Welcome to the Basement Study Guide: A Practical Guide to Building Jesus' First-Shall-Be-Last, Upside-Down Kingdom

Has your faith felt a bit stagnant lately? Do you long to see God do powerful things in your life like He did in the days of the early church? Do you want God to use you to make a difference in the lives of others?

This practical study guide, based on Tim Ross's Welcome to the Basement, will help you assess where you are in your relationship with God and what steps you need to take to move to the next level in your faith. You will see that when Jesus comes into your life, everything should get turned upside down . . . or, from heaven's perspective, get turned right side up. When that happens, it changes how you think, how you behave, and how you act toward others. It opens up the floodgates for God to change your heart, pour out His blessings into your life, and empower you to do great things for Him.

Ironically, the way to get to this place is not by pursuing some lofty aims of getting to the "spiritual penthouse" where you can hang out with other spiritual elites. Rather, the way to go up in God's kingdom is to go down. Jesus desires for you to have a "basement-type" faith where you sacrificially love others and seek to impact their lives with the gospel. As you do this, you may find yourself being accused--just like the early followers of Jesus were--of having "upset the world" (Acts 17:6 nasb).

This study guide is ideal for you to go through on your own or with a group of friends in your small group. Each session includes:

• The big ideas that will be covered in the session as you read through the book
• An assessment exercise to help you reflect on your relationship with Christ
• Ten group-oriented discussion questions based the Bible and book content
• A closing personal exercise to help you apply the concepts you've studied to your life
• Prompts for opening and closing your group or personal study time with prayer