Choosing the Right Study

See if this sounds familiar.

It’s your first night with your brand new small group. You’ve introduced yourselves. You’ve had some small talk. Then you say, “Do any of you have a suggestion about what we should study?”

“I think it would be cool to study the minor prophets.”

“I’d like to study the End Times.”

“What about the Gospel of John?”

“I’d like to discuss the Fruit of the Spirit.”

And so on, and so forth.

Add in the millions of choices on Amazon, Right Now Media, and Christian Bookstores and it can be absolutely overwhelming.

The last thing you want to do is pick the wrong study. So you need something to guide you, a filter to comb through all the choices. Here are 5 questions you can ask yourself that will help you choose the perfect study for your group.

Question #1: Why does the group exist?

Principle: The main purpose of every group should flow out of the mission of the church. 

The mission of CFCC is to cultivate fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ who are engaged in Christ-centered worship, stewardship, and relationship.

Once you have clarified your group's mission, write it down. Then answer the question, "What can we study next that will help us carry out that mission? What does it mean to be fully devoted in worship, in stewardship, and in our relationships?"

Question #2: Who Are my people?

Principle: The small-group leader's main function is that of a shepherd who knows his or her sheep.
 Here are a few questions a good shepherd will ask:

• Where are my people spiritually? As a shepherd, you must know where people are individually and where the group is as a whole. Are participants newborns in the faith, spiritual teenagers, or mature adults? (For discussions on how to shepherd people at different spiritual levels, see passages such as 1 Peter 2:2; 1 Corinthians 3:1–3; and Hebrews 5:11–6:1.)

• In what areas do they need to grow? Do your group members need more knowledge about beliefs and doctrine? Do they need to learn the disciplines or practices of the Christian life? Do they need to understand the virtues of the Christian life or the fruit of the Spirit? There are several effective tools you can use in your group to assess their spiritual maturity in these different core competencies (e.g., The Christian Life Profile Assessment Tool by Randy Frazee).

• How do they learn best? Do participants in your group tend to learn best through application-oriented discussion? Do they learn best by doing, hearing, or reading—or is it a combination? Would individuals learn better in a group, or would some one-on-one mentoring be helpful?

Question #3: What do you believe?

Principle: Teach sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). 

As you choose curriculum, be sure it leads you to study God's Word, not just someone's opinions—even opinions that relate to Scripture. Satan is sneaky. He can, without a group even realizing it, knock you off track through innocent-sounding questions. Be careful! A writer can easily move a group to consider his opinions about a doctrinal stance by asking a series of questions that lead the conversation in a certain direction.

Be sure to examine a potential Bible study closely before using it in your group. If you don't feel confident or competent to examine a curriculum for doctrinal purity, ask a church leader to do so first. As a help, CFCC has put together a database of studies that align with our doctrine that leaders have used. You can sort this list by author, topic, and other helpful categories. You can download it below.

Question #4: What are your group's capabilities and limitations?

Principle: A group agreement can help establish some basic ground rules for Bible study selection.
 Here are some things to keep in mind as you think about what your group is capable of, and what it needs:

• Depth of studies. Are the studies too deep? Not deep enough? Just right for your group? 

• Homework. Has your group agreed to do homework between studies? Doing some work between studies can be a good approach for deep discipleship, but it also can tend to close a group, since no one wants to come to a group and be the only one not to have the assignment done. If you do choose to use studies that include some homework, how much is appropriate? Be sure the homework expectations are clear before looking for a study.

• Length of study. How many weeks will the study take? Know the attention span of your group! Most groups get antsy with more than a six- or seven-week study. Shorter always seems better, but discuss this with your group first.

• Length of time in each study. How much time will you spend in Bible study during each session? Are there too many questions for the time allotted by the group? Will projects take too long to complete?

• Good questions. Will the questions in the study lead to discussion and lively interaction, or do the questions sound like a pop quiz looking for one-sentence answers? Also, consider how many questions are enough for a good discussion. Some Bible studies include 15 or more questions. That may be way too many for most groups unless all you are getting is one person answering each question. But that is not a discussion! Sometimes 2 or 3 good application-oriented questions are enough for a stimulating, interactive, life-changing discussion around God's Word.

Question #5: What are your own capabilities and limitations?

Principle: Know yourself. Don't get in over your head. 

Here are a few things to think about when it comes to evaluating your own limits as a leader.

• Functionality. How easy is the study to use? Does it include everything you need? Does it come with a leader's guide and other leader helps? Is it organized so that it is easy to follow? Does it include suggested times for sections and activities? Does it provide options so you can make choices based on your leadership style and your group's personality and interests?

• Prep time. How long will it take to prepare for meetings? Do you have to spend an inordinate

  amount of time finding materials for the study, or is everything self-contained? Will you have to spend a lot of time trimming the study to fit your group's schedule? Will you have to do a lot of work making the study fit your group?

• Passion. Do you like the study? Can you get excited about it each week? If you're not interested in the subject or the style of the study yourself, your group will quickly catch your lack of enthusiasm, dooming the study. The answer to this one may depend on the answers to numbers one and two above. If you know the study will help the sheep grow spiritually, then you, as the group leader, should have no problem getting excited about leading the study.

Ask yourself these 5 questions and you’ll be on your way to choosing the right study for your group!

MICHAEL MACK is the author of Small Group Vital Signs and is a SmallGroups.com Editorial Advisor; copyright 2003 Christianity Today.

Making Fun

Fun is essential to any relationship—or group of relationships. And while activities like praying together as a small group are certainly important, so is laughing together. 

The following ideas offer group members an opportunity to laugh and serve together while building lasting relationships that will impact others around them.

THEMED MOVIE NIGHT

This is as simple as choosing a movie and building a theme around it. Invite the group to come over on a Friday or Saturday evening and have people dress as one of the characters from the movie (or just ask them to reflect one of its themes). You can also encourage people to bring food items centered on the theme of the evening. 

Such events help people get to know one another in a comfortable environment rather than at a restaurant (where people are often excluded in a large group simply due to seating arrangements). This type of evening is suitable not only for members of the small group, but also to those from the outside. It gives members a chance to invite others to a fun and lively event.

GAME NIGHT

A game night brings out the teenager in all of us! I have had the privilege of watching grownups become teenagers while playing a round of cards.

Other games such as Cranium, Apples to Apples, and Clue offer fun evenings full of laughter. Again, this activity provides an opportunity for group members to invite another person who may be un-churched or simply in need of encouragement from other godly men and women.

WINNER TAKES ALL

Playing cards is a failsafe for almost any crowd, but here is a twist to the usual poker night. The jackpot does consist of money, but not for the winner. The money goes toward a serving opportunity in your community.

Choose a game of Hearts, Slap Jack, or Poker. Have people put money in the middle. If you have a large group, you can have people play in teams. You can play three to five rounds of the chosen card game and whoever wins the overall game chooses to whom or where the money will go. You can even have the last round be the deciding round for the serving opportunity. 

Again, this type of activity encourages laughter and fun while impacting the community at the same time.

OUT ON THE TOWN

Everyone loves a progressive dinner. But what about a meal that offers adventure and fun not only for your group, but also for complete strangers?

To try this, meet at a person's home and have everyone pile into one or two vehicles. Begin at your favorite restaurant or dining establishment for an appetizer, but don't simply order food for your table. Buy an appetizer for the table behind, beside, or in front of you as well. 

Once you have completed your appetizer, head to your favorite fast food place. Each of you get a meal, and then collectively or individually choose a person to buy for or purchase a gift card to leave at the counter for unsuspecting consumers. You can each pitch in a dollar or two for the gift card and tell the cashier to use the card to pay for people's meals until the card has no money left. 

After you have completed your tantalizing meal, drive to your favorite place for dessert. Again, you can collectively or individually choose to buy for the person behind you, or choose to purchase a gift card to leave at the register.

At their core, small groups are designed to build spiritual growth and lasting relationships for people within the group, but also outside of the group. By offering fun events where guests can enjoy an amusing evening to serving together in fun ways to impact a community, small groups have the potential to shine the love of Christ in new and creative ways. 

—Peri Sandifer is the Small-Group Coordinator at The Simple Church in Bossier City, LA.