Order your own copy here today.
• • •
Purchase a copy of Stewardship:
Discovering Godly Ambition for Your Life
and access the accompanying
teaching videos and resources here.
A Counter-Formation Guide
The purpose of the Guide
We are all being formed. The environment we live in, what we read and watch, the relationships we engage in, where we go and what we do, are always shaping our desires, our beliefs, and our habits. We can either be formed towards the way of Jesus, or formed away from it. In our culture, the way to be happy is to be your own authority and live life on your own terms. But could there actually be safety and beauty in authority? In this Counter-Formation Guide, entitled The Safety and Beauty of Authority, we explore God’s vision for authority and whether authority can actually be for our good.
Leading the Guide
If you are a leader hoping for some helpful instructions on how best to plan and prepare to lead through the guide, learn more here.
Using the Guide
Four Trainings
The mission of Frontline Church is multiplying gospel communities that love God, love people, and push back darkness. Our community groups are one of the primary places we live out that mission. The Counter-Formation Guide contains four trainings you can work through together as a community group every two weeks—either in family meals or in discipleship groups. Each training session will include a brief Bible discussion, a ten-minute teaching video (see below), discussion questions and an exercise.
Most of our groups follow an "alternating weeks" format, with a family meal on the first and third week of the month, and discipleship groups on the second and fourth week. If your group follows that format, you can work through the these trainings in eight weeks (e.g., four consecutive discipleship groups, meeting every other week).
Forty Daily Liturgies
In addition, the Counter-Formation Guide contains 40 daily liturgies for you to work through individually over the course of those same eight weeks. There are five daily liturgies a week, designed to be used as an aid to your individual devotion times. Each daily liturgy contains a brief call to worship, two Scripture readings, a prayer of confession and assurance, a benediction, and a blank page for notes. The whole process is designed to take no more than fifteen minutes. If you fall behind in any given week, don't feel the need to make up the missed days.
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Additional Resources
As always, please approach the following resources with biblical discernment—prayerfully considering what to receive, reject, or redeem. The views expressed in these resources do not necessarily represent the views of the Frontline Elders.
Living under the authority of Scripture
- Many of us have never been taught how to fruitfully spend time alone with God—connecting with him through Scripture and prayer. This one-page guide by Tim Keller is a great place to start, as is the booklet entitled Enjoy Your Prayer Life, by Michael Reeves.
- Others of us have never been taught how to actually read the Bible. In fact, the Bible can seem intimidating, confusing and even a little bit boring. In his very concise book Read This First: A Simple Guide to Getting the Most from the Bible, Gary Millar helps us see that the skills we need to read the Bible are not beyond our grasp. Whether you're a new believer that doesn't know where to start, or a long-time Christian who's never gotten into a regular habit of Bible reading, this book will help you get going. You can start by sampling the first chapter—entitled "Why bother with the Bible?"
- Here is a helpful two-page guide to praying Scripture, by Donald Whitney (summarizing his very brief book Praying the Bible), or you can watch "Donald Whitney on the Benefit of Praying the Bible" (15:22).
- Here is a simple half-page guide to one-to-one Bible reading, by David Helm, with accompanying reading schedules (adapted from his very brief book One-to-One Bible Reading).
- Here is one of our favorite Bible reading plans. By reading from four separate places in the Scriptures every day, you will get a better grasp of the unity of the Scriptures, as well as increase the likelihood of finding one bit of Scripture to apply to one bit of your life. You can begin at any point of the year. There are only 25 readings per month, to prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan. With this plan you can set aside Sundays to either not read at all or to catch up on any readings you may have missed in the past week.
- “Reading the Bible Theologically,” by J. I. Packer
- “Reading the Bible for Personal Application,” by David Powlison
- “How Does Scripture Change You?,” by David Powlison
- Watch “Making Scripture Personal,” David Powlison (9:19)
Making Sense of Human Authority
- "Godly Roles and Relationships: Ephesians 5:21–6:9," from Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture, by David Powlison
- “Beautiful Difference: The Complementarity Of Male And Female,” by Andrew Wilson
- "What If I'm Not the 'Submissive' Type?," by Rebecca McLaughlin
- Listen to “Is God a Misogynist?,” Mary Willson (56:05)
• • •
Purchase a copy of Stewardship:
Discovering Godly Ambition for Your Life
and access the accompanying
teaching videos and resources here.
• • •
