Wednesday

Doing Life Together - Curriculum

The Doing Life Together curriculum is a small group curriculum based on the Purpose Driven "paradigm". There are six different sessions - one each for the five purposes and one providing a general overview of the purposes and study. Each session has six lessons and tries to help group leaders and members dig deep into one another's lives and into Scripture. The creators of this study are very intentional in the questions they provide. They admit that many times small groups can become big "hang-out" times, filled with loads of fellowship and little digging into Scripture.
One of the features I really find helpful in this curriculum is that small groups have the option of doing the study fairly cost effectively. There are some DVD studies in which you watch a media portion, but then need to refer to a participant guide or study book for questions. This curriculum provides the questions on screen in-between the media. So, if your church is running a tight budget, or not everyone can (or wishes to) buy their own study guide, the questions are right there.
Another great feature is the variety of different teachers throughout the curriculum. John Ortberg, Erwin McManus, Henry Cloud, Joe Stowell, Steve Farrar, and others contribute their unique teaching style. No two studies have the same teacher in one session (so, for example, the study on worship will feature six different teachers, but those teachers may be featured on other studies).
The creators are also very helpful for leaders. There is almost too much help for leaders. Each lesson has "Leadership Lifters" which give the big picture of the lesson, and the one idea the teacher would like to get across. They attempt to make leading a small group as easy as possible, and have as a goal to turn each member into a shepherd.

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