SESSION 2
OUR FOUNDATIONAL CONVICTIONS
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OUR FOUNDATIONAL CONVICTIONS
OVERVIEW OF SESSION
 Review
 Prayer
 Content of 3 Foundational Convictions
 Engagement with content
 Invitation to join the Learning Community
WINS OF THE SESSION
 Prayer time using an additional way of intentional prayer in groups
 Balance of strong, prophetic thoughts with an understanding that we all grew up
in a culture with a different OS. Needs to be grace. Mix of prophetic and pastoral.
 People inspired and envisioned towards what their church/The Church could be
 A desire to join the Learning Community
NOTES ON APPRENTICING
Remind your apprentice to take
lots of notes observing how you are
leading the room.
Ask him/her to write down one
suggestion to improve something
in the session.
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ASSETS NEEDED FOR SESSION
 Whiteboard and markers
 Video testimony about movement
 Giant sticky pad and markers
 Handout with dates for the Learning Community
BRoad session notes
for facilitator
INTRO
Last session, we discussed WHY the church exists.
Today, week we want to explore HOW it’s meant to live into the WHY.
PRAYER
Groups of 3-4
Use the 6 themes of the Lord’s Prayer to have them pray for a person they think
might be open to Jesus.
EXERCISE
Give stats on the state of the Church.
Groups of 4-5: Why is the Church in this place?
Group Report Outs
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CONTENT
New Testament Walk:
Matthew 10:5-7: Sent-ness
Matthew 28:18-20: Pass on to everyone what I taught you to do.
Acts 1:8: We can’t do it apart from the Holy Spirit.
Acts 7:59-8:7: Doing the exact same thing from Matthew 10
Acts 19:1-10: EMWC in the province of Asia
OS + Foundational Convictions:
Operating System analogy
Conviction 1:
yy Whatever God wants to do in the world today, He wants to do
through all of His people.
yy Read Ephesians 2:19-21 & 3:9-12.
Conviction 2:
yy Whatever God wants to do in the world today, He wants to do
through multiplying disciples and churches, giving Gospel access to
every man, woman, and child.
yy It’s what we just saw in the book of Acts.
Conviction 3:
yy Whatever God wants to do in the world today, He wants to do
through leaders who view equipping God’s people for His mission
as their first priority.
yy Read Ephesians 4:11-16
The 3rd conviction takes the first 2 convictions seriously: If God wants all of
His people to participate in accessible and multiplying churches where they
live, work and play, they will need to be equipped to do so!
Mobilizing Community vs
Collecting Community
video: Testimony
about Foundational
Convictions
Global Gospel Movements
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INTRERACTIVE Q + A
What was most helpful or exciting about the content?
What was most challenging?
What question might you ask?
yy On your own
yy Groups of 3-4
yy Whole groups
CLOSING THOUGHT
Invitation to participate in the next 8 sessions
PRAY
DISMISS
APPRENTICE DEBRIEF
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In-depth Session
Notes for Facilitator:
INTRO
 1 minute
In our last session together, we spent time looking at the purpose and nature of
the Church. Really, we were asking the WHY question. Why does the Church
exist?
Today, we want to explore the HOW question. How has God purposed His
church to accomplish His mission with Him?
OVERVIEW OF THE DAY
 1 minute
Our time together today will look somewhat similar:
yy Intentional Prayer
yy Content Challenge
yy Discussion and Engagement
PRAYER
 20 minutes (***see end of session for citation)
First, break into groups of 2-3. No more than 3 people per group.
Very quickly to yourself, think about one person in your life that you’d like to
see come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. (Pause to make sure they have
someone in mind).
yy Using the Lord’s Prayer and the
6 themes as our guide, we are
going to pray for that person.
I’ll say what we are praying for
and give some questions and
thoughts that will prompt us to
Coaching Tip
Use the timer on your
phone to keep it to 3
minutes. You want to
keep it moving at a
steady, brisk pace.
pray.
yy Guide the group through the prayer, spending no more than 3
minutes at the most on each theme.
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The Father’s Character:
We focus on the fact that God is a father. What kind of characteristics does
God our Father have when we pray specifically for those who are estranged
from Him? What specifically are we thankful for today as we pray for these
individuals? We focus that God is holy and His name is hallowed because He’s
the King of the universe. What are the character qualities of this king? Which are
standing out to you today? Which do we need to know as we pray for them?
The Father’s Kingdom:
If God’s Kingdom were fully present right now/today for this person and all of
sin and the effects of evil were banished, what would be different? How can
we pray specifically for these people for God’s Kingdom to come? We pray
remembering we have the authority and power of Jesus.
The Father’s Provision:
Daily bread is not just the nourishing food for our bodies, but includes all the
things we need as a human to sustain us physically, emotionally and spiritually.
What daily bread do these people need so that they may know God is providing
for them?
The Father’s Forgiveness:
Pray that they would recognize the need for the Father’s forgiveness and their
need for relationship with Him. Pray specifically that God would intervene in
relationships in their lives where forgiveness is needed that would show them
the reconciliation of Jesus.
The Father’s Guidance:
We know that all we need to do is ask for wisdom and it will be given to us.
Where do I need the wisdom from heaven today in engaging with this person or
family? What things need to be revealed to me that I don’t know of without the
Holy Spirit’s guidance?
The Father’s Deliverance:
Are there places where we perceive the enemy is at work in this person’s
life? Pray against those places, asking God’s Spirit to overcome the prince of
darkness and win the day. Are there strongholds of which we need to be aware?
What are they? Are there places the enemy is clutching at my life and I need
deliverance in regards to this person? Pray for God’s victory on the cross, over
sin, death, hell and the grave to be present.
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EXERCISE
 30 minutes
In our last session together we spent time looking at the purpose and nature of
the Church. Really, we were asking the WHY question. Why does the Church
exist?
He wants every man, woman and child to have repeated opportunities to see,
hear and respond to the Gospel.
The church exists to be a reconciled people in relationship with God, sharing the
Good News as they represent Him wherever they go.
Today, we want to explore the HOW question. How has God purposed His
church to accomplish His mission with Him?
Before we answer that, let’s think about the state of the church today.
Less than half (48%) of those living in the United States claim to be
Protestant. (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life)
19.6% are called “Nones”: Atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. That’s 46
million people in the USA. (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life).
This stat has doubled in the last 10 years and statistical trends suggest it will
do it again. It is likely that by 2030, the majority of the United States will be
“Nones.” This is exactly what happened to Great Britain after World War 1.
32% of Christians have not given financially in the last year (Barna Group).
Statistician Dr. Ryan Kozey surveyed 30,000 evangelicals over a 4 year
period, asking the question: "Have you built 2 relationships this year with
someone who wasn’t a Christian? If so, what happened?"
2013: 41% of people didn’t build ANY relationships. Average was 2, but most
frequent response was 0.
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Proclamations: 33% said they didn’t share the good news with a single
solitary person.
Conversion: 72% didn’t see anyone come to faith.
66% of evangelicals don’t believe the Great Commission personally applies
to them.
Obviously we could go on, but you get the picture.
In groups of 4-5 (doesn't have to be with your church team), take 5 minutes to
discuss these questions:
What’s hindering the Church?
What do you believe are the reasons for these statistics?
Then, write out your TOP THREE reasons you think the American church is
where it is today.
Report out:
yy Each team gets no more than two minutes.
yy Put them on a timer and show them they are on a clock.
yy Have a representative from each team come up and share their
thoughts, putting their giant sticky on the wall.
CONTENT
 30 minutes
NEW TESTAMENT WALK

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Let’s take a quick look at what Jesus tells his disciples and then what they
did with it. Let’s see if we can trace a principle at work.
Read Matthew 10:5-7.
 Obviously there is a sent-ness here, as well as an equipping and
empowering.
 We know that in Luke 10, he also sends out the 72 with the exact same
instructions.
Read Matthew 28:18-20.
 Big thing to highlight: Teaching to obey everything He had taught them to
do.
 Jesus wasn’t giving suggestions for three years. They were specific things
the disciples were to KEEP doing and then to PASS ON to others.
 Let’s remember, there is a world of difference between WORKING FOR
and WORKING OUT your salvation. This isn’t about earning discipleship,
but working out being a learner of Jesus with the Spirit given to them.
 Jesus is instructing His disciples that it is not to stay with them only. Keep
pushing it out.
Read Acts 1:8.
 First of all, we realize we cannot do this on our own. Jesus says in John 15,
"Apart from Me, you can do nothing." We need His Spirit within us to give
us power and to lead us.
 The second thing we notice is that Jesus is very clear that He wants the
Good News to spread and for everyone to hear it: Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
 Interestingly, we often don’t think of it this way…we are the ends of the
earth in relation to 1st century Palestine.
 Clearly, there are more “ends of the earth” that need to hear the message.
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 There is a directive; there is a "sent-outness" in being a disciple of Jesus.
We have a clear mission directive to REPRESENT Him and the authority
and power given to us by His Spirit.
Read Acts 7:59-Acts 8:7.
 As you know, this is the first great scattering of the church. For the first 8
years, it was mostly centered in Jerusalem.
 But when they are scattered, what do they do?
 They do something similar to what we see Jesus instructing the disciples
to do in Matthew 10.
 The early church actually did what Jesus instructed: Take what I’ve taught
you, and teach everyone else how to obey. You’ve got your clear mission
directive, and I’m giving you my very Spirit. GO!
Read Acts 19:1-10.
 We are seeing the exact same kinds of things, right? However, this is at
least 25 years after Jesus had originally said it.
 This is the FIRST TIME we see something else.
 Re-read vs 10.
 You see that? Incredible strides were made in saturating the entire
province of Asia!
Anthropologist Rodney Stark wrote a book called The Rise of Christianity,
and these are the same kinds of conclusions he comes to when asking how
120 people in an upper room grew to 33 million of the Roman Empire in just
under 270 years.
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OPERATING SYSTEM AND
FOUNDATIONAL CONVICTIONS
Think of it like an Operating System.
The things on your smartphone or iPad are called APPS. Applications are the
things you see:
yy Google maps
yy Text messaging
yy Angry Birds
yy Twitter
All of these APPS run on an Operating System which is built on the fundamental
binary code of 0’s and 1’s that give direction to everything else.
Your APPS are only as strong as your Operating System.
In the United States, we have the biggest APP STORE you’ve ever seen for the
church. More conferences. More ways of making disciples. More missional
vehicles. More evangelical worship service ideas. But what if they are all built
on a faulty or incomplete OS?
And if we have a faulty or incomplete OS, we are going to get the same error
messages.
What’s going on here in the book of Acts? What is the OS at work?
Three Foundational Convictions:
We believe the OS in the New Testament is built on three fundamental
convictions. Adapted from some of the thoughts of missiologist Dr. Dwight
Smith, these convictions, which rise out of Scripture, are the HOW of the way
the Church is meant to function.
Conviction 1: “Whatever God wants to do in the world today, He wants to do
through all of His people.” - Dr. Dwight Smith.
yy In other words, it takes every man, woman and child to reach every man,
woman and child.
yy Read Ephesians 2:19-21.
 In Christ we are joined TOGETHER as His Holy Temple, not as a
physical building, but as His people in relationship & representation of
Him.
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 Everywhere God's people go, God goes, because He lives and dwells
in them.
 As His people, we don't go to the temple (go to church), but we are His
Temple! We are His CHURCH!
yy Read Ephesians 3:9-12.
 The Church is commissioned to make God's plan of salvation plain to
the whole of His creation.
 God’s intent is to use ALL of His Church to make Himself known.
Conviction 2: Whatever God wants to do in the world today, He wants to do
through multiplying disciples and churches, giving Gospel access to every
man, woman, and child.
yy It’s what we just saw in the book of Acts, isn’t it? It wasn’t just the
Jerusalem church getting bigger and bigger, adding people to their
central church body. Rather, the Church kept multiplying.
yy Paul writes the book of Romans to the church in Rome, but in
Romans 16, you see that Paul is actually addressing five or six
churches within the city of Rome: THE CHURCH in Rome. It is
multiplication.
Conviction 3: Whatever God wants to do in the world today, He wants to do
through leaders who view equipping God’s people for His mission as their first
priority.
yy Read Ephesians 4:11-16.
yy What is the purpose of leadership in Jesus' Church?
 There are diverse leadership functions God gives to His Church to
build up the body.
 All of these functions are necessary to fully equip and mobilize the body.
yy What else are these leaders doing?
 Seeking that ALL would come to unity
 Equipping ALL the saints for works of service
 End result? Maturity and wholeness
yy The 3rd conviction takes the first 2 convictions seriously: If God
wants all of His people to multiply disciples and churches, they will
need to be equipped to do so!
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video: Testimony about Foundational Convictions
Global Gospel Movements
This Operating System of the New Testament Church informed their direction,
nature and purpose. The New Testament Church was a mobilizing community.
What we often experience in church today is a collecting community. Let's
contrast the two.
Conviction 1
Mobilizing: All his people
Collecting: His special people
Conviction 2
Mobilizing: Accessible and multiplying disciples and churches
Collecting: Centralized Congregations (Bigger is better)
Conviction 3
Mobilizing: Equipping God’s people to reach others together
Collecting: Collecting God’s people to gather together
INTERACTIVE Q + A
 20-30 minutes
We want to give you some questions to think about and for us to discuss. We’ll
give the introverts a chance to process internally first by giving the room 2
minutes of quiet to take notes, and then we’ll unleash some of you extroverts
and widen the discussion.
yy What was most helpful or exciting about the content?
yy What was most challenging?
yy What question might you ask?
Give them two minutes of silence to write down a few notes.
Have them get into groups of 3-4 and share their answers.
Have various people in the room share.
You facilitate and bat around the content as necessary.
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CLOSING THOUGHT
 8-10 minutes
What if what happened in the books of Acts…what if what’s happening in India,
Mexico, South America, Cuba, China…what if that was more normal here? What
if that was more normal in your city? What if that was more normal in your
church?
There are already pockets in the United States that are seeing breakthrough in
this. It’s not just far off places. It’s here. Because it’s the same Spirit with the
same desire: EMWC.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Since we are serious about EMWC and seeing these convictions play out in
reality, will you consider going on a journey with us?
Describe thumbnail sketch of Learning Community (with handout with dates).
The sessions will be almost identical to what you’ve experienced thus far.
yy Prayer time
yy Content
yy Discussion and engagement
We will look at 4 Priorities, spending two sessions on each.
MOBILIZATION
TRANSFORMATION
MULTIPLICATION
COLLABORATION
To be clear, we aren’t talking about REVOLUTION in your church and blowing
everything to smithereens. We are talking about taking 8 sessions to discuss,
pray, and wrestle with the Scriptures, to hear what God might be saying, to
reflect on some simple next steps for you as a leader and for the church you
serve.
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Here’s what we are asking today:
yy Will you take 7 days to pray and possibly fast about joining us on
this journey?
yy I’ll email you in a week to see what you feel like God is saying to you
about this.
Invitation & Challenge:
yy We know that some of you need to be part of this journey, not to
learn new ideas, but to be reminded of essential truth concerning
the Church and its mission.
yy Some of you need to journey with us for what you have to give and
to bring to others from your experience and learnings.
yy Regardless, we desire all of you to take the journey with us so
we can see all of His Church mobilized to faithfully proclaim and
demonstrate the Gospel to every man, woman and child where we
live... together.
Any quick questions?
PRAY + DISMISS
 5 minutes
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APPRENTICE DEBRIEF
If you’re working with an apprentice already, debrief the session with him/her:
Go over the “wins” from the session to help form the discussion.
What did he/she think worked well? Give your reflections as well.
What didn’t go as well? What might he/she change?
Give your reflections as well.
Share some of your observations of how you navigated through the session.
***This is adapted from Mike Breen’s content on the Lord’s Prayer,
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