Discussing A Book Of The Bible In Group
Best Practices for Discussing A Book Of The Bible In Group
Decide on Curriculum.
Before deciding on a curriculum to discuss in your group, make sure to meet up with your co-leaders first to talk and pray about what would be the best fit for the people in your group the coming trimester.
Decide which book of the Bible you’d like to discuss in your group and then choose a study guide. (See curriculum ideas on next page)
Order copies of the study guide for everyone before your first meeting and have them reimburse you when you bring them to group.
Communicate Curriculum Plan with Your Group.
Inform group members of your plan, either the first week of group or communicating with them outside of group before the 1st meeting.
Share the vision with your group for why you are excited to dive into discussing a book of the Bible and how this is going to look different and may take a week or two to adjust to.
Tell your group this will be an experiment for however many weeks you plan to try it (4 weeks, 9 weeks, etc.). After you finish the book, you can evaluate and decide what you’d like to do next, that way group members don’t feel like they are stuck doing this if they are nervous about it.
Communicate Homework Plan With Your Group.
Set clear expectations for how you’d like your group members to participate between group meetings:
For example:
Read Bible passage 3 or 4 times each week
Write answers to the questions in the study guide before group
Memorize a specific verse each week
Share that it is ok to not know all of the answers in the study guide. That each person in group will learn different things and can bring what they’ve learned to the discussion, whether you are new to the Bible or have been reading it for a while.
Encourage group members to spend time in prayer before reading the Bible each day to ask God to help them understand the text and see things He would like them to learn and grow from. HERE is a suggested prayer before Bible reading.
Let them know that the goal is to complete the homework each week, but if they are not able to complete it to please still attend.
Lead Group Discussion.
Preview the questions from the study guide during the week and select the top 5-8 questions you think will be best for discussion. Generally application questions are easiest to discuss and they will help people apply what they are learning, but there may be important content related questions that would be helpful to discuss to better understand God and the Bible passage.
Rotate facilitators each week. As leaders you can model how to facilitate discussion the first few weeks and then you can guide the rest of your group members on how to plan and prepare for the upcoming weeks.
Take advantage of any leaders guides that are included in the study guide you purchase.
