Proclaimer Blog
Some new small group material
One of the key issues for me with small groups is finding the right material. As regular readers know, recently we’ve overcome this issue by simply reading the Bible together. Other times we’ve used our own home grown material. But I’ve recently had a detailed look at some new material that I’m very excited about. It’s a joint venture between The Good Book Company and The Gospel Coalition producing material for Adult Sunday School or small groups. It’s produced with the US market in mind, and some might possibly think that rules it out for use in the UK. Not a bit of it.
I really like this material. It is thoroughly biblical with – I think – the right amount of didactic teaching and then discussion (often with the applications being worked out in the discussion). I’ve taken a look at Gospel-shaped worship which has Jared Wilson as the main teacher (see a sample video here). The workbooks are well produced and the videos very accessible – or, in a kind of Christianity Explored way, you can do the talks yourself.
One of the things I like about the material is that it is truly innovative. For each session there is a didactic part, a Bible study and some follow up devotional material to use (or not) throughout the week. In other words, the leader can dip into the various elements in a way that is suitable for the group. I think there’s probably too much material in each session for a standard group – I would imagine using the bulk of the material over two weeks for each session.
I think it’s well worth a look and if you’re along at one of our conferences soon, look out for some great pricing that makes the curriculum accessible.