This page will enable you lead one of The Christ Institutes for a gathering of any size by using the 9-session videos filmed before a live audience, featuring the teaching of David Bryant and incorporating over 2000 PowerPoint slides.

Presented in a variety of venues – from a living room, to a Sunday School classroom, to a sanctuary, to a conference center auditorium – each of the nine video sessions can be expanded or contracted, depending on scheduling constraints.  For example:

• A home Bible study group might be able to follow the suggested schedule below for a 2-hour TCI session, conducting one once a week for nine weeks.
• A weekend retreat at a conference center might adapt the original schedule for the 48-hour TCI Intensive, beginning on a Friday evening and concluding sometime Sunday afternoon.
• A regular one-hour Sunday School schedule requires choosing between one of two approaches: (1) If you go with the briefer version this only allows for an opening prayer, video, closing prayer. (2) More preferable — the facilitator might pause the video half way through a session, showing the second half the following Sunday.  This means the nine sessions would become eighteen sessions.  But this approach allows for open discussion and group prayer after viewing each portion of a video – giving everyone a more meaningful engagement with its focus and content.

If you are able to conduct a full two-hour TCI session, here is the typical approach used by David Bryant in live events:

Two Hour TCI Video Session 

Worship Hymn or Song (5 minutes)
Responsive Readings (5 minutes)
Worship Hymn or Song (5 minutes)
Presentation (70 minutes approximately)
Open Discussion (20 minutes)
Huddle Prayer (7 minutes)
Personal Prayer (3 minutes)
Praises to the King (5 minutes)

Explanations

• The discussion times (or the prayer times) can be expanded or collapsed depending on the length of a particular session’s video.  Videos vary from 50 minutes to 75 minutes, the average is about 65 minutes.  Note: Video Session 7 is the longest; it lasts 85 minutes. For it, discussion and prayer must be adjusted accordingly.
• The opening Responsive Readings are found in the opening five PowerPoint slides for each session (Every PowerPoint session can be downloaded together by clicking here). They highlight four brief but important preparatory activities: Praise (opening hymn or song), Prelude (read out loud by one participant), Passage (read out loud by another participant), Prayer (read out loud in unison).  This is followed with one more hymn or song.  You can project the PowerPoint slides found at the beginning of each package before viewing the video.  Or you can turn to the PDF link to download and reproduce the same three slides as a handout. (Note: There are no such opening slides for Session IX. Start with prayer and begin the video.)
• During the video, from time to time you may want to push the “pause” button whenever David allows the audience a few moments for what he calls “selah” time, so your participants may enjoy a few extra seconds for reflection and prayer before pressing on.
• The open discussion times could unfold in two ways: (1) Open the floor for an exchange of comments or questions, for as along as your schedule allows.  Your role as the facilitator simply is to moderate, making sure no one person dominates the time.  Time for discussion is brief and does not lend itself to in-depth analysis of the session’s themes and insights.  Therefore, encourage participants to continue discussions at a later time.  (2) You may want to draw on the two discussion questions found at the end of the PowerPoint package for each session (also the end of each PDF package).  Participants may prefer beginning with these questions to prompt the sharing time.  The questions can be discussed either in small clusters or by the group as a whole.
• Huddle Prayer provides a short time for participants to pray together about what they have heard and discussed, doing so in smaller groups so that everyone has an opportunity to join in if they want.
• Personal Prayer allows each participant to reflect, or worship, or pray – as they choose.  It is recommended, however, that during the time everyone be invited to kneel, preferably before a chair representing the Throne where King Jesus reigns.
• Praises to the King involves a final hymn or song that focuses on the major theme(s) for that specific TCI session.
• Note on Session IX: Open with a worship song and prayer.  Go straight to the video. After viewing it, discuss the closing questions at the end of the video (see also end of PDF). More specifically, discuss (perhaps in smaller groups) your willingness to assume the “Lifetime Commitment of Every Messenger of Hope” outlined at the close of Session IX. Then conclude this session – and the TCI experience — with a personal prayer time on your knees, standing to sing together one final hymn of consecration.
• You can review the content of each video in three ways.  If your TCI takes place over a nine week period, between sessions students can either (1) read the chapter in Christ Is NOW! that relates to the previous session, digging deeper into its themes and insights; or (2) download the PDF document of the PowerPoint slides for the previous session, using that to reflect back over the talk; or, (3) simply view the video all over again online.

However, if your TCI schedule is more concentrated (like the “intensive” approach) then afterwards participants can visit the TCI web site to access its many free resources (including viewing the videos again, scanning the PDF or exploring Christ Is NOW!).