A Resource for Ministry
The Hesed
Formation Guide
Five Weeks of Practicing Steadfast Love
You are here because you want more than information. Beyond content. Beyond information. Formation. This guide is one example of a larger body of work designed to meet the specific needs of real communities.
Why This Guide Exists
The Hesed Formation Guide grew out of a specific moment with a specific community. But the convictions behind it have been developing for decades, shaped by the question every pastor eventually has to answer honestly: why do so many people sit in church for years and remain essentially unchanged?
The answer, consistently, is formation. Beyond information. Beyond content. Formation. People need a structured, sustained, communal environment in which knowing becomes being. That is what this guide attempts to provide.
This is one example of a larger body of work. Workshops, lessons, and formation materials can be designed for your community’s specific season, size, and need. That work begins with prayer and proceeds through careful attention to who your people actually are.
On December 6, 2025, pastors and church leaders from the Daytona Beach District, under the leadership of Presiding Elder Lorenzo Laws, gathered to explore hesed, the Hebrew word for God’s steadfast love, as a leadership ethic. We encountered a God who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6-7). We asked what it would mean for our leadership to reflect that same character.
We also named an honest truth: workshops rarely change anything. People leave inspired. The inspiration fades. Life rushes back in. Nothing transforms. This guide exists because ninety minutes is enough time to plant something. It is not enough time to grow it. What you find here is designed to grow what was planted.
The problem is never content. The problem is formation. Information does not transform. Practices do. Embodiment does. Sustained attention over time does.
The Five Weeks
Five domains.
One integrating question.
Each week focuses on one domain of hesed-shaped leadership, moving from reflection to embodiment. The integrating question across all five is the same: what does it look like for your life to become a witness to who God is?
Week One
How I Show Up
The practice of presence. Being fully, consistently, undividedly present with the people you serve.
Week Two
How I Treat People
Extending covenant love to every person, especially the difficult ones, regardless of what they have done or failed to do.
Week Three
How I Steward Resources
Allowing hesed to shape how you spend, save, and share, with attention to the vulnerable and thought for future generations.
Week Four
How I Make Decisions
Centering the voices of those most affected, especially those who typically go unheard.
Week Five
How I Embody God’s Heart
The integrating question: How does your very life become a witness to who God is?
Each Week Contains
Seven elements.
One complete practice.
Each week is designed to work across seven days, not in a single sitting. The elements are meant to accompany you through the week, not be completed in an hour.
Scripture for the Week
A primary text for slow meditation. Read it on Monday. Return to it on Wednesday. Pray it on Friday. Let the text work on you across the week.
Entering the Practice
Teaching on this domain of hesed leadership. Read reflectively, for formation rather than information.
Questions for Examination
Honest self-assessment. These questions are meant to produce clarity. Where are you? Where is God calling you?
A Concrete Practice
An action to take. Formation happens in doing. Each week includes one specific, doable practice that embodies hesed in your context.
Space for Journaling
Write what you notice. What is God saying? What is stirring? What resistance do you feel? Transformation requires reflection.
A Prayer for the Week
A written prayer carrying the themes of each domain. Pray it daily. Let the words become your own.
For Groups
Guidance for using this guide with your leadership team, staff, or covenant group. Formation deepens in community.
How to Use This Guide
Four ways to enter
this practice.
For Individual Use
Set aside 20 to 30 minutes at the beginning of each week to read the Scripture and teaching. Then let the questions, practice, and prayer unfold across the week. Journal as you go. Do not rush.
For Leadership Teams
Work through the guide together over five weeks. Gather weekly, in person or virtually, to discuss the questions and hold each other to the practices. Formation is stronger in community.
For Covenant Groups
If you have an existing small group, class meeting, or accountability partnership, use the “For Groups” section at the end of each week. Share honestly. Pray for one another. This is how hesed becomes embodied.
For Congregational Use
Pastors may adapt this material for Advent or Epiphany sermon series, adult education, or leadership development. The five domains provide a natural five-week arc.
A Word Before You Begin
This journey will require honesty. Hesed formation happens when we see ourselves clearly. The questions in this guide may surface uncomfortable truths. That discomfort is the beginning of transformation.
You are not doing this alone. The God who abounds in steadfast love is forming you into a vessel of that same love. Trust the process. Trust the One who began a good work in you.
What is required of the church is to provide a serious, loving, structured environment where people are taught, formed, held accountable, and given real opportunities to practice ministry.
What is required of the people is to offer themselves to that environment with their whole lives.
When both sides honor this covenant, disciples grow. Leaders are formed. Hesed multiplies.
Download the Guide
Both resources below are free for ministry use. If you adapt this material, please credit The Belin Group.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
Stay Connected
If this resource serves your ministry, reach out. Questions, adaptations, and accounts of how hesed is taking root in your community are all welcome.
belin@roderickbelin.com