVD Sessions:
- Brand Recognition
- Quitters
- Insiders, Outsiders
- Showing Up
- When Gracie Met Truthy
- Angry Birds
- Loopholes
- Working It Out
The Divine Conspiracy: Jesus’ Master Class for Life
By Dallas Willard
What is the true meaning of Christian discipleship? Gracefully weaving biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice into one cohesive group study, Willard shows you the necessity of making profound changes in how you view your life and live out faith.
Based on the Sermon on the Mount and his bestselling book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard and John Ortberg call you to live a deeper, more authentic faith, offering a practical plan so you can answer the call.
6 DVD Sessions:
- The Divine Conspiracy
- The Path to a Blessed Life
- Becoming a Good Person
- Treasuring What Matters Most
- Becoming a Community of Prayerful Love
- Living as a Disciple of Jesus
Sacred Secrets: A living proof live experience
By Beth Moore
Jesus wants to spend secret time with you—an interior relationship that's unique to just you two.
This 6 sessions DVD study explores the theology of secrets. The world is obsessed with telling secrets for the sake of sensationalism. But not all hidden things are poisonous and dark. Secrets can be good or harmful. Some secrets need forgiveness, some are covered, and some should be kept between you and God. Learn what happens when we let God teach us "wisdom in the secret heart" (Psalm 51:6, ESV).
Wonderstruck
By Margaret Feinberg
Do you feel like you’re going through the motions of faith? Sometimes we do and say the right thing, but our hearts are far from God. We lose our sense of holy awe.
Through DVD bible study, we learn how to reignite our passion for God, identify what’s holding us back in prayer, find extraordinary moments on ordinary days and recognise the presence of God in our routine.
6 DVD Sessions:
- The Wonder of Divine Expectation
- The Wonder of God’s Presence
- The Wonder of Rest
- The Wonder of Prayer
- The Wonder of Friendship
- The Wonder of Forgiveness
- inal Celebration gathering
The Me I Want to Be
By John Ortberg
“The most important task in life is not what you do but who you become.”
There is a me each one of us wants to be. Someone who’s more kind and generous, patient and loving, but there is a gap between the me I am and the me I want to be. Oftentimes we find it easy to trust God to bridge the gap between us and him, but we struggle to really live by grace and trust God to close the gap between the me I am and the me I want to be. Becoming God’s best version of you is both God’s desire and the greatest task of your life. And here’s the good news…he’s already working on it. Your life is God’s project, not yours.
The Me I Want to Be curriculum is a powerful study in becoming the unique, fully alive, flourishing people God intended.
5 Book Sessions:
- Discovering the Spirit
- Renewing my mind
- Redeeming my time
- Deepening my relationships
- Transforming my experiences
Go Fish
By Andy Stanley
Fishing Stories. We’ve all heard them. “It was this big.” “You should have seen the one that got away.” People love to tell stories of their fishing adventures. When it comes to faith, however, most people clam up. Why is it we can’t talk about what God has done in our lives as naturally as we can spin fishing tales? In this six-part DVD, Andy Stanley explores the motivation behind sharing your faith and how it can become a natural part of our life.
6 DVD Sessions:
- We Were All Fish Once
- Why Fish?
- Fish Guts
- Fishing Buddies
- Muddy Water
- The One That Got Away