A 40 Day Experience - Administrative Guide

Learn more at www.lifeway.com/a40dayexperience  

A 40 Day Experience is a pastor-led, 6-week, 7-session, local church strategy enabling a congregation to:

• Reach people for Christ through open groups in church or home settings.
• Start or enhance Sunday School classes or small-groups.
• Reach people for worship.
• Prepare for specific missions or ministries by the church body.

A 40 Day Experience can speak profoundly to a church or community because it:

• Provides a framework for pastors to speak to needs and issues, supplemented by topical sermon outlines.
• Focuses churches on one aspect of spiritual growth for a specific period of time.
• Can help bring revival to a church or community.
• Creates evangelism opportunities as believers invite friends and neighbors, aided by the topics and approach.

Sunday School and Church Growth Strategy  Back to top

These resources will be promoted for use as an intentional focus strategy in Sunday school or as one of the other undated options for adults. Churches may also use one of other dated lines as an alternative for A 40 Day Experience. These resources can also be used with a church’s small group ministry to grow the church.

A 40 Day Experience Characteristics   Back to top

Small-group sessions in this 40 Day Experience are designed with these characteristics:

• Open to anyone who wants to participate. Questions and content assume that both Christians and seekers, church members and potential members, will participate together in these sessions.
• Insight driven. Many Bible study groups are content driven: participants learn from reading and hearing a teacher-leader. In A 40 Day Experience resource, by contrast, the sessions are insight driven. That means insights about the Scriptures, applications, and questions are valued from all participants and should be encouraged. Everyone has the same handbook with icons that point out whether the interactive parts can be expected to help members know each other, apply biblical truths to life, understand Scriptures and their background, or invite them to pray. Participants in the group learn from one another in the small groups’ sessions, often bringing additional insights from the daily devotionals.
• Designed so the leader can be a member of the group, and any group member can be the leader. Because the small-group process in this resource does not depend on someone to prepare and share information, less advance preparation is needed. The leader is a guide and facilitator.
• A brief introduction frames the topic of each session. Invite someone in the group to read it aloud, or invite participants to read silently down to the first activity icon and then do the activity. Continue this pattern through the rest of the session.
• Small icons, or symbols, lead learners through the small-group sessions, from one interaction to another.  The icons help key the learner as to the purpose of the interaction, whether that may be getting to know other members better or applying Scripture to life.

The Leader’s Role     Back to top

• To get to know members of the small group—trust and closeness tend to build in the small group throughout the 40 days. The leader’s knowing and being sensitive to group members will ensure that everyone in the session can be comfortable. If your group members don’t know each other well and a particular question might cause awkwardness, encourage members to write their responses. Then call for volunteers to respond aloud.
• To encourage everyone to participate—The quietest member may have the deepest insights but share them only with encouragement, or when everyone else has spoken. On the other hand, if some members tend to dominate the sessions, the leader may need to interrupt politely and say, “Thanks for adding to the discussion. I want to be sure we get to hear from some of the others who might be ready to contribute.”
• To be comfortable with silence—Allow participants time to think. Encourage others to speak. The leader’s responsibility is not to step in and share insights or content as much as it is to create a comfortable environment for all to participate.
• To affirm–The leader should go over the materials before the session. Be sensitive to what God might do in the group. Don’t lecture. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s leadership in the group.
• To plan the flow of the session so that all parts are covered—Each session has multiple parts, beginning with material that introduces the topic and helps participants begin to interact. A corresponding Know Fear DVD segment (found in the Know Fear Leaders Kit), featuring Ed Young, Jr., provides 8-10 minutes of focused teaching on the topic to help facilitators lead and enrich group discussion. Have a time frame for moving the group through the session. all learners—Because the content is insight driven, all members should be affirmed when they respond. When members do not see a passage of Scripture the same way or have not had the same experience, they can learn from one another.
• To prepare by reading the session and devotionals, and watching the DVD.

Planning     Back to top

Planning is crucial to the success of any event. A 40 Day Experience is intended to be led by a pastor, while church staff and other leaders complete the team. The following is a description of suggested roles for planning A 40 Day Experience.

• Pastor:  The pastor is the initiator behind A 40 Day Experience. He is the primary person to motivate and encourage the church to get involved in A 40 Day Experience study. The pastor also develops sermons each week based on the general outline found in 40 Day resources and is responsible initiating the event planning and seeing that session facilitators are enlisted to serve.
• Prayer Coordinator: The prayer coordinator is responsible for uniting people to pray specifically for God to work through the 40 Days study. Form a prayer team called “40 for 40” involving 40 people committed to pray together weekly for God to work through the 40 days event.  Here are some suggestions for the 40 for 40 prayer team:
  
  • Explain vision and make prayers specific
  • Have members write down what God is answering/making ready between prayer times
  • Break into smaller prayer groups or chains of 4-5 people and connect each week through the end of the event.
    
• Media Coordinator: The media coordinator assists the pastor, participants, and promotion person, by making A 40 Day Experience media-friendly.  Suggested roles:
  
  • Create promotional videos to show on Sunday Morning and short videos for pastor to use along with his sermons 
  • Update church Web site to include A 40 Day Experience information and promotion
  • Create/adapt PowerPoint presentations to accompany the pastor’s sermon
    
• Promotion Coordinator: The promotion coordinator is responsible for letting the church and community know about A 40 Day Experience. Creativity is a plus as the promotion coordinator paints a picture of the exciting adventure of the 40 Day Experience and increases curiosity as to what the event will contain.
  Suggested Roles:
  • Create banners, posters and fliers to inform the church and community of the event.
  • Create A 40 Day Experience worship folder insert
  • Aid media coordinator in making promotional videos
  • Design A 40 Day Experience “tickets” for members to use as tools for inviting their lost and unchurched friends in the community
  • Post a large countdown calendar in the sanctuary, counting down the the days until the kick-off of A 40 Day Experience.
  • Design commitment cards for church members to use as reminders to faithfully be a part of the small group Bible sessions, worship services, and their daily devotions

Suggested Calendar for 40-Days Planning      Back to top

3 months before

2 months before

6-8 weeks before

4 weeks before

2 weeks before

1 week before