‘Christian Life & Global Mission’ is the fourth in the well-established ‘Christian Life &…’ series from LBC productions, who have teamed up with the experienced mission organisation Interserve for this resource. Christian Life and Global Mission builds on the successful format of previous titles, through a mix of video-based expert teaching (available in both VHS and DVD formats), combined with Bible study and discussion. Mission thinkers featured include George Verwer, Clive Calver, Michael Green, Steve Chalke and Joe Kapolyo. According to Ruth Roff, the assistant producer of Christian Life and Global Mission, it is every Christian’s spiritual birthright to be involved with what God is doing in the world – but turning this into a daily reality is sometimes another matter. Christian Life and Global Mission aims to build an understanding of what it means to follow Jesus into God’s mission in the world – prompting participants towards making a Kingdom-shaped difference in their communities, their nations and across the world.
It’s a big aim, but the verdict at our church was that the materials go a long way towards facilitating this goal. As with all the ‘Christian Life &…’ titles, they are particularly suitable for small group study, such as housegroups. The materials are affordable as well, since once you have purchased a single copy of Christian Life and Global Mission, remaining copies can be hired inexpensively. The course is divided up into six sessions lasting approximately 1½ hours each, with instructions and discussion questions provided in the leaders’ guide. This may be slightly too long for some housegroups, but we found that the sessions could be edited to allow for more discussion time and prayer, although this does increase preparation time for leaders. The adaptability of Christian Life and Global Mission is a welcome feature of the materials – the accompanying CD-Rom includes all the participants’ handouts, as well as extra resources which can be integrated into the sessions as leaders see fit. You can preview some of the handouts, and a video clip at www.christianlifeand.com.
For our church, Christian Life and Global Mission has contributed towards making our participation in God’s mission a live issue – locally, nationally and globally. We’re now working out what we’re going to do about it!
