Saturday, October 15, 2011

MissioLife

The Church is comprised of the people of God, and like the early church, our faith communities seek to be formed by the story of God in our theology, our faith, our identity, our way of life, and our behaviors.



MissioLife is an intentional and formational small-group experience created to guide children, youth, and adults on a pilgrimage through Scripture—from understanding to participation in the mission of God.


MissioLife is intended to be experienced together as a community. Unlike individual devotionals designed for only one person or one learning group, MissioLife is intentional about involving everyone in your faith community. MissioLife is divided into three learning groups: children, youth and adults. With the entire church community journeying through MissioLife together, families and multi-generational communities will be able to share in this formative experience together.


This resource is discussion-driven and easy-to-use. For adults (Breathe) and youth (Image), each week you get a 3-page in depth biblical reflection to help you engage in the story of God, a 2-page facilitator’s guide to equip the leader with weekly encounter sessions and community discussions, and a 1-page participant’s handout to help everyone join in the conversation.


For children (Rhythms), MissioLife lessons are designed to fit their unique learning styles. Each week you get a 6-page in-depth facilitator’s guide to help you engage with children (elementary and preteens) in the story and mission of God, a 1-page parent resource, a 1-page student handout for each age group, and 1 visual teaching symbol.


MissioLife is all-digital resource. This means you can easily access and download the materials through the website at http://www.missiolife.com. From everything you need to lead a MissioLife group, to posters and other promotional materials, it’s never been easier to organize and lead a community-wide experience. See how easy it can be by downloading a sample lesson now.

My review:
I was given a DVD telling about this resource that also has some sample lessons on it. The guys that created MissioLife intend it to be used so as to get the church together as it was in the early days - when there was more community and togetherness in the church.

Each lesson starts out with Scripture, and then has Biblical reflection. The lesson I looked at was split up into four parts in the reflection: God's Story, Our Story, Others' Story, and The World's Story.

The lessons seem to be very Biblically-based, and from what I can see, the biggest difference in this and other Bible Studies, is this material is geared more to bring people in the church together, which we need more of.
About the authors/creators:
Just like MissioLife is intended for use by a community, it was created by a community. MissioLife was brought to life by a team of writers, editors, artists, web designers, and numerous others at Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City. We’ve been dreaming, praying, and working hard to help your faith community experience and engage the mission of God.


Get to know some of the main contributors below:

Erik Leafblad has a Master’s of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the Director of Ministry Initiatives for Youthfront in Kansas City, and is adjunct faculty member at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas. Prior to this, Erik served as a youth and young adults pastor in Minnesota and New Jersey. He is married to Amy, with two wonderful children, Soren (4) and Svea (2), and resides in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.

Kris Mitchell has master’s degrees in Marriage and Family Therapy from Friends University and Biblical Studies from Trevecca Nazarene University. He has served as a children’s pastor for the past ten years.

Arla Mitchell serves with Kris in children’s ministries and homeschools their older son. They reside in Olathe, Kansas.


Check out the website for MissioLife at MissioLife.com


Thanks to B&B Media for the review copy materials.

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