World Harvest Mission has published "The Gospel-Centered Life" (GCL) as a study curriculum for small groups or church Sunday school classes. We are currently using it in adult Sunday school, and are having some engaging conversations together! One emphasis of GCL is the continued emphasis on faith and repentance as the normal path to growth (sanctification) as a Christian. Of course, you can just as easily reverse the order to be repentance and faith, for these are like two sides of a coin. Both are necessary to Christian growth and health.

In my own life, even as a pastor, I am struck again by the importance of living in this scripture-oriented fashion. I am too often plagued by the temptation toward either "performing" or "pretending." (Those are two concepts found in lesson 2 of GCL.) My natural tendency is either to think and live in a performance orientation ("If I just do, or quit doing, this or that, God will love me more") or to pretend that I am doing okay ("I'm not as bad a sinner as that!) when I am NEVER really doing "okay" with respect to my constant sinfulness.

If you are interested in exploring this material, please go to the World Harvest web site (whm.org) and look for the curriculum section and the Gospel-Centered Life materials.