Gospel Shaped Worship Handbook

Gospel Shaped Church is a five-module course from The Gospel Coalition. It is designed to take the whole church family on a journey to discover how the gospel should shape every part of their life and witness. Five immersive modules look at the impact of the gospel on worship, outreach, daily living, work and caring for those in need.

Each presenter has been hand-picked by The Gospel Coalition for their faithfulness to the gospel as well as their clear and engaging teaching style. Each module is made up of video teaching sessions, group discussions, Bible studies and personal devotional readings. The flexible sessions can be run in whole-church seminars, or in a smaller home-group setting.

To run each module you need a Leader's Kit (containing a Leader's Guide, DVD and sample Handbook) as well as extra Handbooks for use by course participants. Extra Leader's Guides as required.

DVD Teaching Session - These main teaching sessions are the core of the material. The DVD presentations last between 12 and 20 minutes, and are broken down into sections to allow for discussion and questions from the Handbook. They include short dramas and interviews. These could be run at a regular Sunday-school hour, at specially arranged meetings, or used as material for your mid-week small groups.

Daily Devotionals - In order to keep people reflecting on the gospel throughout the week, each session includes six daily devotionals for church members to use each day. These are also available to download to an app for smartphones and tablets. Reflecting on Scripture and praying each day will keep people thinking about the issues and questions that were discussed at the main teaching session.

Sermon Series Ideas - We've provided some ideas for passages that an expository series could be based on, so that the weekly preaching is also focused on the theme you are exploring together as a church. Choose the passages that you think will best bring out the themes for your church. There’s space in the Handbook for church members to make notes.

Small-group studies - Supporting Bible studies for mid-week groups are also included for those churches using the teaching session material on Sundays. These studies, focused clearly on a single Bible passage, will illustrate the question under scrutiny for the week, and give space for members to ask questions and pray for each other and the life of the church.

Leader's Resources - All you could need to make the most of this curriculum is contained in the comprehensive Leader's Guide for each track, including guidance on answering session and Bible-study questions.

And even more! - More resources to supplement, extend and promote this whole-church exploration are available to download, including talk scripts, feedback forms, DVD trailers, bulletin PDFs and promotional material.

Jared C. Wilson is Director of Communications at Midwestern Seminary and College in Kansas City, MO. He was formerly the pastor of Middletown Church in Middletown Springs, VT. He is the author of more than 10 books, and blogs at thegospeldrivenchurch. He is married to Becky and has two daughters.