More on Studies - Using a Study Guide

Yesterday, I discussed some of the merits of DVD-based small group studies. Now there’s a similar method for doing guided study time which is more common than DVD, namely a Study Guide. To say that study guides are “more common” is a huge understatement. In fact, they are ubiquitous! (Sorry Andy, but I know that Jeff tunes out when he doesn’t find at least one $5 word in my blog. For the rest of us common folk, “they are everywhere!”)

Again, the value of the study guide approach to group study time is that the guide has hopefully been crafted in a way that will facilitate discussion, learning, and life transformation. I say “hopefully” because that is not true of all studies. Some are Sunday School repackaged as group discussion guides. How can you tell the difference? The questions are fact-based and generally have right and wrong answers. Here’s an overly-simplistic comparison:

Read 2 Peter 1:5-7:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Sunday School question: Name the 7 characteristics which you should diligently seek to add to your faith.

Small Group discussion questions: From the list of the 7 characteristics Peter instructs us to add to our faith, which one is the most difficult for you? Why do you think you struggle with that characteristic? What might you intentionally do differently tomorrow to overcome that difficulty? Who can help you grow in this area? OR

More than a list, this is a sequence or progression representing spiritual development. How might it help you to grow in your walk with Christ if you use this passage as a guide to help you aim for the right goal? If knowledge is the first step in your growth as a Christian and love is the ultimate goal, how will you restructure your life so that you continue to grow toward love?

One difficulty some groups run into with study guides is that they are generally geared to hit a broad spectrum of users. They will have some questions which are incredibly basic, even obvious and others which can be very difficult, even painful to answer. This is where a little skill on the part of the group leader comes in very handy. Here are a few tips:

• First. read the entire study before your group meets. Pray and reflect upon what the passage or passages are really about, not what you want to make of them.


• Pray and reflect upon the spiritual health and maturity of your group members, especially yourself. Is the group composed of new believers, or have they been in solid studies for 50 years? Are they exhibiting a healthy, vibrant relationship with the Lord, pouring into the lives of others, or are they dealing with an exceptionally difficult season of life?


• Then, in light of your meditations, modify the study guide. This may mean skipping certain questions because they are too difficult, too simple, or too painful. It may mean adding a real-life example to a question, either hypothetical or from your own life. Depending on the persons in the group, it may mean steering into or away from a specific example. If someone has an abortion in her past, you may want your group discussion to center upon regret, shame, forgiveness, or decisions based upon fear or selfishness. If someone is struggling through a terminal illness, you probably want to deal with that issue straight up. You may even find that you don’t use the guide as written at all. Instead, use it for guidance and ideas and then create something specific for your group.

When used in this way, study guides become powerful tools to impact lives across the broadest of spectrums without demanding that the leader be a biblical scholar.

Next, the Bible…