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Sermon Series

A four part sermon series that complements the perspectives of the book. It covers four core values: Jesus is our Center; the Gospel is our Message; the Bible is our Book; and Love is our Aim. It’s a series designed to help a church embrace the mission of making faith accessible to people on the outside looking who might be hindered by their negative impressions of Jesus brand faith.

These core values express the perspective on faith that is articulated in greater depth in Jesus Brand Spirituality: He Wants His Religion Back.

How to Use the Book as Background to a Four Part Sermon Series

The book, used in conjunction with the sermon series (as recommended background reading, and/or alongside small group studies of the book) can be used in local churches to help shape the culture and perspective of the church in the direction of the book.

For churches that come from a more mainline or “post-liberal” perspective, the series might affirm values that are not widely shared by all the members of the church. So it would need to be adapted in that direction.

For churches that come from a more evangelical or “post-conservative” perspective, the series might affirm widely shared values, while stating them in a way that will help the church become more effective in reaching people on the outside of faith looking in, especially in communities like Ann Arbor, where the view of the church at large by the public at large can be quite negative.

The series is meant to express what it takes to become a missional church—that is, one aimed at bringing the message of Jesus into the hear of communities who are unfamiliar with or turned off by that message.

The sermon notes are not written to be “generic.” They retain their local Ann Arbor flavor. So you will need to adapt them for your local situation. Rather than try to do that for you, I thought it would be more helpful to see how framed the series for my home church. (Also a little easier for me, if more difficult for you. But that seemed to me like a good bargain.)

Each sermon is presented with teacher notes as well as shorter participant notes/outlines.