The Gospel. There is No Plan B.

Advance is a global movement to support the whole church in taking the whole gospel to the whole world for the whole of God’s glory.

Through monthly meetings, those in Advance groups receive teaching, sharpen one another through discussion, and share openly about their personal and spiritual lives. Updates and encouragements are shared with each other, between group sessions about opportunities group members have had to share the gospel and to support each other along the way.

We call this journey Gospel Formation, that as we respond to and root ourselves in Christ through his gospel, God brings transformation to our lives that cannot be contained. We overflow as gospel people into the world.

After the first year of being part of an Advance group, each group member is encouraged – whilst remaining part of their original group – to start their own new Advance group of up to 12 others who want to grow in passion and ability to share the gospel.

Advance has grown from the first group in Manchester, England, into a global movement of thousands of groups meeting each month around the world. They are all committed to fanning into flame a passion for the gospel, a heart for the lost, and a commitment to evangelism through practical and spiritual support. Advance seeks to grow the number of Christians who will unashamedly and confidently share the gospel in any and every opportunity that God provides each day.

THE GOSPEL FORMATION JOURNEY

WHAT IS GOSPEL FORMATION?

Gospel formation is the process by which a person is shaped into the likeness of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, in community, by intentionally centring life on the gospel—understanding it, living it, proclaiming it—and engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer, Bible study, accountability and service.

FIVE KEY PRINCIPLES

1. COMMITMENT – Monthly meetings should be made a diary priority by group members. It is essential that when people join a group, they commit to the meetings. Groups should be encouraged to treat these sessions as sacred – members should do everything they can to avoid other engagements that might draw them away once the date is agreed. A deep commitment to being prepared for the work God has called us to is a foundational element of the Advance group journey.
2. SHARPENING – Each monthly session gives significant time to studying the Bible for a deeper knowledge of the gospel. Sessions also include opportunities for healthy critique of one another’s understanding and application of evangelism and the gospel, primarily through times of discussion.
3. ACCOUNTABILITY – Honest self-evaluation through feedback questionnaires and open sharing within group sessions is designed to ensure that Advance group members live accountable and holy lives as we attempt to be faithful to living and sharing the gospel. Vulnerability and honesty in your group can take time to develop but should be encouraged and led by the example of the group leader.
4. COMMUNITY – Keeping each other up to date with gospel opportunities, prayer requests and stories of salvation via email and/or group text messaging ensures groups support each other as a community. Staying connected between sessions also creates a more familial dynamic in the group.
5. MULTIPLICATION – Advance members should be committed to exploring the idea of multiplication, with a view to group members taking on their own group (while continuing in their original group) after their first year. The Advance resources (like this one) should make this process as simple as possible.

IS IT FOR ME?

The Bible tells us that the role of the evangelist is a specific gift from God for the building of his church (Ephesians 4:11–12). The evangelist will be fruitful in drawing people to Christ as they share the gospel, but they will also be fruitful in equipping and stirring the whole church to be faithful witnesses of the gospel.

However, Advance groups are not only for those who consider themselves gifted as, or called to the role or ‘office’ of the evangelist. Advance groups are for any who want to be transformed by the power of the gospel, that as God works in us he will also work through us for his glory. This is Gospel formation – to become Jesus people who reveal Jesus to people.

In the Advance Group Guide, we use the term ‘evangelist’ to refer to anyone actively engaged in evangelism, not just those who identify with a specific calling or gift as an evangelist. All Christians are called to be proclaimers of the good news—this is, in fact, the very meaning of the word ‘evangelist.’

These three simple questions will help you decide whether starting (or joining) an Advance group is for you:

FAITH

Do you have faith that the gospel has lost none of its power, and is the only way by which a person can know true life and salvation?

CLARITY

Do you desire for the gospel to be revealed to the world around you through your life and from your lips?

INVITATION

Do you long to extend an invitation to the hope of the gospel, and see people move into eternal relationship with Jesus?

If your answer to those questions is ‘yes’ then invite some others to join you on a journey of gospel formation together, and with this guide in hand, see where it leads.

THE SESSION GUIDE

This guide includes session material for the first 12 months of running advance group sessions once a month. If you are an experienced evangelist, or confident in leading groups of this nature, you may want to use the session material merely as a jumping-off point – adding and adapting the content to meet the needs of your group and utilising your own experience. Or, if you are new to all this, then feel free to follow the sessions word-for-word and instruction for- instruction – they’ll give you all you need to grow together as a group.

YEAR ONE

The first twelve sessions are designed to give an understanding of the gospel, evangelism, and the character of an evangelist. The sessions are split into sections that cover five characteristics of an evangelist (after the introductory session – Session One).

SESSIONS TWO – FOUR: BIBLE-TEACHING EVANGELISTS – KNOW THE GOSPEL DEEPLY

We must know the message we proclaim as deeply as possible. To do this we must be committed to reading and studying God’s Word so that our proclamation is not based on our own ideas and assumptions but on what God says. We are called and commissioned not only to be evangelists, but Bible-teaching evangelists who share truth rather than opinion. These three sessions will consider the gospel and evangelism in light of what the Bible teaches us about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

SESSIONS FIVE – SIX: PRAYERFUL EVANGELISTS – ACT IN THE SPIRIT’S POWER

We are to submit to the power of the Holy Spirit for the task of evangelism, for it is not our power but the power of God which brings salvation. We should commit to living prayerfully, asking God to provide opportunities to share our faith and see lives transformed as a result. These sessions explore the spiritual life of an evangelist and provide opportunities to explore our devotional lives and the direct impact they have on our evangelism.

SESSIONS SEVEN – EIGHT: ACCOUNTABLE EVANGELISTS – LIVE A HOLY LIFE

Holiness is at the heart of the gospel. Sharing the transforming power of the gospel in an authentic way means living accountable lives, where our life ‘on-stage’ matches our life ‘off-stage’. Cheering each other on in success and standing with one another in failure is crucial as we seek to grow as holy people sharing a holy message. These sessions focus on the holiness of the evangelist, affirming the need for accountability and the position of humility as a chief characteristic of those who serve Jesus.

SESSIONS NINE – TEN: COMMITTED EVANGELISTS – BE INTENTIONAL IN THE TASK

Intentionality is key to evangelism. We must be aware of – and seize – everyday opportunities to share God’s love, not simply telling the Jesus story, but inviting those who hear it into the new life it offers and helping them to start on a journey of discipleship. These sessions explore two distinctive elements in evangelistic gifting: increased opportunities to boldly share the gospel every day, and a willingness to call people into God’s kingdom as the purpose of each gospel opportunity.

SESSION ELEVEN: INSPIRATIONAL EVANGELISTS – STIR THE CHURCH TO WITNESS

As we share the gospel message with a world who needs it, we must also stir the church to do the same. Evangelism is the business of every Christian, and so encouraging and stirring the church to the task must also be a commitment of any evangelist. This session explores the evangelist’s role as an encourager for the church to keep Christian witness central to who we are as followers of Jesus.

SESSION TWELVE: RETREAT

Each Advance year comes to an end with a retreat of some kind, and Session Twelve offers a framework and some suggested content for giving your group the opportunity to reflect on all they have learnt this year, all that has been done in and through you by God, and to look ahead together at what’s next.

RUNNING A GROUP

Encourage a group of up to twelve people to meet once a month for around two hours. Single-gender groups often work best when it comes to accountability, but are not essential.

LEADER OR FACILITATOR?

You may be wondering whether you are the best person to lead an Advance group. There are two ways to think about running a group: as a leader or as a facilitator.

Leaders are usually people with some experience of evangelism, and probably some experience of leading others in teaching and discussion.

Facilitators are people who want to launch an Advance group without becoming its leader – they take responsibility for starting the group and then walk through the session material on behalf of the group (or agree to share the responsibility along the way).

Whether bringing your own experience to the group or relying completely on the material in this guide, leading an Advance group has more to do with commitment to the core values than anything else. Either way, it is important the group feels like a peer learning experience where everyone grows together.

SESSION BREAKDOWN

Each session begins with a brief Introduction and a one-line summary – the Session In A Sentence.

The Session Background offers context for the session. You should read this before leading a session as it will give you a deeper understanding of the overall shape of the session. You may want to incorporate some of this material into the session if you have time to do so, but its primary purpose is to aid you as you prepare to lead your group through the session.

Each session starts with a time to Catch Up. In the early sessions this is about getting to know each other and exploring how the group will work. As the sessions progress, more time is given to sharing stories with each other and feedback from the previous session’s Application.

Then it’s time for Prayer. There is no guidance on how long this should take, and no real right or wrong way to do it. You could pray as a whole group or with partners, for a short or extended time.

The main Teaching section follows and includes scripture references, quotes and points for discussion. This is where you’ll most need to keep an eye on the clock. There is still more discussion time ahead, and, crucially, you will need to leave space for the accountability section at the end of the session. Don’t let that time get squeezed by labouring a teaching point a little too much!

After the Teaching section is the Discussion section, which includes a few questions and a quotation relating to the topic of the session. You likely won’t have time to discuss everything here, but we’ve included more content than you’ll need so you can pick and choose what would be most helpful. Don’t feel like you have to rush through this section to get it all done – instead, just focus on a few elements.

Each session features an Application section towards the end, which is something for the group to do before the next session. Feel free to use your own ideas here if you’d prefer.

Another Prayer time follows, this time with some guidance on what to pray for in light of the session, but how you go about this and for how long is up to you.

Finally, each session ends with an Accountability time, which involves a specific reflection relating to the session along with self-evaluation sheets which should be completed, shared, and prayed over. You can make photocopies of the sheets from the back of this guide or download a PDF version from advancegroups.org.

If you haven’t already set a date for the next meeting, be sure to do this before the end of your time together. It’s always easier to agree this in person. The Don’t Forget… section includes a little reminder of something your group can engage with on the website or a feature of Advance that may help them along the way.

Advance sessions work best over the course of two hours. You’ll notice a suggested time beside each session section, but feel free to adapt these timings for your group, and the length of your group meeting as a whole.

OPTIONAL SESSION ELEMENTS

SPECIFIC PRAYER FOCUS

Take time for the whole group to pray for a few individuals within the group – praying over their lives, family, ministry and anything else they suggest. If you have a larger group, you could try to work through everyone every three meetings or so, and then start again.

PRACTICAL EXERCISES

You may want to head out onto the streets for an hour and put some of the discussion and prayer to use in personal evangelism, or some other practical expression of evangelism. The groups are designed to help us prepare for evangelism, but time can also be given to actually practising evangelism, too! It is important that our evangelism equipping is not simply all information and inspiration, we should also get practical. Not only does this give opportunities for the end game of our Advance sessions to be achieved – faithfulness in sharing the gospel – but in our practice we learn things that we cannot learn simply through teaching and discussion. Be sure to give time for debriefing and feedback from these experiences.

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

If you have access to a speaker or guest who could contribute to the teaching and discussion time and bring different experiences or something fresh to the group, then invite them along to share with your group.

HELPFUL TIPS FOR RUNNING A GROUP

1. Schedule group meetings as far ahead as you can and keep the dates sacred (six+ months ahead if possible). An online tool like doodle.com can be helpful for this.
2. WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger, Telegram or any other instant messaging apps work well for group communications, prayer requests and salvation stories between group times. Be sure to choose something everyone in the group is comfortable using and, as the group leader, set an example for regular engagement by contributing as often as you can. Share your stories, ask people for their prayer requests, and give links to resources, podcasts and YouTube clips. If you lead the charge, others will engage.
3. Food can be a great way to bring people together and connect, so why not run your Advance sessions around a meal?
4. Get your group thinking about starting their own groups early on, and when other potential group members are too late to join yours you can connect them with the new groups that launch from your own.
5. Meet in a space where people will be comfortable discussing, praying and sharing during the accountability time. A public space like a coffee shop works well for some, but others might prefer more privacy. Consider your meeting space carefully. Online meetings can work well, but where possible, try to meet in person.

EASTER TO PENTECOST

In the month of Easter each year, your group can engage with the annual global initiative of reaching at least one person with the good news each week between Easter and Pentecost. At the end of your session time in that month, leave ten minutes to read through the Easter to Pentecost guide and commit together as an Advance group to the Easter to Pentecost initiative.