The Gospel-Centered Life
One of our core values at Coram Deo is that The Gospel Changes Everything. What we mean by that is that 1) the gospel transforms people in their entirety (not just their eternal destinies) and that therefore 2) everything has to do with the gospel - work, leisure, family, church, money, sex, friendships, decisions - everything. The gospel is not just the ABC's of the Christian life, but the A to Z. You don't start with the gospel and then move on to something else. The gospel is the power of God for both salvation and sanctification.Unfortunately much of the Christian marketing industry works against the centrality of the gospel by leveraging the lure of the "next best thing." There is always a new program, a fresh fad, an inventive understanding of prophecy, a shortcut for spiritual formation, or ten steps to something. But very little that has anything to do with the gospel and its transforming power.Earlier this year, the pastoral team at Coram Deo wrote 9 weeks' worth of small group content called The Gospel-Centered Life. It is based heavily on some discipleship material called Sonship (published by World Harvest Mission in Philadelphia). We took WHM's basic concepts (blended with a little Tim Keller and some John Frame) and re-wrote them in an interactive, conversational format that would work better for Coram Deo's missional community structure. Then we sent our stuff off to World Harvest to get permission for the concepts we borrowed and to see if they'd be interested in publishing it.The good news is: the good people at World Harvest are considering the material for publication. The better news is: while they do so, they've invited us to disseminate the GCL material as far and wide as we'd like, providing that no one charges money for it.So we're linking it here [link removed]. Many of you who read this blog are from other parts of the country, serving Christ in other churches and ministry contexts, and perhaps looking for some good small-group content. If this stuff can be of use to you: put it to work! Just give credit where credit is due, and don't go making money off it.May Jesus be made famous and may his people be set free to delight in Him.