What next?
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us…” 2 Peter 1:3
By far the most often question I get is “what can we study next?” for small groups. Besides a plethora of unending topics and study guides, let me suggest some alternatives that might enrich your group experiences and life with Christ…
Here are some things to consider when thinking about “what next?”
1. What’s your goal? Our goal for groups is not to do studies or to go from topic to topic. Our goal is to love Christ, each other and reach out to those outside the group.
2. What will help us toward our goals?
That said, here are some suggestions…
1. Rather than study a guide, why not study each other? Take a couple months and have everyone in your group share their life story. Two rules with this:
Go beyond the facts. Talk about the defining moments and how your relationship with God has changed over the years.
Invite questions. The group is allowed to ask you follow up questions after you share.
2. Read Scripture. Challenge your group to read more Scripture on their own and make it more of a factor in your group times. Children can even be a part of the group this way – reading Scripture and offering prayers. We are used to reading Scripture and then adding our ideas. But, there is more value in simply letting Scripture speak for itself. So, take a book and have people go around and read, stopping when someone has a question or observation. You never know where the discussion might go.
3. Do something together. Rather than meeting to study, why not meet to act. Find a need and meet it together. Maybe someone in your group has a passion or knows a need. How can your group support that, get involved, and report on its progress?
4. Practice a discipline and then discuss the experience. Take on a spiritual discipline such as fasting for a day, prayer each day, or reading Scripture every day, praying as a couple, etc. Then, when you meet, discuss the experience, challenges, new inspirations, etc that you received.
5. Whatever you do, have an accountable action connected with it. Our problem isn’t knowledge or the need for a new study. Our problem is discipline. So, whatever you do, decide as a group what the action you will report on at the next meeting. Each action might be individual, or it might be something that the entire group decides to do. Either way, keep track and report back.
These suggestions are given in the hopes of strengthening our DNA. We must fight against the consumerism of our day – even if that means simply consuming good studies. Why? Because we already have all the resources we need to live the life God intends. We have his presence, his Word, each other and a mission. Why not do the things that nurture the power of these resources we already have?
For more thoughts on this, check out my post “Moving Beyond Curriculum”
