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How to Use This Curriculum

For Pastors and Ministry Leaders

If you are considering adopting the Service Preparation Workshop for your church or ministry, here is a recommended path:

Step 1 — Read the Workshop Outline

Begin with the Workshop Outline. It gives you the full two-day structure, the scripture set for each session, the opening icebreakers, the leadership breakouts, and the rhythm of the workshop end-to-end. Most leaders can assess fit in 20 minutes of reading.

Step 2 — Read the Four Leader Guides

Each Leader Guide takes about 15 minutes to read:

You will see the time allocations, key teaching points, and reflection prompts for each session.

Step 3 — Prepare Your Facilitator Team

The workshop runs well with one lead facilitator and one small-group leader for every 4-6 participants. Distribute the Leader Guides to your facilitator team a week ahead, and walk through the structure together in a 60-minute prep meeting.

Step 4 — Print or Distribute Participant Materials

Each participant needs:

  • The Ministry Planning Worksheet for the session
  • The Reflection Worksheet for the session

These can be printed (best for the personal reflection work) or shared digitally with participants who will work on them on a tablet or laptop. The print stylesheets on this site produce clean, fill-in-by-hand pages — just print the worksheet page from your browser.

Step 5 — Run the Workshop

Stick close to the Leader Guide for the first run. Time allocations matter: the workshop's spiritual rhythm depends on enough silence for reflection, enough engagement for discussion, and enough closing prayer to send participants out grounded.

For Small Group Leaders

If you are running this as a four-week small-group series, each week's flow looks like this:

  1. Welcome and Opening Prayer (10 minutes)
  2. Teaching from the Leader Guide (15-20 minutes — adapt to your group's depth)
  3. Reflection Worksheet — personal silent work (15-20 minutes)
  4. Group Discussion using the Discussion Prompts (30-45 minutes)
  5. Ministry Planning Worksheet — quick start, with the rest done at home (10 minutes)
  6. Closing Prayer (5 minutes)

Total: approximately 90 minutes per session, with the deeper Ministry Planning work continuing between sessions.

For Individuals Walking Through the Workshop Alone

The curriculum is designed for groups, but it works as a personal four-week study. Read each Leader Guide as background, then complete the Reflection Worksheet and Ministry Planning Worksheet over a few days of prayer and journaling. The Group Discussion Prompts become personal journal questions when you are alone — answer them as if you were sharing in a group.

If at all possible, find at least one other believer to walk through the material with you, even if you are not in a formal group. The spiritual conviction that emerges in Session 2, and the compassionate vision of Session 3, both grow stronger in shared conversation.

Adapting the Curriculum

You are free to adapt this material to your context. Common adaptations:

  • Translation to other languages — please share any translations back to the ministry so we can list them here for other communities
  • Length — expanded to a weeklong retreat, compressed to a one-day intensive, or stretched to an eight-week series
  • Theological tradition — the workshop's foundational scriptures cross denominational lines; specific theological emphases (sacraments, ordinances, denominational distinctives) can be added at appropriate points
  • Audience-specific framing — youth, college students, marketplace believers, retirees — each may benefit from contextual examples or supplementary readings

What we ask in return is that you preserve attribution to Flame of Provision Ministries and that you share derivative works under the same Creative Commons license. See the License page for the formal terms.

Feedback and Connection

If you adopt the workshop, we would love to know — both because it encourages the team that wrote it, and because we can track which churches are running this material and connect leaders to one another. Email us at the address on the About page.