Structure of the Program

Explanation of the Structure

ESMHE is broken into three main categories. The foundation of the program are two small groups, one designed for Christians new to the faith, and the other for those who have gone through the first small group and/or have determined that they are farther along on their spiritual journey. The small group called Developing a Spiritual Design is for those new to the faith. Meetings will begin focusing on learning to identify the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life and identifying daily spiritual practices to help keep you connected to God. We will then move into the basis for our faith, Scripture. The Bible is an incredibly rich collection of stories, poems, and deep truths that form the foundation of our faith and helps us discover how we understand God and Jesus Christ. After briefly exploring the story of the Bible we will move to focusing on the story of Jesus. Why do we follow this teacher, prophet, healer, and call him Son of God? What exactly is the "Kingdom of God"? Finally, we discover that Christianity is a call to transform our lives—to repent, to literally turn our lives around towards God. How do we live that out individually and as a community of faith?

Our second small group, Discovering a "Blue-Print" for living in the Body of Christ, for those who are further along on the journey, will go deeper and help you transform your life and the life of the community. Meetings begin with the spiritual practice of prayer and identifying those things that separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Then we delve deeper into the scripture more fully exploring what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God and how we should live it out. Kingdom theology has huge implications for our community, and for the way we live our lives in the greater world. What is God calling you to do in this world? How are you being Christ to others?

When you have completed the "Blueprint" small group the next step is to continue this growth and the rest of the small groups of the ESMHE is designed to further nurture, equip, and empower you to live effectively in the Body of Christ. Small group meetings will focus on topics like learning your spiritual gifts and finding God's call for your life, Christian leadership within the church, further exploring spiritual practices that bring you closer to God, Christian parenting, and exploring injustice and Jesus' call to love your neighbor.

The first session of ESMHE was held in Winter 2007. At present the kinks are still being worked out of those group notes and they will be available at a later date. The second session of ESMHE began to meet in late September 2007. This group is also being conducted online to provide a place for those who cannot physically come to Hope Church on Tuesday nights, and also to enrich the participation and experience of all who seek to go through this program with us.