MyStoryP2C Small Group Resources

Leader’s Guide

Welcome to MyStory! We are so excited you are passionate about reaching the world and helping equip those you lead to have lifelong personal ministries of evangelism. My Story is a tool that invigorates personal evangelism through the powerful intersection of authentic stories, video, and the gospel. By walking your group through the seven session video-enhanced training, you will inspire your group to engage with their stories in a new way. Your role is to walk alongside your members and help them learn lifelong skills, take steps of faith and gain a vision for the world.

The creators of My Story pray that all Christians would be effectively trained to articulate their personalized, authentic story so that the gospel can be communicated to non-believers. Every Christian has a unique story given by God and a natural sphere of influence in which they can be a witness for Christ. We believe that My Story will help to launch Christians with the skills needed to 1) take the initiative to share Christ, 2) know how to continually intersect the gospel and their personal story, 3) communicate their Christ-transformed story in a culturally relevant way, and 4) listen effectively and journey compassionately with non-believers. Since all of these goals are most effectively and fruitfully developed within the context of a Spirit-led body of Christ, My Story was created to be experienced in a loving, gospel-transforming small group. With these goals in mind, you can see that My Story is not exclusively a training curriculum, testimony generator, one-time event or campaign—My Story is a journey of faith.

In this guide you will find helpful information and tips as you lead your group. Use this guide along with your copy of the workbook. You can either print out the leader’s notes, pull it up on your smartphone or tablet, or write notes in the workbook to cue you as you lead each week.

Thanks for taking the time to be a leader. We look forward to seeing how God uses your leadership and this study to see people grow in their evangelism skills and see others make decisions to follow Jesus!

Phase 1: Craft your story

(Sessions 1-5)

The whole My Story adventure begins by inviting group members to reflect on how the gospel intersects with their cravings and idols. You will each craft your own story of how Jesus is meeting or transforming a specific craving of your life. You will isolate one key craving and develop a clear, authentic message that shares Jesus. Next, you will film your story and prepare it to be shared online.

Members will launch their story and begin to engage their natural connections online in gospel conversations.

Once you post your stories online, the fun begins! As a group, you will work together to encourage one another to engage 10 friends in gospel conversations. My Story will give you tips, teach you how to listen well and help you continue the conversation with your non-believing connections.

Here's how it worksPhase 2:

Launch your story (Session 6)

Phase 3: Engage your

world (Session 7)

The Sessions ExplainedEach session is made up of these elements:

• Warm-up: The warm-up questions help your group members get talking and warmed up for the topic ahead.

• Transition Question: A question or two to help highlight important points from the video.• Bible study: This portion of the session looks at a Biblical passage to expand and explore the

#thebottomline. Read the verses together as a group and help your group grapple with the main point of the Bible study.

• #thebottomline: This is the key idea you want your group to discover as they digest and internalize the whole lesson including the video, Bible study, and workshop time.

• Workshop: This is where the work happens. In this section group members work through their story step-by-step.

• Prayer: Each week there are suggestions to guide your group to pray for the impact your stories.

• Articles: There are three supplementary articles found in the workbook. These are extra reading that your group members can do on their own time.

Plan out your time. Each lesson is designed to take 90 minutes, including time to work on the workshop together. You’ll notice that some weeks the Bible study is longer, and some weeks the workshop is longer. Before each week, think through how much time to spend on each section. Also, think through how all the different sections work together to help your group understand #thebottomline.

Pre-watch the video. This will help you know the key points you want your group to take away from the video.

Know the bible study main Point. As you prepare to lead the Bible study each week, read the passage beforehand, browse the question and answers, and know the main point you are driving toward for the Bible study portion.

Don’t neglect the workshop time. Each workshop builds on the previous one so by the fourth session (Story One), your group has all the pieces needed to put their story together. Allow group members individual time to brainstorm, wrestle, and think through the questions in the workshop. As the leader, encourage group members to help each other and be prepared to work one-on-one with group members to help them craft their story. Group members will need to hone and edit their story on their own time as well. Not allowing time for your group mem-bers to get a significant amount of the workshop done will hinder everyone’s success at launching their story.

Tips for preparing each week

Table of Contents6 gospel

9 crave

11 idolatry

13 story one

15 story II

18 launch

20 now what?

20 endnotes

gospel• their story in light of the gospel;• the significant turning points of their story;• their ongoing struggles and how the gospel

relates to them.

The goal This week is to help your group understand:

This week’s tips:• This session introduces the idea of a “Top10” in the

prayer section. These are the people your group will be praying for throughout the study and who your group will hopefully share their stories with at the end.

• Workshop notes: A best practice for this workshop is to pair up the group members so they can help each other dig deeper into their stories. Have one person ask the other the questions and then reverse.

The gospel is both the content of our story and our motivation for sharing it.Our stories matter because God is the main character who is building our character and storyline for His glory. He can and will use us, in spite of our failings and weaknesses.

# thebottomline

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This Bible passage is an excellent description of the gospel. It’s divided into three parts that show our life before Jesus, how God intervened, and how he intends us to live after his intervention. The first section shows how we pursued sin and were influenced by the world around us. Then, it shows how God saw us in our sin -- running towards evil -- and intervened to save us from the path we were walking down. He reversed our direction from doing what we desired towards pursuing things that please Him and changed our destiny to be with Him in heaven.

EPHESIANS 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:1-3

Theme: LIFE IN SIN

Walking in sin, following the world etc., living in passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body. We’re being influenced by sin as well as pursuing it.

We are doing the actions.

They are past actions

We are active in our own demise and God is tremendously gracious to extend grace to us.

Ephesians 2:4-7

Theme: God’s intervention

God interrupts our life of sin and intervenes to make us alive in Christ.

God is doing the actions to us/for us.

The fact that God is doing the actions highlights how we are passive and have no part in our being saved. God is gracious to us.

Ephesians 2:8-10

Theme: grace-motivated works

Paul is reminding the Ephesians of grace, by describing how grace comes by faith, not works.

The verbs are passive, showing us that these things were done to us. The context indicates that it is God was doing to us in the past.

God doing the actions reminds us of how we have no part in our own saving.

Bible Study Main Point: Though we didn’t deserve it, God has intervened in our life. We should then joyfully, willingly participate in the good works he has prepared for us and share this message of hope with those around us.

2. Dead to alive• walking in trespasses to walking in good works.• living in passions of the flesh to raised up with Christ in heavenlies

3. Several elements of the gospel are present: a) God takes initiative toward us (not by our own works); b) while we were still sinners/sinning; c) we’re saved through faith by; d) God’s grace towards us.

4. Let them share.

5. Guidepost: Keep the discussion focused on being on mission with God and Him creating you for these good works. Don’t let this turn into a theological discussion on predestination because there isn’t sufficient time to address this and do the workshop.

answers

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6. Give them opportunity to answer.

7. Let them share.

8. Guidepost: Good works here does not simply mean doing good things or obeying the Bible but it means any work that God has prepared us for. It is crucial that students hear that good works should be gospel-motivated and come from an outpouring of gratitude to God for saving us.

9. Walk in love, walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

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crave• identify and understand their craving;• describe their craving.

The goal this week is to help your group

• If you have time at the end, you can give the members time to share one thing they’ve learned about themselves as a result of engaging with the study.

• We’ve included the article 500 Days of Disappointment to show how a follower of Jesus can obtain something s/he desperately craves, yet still be left unsatisfied.

Everybody, no matter who they are, craves the same things in life:

Intimacy, destiny, meaning.

These can steer us off course in life if we look to satisfy them in the wrong places, but ultimately they are meant to point us to God.

This week’s tips

# thebottomline

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This passage records an oracle (a divinely prompted and inspired speech) given through the prophet Jeremiah from God to the people of Jerusalem, which is the heart of the nation of Israel. He remembers how they were more devoted to God when they were wandering in the wilderness but they have since turned their backs on Him. Israel was faithless to God though he remained faithful. Now, however, they have traded “living water” for “broken cisterns.” Accord-ing to the passage study notes from the ESV Study Bible, “not only have the Israelites traded the best of water supplies for the worst, but their cistern is broken, with all its water leaked out and nothing but sludge remaining. Their covenant infidelity is not just ungrateful and unnatural; it is also foolish.”

Bible Study Main Point: What are you looking to for ultimate satisfaction in life? Do you recognize the ways that you’ve looked away from God to satisfy those desires? How have good things become ultimate things in your life?

1. Give them time to share.2. God is describing when He led them in exodus through the desert. 3. It depicts a shift from them worshipping and following God to rejecting Him. 4. Let them share.5. Jeremiah is using strong language here that describes the intensity of God’s perspective on

the issue. Let them share what they think. 6. The answer is found in verse 5: things that are “worthless.”7. Looking to anything else other than God for our satisfaction is pointless. It will not accom-

plish anything except disappointment and emptiness. 8. Let them share. If they don’t know the answer yet, that’s fine. It’s a good question for them

to reflect on.

answers

JEREMIAH 2:1-13

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idolatry• identify how their craving became an idol;• identify how the gospel meets their cravings/idols.

The goal this week is to help your group

# thebottomlineAll of our stories reflect this truth: Looking to anything other than Jesus for ultimate meaning leaves us unsatisfied and empty.

This week’s tips:

• In this session your group will be digging deep into their idols. This is a key week. The rest of their story will be built on what they discover about their idols this week.

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JOHN 7:37-44This passage takes place during the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles, a week long Jewish festival involving lots of enthusiastic celebration to remember the time they lived in “booths” in the desert. On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, the priest would have taken water from a spring, and he would have ceremonially poured it out over the altar. This pouring out of the water was especially symbolic, because the Israelites had travelled through a desert to get to the promised land. Tradition says this symbolic act was meant to commemorate the event when the people of Israel had called out to God for water in a great moment of rebellion. Moses, in spite of being told by God to simply ask water to pour forth from a rock, loses his temper and hits the rock with his rod. God causes water to pour forth for the Israelites. Jesus declares that He is that water that they are celebrating!

1. It’s during the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles. Jesus’ brothers wanted Him to go to the feast and perform miracles making Himself a public figure, but He said his time had not come. Verses 10-13 show Jesus going to the feast in secret. The Jews are waiting for Him to arrive and there is a buzz among the people about who this Jesus is. Verse 14 tells us Jesus went to the temple courts and began to teach about halfway through the feast. Verses 37-44 happen on the last and greatest day of the feast.

2. It’s celebrated to commemorate the time the Jews spent in the desert (Leviticus 23:31-43).

3. Jesus is declaring that He is the living water that they have been celebrating in their festival. He is like refreshing water in the desert. God knew they would need in the desert so He provided a way for them to access. Likewise God knew they needed a Saviour so He provided One as well as a way for them to access Him.

4. Let them share. They make reference both to water and the ways that God provides a lasting provision that satisfies their thirst.

5. Guidepost: This question is not worded very clearly. Restated, the question is: “if Jesus is proposing an alternative to something, what is the alternative?” He is providing lasting satisfaction through true, deep, and real life in Himself.

6. Let them share.

Bible Study Main Point: Jesus offers us an alternative to our idols - true, deep, and real life in Himself.

answers

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story• write out the first draft of their stories.

The goal this week is to help your group

This week’s tips:• Encourage your group members to finish the first draft

of their stories by the time they arrive next session. • This week you will do the Bible Study before watching

the video. • Following this study you’ll find the article called

Cultivating Curiosity. This is a helpful introduction into how to cultivate curiosity in your relationships with your friends.

part ONE

# thebottomlineEvery single Christian comes pre-equipped with the best tool you could ever have to help someone discover Jesus: your story.

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John 4:1-30, 39-42

This passage is about Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well. He interacts with her in a way that changes her. She goes from being a fearful, shamed woman, to running back to her village to share with the town the incredible news that she has met the Messiah.

Bible Study Main Point: You don’t need to be a theologian to do evangelism - your story is your best tool to build curiosity.

answers

1. Let them share. Jesus is inviting the Samaritan woman to believe in Him.

2. Let them share. Jesus crosses several social norms (gender, ethnic, status, etc.) by talking to her.

3. She runs back to the people of her town to tell them about this Jesus she just met.

4. She doesn’t seem to fear their response or overanalyze how they might respond. She simply acts in faith!

5. These fears are unfounded. She wouldn’t have had all the right answers about everything, only her experience. Likewise, sometimes new believers or Christians new to evangelism are afraid to evangelize because they don’t know everything and don’t feel properly equipped. Just like this woman, we have experienced Jesus and we can share our experience, even if we don’t have all the answers.

6. They knew the story of her life, and they saw a transformation in her after her interaction with Jesus.

7. Three or four examples of how her story created curiosity: • Her boldness in inviting them and her willingness to put herself out there incites

curiosity. • There is a sense of change, of transformation, when she steps out and engages

people spiritually, since she wasn’t exactly known for her piety! • Her genuineness in communicating her excitement about having met Jesus.

8. Let them think and share. Prepare your own answer so you can offer it as an example to help them think.

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• edit and refine their stories.

The goal this week is to help your group

storypart TWO

# thebottomlineUsing his story, Paul builds rapport with his audience and demonstrates life change.

This week’s tips

• You can find the answers for Jeremie’s story tips from the video at the end of this week’s leader’s guide.

• Ensure your group members film their story during the week so you can all launch the videos together next session.

• Explain the Launch Guide to your group and and have them arrive next session with their launch plan in hand.

• If a group member has to choose between filming and doing their launch plan, advise them to film their story.

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ACTS 7:54-8:3 / ACTS 21:37-22:21

1. It describes him as a violent, evil man, a terrorist even.

2. He goes into detail about his achievements as a Jew and how zealous he was for God in persecuting Christians. He speaks openly and factually about his behaviour, but doesn’t go into detail about how he murdered people.

3. This is a huge change from what he valued and how he acted previously. Now, he finds his identity and pride in Jesus and not his own Jewish lineage and accomplishments. Before he was zealous about religious activity and rules, now he’s zealous about the message of the gospel.

4. He knows he will have more credibility with his audience if they understand his Jewish heritage. Also, he chooses to speak to them in a different language.

5. He speaks in Aramaic, their local dialect/language, despite being able to communicate with them in a more formal or official language (Greek). He puts himself on the same level with them by showing how he is one of them: born in the same city, studied under someone they would have been familiar with, etc.

6. He points to his education and zealousness as a point of credibility.

7. Let them share. Suggestions could include: success, power, perfection.

8. Before his encounter with Jesus, Paul seemed to value status within his faith community, or whatever would help him be as “holy” as possible. Since encountering Jesus, Paul seems to value the opposite of what he did before: everything is a loss except having a righteousness through Jesus.

9. Let them share.

answers

These passages show the change in Paul’s life from when he was a Christian-murdering man named Saul to his total transformation as a result of his encounter with Jesus. Acts 21:37-22:21 is an example of Paul telling his story to others.

Bible Study Main Point: A practical example of how to share your story, keeping your audience in mind.

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Jeremie's Story Tips: 1. I mentioned sin without dwelling on it.

2. My story wasn’t about my conversion.

3. My story has a hook in the beginning.

4. My story didn’t lead to a pray-with-me moment.

5. My story is for a non believer, but also has power to impact Christians.

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launch• finalize their plans for deploying their stories;• share their filmed stories with their Top10 list.

The goal this week is to help your group

This week’s tips• If someone has not filmed their story, have them work

on finishing their story or their launch plan. They can film and launch throughout the week. Filming during this session will likely disrupt the other group members and take too much time.

• Be prayerful throughout this process.• Be prepared to help your group face their fears and

overcome barriers. Encourage your group members to make decisions in faith and not fear as they share their stories.

• Celebrate when as a group you have stepped out in faith!

# thebottomlineWith the joy that is in our lives because Jesus has saved us, we can share our stories with confidence.

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READ John 4:4-30, 39-42

We return to the story of the woman at the well but look at it from a slightly different angle. We focus on how she was transformed by Jesus and what the transformation looked like. She is fearless in returning to the people who know her deep dark secrets.

Bible Study Main Point: Encountering Jesus is a transformative experience that frees us from fearing how people respond to us because He accepts us.

1. He directs the conversation towards the idea of Him as living water. He uses an intriguing image to catch her attention.

2. Let them answer. Often we hear Christians explain that they felt a new sense of wholeness when they gave their life to Christ. Blaise Pascal calls it a God-shaped hole.

3. Let them share.

4. She must have had enough of a transforming experience in order to not have any fear or to share with her town despite having fear.

5. Brainstorm some examples like: the disciples, Paul, etc.

6. Guidepost: What if their interaction with Jesus doesn’t motivate them to tell oth-ers? Consider whether they have truly encountered the gospel. You may want to meet with the person outside the group and clarify with them whether they really understand the gospel and have received it in all areas of their life.

7. Let them share.

answers

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now what?

• plan how to follow-up and continue the conversa-tion now that they have shared their stories.

The goal this week is to help your group

This week’s tips• It might be easy to spend the entire time talking about

the great conversations your group members had with their friends. While it’s great there’s lots to talk about, the content does need to get finished! Encourage your group members to share BRIEFLY about their stories and then if you have more time at the end, you can talk more.

• Give your group time to fill out or re-look at the follow-up planning chart from last session. This will help your group members make plans to continue gospel conversations with their friends.

Evangelism isn’t simply an event, it’s a process. An evangelist must be patient, take initiative, and pray.

# thebottomline

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In these passages, we see a comparison between the way Paul communicated to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the Areopagus and the way he communicated to Jews found in a synagogue.

Acts 17:16-34 / acts 13:16-43

1. Let them share.

2. Listening helps us understand where people are coming from and what their assumptions and beliefs are.

3. They can motivate us to share the gospel.

4. He made reference to cultural influences (the altar with the inscription, in verse 23 he quotes one of their poets).

5. He had more credibility and was likely more effective in communicating with the people because he knew and understood where they were coming from and what their cultural influences were.

6. Paul’s communication reflects his understanding of the different audiences. In Acts 17, he’s dealing with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the Areopagus, so he chooses to talk about the “unknown god.” In Acts 13, Paul is in a synagogue, surrounded by Jews and God-fearers, so he begins from the story of Israel to unpack the gospel.

7. He understands it is necessary to understand his audience and see where they come from so that he can speak with them using terms and cultural references that connect with them.

Bible Study Main Point: Evangelism is a process; we need to be quality listeners so we can connect the gospel to our audience’s context.

answers

APPLICATION

Let them share. Let them share. Have an example of your own to share in case they cannot think of one from their own experience.

Brainstorm as a group. Pick a few questions from the workshops if your group has trouble coming up with questions.

Brainstorm as a group. Here is one example, “do you think you can find success in the things you are pursuing?”

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2011

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from, THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from, The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

PhotographSBenjamin Ng: Cover

Cover and Book Design Lydia Low-Yeung Jessica Versteeg (Leader’s Guide)

My Story: Leaders guideProduct of Creative Communications, Power to Change - Students.Published by: Power to Change Ministries, 20385 64 Avenue Langley, BC V2Y 1N5, Canada

First Edition:©2011 All rights reserved. Power to Change Ministries, Langley, BC

Second Edition©2015 All rights reserved. Power to Change Ministries, Langley, BC

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