Congregational Life Centre
Our mission is to help leaders acquire the skills and attitudes they need to lead
Shaping
Your Deep Gladness
A Prisms Study Guide for Small Group
by Joyce Madsen
This resource is designed for participants in a small group who have a desire to identify their gifts and passions, understand them more deeply by sharing them and as a result shape their future. It can be used for those who want to find a way to connect with their congregation, for anyone at a transition in their life, or just for the experience of becoming clearer about one's individual identify. $11.95
Shaping Your Deep Gladness is published by:
The Congregational Life Centre
#1405, 5328 Calgary Trail,
Edmonton AB T6H 4J8
www.congregationallife.com
Copyright © 2006 by Joyce Madsen.
The place God calls you to is the place
where your deep gladness
and the world's deep hunger meet.
Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking ? A Theological ABC
Table of Contents
Session 1 The Journey
Session 2 Finding Your Gifts
Session 3 Exploring Your Colours
Session 4 Discovering Passion
Session 5 Possibilities for Sharing
Session 6 Setting Goals
Session 7 Plan of Action
Session 8 Celebration
Appendix A: Individual Gifts Instrument
Appendix B: Identifying Your Passions
Appendix C: Companions on the Journey
Appendix D: Community Opportunities
Appendix E: Your Personal Prism
Facilitator's Outline
Introduction
This Study Guide is designed for participants in a small group who have a desire to identify their gifts and passions, understand them more deeply by sharing them, and as a result, shape their future. It can be used for those who want to find a way to connect with their congregation, for those who are looking to identify a new career, for anyone at a transition in their life, or just for the experience of becoming clearer about your individual identity.
The Guide is designed to be used in conjunction with Prisms the book.
We would suggest a group of between six and ten to enable everyone time to share and explore topics in depth. A Facilitator's Guide is included after the Appendices.
Each session consists of Reflection, Exploration, Questions, and Activities. We believe every small group that meets in a Christian context needs to take time to connect spiritually and to build community. The order that you choose to do these activities in is up to you, but we suggest that you make special time to "come together" before you begin the task for the particular session. We also believe you need to close your time with some kind of ritual. Lighting a candle at the beginning and then putting it out as you close can be a simple way to signify the beginning and the ending of the time.
Your time together might include:
" Opening prayer of welcome (light a candle, join hands, pass the
peace, etc.)
" A time to connect with one another
" Reflection and Exploration
" Activity
" Time for journaling
" Closing prayer of thanks (extinguish candle, hug one another).
The Sessions are designed to be completed in about 1 ½ hours, depending on the time you give to exploration. The process was created assuming that participants would do the reading and the work sheets on their own before the session, so that the time together can be totally for sharing and reflection. We would suggest that the participants use the work sheets in this Study Guide so that they have all their information in one place.
If not everyone has a copy of the Prisms book, the facilitator could provide an overview of the session topic as part of each time together.
The Guide is broken into eight sessions. These of course can be adapted to meet the needs of your group. If one topic is generating good discussion and reflection, you may want to spend more than one session on it, and you may want to combine some sessions.