Every honest Christian knows the need for change. But how to get there? How do you move forward from struggles both big and small? And how does our faith in God impact our everyday thoughts, feelings, and actions?
This six-session small group resource gives participants an opportunity to reflect on one particular area in their lives and then to learn more about how God changes us to become more like Jesus. All of us struggle to love God and those around us, but God has promised to keep working on us. And God always keeps his promises.
The change his gospel produces will make your life and your relationships truly beautiful. This self-contained resource with leader’s notes will encourage small group participants to understand and apply a biblical view of change to their lives and relationships.
Real Change: Becoming More Like Jesus in Everyday Life is based on the CCEF model of change from David Powlison’s course, Dynamics of Biblical Change. The easy-to-use six lesson format and included leader’s guide encourages participants toward an honest discussion of their own struggles while providing an understanding of how a relationship with Christ brings change.
Topics addressed include understanding how we typically respond to trouble, how the cross of Christ brings comfort, help, and change, and how we can grow to be like Christ in the hardest circumstances.
AUTHOR
Andrew Nicholls, MA, MB, BChir, is a former doctor and pastor who is now the director of pastoral care at Oak Hill Theological College, London. He is married to Hilary, and they have two children.
Helen Thorne, BSc (Hons), MA, is the director of training and mentoring at London City Mission. She is a trustee of Biblical Counselling UK and involved in pastoral care within her local church. She is an experienced speaker and author of Purity Is Possible, 5 Things to Pray for Your City, and Walking with Domestic Abuse Sufferers.
David Powlison (1949–2019) was a teacher, counselor, and the executive director of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). He wrote many books and minibooks, including Speaking Truth in Love; Seeing with New Eyes; Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare; The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context; Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness; Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken;and God’s Grace in Your Suffering. David was also the editor of The Journal of Biblical Counseling.
"Real Change is an excellent short course for applying the truth of the Bible to the struggles of everyday life. Not only is it thoroughly biblical in its content, it is inescapably applied to the ordinary growth of the Christian life. If you want to be challenged to grow in godliness, it's a terrific resource."
Dan Wells, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Richmond, UK
"Do you have a tricky colleague at work? Are you worrying about Christmas with the family? Real Change enables you to connect the gospel of Jesus Christ to the real situations in your life. To see how your heart is responding to your situation, to learn what God is teaching you through your circumstances and to interact with him as he changes you."
Zena Schofield, Biblical Counselling Coordinator, Beeston Free Church; consultant psychiatrist, National Health Service
"Having taken CCEF's Dynamics of Biblical Change course as a student and having it taught several times as a Recitation Instructor for CCEF and for our church, I've long known that the material is tremendously beneficial for helping people know the God of the Bible better and understand how biblical change works. However, answering the question, 'How do we get this information more widely disseminated among the people at our church—especially through our small groups?' has been elusive to me. Real Change is just the resource I've been looking for! Andrew Nicholls and Helen Thorne have created an effective tool for introducing more people to the basics of how the process of being changed more and more into the image of Christ over time works in the life of a Christian. It's short in duration (six sessions), making it ideal for a Sunday school or small group curriculum. And yet it is faithful to communicate the essence of David Powlison's Dynamics course. I am eager to commend and utilize this new tool for creating more discipleship opportunities in our church."
Bryan Pickering, Pastor for Care & Counseling, Bethlehem Baptist Church Downtown Campus
"I am so excited by this book, which is so badly needed in our churches. Real Change provides an engaging, manageable, and thoroughly biblical exploration of spiritual growth. It helps us to do change as God intends—in community. It helps us apply the power of the gospel to the detail of our lives. It helps us help one another. I'm looking forward to making Real Change courses a regular part of the life of our church."
Steve Midgley, Executive Director, Biblical Counselling UK; senior minister, Christ Church, Cambridge
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Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
Paul David Tripp
Paul David Tripp
Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane
This is a six week study based on a model of change developed by David Powlison for a CCEF course. We have pressures and we can respond to them in two ways. One is a self-focused God dishonoring way reaping negative consequences. The other is a God honoring way. The course aims to help us allow the Spirit to bring us to repentance and change our hearts so that our response to the pressures of life are God honoring, producing good fruit and reaping positive consequences. There is a Three Trees diagram describing the model and each lesson deals with one of the parts of the diagram. The lessons rely heavily on the diagram and the model. This is not a study of spiritual growth or change in general. It is specifically dealing with the model and the diagram. The format of the lessons includes lots of reading, discussing, and writing. The amount of text to read is more than I have generally seen in a study like this. Participants are encouraged to discuss the material and answers to questions with one person, rather than in a group. The authors note that self reflection is an important part of the process of change. (Loc. 62/1452) They encourage participants to journal and there is a great for participants to write about. This study would be appreciated by people who like to read lots and write lots. The first half of the book is the study while the second half is a leader's guide. It is very detailed, suggesting five minutes of discussion here, ten minutes on this topic there. The information in the leader's guide is quite informative, making me think this study would be most effective in a group setting with a leader and not by someone trying to do it on their own. Also, the leader's guide is so detailed that someone new to leading a group would find it very useful. This study might be most useful for relatively new Christians. It is also quite focused on decisions we make and how they relate to our growth. I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
Real Change is a Bible study for a small group that encourages you to choose a part of your life that you want to change in order to work on becoming more like Jesus. This study is broken into 6 sessions: Change, Heat, Thorns, Cross, Fruit, and Real Change. I appreciated that each session was short enough to be manageable, yet still contained enough content to study and ponder over. I also enjoyed how each session had me in my Bible. Each session contained an "aim" (objective) and the lessons built on each other. There were also scripture, discussion questions, and questions to think about on your own. There is also a detailed leader's guide included in the book. One thing that I would note is that you really need a small group, or at the very least, a discussion partner to go through this study with you. I read through the study alone, and I feel like I did not get the full experience. I received this book in exchange for my complete and honest review.
Real Change is a six session Bible study that is broken into six manageable chunks. I really enjoyed that the study was easy to fit into my schedule, and that it got me into my Bible a few times each session. Each session had an aim, built on the previous sessions, and included scripture and reflection questions. There is also a leader's guide in the book that broke down each session and how to lead a small group through the study. One thing to note, is that this is a definitely a study that needs to be done in a small group, or at least with one other person to be your discussion partner. Reading this on my own did not give me the full experience. I received a copy of this book through the Read with Audra program. All opinions are my own.