A Different Kind of Christmas Leader Guide: Living and Giving Like Jesus
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About this ebook
A Different Kind of Christmas is a practical and inspirational study for the Advent season. Based on Mike Slaughter’s popular book Christmas Is Not Your Birthday, this five-week study will empower your family and your church to reclaim the broader missional meaning of Jesus’ birth and experience a Christmas season with more peace and joy than any toy or gadget could ever bring.
This comprehensive resource includes a 64-page Leader Guide containing everything needed to guide your group through the study. Inside you’ll find five full session plans, discussion questions, and activities, as well as multiple format options and suggestions of ways to make the study a meaningful experience for any group.
Sessions include:
1. Expect a Miracle
2. Giving Up on Perfect
3. Scandalous Love
4. Jesus’ Wish List
5. By a Different Road
Help your church cast a vision for how Christians can experience the true joy of living and giving like Jesus beginning with the Christmas season and continuing as a lifestyle. This six week study helps participants see the traps and discontentment of consumerism and the call of God to live generously to fulfill God’s mission in the world.
Mike Slaughter
Mike Slaughter is the Pastor Emeritus at Ginghamsburg Church. Under his leadership, Ginghamsburg Church has become known as an early innovator of small group ministry, the Church "media reformation," and cyber-ministry. Mike is the author of multiple books for church leaders, including Down to Earth, The Passionate Church, Change the World, Dare to Dream, Renegade Gospel, A Different Kind of Christmas, Spiritual Entrepreneurs, Real Followers, Momentum for Life, UnLearning Church, and Upside Living in a Downside Economy.
Read more from Mike Slaughter
The Passionate Church: Ignite Your Church and Change the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDare to Dream: Creating a God-Sized Mission Statement for Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMinistry Makeover: Recovering a Theology for Bi-vocational Service in the Church Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Christian Wallet: Spending, Giving, and Living with a Conscience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown to Earth Youth Study Book: The Hopes & Fears of All the Years Are Met in Thee Tonight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown to Earth [Large Print]: The Hopes & Fears of All the Years Are Met in Thee Tonight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Different Kind of Christmas Youth Edition With Leader Helps: Living and Giving Like Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown to Earth Devotions for the Season: The Hopes & Fears of All the Years Are Met in Thee Tonight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDare to Dream Youth Edition: Creating a God-Sized Mission Statement for Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown to Earth Leader Guide: The Hopes & Fears of All the Years Are Met in Thee Tonight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Book preview
A Different Kind of Christmas Leader Guide - Mike Slaughter
Introduction
Christmas has been hijacked. Beginning in early October, we see holiday banners hanging from shopping mall ceilings and plastic trees lining store shelves. Christmas music begins to fill the airwaves as fall pumpkins are turning bright orange. Each year, the sights and sounds of Christmas come a little earlier, and merchandise gets a little more tempting.
This Advent study, A Different Kind of Christmas: Living and Giving Like Jesus, encourages us to move our focus away from consumerism and to reclaim the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. Study participants will be inspired to establish new Christmas traditions that focus on Jesus Christ.
This study is part of a churchwide program that includes parallel five-week studies for adults, youth, and children, so your whole church family can participate in the effort to reclaim Christmas. (See Organizing a Churchwide Program, at the end of this leader guide.)
An important complement to the study is Mike Slaughter’s devotional book, A Different Kind of Christmas: Devotions for the Season. You and your family will find daily joy and inspiration in Mike’s devotions, which are themed to go with the study. Each devotion consists of a Scripture, a story from Mike’s life and ministry, and a prayer.
THE STUDY
The adult study consists of three components:
• Mike Slaughter’s book, Christmas Is Not Your Birthday;
• a DVD with videos for small group use;
• this leader guide.
Study participants will read one chapter of Christmas Is Not Your Birthday prior to each study session, and then meet together for group study each week for five weeks. During group study, participants will view a video presentation by Mike Slaughter and explore content from the book, video, and Bible, through discussion and activities.
Participants should have a copy of the book Christmas Is Not Your Birthday far enough in advance of the first session so they can read the Introduction and Chapter 1 and be prepared for group discussion. You may want to have extra copies of the book available at the first meeting so people who join the group at that time can take a copy home and use it to prepare for the next week’s session.
Encourage group members to underline or highlight portions of each chapter as they read. Some of them may want to obtain a spiral-bound notebook or journal for this study so they can take notes about questions or points that they would like to make during the group sessions.
Assure participants who have already read Christmas Is Not Your Birthday that their participation in the study will enhance their understanding of the book; watching the video and participating in group discussions will give them a new learning experience and an opportunity for spiritual growth. Ask participants who have read the book before to read it again, one chapter per week, along with the other group members. Not only will this refresh their memory but it will also provide them with new insight and understanding.
HOW TO USE THIS LEADER GUIDE
A Quick Overview
As group leader, your role will be to facilitate the weekly sessions using this leader guide and the accompanying DVD. Because no two groups are alike, this guide has been designed to give you flexibility and choice in tailoring the sessions for