Revive is a series of small group sessions that equips lay leaders to grow as spiritual leaders. Typically, lay leaders meet with a ministry leader for an opening and closing retreat and three six-week sessions to explore their spiritual lives, deepen their relationship with God and become proficient as spiritual leaders.
In a safe, non-judgmental setting, filled with warm humour, they learn a lot about themselves and others, and connect more deeply with God.
Revive is offered as a form of thanks to lay leaders who give so much to their church. Church ministry often involves important concerns for budgets, property, and people. But these concerns distract lay leaders from spiritually growing in a relationship with Christ.
Through Revive, lay leaders become confident with prayer and scripture, and they learn to see their ministry as a vocation. They also learn practical skills that are invaluable for their tasks and activities within the congregation.
What is the structure of the sessions?
Each Revive session typically runs for two hours and includes:
- an icebreaker
- a presentation (using the Revive video series, or presented by facilitator)
- a discussion
- an exercise
- a take-home practice
The six-week sessions (referred to as Module 1, 2 and 3 in Revive materials) are usually held in the fall, winter and spring to avoid the busy church seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.
Here is a sample schedule for a typical full year with Revive, though you can customize to your needs:
- Week 1 (mid-August): Letter invitation sent out. Registration begins
- Week 8 (early October): Registration ends, Opening Retreat is held
- Week 9 (early October): Module 1, Communicating with God, begins
- Week 14 (mid-November): Module 1 ends
- Week 23 (mid-January): Module 2, Engaging in Scripture, begins
- Week 28 (early March): Module 2, ends
- Week 35 (mid-April): Module 3, Called for Ministry, begins
- Week 41 (late May): Module 3, ends
- Week 42 (early June): Closing Retreat.
Purchasing Revive Materials
When you purchase Revive (here), you get everything you need to run the program, including the facilitator and participant guides, and access to 30 short video presentations. Everything you need can be downloaded and printed as needed. The full program costs $299 (USD).
To save time at the copy machine, we do offer pre-printed participant guides for an additional charge.
Ministry leaders invite as many as 12 lay leaders to participate in Revive. Together, clergy, pastoral ministers and lay people deepen and grow in their faith as followers of Christ. It is the journey of a lifetime as you revive!
Read more guest posts from Revive here.