Drew Dixon

November 17, 2015

Study the Bible, Not the Sermon

Many churches today are moving toward sermon-based small groups and for good reason. Studying the same passage in your small groups that was preached on Sunday allows the Word that was preached (2 Tim. 4:2) to dwell richly in the members of the church, and it allows people to slow down and really process the message that was preached and to challenge one another to take it to heart by working out its implications in community. However, there is a great danger when moving to sermon-based model that we should be aware of—the danger of studying the sermon rather than the Scripture. The sermon itself isn’t God-breathed, but the text the sermon focuses on is. If your sermon-based studies feel like you are studying the sermon rather than God’s Word, then you are doing it wrong and are actually failing to tap into the benefits of sermon-based study.

So here are three ways to ensure you are studying the Bible and not the sermon.

Study the text carefully as you prepare to lead your group session. Having sat through your pastor’s sermon is not adequate preparation for you to lead your small group. Read the text(s) your pastor preached on several times. Read the surrounding verses to get a sense of their context. Read commentaries to get a sense of how these verses have been interpreted in the past. And once you have studied, meditate on the text—thoroughly consider how it applies to your situation before you consider how it applies to your group members.
Look to the text more often than you recall the sermon. As you ask discussion questions, point your group members to the text again and again. While it’s great to discuss quotes and sermon points, it is important to remember that God’s Word is perfect and has the power to renew your group members (Ps. 19:7), so make sure you are encouraging your group to look to the text first and the sermon second.
Dig deeper than the sermon. Sermon-based small group studies are great opportunities to camp out on verses that your pastor, by necessity, was unable to spend a lot of time on in his sermon. Resist the temptation to rush through the text in order to make it through every verse the pastor preached on. The small group is a great setting to slow down and carefully unpack the implications of God’s Word on the lives of your group members.

A good pastor doesn’t want His people to trust in the power of his sermon but rather in the power of the gospel. Just as pastors are charged with task of faithfully and clearly preaching God’s Word, so too must small group leaders make sure that the focus of our small groups is on the Bible and how it applies to our daily lives.

Drew Dixon is Discipleship Strategist for Lifeway Christian Resources and the Editor-in-Chief of GameChurch.com. He also writes for WORLD Magazine, Paste Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, and Think Christian. Follow him on Twitter: @drewdixon82.

Group Leadership

September 29, 2015

Guilt and the Gospel

By Drew Dixon

Chances are that many of the members of your small group show up already feeling guilty. Before you open God’s Word with your group, your group members are already reviewing the last week in their heads. They are thinking about how their devotional time was insufficient or nonexistent, how they lost their temper with their spouses, how they spent too much money on furniture and didn’t give enough to missions, and how they spent too much time watching football and not enough playing with their kids. Your group members show up already feeling guilty, and if you aren’t careful, your small group meeting will only make things worse.

Too often group Bible study devolves into an unhealthy fixation on what we aren’t doing or what we could be doing better. As a small group leader, it is critical that you strive to correct this because guilt is an inferior motivator to grace. So how do you correct the endless cycle of guilt that your group members so easily fall into? Here are four suggestions:

Emphasize Christian Identity

In the greatest sermon ever preached, Jesus immediately drew his disciples’ attention to their new identity as kingdom citizens. The Beatitudes focus on being rather than doing—Jesus isn’t telling us to be more meek, poor, or pure so that we might be blessed, but rather describing those who are blessed and happy, those who are recipients of God’s special favor. The New Testament writers echo Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount by reminding us that who we are in Christ is not dependent upon our moral improvement or effort. In Christ we are adopted as God’s children (1 John 3:1-2), freed from slavery to sin (Rom. 6:6), born anew (1 Pet. 1:3), given an imperishable inheritance (1 Pet. 1:4), clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27-28), and united to His church (1 Pet. 2:9). The members of your group who have trusted their lives to Christ, but continually find themselves paralyzed by guilt, need to know that what Christ says of them is true no matter how they happen to feel about themselves at present.

Acknowledge the Grace of God in Each Other’s Lives

Before challenging his readers to take deliberate steps toward cultivating Christlike attitudes, Peter reminded His readers of God’s grace and power: “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (2 Pet. 2:3). No matter where your group members presently find themselves in their walk with Christ, they are recipients of God’s varied grace (1 Pet. 4:10).

Every member of your small group who has trusted Jesus is a recipient of God’s grace in Christ. If you hope to see your group members take critical steps toward Christlikeness, help them see and savor the grace God has shown them in Christ. Do not, however, only speak of God’s grace generally; point out where you see the grace of God at work in their attitudes, their perspectives, and their relationships. Help them see God’s hand at work so that they might begin to see that have indeed been given everything required for life and godliness.

Resist the Urge to Compare

Your group members may find themselves in a perpetual guilt cycle because really they are struggling with sin, or it may be because they are measuring their spiritual growth against someone else in an unhealthy manner. Every member of your group, yourself included, is different. They have different weakness, strengths, struggles, trials, and burdens. Be wary of constantly holding up your success or the successes of your more stable group members as a standard to strive for. Every step toward Christlikeness, no matter how insignificant it may seem to us, is a miracle of God’s grace and is worthy of celebration. We should all be careful “not to think of [ourselves] more highly than [we] should” (Rom. 12:3). Don’t compare yourself to your group members, and help your group members resist the temptation to compare with each other. Spiritual growth is not a competition; encourage your group to encourage and support each other as they pursue Christlikeness.

Let Grace Be Your Motive

It is important to note that often we find ourselves in a perpetual guilt cycle because we really are guilty. In such instances, however, it is not our effort that leads to healing but God’s grace. It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4), not self-imposed shame or the judgement of others. Whether our guilt comes from genuine conviction of sin or from failing to live up to some extra biblical standard, the solution is the same. We need the same God who mercifully saved us to renew our minds and help us embrace our new identity in His Son (Rom. 12:1-2).

Only God’s grace can break cycles of guilt and shame. The answer you need and the answer your small group needs is not to do better or try harder; the answer is to look to Christ (Heb. 12:1-2).

Group Leadership

August 25, 2015

Creating a Culture of Correction

By Drew Dixon

“Paul didn’t know what he was talking about!” My friend Anthony was frustrated by one of the more difficult portions of Romans 8 that I had just read during a small group Bible study I was leading at my house. This comment left me in a unique predicament. I wanted to ignore this comment and move on. Anthony was a lot older than me. He was also my friend and a respected member of the church, but his comment called into question one of the key tenants of the Christian faith—the inspiration of Scripture.

In my short time leading small groups, I have witnessed group members deny the Trinity, articulate works-based gospels, and undermine the inspiration of Scripture. In most of these instances, I don’t think those articulating such things were intentionally contradicting core tenants of the faith. As a result, and because I was leading small groups in the South, where people place a high value on being polite, I faced a tremendous temptation to ignore these comments and just hope no one was paying attention. When I read the New Testament, however, I just can’t justify a strategy of avoidance when it comes to false teaching.

Paul commanded Titus, when teaching God’s Word, to “say the things that are consistent with sound teaching” (Titus 2:1). Further, Paul challenged Timothy to “persist” in teaching God’s Word “whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). Paul went on to warn that if teachers fail to utilize God’s Word to patiently correct false doctrine, people will seek out teachers “according to their desires” and “will turn away from hearing the truth” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). So when Anthony claimed that Paul didn’t know what he was talking about, I couldn’t just ignore my friend. In that moment, I realized that if I really loved Anthony and the rest of the members of my group, I owed them the courtesy of offering patient, loving correction.

If you are like me, the thought of correcting someone in your small group, particularly someone older and more established in the church, is uncomfortable at best and daunting at worst. The thought of telling someone like Anthony that by claiming he knows better than Paul, he is, in effect, denying the inspiration and authority of Scripture, seems rude and potentially condescending. So how do we cultivate a culture of loving, patient correction in our small groups? Here are three suggestions:

Teach the “one another” commands of Scripture.

The Bible calls us to “speak the truth in love” to one another (Eph. 4:15), warn one another (2 Thess. 3:15), pray for one another (Jas. 5:13-15), confess our sins to one another (Jas. 5:16), and even rebuke one another (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If you will faithfully draw attention, in your small group, to these “one another” commands, your group members will begin to see that the goal of biblical correction is not to embarrass but to encourage. When we practice the “one anothers,” we cultivate vulnerability and point people to Christ. As your group members grow to understand the immense value of biblical, gospel-focused community, they will be more likely not only to correct others in a loving manner but also to humbly accept the loving correction of others.

Model loving correction.

It is critical that you, as a small group leader, speak and teach the truth to your group. It is equally critical, however, that you do so “in love.” This is, in part, why Paul challenged Timothy to “rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience” (2 Tim. 4:2). It is important to note that much of the correction you offer others should happen in private. For instance, Priscilla and Acquila, when they heard Apollos preach, took him aside and “explained the way of God to him more accurately” (Acts 18:26). We need to learn to differentiate between correction that should be immediate (i.e. when the gospel is directly contradicted) and that which should be private and more deliberate (i.e. secondary matters). In the situation with Anthony, he called the inspiration of Scripture into question in front of the entire group, so I led the group through several passages of Scriptures that demonstrate the Bible’s claim to divine inspiration—whatever Paul is getting at in Romans 8, it is not merely him with whom we have to deal.

Seek training.

I once attended a small group meeting in which the leader, using Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts in Ephesians 4, told the group that not everyone is called by God to share the gospel. Uncomfortable though it was, I felt compelled to point out that the Great Commission is addressed to all of Jesus’ disciples (Matt. 28:18-20) and that Peter challenged all the Christians in the churches of Asia Minor to be prepared to articulate their hope in the gospel (1 Pet. 3:15). As one charged with leading discussion of God’s Word with a small group of people, it is essential that you constantly familiarize yourself with the gospel and the essential Christian doctrines and practices. As a small group leader, you should not be expected to have the answer to every question or to be equipped to correct all forms of false doctrine. You should, however, as one charged with teaching God’s Word, be “nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed” (1 Tim. 4:6). This might mean seeking someone older and more mature in the faith to disciple and train you to lead others (Titus 2:1-8). A good small group leader is first a disciple of Christ and a student of God’s Word. The more you know and teach sound doctrine, the more readily you will be able to offer loving correction.

Given how often Jesus (Matt. 7:15) and the apostles (Gal. 1:6-9; Phil. 3:1-2) spoke about the reality of false teaching and the dangers it poses, as small group leaders, we must not shrink away from our responsibility to speak God’s Word but also to utilize it to offer loving, Christlike correction. If you take the “one another” commands of Scripture seriously, loving correction will become a healthy part of your small group culture and a tremendous means of God’s grace in the life your church.

Group Leadership

July 16, 2015

Identifying Leaders in Your Group

By Drew Dixon

How do you judge the health and effectiveness of your small group? Do you judge by size, assuming that if the teaching and community in a small group are strong, then people will flock to it? Or perhaps you judge your small groups by their longevity, assuming that if a small group is healthy, people will commit to it long term. While these may seem like perfectly reasonable rubrics, neither really gets to the heart of the church’s mission. It is quite possible to attract large numbers of people to a meeting and even keep their attention while failing to equip them for mission. The Pharisees, after all, were the most committed participants in Judaism and, in terms of influence, were quite effective at amassing a following. And yet Jesus said of them, “their heart is far from [God]” (Mark 7:6).

If the mission of the church is to make disciples, then a better rubric for growth than numbers or longevity is multiplication. If you hope to focus your small group on Christ’s mission of making disciples (Matt. 28:18-20), you need to recognize the people in your group God is raising up to start groups of their own. How do you identify, however, those whom God is raising up within your group? Here are three ways to identify the leaders in your group:

1. Look for those who are already leading.
The simplest way to start when looking for potential new leaders is to identify those who are already leading. Paul told Timothy, “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work” (1 Tim. 3:1). While Paul may have been referring primarily to those the church formally recognizes as pastors, the principle applies to those who would lead new small groups: they should want to lead and shepherd others. The best way to identify those who are fit to lead and shepherd others is by taking note of those who are already doing so. Who in your group is meeting with others outside of your normal meeting time to pray and talk about following Christ? Who in your group readily volunteers when you need someone to teach for you? Who in your group handles God’s Word faithfully and regularly looks for opportunities to encourage others with God’s Word? Who in your group do the other group members look to for insight on God’s Word and wisdom in applying it to their lives? These people are prime candidates for leadership because they are already leading.

2. Identify leaders by sharing the work of shepherding your group.
There are others in your group whose leadership potential won’t be obvious until you challenge them to lead. Paul also told Timothy to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:1-2). In other words, Paul was challenging Timothy to constantly seek to share the work of ministry with others. If you are curious as to the leadership potential of someone in your group, start by asking them to pray. Then ask them to share their testimony one week. Then ask them to teach your small group study for the week. Don’t look for polished teachers as much as you look for those who enjoy teaching and are teachable. As you share the work of shepherding your group, be prepared to offer constructive feedback. God calls leaders to commit to the process of raising up and training new leaders in the work of ministry.

3. Look for those who think little of themselves and much of Christ.
Look for those who, like John the Baptist, realize that they must decrease so that Christ might increase (John 3:30). Look for those who rarely hold themselves up as examples for others to follow. Instead, look for those who are looked to by others as an example of what it means to follow Christ. Look for those who patiently encourage others in their pursuit of Christ. Peter challenged the leaders of the churches of Asia Minor to refuse to “lord” their leadership over others but rather to strive to be “examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:3).

If you hope to see your small group actively contribute to the mission of the church, your goal must not be to be the biggest or even the best small group. Your goal should be simple: be faithful. Be faithful not only to teach God’s Word and shepherd God’s people, but also be faithful to identify and invest in others so that the fruit of your group’s ministry might multiply in your church, your city, and to the ends of the earth.

Group Leadership

May 21, 2015

How to Ask Better Questions

By Drew Dixon

Do the people in your small group stare blankly at you when you ask a question? Do they share their experiences openly and honestly, or do they give you the answers they think you want? Do the members of your group tend to leave your meetings feeling encouraged or disheartened?

If your small group discussions are not as lively, engaging, or fruitful as you would like them to be, perhaps this is because you are asking the wrong discussion questions. One of the keys of any good small group bible study is thought-provoking questions that challenge people to process the teaching of God’s Word and how it applies to their lives. So here are three shifts that might need to take place in the way you ask questions in your small group:

1. Follow up “what do you think” questions with “look to the text” questions.

This may seem obvious, but I talk to too many church leaders who stress that their groups should focus on application rather than theology or on Christian living over the particulars of doctrine. It seems that many church leaders fear that the reason there is division in the church today is because people have studied the Bible too closely. Don’t fear losing the members of your small group by asking them to look to Scripture for the answers to your questions.

The danger of too many “what do you think” questions is this: the way you challenge the members of your small group to read their Bibles in your group meetings will greatly influence the way they read and interpret the Bible on their own. While it can be helpful to gauge your group on what they believe and think about God, it’s important that we constantly acknowledge that God’s Word is inspired (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and powerful (Heb. 4:13). Our thoughts are not. We must acknowledge that “the heart is more deceitful than anything else” (Jer. 17:9). This is why it’s important to study the Bible with other believers in a small group setting—when we do so, we can lovingly help each other acknowledge the ways in which we have been trying to interpret the Bible to suit our own passions (2 Tim. 4:3).

So always follow up “what do you think” questions with “what does the text say” questions. In so doing, you will train your group members to elevate the truth of God’s Word over their own opinions.

2. Stop asking “Who?” and “What?” and start asking “How?” and “Why?”

Everyone knows the answers to “who” and “what” questions already. Who do I need to trust? God. Who died for my sins? Jesus. Who do I need to share the gospel with? Everyone you see every second of every day. What should I do? Pray and read the Bible.

We all know that we need to trust God and that we should joyfully share the gospel, but most of us struggle to do these things. In other words, most people in your group need to be challenged to get to the root of why they’ve been struggling to trust God. So be more specific: “How do our struggles to trust God manifest themselves?” “Why do you think it is so difficult for us to trust God in the midst of difficulty?”

Older brother types love to answer “who” and “what” questions—getting them right makes them feel good about themselves. Jesus, however, warned against washing the outside of the cup while the inside festers with bitterness (Matt. 23:25-26). More than simply asking people what the Bible says, we need to ask them to think deeply about what it means and how it applies directly to their present situations and struggles.

3. Stop asking behavioral questions and start asking heart questions.

If you’ve spent much time in church, you’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve been asked who you need to share the gospel with or what you could do this week to prioritize your quiet time. While Scriptures certainly calls us to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness (1 Tim. 4:7), sometimes our small group meeting can become so focused on what we are supposed to do as followers of Christ that we neglect the more difficult and more important matter of the heart.

Jesus said, “Nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him. […] What comes out of a person—that defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts” (Mark 7:18-21). Jesus demands a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:21), and thankfully, He has granted us such righteousness through His death and resurrection (2 Cor. 5:17; Phil. 3:8-9) by which He has changed and continues to change our sinful hearts.

Your small group members don’t need you to tell them what they are doing wrong; chances are they already know that. They need you to help them dig deeper in order to get to the root of their struggles so that they might take steps of faith to trust Christ to transform their hearts.

Asking too many questions that focus on what we should and shouldn’t do as believers runs the risk of creating a group full of Pharisees rather than disciples. Remember that the heart is deceitful above all else, but remember also that through Jesus, God has given us hearts to know Him (Jer. 24:7). Help the members of your small group know Christ more fully by challenging them to look to the text and to answer questions about how and why it speaks directly to them so that they might get to the root of the sin in their hearts and delight more deeply in the God who created them for Himself.

One last word of advice: if you struggle with coming up with biblical, thought-provoking, and heart-diagnosing questions, there is help. Smallgroup.com contains over 1,200 Bible studies with challenging discussion questions focused on helping groups process and apply the teaching of God’s Word. Furthermore, every study on smallgroup.com is fully customizable so that you can make sure every question you ask helps your people process and apply God’s inspired and powerful Word.

Drew Dixon is Discipleship Strategist for Lifeway Christian Resources and the Editor-in-Chief of GameChurch.com. He also writes for WORLD Magazine, Paste Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, and Think Christian. Follow him on Twitter: @drewdixon82.

Group Leadership

January 23, 2015

Don’t Be a Slave to Your Notes

By Drew Dixon

“I need to read The Bible for Dummies.” I had just finished teaching what I thought was a very clear study on the birth of Jesus and its implications when a member of my small group made this comment. When I asked my friend why he felt confused, I discovered that he didn’t find the lesson unclear, it was just too much information too fast. He had some important questions, too, questions that would have made for wonderful discussion in our group if I hadn’t been so focused on getting through my notes. In my zeal for teaching the lesson I had prepared, I left this brother behind and created an environment that discouraged dialogue.

The Bible calls us to encourage one another with the words of Scripture and speak truth in love to one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18; Ephesians 4:15). Sitting under faithful, passionate biblical preaching is not enough. In perhaps the most important passage on the value of studying the Bible, Paul tells Timothy that God’s Word is useful “for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,” uses of Scripture that imply dialogue and discussion (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

What distinguishes small group Bible study from the Sunday morning sermon is the fact that in small groups we study the Bible together. So small group leaders should see themselves as study leaders rather than information providers. Certainly group members may ask questions that derail discussion or make comments that contradict the Bible’s teaching, but a good small group leader embraces such moments as opportunities to follow Paul’s challenge to faithfully and lovingly use the Bible to offer correction (2 Tim. 3:17).

As small group leaders we all have wonderful, important, and interesting things to say to our groups, but the meeting isn’t about us. It’s about Jesus and His Word and His bride, the church. It’s about coming together to process and apply the gospel to every area of our lives.

Rather than power through every teaching point and discussion question in your notes, focus on helping your group members take ownership of the meeting. Ask questions that force them to dig into and apply the Bible to their lives. Give group members time to think about the questions you ask. Encourage them to ask questions and patiently answer the questions they pose.

Two of the most important elements of a fruitful small group are an environment conducive to honest discussion and great questions that challenge group members to wrestle with the meaning of the text, its implications and applications. Thankfully there is help. Lifeway has many Bible studies designed to help your group open up.

If you want a more customized approach to your group content, smallgroup.com has more than 1,500 studies with thoughtful, biblically faithful discussion questions that will encourage open discussion. But regardless of the content you choose, don’t be a slave to your notes. Allow yourself and your group members to wrestle with the text.

Drew Dixon is discipleship strategist for Lifeway Christian Resources. He is also the editor-in-chief of GameChurch.com. He writes for WORLD Magazine, Paste Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, and Think Christian. Follow him on Twitter @drewdixon82.

Identifying Leaders in Your Group

How to Ask Better Questions

Don’t Be a Slave to Your Notes

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