Characteristics of a Dynamic Small Group Bible Study
Three dynamic things you want in a Small Group Bible Study:
1. Friendship: fellowship, fun, accountability
2. Study: Serious and intensive study of the Word of God
3. Application. People living out the Word of God in their lives showing evidence of transformation
*Each of these things is equally important, one is not more important than the others. If you have only fun and friendship without the Study of God’s Word what makes your group any different from a bunch of friends getting together? If you have only intensive study of the Word of God with only one person talking and without the friendship and accountability what makes your small group any different than a lecture class?
Friendship:
You want the people in your group to care about each other. You want them to challenge one another to live out the things they study together in the Bible. You want them to encourage one another with scripture. You want them to enjoy each other’s company; you want them to look to the needs of the people in their group. You want them to hold one another accountable to the goals they set and the things they struggle in sin with. You want to them to take possession of their group and build a team mentality. You don’t want someone in the group to be excluded. Everyone should be encouraging one another to become more like Christ and challenging one another to be people of integrity.
Study:
You want to get your people into the Word of God. You want them to have the confidence to know they can go to the Word of God for the wisdom they need for life’s decisions. You do not want them to become dependent on you or anyone else to feed them. You want to teach them to study the Word for themselves. You want to teach them to work through the text to understand what the text is communicating. You want them to read the bible holistically and not proof text what they already think. You want them to have confidence in the transforming power of God’s Word for their lives. You want to get them into the habit of turning to God first when encountering various trials and temptations.
Application:
This is what really sets apart your small group from just being a group of friends or a lecture. Application is the hinge around which study and friendship revolve. The Word of God has a transforming effect on the hearts and minds of people. You want your people to being using God's Word to encourage one another. You want the advice they give to their friends to be biblically based. You want your group to be challenging one another to pursue the standard set by Jesus. You do not want them to be disconnected from the Word. You want it to be the thing that motivates them to pursue brotherly love in their friendships. You want them to know and feel like they offer something valuable to the group.
*When the factors of Friendship, Study, and Application are mixed into an appropriate blend your small group progresses from being static to dynamic. Each factor feeds into the other encouraging deeper and accountable friendship. The desire to intensively study God's Word comes out of confidence in God's Word and love for one another. The aim of our Small Group Bible study should ultimately be love for God, and love for others.
Skills for Successful Small Group Leadership
Personal Preparation
When you prepare to lead a small group bible study, you should not neglect to read the Word for yourself. Don’t place yourself in a position where you are constantly trying to extract for others that you miss what God is saying to you. You should strive to read the Word of God confident in its power to transform your life and speak truth. God’s Word should challenge you and reveal what parts of your life need continued work so that you can go to the Lord in prayer. Go to the Lord in prayer so that your will is conformed to the will of God and so that the unrestricted power of the Holy Spirit will flow through your life. To present the timeless truths of God’s Word to others, you first must seek to understand what God’s Word means so you can present with integrity and authenticity. If we are not showing consistency in the things that we say and the things we do we have no integrity. Why should anyone listen to what we say if we do the exact opposite of what we teach? We must lead our group by example striving to live out the biblical principles we hold to be truth.
Communication
The time we spend with our group is limited. Therefore, it is important to concisely communicate the biblical truths found in the text. As the leader of the small group we are giving voice to the text, God’s Word. We must make sure that God’s Word is heard! God must be as much a part of our small group as any other member. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of our small group speaking through the Word of God. It is the responsibility of the small group leader to present the facts of the text. This is done through our personal preparation. If we are personally being spoken to by the Word of God and understand what He is saying then it makes it easier to communicate the truth of God’s Word to others. We want to take that which difficult to understand and break it down into its simplest form so that even a child can understand what is being said. Another useful way of communicating or expanding on the “facts” of the text is to learn how to use effective analogies or personal experience that clarifies the biblical truth’s within the text. The practice of using analogies or personal experience serves two purposes. First, it clarifies the biblical text and explains things that might be difficult to understand in laymen’s terms. Second, it teaches our group member how to tie God’s Word into everyday life. It teaches them how to meditate on God’s Word. Moreover, it teaches them how they can use the ordinary everyday experiences to introduce biblical truth to believers and unbelievers.
Facilitation
Part of the job as facilitator of the small group is to draw out discussion. This is a small group bible study so that means that the group should be talking, not just one person. You do have a responsibility to put out the facts of the text but you don’t and shouldn’t talk the entire session. You also should not allow one person to control all of the conversation. You want to engage your group with the text and engage them with one another. The best method of drawing out is to learn how to ask good questions. You must learn to ask questions that get your people to search the text for the answers. You also want them to connect the text to real life. Therefore, you must learn to ask questions that connect real life to the biblical principles found in the text. As facilitator you are responsible for monitoring and controlling the discussion. Many times people in your group will bring things up that don’t relate to the primary text. Take control of your group and keep the discussion focused in on the primary text or discussion about real life that relates to the text. Remember that you only have a short time with your group so it is very important to focus your time with your group. Keep the discussion focused in on the text and how the text applies to life.
Community/Team Building
This aspect of small group is very difficult to balance. You must walk the fine line between becoming a group of friends that is aimless and unfocused and a group that doesn’t connect at all outside of the small group. You want your people to care for one another. You don’t want your group to fall into either one of those categories. You want to develop a learning community that strives to improve in every aspect of life. Above all you want to build a community that desires continual transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word. In order to build a vibrant and Christ centered community it is essential that you lay a good foundation. The first level of this type of construction lies in building trust between the people in your group. It is important to devote a certain amount of time in your small group to getting to know one another. You want the people in your group to know what each person desires to do (goals), what they like to do (good things), and what troubles them (prayer requests and concerns). Typically the time focused in on prayer is a natural time when people will share goals, good things going on in their life and concerns that they have. During prayer group members can affirm their support of one another through prayer for each other. This is also a natural method of accountability as group members are likely to remember concerns and goals from the past week that were prayed for. The second phase to building team is to get your people to spend time with one another outside of the weekly appointed time. You want this time to be enjoyable. It should be something physical and something that requires group collaboration and contribution. This can range from any number of community service events to team sports. This can even consist of something as simple as sharing a meal. Once the people in your group have become more accustomed to one another then hopefully the final phase will set in. There really isn't anything you can do to affect the 3rd stage. The only thing you can really do is pray. The third stage is really an act of God and that is your people enjoying spending time with one another. Our final goal is to have a community and team that desire to live life with one another encouraging, challenging, and reproving one another because of the love they have one another.
Assessment tool
In order to improve we must know what to improve. We need to identify our strengths and weaknesses. To have a clear view of our strengths and weaknesses we have to take into account our personal view of our perceived self and the view of how others perceive us.
See Johari Window:(Complete Test)[1]
The Johari Window depicts four quadrants. Each quadrant represents depicts knowledge of self. There are things that we know about ourselves and allow others to see about us. There are also things that we keep to ourselves and don’t allow others to see. Then there are things that others see about us that we don’t see in ourselves. Finally, there are things that we don’t know about ourselves and things that others don’t see in us either. Although these things are not known to us yet, God knows what aspects of who we are lay in that area.
The Self Assessment and Peer Assessment forms are designed to help give leaders a more complete view of who they are. It allows the leader to compare how they view themselves and their skill to how others view themselves and their skills. Sometimes we are more critical of ourselves in areas that others perceive us to excel. Likewise, there are things that we think we excel in that others think we perform poorly in.
For these tools to be useful it is imperative that the leader honestly answer the self assessment form and seek out peers that will objectively answer the peer assessment forms. Additionally, the peer assessment form will not be beneficial to leadership development if the peer is not also receiving training in small group leadership. If the peer has never led a small group then they will not be the most accurate or reliable source of feedback.
In addition to the self and peer assessment forms developing leaders should also be receiving guidance from an experienced supervisor. There are simply some elements to leadership that are only learned through experience and time.
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