Real Change for Students
Becoming More Like Jesus in Everyday Life (Study Guide with Leader's Notes)
by Andrew Nicholls and Helen Thorne (Edited by David Powlison)
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Pub Date 23 Sep 2019 | Archive Date 6 Dec 2019
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Description
Every honest Christian knows the need for change. But how to get there? How do young adults move forward from struggles both big and small? And how does our faith in God affect our everyday thoughts, feelings, and actions?
In this six-session small group resource for students, participants have the 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 for Students 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 students 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 and pressure; how the cross of Christ brings comfort, help, and change; and how we can grow to be like Christ in the hardest circumstances.
Within this small group resource are biblical insights, discussion questions, and a personal change project to help young adults seeking to change negative patterns and live by faith in all circumstances. While the study material is designed for young adults within small groups, it can also be used for one-to-one discipleship study.
Rooted in Scripture, Real Change for Students draws on the established CCEF “Three Threes” model of change in simplified form to help young adults better understand biblical change and grow to be more like Jesus in everyday life.
AUTHORS
Andrew Nicholls, MA, MB, BChir, is a former doctor and pastor who is now 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, MDiv, PhD, served as CCEF's executive director, as a faculty member, and as senior editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. David was a counselor for more than thirty years and wrote numerous articles on biblical counseling and on the relationship between faith and psychology. His books include 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. His last book, just published, was Safe and Sound: Standing Firm in Spiritual Battles.
Advance Praise
“God intends every believer to grow into the likeness of Christ—and because we all have such a long way to go it’s never too soon to get going. This edition of Real Change is a resource specifically designed to help students apply the power of the gospel to the details of life. It is an engaging, manageable, and thoroughly biblical exploration of spiritual growth. Buy it and use it with your friends.”
- Steve Midgley, Executive Director, Biblical Counselling UK; senior minister, Christ Church, Cambridge
“Finally! This book is long overdue! Real Change gives light to unlit paths of guiding students to a lifestyle of cross-centered faith and repentance. As a student walks across the stage on graduation, you can be confident that no matter what trials or failures they encounter they’ll know how to examine their own hearts and turn to Christ. I look forward to giving a copy to every one of our youth leaders!”
- Pavel N. Bugriyev, Youth Pastor, Hilltown Baptist Church
“Let’s be honest: We all battle with deep-set issues, stubborn sins that hinder us from following Jesus. Real Change gets right under the skin and chisels the heart. It’s not going to be an easy ride. Be prepared to be challenged, transformed, and brought to your knees as you allow God’s Spirit to make you more like Jesus. This is genuinely a book I can’t wait to introduce our teenagers to.”
- Dave Cornes, Head of Youth Ministry, St. James Muswell Hill, UK
“This brilliantly practical course will help you work out your faith in a really tangible way. It calls us to think through real struggles in our Christian lives, gives us a helpful biblical framework to work them through, and reminds us at every stage to bring them before our loving Heavenly Father who cares for us. What a great resource for God’s people!”
- Olly Elliott, Associate Minister for Youth and Families, St. Peter’s Harold Wood
“We all have things in our lives we would like to change. But often we don’t know how, and can even find it hard to begin talking about it. This course helps do exactly that, helping young people to understand themselves better, talk honestly, and see the real change that is possible as God works in us. With clear biblical input and lots of time to discuss, it will be a very useful resource.”
- Sarah Bradley, Youth and Children’s Minister, Holy Trinity Church, Manchester, UK
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781645070337 |
| PRICE | US$12.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Jeanie S, Reviewer
Each week the Bible Study, reflection, and discussion in Real Change for Students will help you understand how God works with us. You will reflect on your own heart. you will reflect on life's hardships. You will reflect on God's mercies. And you will come to better understand how your Savior meets you in your particular life situation.
I cannot recommend this enough for Student Ministry. This book equips the students to examine their own hearts and why they respond in sin and how to respond in the light of God's word. It also equips the leaders in how to be prepared for "hard stuff" and how to teach the students in a effective way. Reading of scripture, reflection, and application.
The scenarios that are given are to teach your knee jerk reaction to a life situation and then to go back and analyze why you responded in the way you did. It is not meant to point any wrong behavior out but how we may see fruit in our lives if we take the time to see how the bad fruit sets in. It is about finding how the gospel changes you.
The response is the thorns (which describes your sinful responses and the consequences that are reaped. The Heart is what lies underneath the responses and how the Cross - the Gospel connects your heart, your fears, your idols and misplaced desires.
Each 6 Sessions of the bible study builds on the above concept of applying the gospel to your everyday life. A strong resource for your Student Ministry.
A Special Thank you to New Growth Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
Joan N, Reviewer
This is a short (6 week) study for anyone who wants to understand how God changes us. It is based on the “Three Trees” diagram developed for a CCEF course on spiritual change. It deals with how we respond to pressure and how we can position ourselves to see change. Each lesson has a combination of teaching, group discussion, discussion with a partner, and homework. Students are encouraged to journal their personal reflections on their lives and the changes they desire.
The book itself is about half study guide with the rest being leader information. Leaders are given ideas how to plan for the entire study and for each meeting. Specific times are offered, giving suggested number of minutes for each aspect of the study. There are suggestions for questions to ask, Scripture to read, discussions to lead, and homework to assign. The detailed information for leaders makes it possible for people without much experience in leading a study to do it well.
I appreciate the material covered in the study. It is a good introduction to spiritual change. It requires quite a bit of “homework” in the form of reflective journaling. It also requires establishing discussion partners with the two discussing personal struggles, praying for one another, etc. This might be difficult for some to do. It is suggested the leader assign the discussion partners so I am not sure there will be instant willingness to share. I think this might be a potential problem for a teen study.
The strength of this study is the leader material. Half the book is help for leaders, making it a study for a novice leader. I see some potential issues with forming meaning discussion partners but other than that, a good 6 week study on spiritual change.
I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
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