If you are preparing the Bible study from scratch, there are great tools available to help the group encounter God’s Word in a deep and meaningful way:
1. Smallgroup.com is an online library of discussion-driven and video-enhanced studies that you can customize for your small group to have a consistent and transformational discipleship experience. I used Smallgroup.com to build all of the sermon-based studies at my church. It’s a great place to start for any group looking for an engaging way to study the Bible.
2. Bible commentaries are written by well-known and popular theologians, and aid in the study of Scripture by providing explanation and interpretation of Biblical text. Three commentaries the LifeWay custom content team use to write studies are:
3. Bible concordances help to locate important Bible references by indexing every verse that contains a particular word. This will help you assemble a list of Bible references on almost any topic.
During the Meeting
If you have planned ahead and know where the conversation needs to land, then you are ready to lead a formative discussion around the topic. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you do:
4. Silence is your friend. A good leader should only be talking around 30 percent of the time. Remember that you have read the questions ahead of time. It will take everyone else a few moments to process the material before they are ready to answer.
