Three Simple Rules for Christian Living Leader Guide: A Six-Week Study for Adults

By Bishop Rueben P. Job and Jeanne Torrence Finley

This small-group study by Jeanne Torrence Finley is based on Rueben P. Job's book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living. Six sessions provide extended reflection for adults on three principles of
Christian life: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. Each
rule has a session to help you understand the rule and a session to help
you explore ways to practice the rule.
The Leader Guide contains
everything needed to guide a group through the
6-week study, including session plans, discussion questions, and other
useful information for organizing, leading, and publicizing your study
group.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781501840180

Bishop Rueben P. Job

Rueben P. Job was a United Methodist bishop, pastor and acclaimed author and served as World Editor of The Upper Room publishing program. Best-known for the classic book, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, he also authored or co-authored A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader, Living Fully, Dying Well, Listen, and co-edited Finding Our Way: Love and Law in The United Methodist Church. Bishop Job also chaired the Hymnal Revision Committee that developed the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal.

Book preview

Three Simple Rules for Christian Living

Leader Guide

Three

Simple Rules

for Christian Living

A SIX-WEEK

STUDY FOR ADULTS

LEADER GUIDE

THREE SIMPLE RULES

FOR CHRISTIAN LIVING LEADER GUIDE:

A SIX-WEEK STUDY FOR ADULTS

Copyright © 2008 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

While you may use and format this content for Three Simple Rules for Christian Living group study, the material is not to be further distributed or sold without permission from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, PO Box 280988, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37228-0988, or e-mailed to [e-mail].

This book is printed on elemental chlorine-free paper.

ISBN 978-1-5018-4017-3

All Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

Introduction

Session Plans

Chapter 1: Do No Harm – Understanding the Rule

Chapter 2: Do No Harm – Practicing the Rule

Chapter 3: Do Good – Understanding the Rule

Chapter 4: Do Good – Practicing the Rule

Chapter 5: Stay in Love With God – Understanding the Rule

Chapter 6: Stay in Love With God – Practicing the Rule

Intergenerational Worship Ideas

A Guide for Daily Prayer

INTRODUCTION

Three Simple Rules for Christian Living Leader Guide provides extended reflection on three principles of Christian living illuminated by John Wesley in the General Rules and revisited by Bishop Rueben Job in his book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. This study is designed to help you return to those early Wesleyan understandings of spiritual disciplines that can transform us and the world in which we live. As you take this journey of reflection and practice, you will discover that these three rules can lead you to a more faithful way of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

In this six-session study, you will explore the study book, Three Simple Rules for Christian Living, and view excerpts from conversations with Rueben Job in order to learn more about the three rules and how to practice them in daily life. Each rule has a session to help you understand the rule and a session to help you explore ways to practice the rule. Through the words of John Wesley, Rueben Job, and the Bible, you will reflect on what these rules meant during Wesley’s time and what they can mean to us today. You will also identify ways the practice of these rules can change your daily life and the lives of those around you.

Your church can do a church-wide study of the three simple rules by using the youth resource, Three Simple Rules 24/7, and the children’s resource, Three Simple Rules for Following Jesus, along with the adult study book, Three Simple Rules for Christian Living.

RESOURCE COMPONENTS

The resources and group sessions in this study function