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Scripture tells us that God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). But what makes a Christian godly?
Description:
Let the Holy Spirit cultivate the fruit of God’s character traits in your life through this 10-week topical Bible study.
In The Practice of Godliness Small Group Curriculum, Navigators author Jerry Bridges examines what it means to grow in Christian character and helps us establish the foundation upon which that character is built.
Growing in godliness involves an ever-deepening devotion to God and developing a character that is steadily transformed into His likeness.
Includes:
• wide margins for taking notes
• discussion questions
Ideal for individual or group study.
The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum
ISBN-13:
9781615215836
Trim Size: 7 x 9
Cover: Paperback
272
Pages
$7.45
Percentage Discounts for Bulk Purchases of Single Items
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Downloadable
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Part of a Series
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Available in Spanish
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Navpress.com Exclusive
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Customer Reviews
Great guide - can you with any small group from youth through adult
To compliment the book, The Practice of Godliness - "Godliness has value for all things", Jerry Bridges has developed a small group curriculum guide. If you are familiar with Bridges, you know that he has a way of being straightforward, yet gracious in his writing. In his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, Bridges focuses on our sin, the taking off of the "old self." In this book, he focuses on Christian character, the putting on of the "new self." Bridges puts forth that Godliness is developed first by increasing our devotion to God and then second, developing our Christian character. He spends the first five chapters (or 3 study sessions) addressing our devotion/relationship with God. We must have that relationship if we expect to grow in character. The last 13 chapters (8 sessions) address character traits that you will want to grow in (like humility, patience, self-control, etc.).
As a Curriculum guide, this book is great. First, in contains The Practice of Godliness in its entirety so you do not have to purchase a separate book nor do you have to fumble with two books while you are doing the study. Second, it is printed with wide margins so you can take notes. I love this part. I found as I was doing the study I had plenty of room to annotate the book as I read. Third, the study questions for each session are at the end of the chapters for that session. There is plenty of room to write your answers should you choose to write in the book, too. The book itself is the right size. It is not too small nor is it too large or bulky. It is easy to handle and carry around.
Who would you use this curriculum with? This study could be done on your own (as I did to review it) or in a small group. It is applicable for youth and up. I would like to do it in our family (we have teenagers) as I can see that the content would be very beneficial for them. The study is not overly theological in nature, meaning it doesn't get bogged down into deep theological truths. Bridges stays on the practical...the here and now of how are you going to apply that Scripture to your life.
Overall, I would give this 5 stars.
I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from NavPress Blogger Review program in exchange for my fair and honest review.
Posted by
Debra Hoosier
on
4/7/2011 6:10:04 AM
The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum by Jerry Bridges
I truly appreciated the format of this small-group curriculum book. The book was chock full of Scripture and included questions to ponder and discuss. I liked the fact that there was ample room to write answers as this is a book no doubt that will be kept by the reader and referred to often.
I enjoyed the brief personal stories as well as alot of Bible hero accounts.
Posted by
Christina Donato
on
2/25/2011 8:15:43 AM
The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum by Jerry Bridges
The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum by Jerry Bridges from NavPress includes the book The Practice of Godliness and a study guide in one volume. It is the sequel to The Pursuit of Holiness and focuses on how to grow in Godly character by establishing a strong Christian foundation.
The Practice of Godliness is a powerful resource for growing stronger in holiness and becoming more spiritual. Bridges always starts his books with a firm foundation and explains why holiness is important in our lives. After he lays a strong foundation, he then moves forward by building on that foundation.
The book is designed to be a 12-week course. There are twelve sessions, with each building on the foundation laid by the session before it. After each session, there are from 10 to 12 study questions for the group to answer. There are extra-wide margins for notes and observations. There is also writing space after each question.
There is a help section in the back for group leaders that contains information on how to lead a study. The helps include advice on how to get started, which includes how to set your session format, how to customize the study, and plan the first session. Other general helps include preparing for the session, leading the session, and how to review after the session.
Even though it is designed for group use, the curriculum works just as well for personal study. Like all of Jerry Bridges books, I highly recommend The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum.
My thanks to NavPress for this free review copy. I was not required to give a positive review. My opinions are my own.
Posted by
Randy A Brown
on
2/10/2011 7:14:42 PM
The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum by Jerry Bridges
The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum by Jerry Bridges from NavPress includes the book The Practice of Godliness and a study guide in one volume. It is the sequel to The Pursuit of Holiness and focuses on how to grow in Godly character by establishing a strong Christian foundation.
The Practice of Godliness is a powerful resource for growing stronger in holiness and becoming more spiritual. Bridges always starts his books with a firm foundation and explains why holiness is important in our lives. After he lays a strong foundation, he then moves forward by building on that foundation.
The book is designed to be a 12-week course. There are twelve sessions, with each building on the foundation laid by the session before it. After each session, there are from 10 to 12 study questions for the group to answer. There are extra-wide margins for notes and observations. There is also writing space after each question.
There is a help section in the back for group leaders that contains information on how to lead a study. The helps include advice on how to get started, which includes how to set your session format, how to customize the study, and plan the first session. Other general helps include preparing for the session, leading the session, and how to review after the session.
Even though it is designed for group use, the curriculum works just as well for personal study. Like all of Jerry Bridges books, I highly recommend The Practice of Godliness Small-Group Curriculum.
My thanks to NavPress for this free review copy. I was not required to give a positive review. My opinions are my own.
Posted by
Randy A Brown
on
2/10/2011 7:14:40 PM
Helpful Curriculum
A couple years ago I read Jerry Bridges’ The Gospel for Real Life and Transforming Grace. These two books were phenomenal and caused me to have a great amount of appreciation for Jerry Bridges—but more so a great appreciation of the Jesus he worships. For that reason I was excited for the opportunity given me by the good folks at NavPress to review Bridges’ new small-group curriculum for The Practice of Godliness.
This curriculum has the complete text of Bridges’ book The Practice of Godliness. Off to the side, which is really helpful, is a large blank space for notes. Honestly, I wish more books had wider margins for notes. I loved this particular part of the resource. Also, at the end of each chapter there are helpful questions and biblical passages to interact with.
I was unable to use this book in a small group setting but I did read it for my own personal use and sampled it as a pastor thinking about suggesting this as a resource for a Sunday school class. That was one of my goals in reviewing this book—to determine whether I should encourage a class at our church to use this material. I will be suggesting it.
Bridges has a helpful balance of grace and the believers need to pursue holiness and godliness. Bridges consistently reminds us that “godliness is no optional luxury for a few quaint Christians of a bygone era” (10). For Bridges, godliness is devotion in action. And he labors to show that godliness is more an attitude toward God and not an activity (11).
Throughout the book Bridges relates various characteristics of the Spirit-filled life to the fear of God, our love for God (and his love for us), and a desire for God. In the first part of the book Bridges develops the theological foundation for godliness (this is the first three sessions) and then he practically deals with the fruits of the Spirit in the next 8 sessions) and closes up the book by discussing love and painting a picture of the goal of godliness—Christ Himself.
Often believers do not see how their character formation affects how they relate to God. It is assumed that theology and godliness are optional and they have no bearing on our relationship with the all-loving Lord. It is thought, how can my relationship with a God that loves unconditionally be shaped by my practice of godliness? The two do not seem to go hand in hand. But Jerry Bridges has once again masterfully shown us that our view of God shapes our character and our character shapes our view of God.
It may read a little slow at times but it is certainly worthy of the effort. I’ll be looking for a Sunday school class to take this study up. I would suggest that you purchase this curriculum for your own personal study as well.
Posted by
Mike Leake
on
1/24/2011 1:45:12 PM
Awesome
It took me a month to work through this entire small group curriculum, but it was worth it. I learned that growth in godliness requires hard work and that nothing belongs to me (I can't take it with me when I die). What is really important and will make me content is godliness, and training for godliness is my personal responsibility. Reading the Bible, praying, memorizing scripture and meditation are the tools I need to grow in various areas that are identified in the book. Although the responsibility for development is mine, the power comes from Christ. Biblical examples of people who pursued growth are plentiful and include Abraham, Joseph and David.
This book has wide margins, so as I worked I was able to take notes. It also has study questions at the end of the chapters (sometime at the end of two chapters ~ 18 chapters are structured into 12 sessions). These questions helped me to examine my life and encouraged me to pursue growth. I enjoyed the whole book, but my favorite chapter was the chapter on humility because I haven't seen it listed among the fruit of the spirit and I know that humility is important to God. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, so it's good to have some guidance on how to work on that area. Honesty, loyalty, self-control and dependability are just a few of the other attributes that are discussed. Finally, the book reminds me that there is a balance between God's grace and my personal responsibility when I am pursuing godliness.
Posted by
LaVerne Ombadykow
on
1/13/2011 6:24:07 PM
Uplifting and encouraging
’How can you develop godly character?’ is a big question and one that is rigorously and practically analysed in this book. Set out as a workbook with 18 chapters divided into 12 manageable sections for individual or group study, it is a useful and challenging meditation on what it means to establish and grow in Christian character.
One criticism of books like this would usually be that they centre themselves on one area of striving towards ‘godliness’ at the expense of overlooking other areas for consideration. That would be invalid here as not only are eighteen areas outlined, but readers are invited to interact with the materials and with each other through ‘study questions’ summarising the content and prompting learning through personal application. This is a well presented book and I enjoyed the study guide format and the way that the ‘look’ of the pages allowed a very personal interaction with the content.
As a study guide it is excellent, as a book it is well constructed and helpful and as a reading experience it is challenging. The study guide format works well for this title and as a personal observation, I would say that with a skilled study group leader, there would be some very interesting sessions arising out of some of the topics. People and groups that use this curriculum should get a spirited discussion out of sessions such as ‘self-control ‘as the themes presented are honest and provocative. I would willingly recommend this to a Book Group or a Christian Study group as the lessons are of wide application.
You will not finish this book without being affected positively and if one powerful lesson to come out of the book is that when God speaks, we should listen – not argue, debate or consider but listen and obey, then that is all for the better. I would recommend strongly.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
Posted by
donald macdonald
on
1/10/2011 7:49:58 AM
Be Like Christ
Jerry Bridges has written another motivating book as a sequel to his book “The Pursuit of Holiness”. It is called “The Practice of Godliness” and it is written to be used as a small group curriculum or Bible study. The book is divided into 12 sessions and focuses on growing in Christian character, concentrating on qualities that we must develop to become more like Christ. As with all of this authors books that I have read, it is an in depth but very rewarding study. There is reading with each session, including scriptural references and then questions that explore the topic in depth. The questions refer the reader to other scriptures that apply to the topic being discussed. The book includes a section at the end for leading small groups through this study. There are wide margins in the book for notes and observations from the reader as he/she progresses through the study. Though I did not take the time to answer all the questions for myself, I found this a great study for anyone who wants to grow in their relationship with Christ and learn to put on the characteristics that are consistent with living a life in his footsteps.
I was provided a free copy of this book from NavPress publishers for review as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not obligated to provide a positive review. The above opinions are strictly my own without any bias.
Posted by
Miriam Allen
on
1/6/2011 2:16:26 PM
Book Review: The Practice of Godliness
Jerry Bridges and NavPress have once again produced an extremely valuable tool for the ministry of discipleship. They have produced a product that incorporates the meaty material of Bridges book, The Practice of Godliness and a set of questions for study and discussion. This manual or guide also has been produced with wide margins for notes, outlines, questions, thoughts, or even prayers.
NavPress reduced the original eighteen chapters of Bridges book to twelve chapters or sessions specifically geared for individual or group study. Each session records one or two chapters from The Practice of Godliness. Those chapters are followed by a set of questions. Therefore one does not need to buy the original book and this manual.
This book is very easy to read and very easy to use. Anyone can use it for personal devotions and find it to be very beneficial. It can also be used as a real tool to facilitate discussion in a small group or Sunday school class session.
This book through its unique and ingenious format is designed to explore the means that the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit in a disciple’s life. The questions are designed to drive the student to the scriptures in order to “dig out” biblical truths and principles. They are also designed to develop and enhance discussion.
I highly recommend this small-group curriculum. It is affordable, practical, and well thought through.
I received a free book in exchange for this review and nothing else. I was not required to provide a favorable review in order to receive this book. This review is my opinion and not necessarily the opinion of Jerry Bridges or NavPress.
Posted by
Gregory D Metcalf
on
12/11/2010 9:03:47 PM