Small Groups Archives - Group Ministry

August 20, 2019

4 Scriptures to Pray Over Your Groups

For many of you, the months of August and September mark the beginning of a new small group year. And even if it doesn’t, this time of year always brings about a sense of renewal and rejuvenation with the beginning of fall. In all of the planning and transitioning that goes into this season of ministry, remember that one of the most important things you can do for your group (and for your church’s group ministry as a whole) is pray over it.

Whether your groups are launching in the coming weeks or you’re coming up on just another Sunday, consider these four Scripture passages to pray over your groups, and invite your group members to do the same. Then continue to grow your list of prayers as the fall semester progresses.

Matthew 22:37-39
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Colossians 3:12-17
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

2 Corinthians 13:13
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Church Leadership

August 15, 2019

Four Questions to Ask as You Launch your Group

By Chris Surratt

Fall is a great time to launch a new small group, or relaunch one that has taken a break for the summer. Most people will be settling back into their life rhythms by Labor Day. Summer vacations are an Instagram memory, schools have welcomed students back, and new families have relocated into your community. In order to take advantage of this opportunity to invite people into biblical community, there are a few questions you should be asking right now. Here are four important ones:

Where will this group be located?

You have many choices of where your group can be located, and each one will help shape what type of group it will be. A natural choice would be in someone’s home. This type of group will quickly foster community because of the familiarity already established in a home. Sitting on a couch in someone’s living room will invite a more intimate conversation than most other locations.

Another location choice could be a room at the church. This location will help the group lean more into the Bible study than quickly building community. Classrooms have an underlying culture of learning, so that type of environment will naturally shape the group meetings.

Who will we invite?

After the location has been determined, it’s time to make a potential invite list. That list would include family members, neighbors, and coworkers—the people you may already do aspects of life with. After you have that initial list, broaden it to people just outside your inner circle—maybe someone you talk with at church who doesn’t seem to be connected to a small group, or someone you’re friendly with at work. There may also be a neighbor you wave at as you pass who could be open to an invitation. Most people are longing for deeper community, but don’t know where to start.

What will we study?

A healthy small group is more than just a Bible study, but having a good study puts God and His Word at the center of it from the beginning. After you have determined who will be in the group, look for an initial Bible study that will speak to the spiritual and life stages of most of the members. For example, if it’s a group with mostly young families, choose a study on biblical marriage or parenting. If the group is mainly comprised of young professionals, choose a study about helping make wise life and career choices. After the group has been together for a season, you can establish a discipleship curriculum pathway that helps push members out of the spiritual comfort zones.

Where will we serve?

A small group can become insulated and unhealthy if it doesn’t look to make a difference outside of the meeting walls. It should be established from the first meeting that the group will look for serving opportunities for everyone to participate in. A good place to start is to look for needs within the community where the group meets. A school that needs back-to-school supplies. A local firehouse that could use baked goods for appreciation. A single mom’s yard that needs mowed every couple of weeks. You can also check with your church leadership about local organizations to partner with periodically.

Asking and answering these four questions at the beginning of the group will help your group launch–or relaunch–get off in the right direction.

Chris Surratt (@ChrisSurratt) is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience. He served on church staffs prior to becoming the discipleship and small groups specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group. You can follow his blog at ChrisSurratt.com.

Church Leadership

August 5, 2019

Two Ways to Craft Effective Small Group Questions

By Dwayne McCrary

Developing good question sets may be the hardest action taken on by a Bible study leader. Question sets are designed to move people through the learning process. For every question included in the set, ten or more should have been left on the table. In the creation of a set of seven questions, one should not be surprised to find that they created one hundred different questions in pursuit of the seven.

Lots of systems exist for creating question sets, but let me share two that I have found helpful and the steps that are needed.

Approach 1: The Inductive Chart

Step 1. Read the Bible passage, and list people/places/things/words.

Step 2. Use Bible study resources to define and describe the items listed in Step 1. Star key discoveries that speak into the overall understanding of the passage or give deeper insight.

Step 3. Read the passage again, and list the actions taken or directed in the passage. Include actions taken by God in the passage.

Step 4. Identify principles and personal actions. Use the actions taken or directed as a starting point, seeking to place them into a question. Here is an example from Matthew 2, where the angels delivered God’s message to the shepherds: How does God deliver His message today? What role do I (we) have in delivering God’s message? What message do I (we) have to deliver? How can I (we) deliver that message? As principles are identified, look for ways the actions are tied to the principle(s).

Step 5. Organize question sets. Look for paths from the action questions back to the items in the text that feed into that question. Create question sets that move people through the discovery process to the action question(s). For example: What was the message delivered by the angels? moves to What message are we to deliver today? and How do the two compare?

Approach 2: The Big Idea

Step 1. Read the Bible text, identifying the main points.

Step 2. Using the main point, write your own summary statement of the main truth or principle discovered in that section. (Example: God desires for everyone to come to repentance.) The main points should be subsets of your summary statement.

Step 3. Generate questions borne from the summary statement. (Example: What is repentance? What other passages support this idea? What does God do about those who refuse to repent? What keeps a person from repenting? From what are we to repent? Have I repented? Have you repented?)

Step 4. Convert the open-ended questions to close-ended questions. (Example: What keeps a person from repenting? might become Does a person’s pride keep them from repenting?) Convert the close-ended questions to open-ended questions. (Example: Have I repented? might become Tell about how you came to understand your need to repent and how you did that.)

Step 5. Organize the questions into logical sets. For example, before a person can determine if he or she has repented, he or she needs to know from what and how.

Step 6. Cull and refine the questions, focusing on the sets that get to the core of the Bible text and that lead to concrete action. Most people find it helpful to work backward, identifying the final question in the set and then taking a step back, looking for the question that moves the group forward.

Both of these approaches take time and practice. The end result shows. The person who claims that creating questions is easy and can be done quickly is trying to sell you something he or she knows little about or that reflects minimal thought, especially if we are talking about an intentional question set that moves people to purposeful action.

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at LifeWay, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends, and serves as an adjunct at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Church Leadership

August 1, 2019

Five Characteristics of a Good Question

By Dwayne McCrary

Most of us use questions as a framework for leading a Bible study group. We may examine several questions in search of that perfect one for that particular study. How do we determine if a question is good or not? Here are five characteristics that make up a good question.

Strategic

A good teaching plan will have questions strategically placed so that the right question is asked at the right time for the right reasons. A question can invite a learner into the learning process (why should I study this?), define a focus for the group (what is the issue we will examine?), direct learner discovery (what does it say?), help the learner process the content (what does it mean?), or challenge the learner to practice what they discovered (what do I do now?). These five actions usually happen in the listed order. Good questions are part of a large set of questions that move the learner through the learning process so they can take action.

Open, but with direction

Open questions require more than a “yes” or “no” answer, a number of times answer, or a Jesus/pray/read your Bible answer. Closed questions have their place, as long as they are followed by an open question that requires thought and reflection. At the same time, good questions have a direction in mind. Asking, “What stands out to you in this passage?” may generate discussion, but this question lacks direction and violates the strategic rule. Asking a question like, “Are you more like Mary or Martha?” and pointing to factors that justify your selection is a closed question (more like Mary or Martha), but it opens the door for an open question (by pointing to factors). That requires the person to identify who Mary and Martha are, what sets them apart, and which one they most identify with and why. One could guess that the next question in that set will be looking at the words Jesus had for both and how that applies to the person who answered.

Guided, but not leading

Guided questions help keep the discussion and lesson on track. We are guiding the group toward understanding a specific truth or concept so they will respond based upon that specific understanding. We are not leading them to make the same prescriptive response. Here is a guided, but leading question example: “Don’t you think we should follow Paul’s directive and provide financial support for the local orphan placement organization?” In this example, the person really can’t say “no” without looking bad. Here is a guided, but not leading question example: “How can we actively care for orphans and widows in our community today?” The people answering this question may suggest supporting a local organization, or they may propose actions we would have never considered placing in front of the group.

Encourage higher levels of thinking

Not all questions are created equal. A question that facilitates critical thinking and processing is of more value than a “got it” question (questions that are usually fact-based and a repetition of content presented by the lecturer). Critical thinking adds breadth and depth to the discussion and lesson. Here is a “got it” question: “How many times did Paul use the word ‘believe’ in this passage?” Not much thinking is required to answer this. A better question might be: “What is the significance of Paul using the word ‘believe’ in this passage, and how does it compare to how he used the word in the previous chapter?”

A word of caution here. We sometimes confuse substituting ourselves or our feelings in a Bible scene as encouraging higher levels of thinking. Questions like, “How do you think Joseph felt?”, “If you had been Joseph, what would you have done?”, and “How does this event make you feel?” reflect our laziness in crafting good questions. “When have you faced a similar situation?”, “How did your emotions compare to the emotions expressed by Joseph?”, or “How did your response compare to Joseph’s response?” are the kinds of questions that foster higher levels of thinking.

Empowers

A great question will empower the learner to think and become an active part of the learning/discovery process. We are giving permission to explore, discover, organize, postulate, and process. One reason a lecture can be suffocating is the learner is rarely given permission (empowered) to do anything beyond listen. Learners need to know it is OK to go beyond the facts to the meaning and application of a particular truth. Good questions set them up to do so.

Using these five markers, how do you evaluate the questions you asked in the last Bible study group you led? What changes do you need to make to the types of questions you include in your group plan?

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at LifeWay, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends, and serves as an adjunct at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Church Leadership

July 29, 2019

When Your Group Needs to Multiply

By Group Ministry

by Jared Musgrove and Kristen Jackson

Begin With the End in Mind

There is both a challenge and a blessing to gospel-centered multiplication. And that is often leading the conversation about multiplying. And when we say “lead”, we mean from the beginning. Often we make the multiplication more difficult because we don’t talk about it until too far into the group’s life cycle that it catches everyone off guard. The best time to begin talking about multiplication is on the first night of a new group. Or during your training of new group leaders. One of the best, most biblical things you can do is remind them to pray from day one that Acts 2:47, “and the Lord added to their number day by day”, is the outcome for every group. That this is our goal. This is what we do.

Steward Gifts

There are most certainly people who are in your small group who believe in Jesus, have the Holy Spirit living in them, and are capable of leading a group. Often they are already leading in other ways as well within the group. Train leaders to take notice of the spiritual gifts in the group. This is most meaningful when we take enough interest in others, allowing us to be specific. Be observant of those in your believing community. Who is quick to volunteer and serve others? Who models self-control in their words and actions? Who exhibits patience with those who talk perhaps more than their fair share?

Based on what you observe, offer concrete examples of how you have seen this person live out their faith. It’s deeply encouraging to hear, “I saw God’s grace at work when you did this or said that.” Specific examples bless the hearer and show that you have taken genuine interest in them

Steward SpaceSometimes the living room space, or lack thereof, makes the argument for you. New group leaders will usually be trained, have people connect to their group, and then start in a living room. Two of our group leaders shared about this idea of the space in their home, “We wanted to invite new people in, but we didn’t want people to get too comfortable. We wanted a sense of being uncomfortable in community, even if that means space constraints in the first few weeks.” And the full house often makes the multiplication point.

Steward Souls

Patience.

Each person in your small group is an embodied soul, an emotional being. Throughout the course of your time together in small group, there will inevitably be rejoicing and mourning, celebration and sorrow. It is in these moments that your group can live out the “one another” commands of the New Testament. We are taught in scripture to love and encourage one another, to bear each other’s burdens, to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. We are taught to consider others as better than ourselves, to serve one another with glad hearts, and to pray for one another. Groups are the place that these things can happen naturally. Together, we practice applying the Gospel to every aspect of our lives. And mutltiplication of your Group means that even more souls may be stewarded as the New Testament commands.

Mind the End as a New Beginning

Several will (and should!) multiply out from the leader’s influence and direction as new leaders and perhaps as coaches for groups. The constant refrain is that relationships don’t have to dissipate just because a new group starts out of an existing one. One of our group leaders said is best, “It isn’t that we won’t remain in relationship with each other, it’s just that our friendships are going to evolve. That’s the nature of what we do as leaders, as people.”

And as Christians.

Dr. Jared Steven Musgrove is Groups Pastor and an elder serving The Village Church in Flower Mound TX where he directs Home Groups and Recovery Groups. He is a contributor to For The Church, PreachingSource.com,and LifeWay Groups. He serves on boards for Southwestern Seminary and Beta Upsilon Chi, is the co-founder of the Community Leadership Cohort, and is author of the group guide to B&H Academic’s Superheroes Can’t Save You: Epic Examples of Historic Heresies. He is the proud husband of Jenny and father of Jordan and Joshua. You can follow him on Twitter at @jsmusgrove.

Kristen Jackson serves as Groups Minister at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. She worked for twelve years in public school education as a teacher and administrator before coming on staff at TVC. She has studied at Dallas Theological Seminary and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Group Answers Podcast

July 24, 2019

Group Answers Episode 110: David Platt

By Group Ministry

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On this episode of Group Answers, Chris and Brian talk to David Platt about missions and discipleship.

Dr. David Platt serves as pastor at McLean Bible Church in Washington, D.C. He is the founder and president of Radical.

Books by David Platt include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, and the forthcoming book Something Needs to Change.

David Platt received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Along with his wife and four children, he lives in the Washington D.C. metro area.

Questions:

David, the book Something Needs to Change doesn’t release until September, but the manuscript has been turned in and it’s for the most part complete. Let’s start there — how does this book mark this season of the journey you’re on and that God continues to guide?
We were just in SE Asia for a relatively extended time. In what ways was this last trip similar to others and how was it different?
Perhaps the most noticeable attribute of Something Needs to Change is the level of transparency you’ve undertaken. In what ways have your visits to Asia, processing the content of Something Needs to Change, and how you plan to lead from this point forward taken on such a personal nature? In other words, what has changed in you?
As you know, our listeners are comprised mostly of group and educational leaders in some capacity. How can we lead our groups to become involved with our mission to the nations?
Our team is adapting Something Needs to Change for small groups and I believe this is one of the most important projects we’ve taken on. Tell about your hope for this Bible study experience and why it’s important not only to engage the content in book form but to essentially “live” with it as an 8-week Bible study experience.
What are some ways we can support missionaries in our small groups?
How are missions and discipleship both intertwined with a sincere and regular devotion to God’s Word?

Quotes:

How does my life need to change, right where I live, in light of these realities in the world?
I feel like ever since that first trip years ago, there is a greater urgency in my life.
I want to show a more intentional focus on urgent spiritual and physical need.
Start where you are.
Show those you lead that their lives were created for the spread of God’s grace and glory among the nations.
“Unreached” is not the same as “lost.” There is access to the gospel here that does not exist in the Himalayas.
If somebody doesn’t cross geographic barriers to get to these people, they will continue to be born, live, and die without the gospel.
We want to make the good news of Jesus’ name and his love known in all the world.

This Episode’s Sponsor: The Overcomer movie has inspired the creation of several resources. For small groups, there is the Overcomer Bible study. For individuals, there is a book called Defined. Both are based upon powerful insights from the Book of Ephesians. Learn more about all the resources at LifeWay.com/Overcomer

The Group Answers Podcast is a weekly show designed to resource, train, and encourage small group leaders. Each episode considers current trends and resources as well as timeless truths and methods of discipleship. It is hosted by Brian Daniel, a Bible study and discipleship expert in LifeWay’s Groups Ministry, and Chris Surratt, the small group and discipleship specialist at LifeWay and author of Leading Small Groups.

Church Leadership

July 23, 2019

Three Things That Describe A Life-Changing Bible Teacher

By Group Ministry

by David Apple

I am always interested in learning ways we can improve Bible teaching whether in a Sunday School class, small group, or one on one. Although there are many faithful Bible teachers who have influenced us, I am amazed at what we learn and rediscover by observing Jesus as a life-changing teacher. Among other things, we learn there are three dynamic ways we can improve teaching by learning from and following Jesus:

We need to know WHAT we are teaching. We are to teach God’s Word. We need to know the God of the Scripture and be in relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus. We need to know the truth that comes from God through His Word. We are not the experts, but we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us as well as the group as we investigate and apply the truth of God’s Word.

We are to investigate the CONTENT of the Scripture passage(s). We must understand the importance of the message and meaning of the Scripture. We are not merely to discuss what we think it means or what we want it to mean.

We are to identify the CONTEXT of the passage. Take time to discover the background (including culture, location, people, history, and setting) that relates to the passage.

Grow in understanding of WHAT we are to teach by spending time in God’s Word, reading commentary and explanation of key words, phrases, concepts, and background information in resources available. LifeWay provides resources like the Leader Guide, Personal Study Guides and Daily Discipleship Guides, Biblical Illustrator, as well as other valuable helps like WordSearch.

2. We need to know WHO we are teaching. It is obvious that we need to know basic personal facts about each person (name, address, birth date, other special dates). It is also important for the teacher to learn and develop caring connection with persons regarding other life defining aspects: life stage, spiritual journey, family, background, interests, challenges. Yes, we teach facts, but we also teach people.

Jesus masterfully modeled ways to teach a wide variety of individuals and groups. There are people today in many ways like those Jesus taught. We are to teach those who have Christian heritage as well as those who have never heard the message of God’s good news. We are to teach those who identify as experts as well as those who are trapped or are running from God’s grace.

3. We need to know HOW to teach. A relatively small number of Bible teachers have been trained as professional educators. But every Bible teacher needs to know how to use appropriate skills, methods, and ways to guide people to discover and apply God’s Word. There are many teachers who know the facts (WHAT) but don’t engage potential learners. There are many teachers who know and nurture the participants (WHO) but are not always intentional in leading the persons to uncover the truth of God’s Word and relate it to their lives. The Master Teacher modeled dynamic and life changing teaching to the point most individuals or groups seldom noticed the teaching methods or processes. Yet, they encountered God’s Word and were transformed through the Scripture and the encounter with God through His Son. We will grow in an amazement of teaching methods as well as skills used by a life changing teacher by reviewing the methods Jesus used, whatever and whoever He taught. Masterful!

I join you in celebrating that we can grow in these three dynamic ways of learning from the Master, the life-changing teacher.

Church Leadership

July 16, 2019

Open Group or Closed Group?

By Chris Surratt

There are a few decisions for your group that will have trade-offs depending on the decision you make. You will need to decide what direction will be best for the long-term health of your particular small group.

An important initial decision to make is whether to be an open group or a closed group. Open groups are simply open to new people joining through the life of the group, and closed groups may be open for the first week or two of the group but will then close to new people until the end of the life of the group.

Case for Open Groups

Groups that choose to stay open to new members have a missional mentality that welcomes people who need biblical community. Having your group stay open also helps multiply the effectiveness of the church reaching people quickly with the gospel. Church buildings only have so much room for groups to form community, but there is no limit when we take our community outside those walls.

We sometimes picture small groups as a way to get current church attenders into biblical community, but think about how much more effective an invitation to your church would be if it came through an invitation to be a part of your small group first.

They will have already been exposed to the pastor’s teachings if you are doing a sermon-based study.
There is a built-in follow-up through the group meetings.
There is no rush to get them there on a Sunday.
The invite starts and continues with a relationship.

If groups are to become the new front door of the church, they have to start with our neighborhoods. Our world has changed so that most people don’t know their neighbors anymore. When I was growing up, our neighbors were a natural extension of our family. We knew all of our immediate neighbors, and I spent almost as much time in their houses as I did in mine. The thought of inviting a neighbor to your church wasn’t that scary at all.

Now, you are lucky to get a cursory wave before the garage door goes down and your neighbors disappear into the house. Who has time for connecting with neighbors anymore? When we first moved to Nashville, most of the houses in our neighborhood had garage entrances on the back of the house. The only way to catch your neighbor was by chasing their car down the driveway and performing a drop-and-roll maneuver under their garage door before it could shut! I couldn’t understand why my neighbor wouldn’t talk to me again after I did this the first time . . .

Here are a few ideas to connect with your neighbors who are not already plugged into the church or a small group:

Throw a block party. Opportunities begin as relationships, and block parties set the stage for future friendships.
Host a movie on your lawn for the families in the neighborhood. Put out a few flyers around the neighborhood and fire up the latest Pixar hit.
Take part in neighborhood-sponsored events like Easter egg hunts or quarterly “spruce up the neighborhood” days.
Organize welcome baskets for new people in the neighborhood. You can also include an invitation flyer to your group in the basket.

Case for Closed Groups

Some groups will choose to stay closed for the life of the group, or until the group members decide to open for new people. We can see this type of group modeled for us with Jesus’ small group. Once He had chosen His twelve, the group was not open to new members until Judas was replaced after the betrayal in the garden.

There are several benefits to staying closed as a group:

Accountability can be stronger when the group is full of people who know each other well and are comfortable being vulnerable with one another. Inviting someone new into that group can disrupt the needed intimacy.
It takes at least three months of consistently meeting together before most of the relational walls come down. We call those “refrigerator rights” in our group. When a group member feels comfortable enough to walk into our house and open the refrigerator without asking permission first, that’s when you know you have bonded as a family. Inviting a new person or couple into the group will reset the time to get to the refrigerator rights.
A few groups, like recovery groups, will by necessity need to remain closed for the life of the group. A more discipleship-intensive group of three or four people meeting outside group time will need to be closed as well.

The choice of being an open or closed group should be determined before the first meeting and included in the group covenant. The group members need to know if they are encouraged to invite guests, or if the group will close for community and accountability reasons.

Chris Surratt (@ChrisSurratt) is a ministry consultant and coach with more than twenty years of experience. He served on church staffs prior to becoming the discipleship and small groups specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is the author of Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group, from which this is excerpted and adapted with permission from B&H Publishing Group. You can follow his blog at ChrisSurratt.com.

Church Leadership

July 15, 2019

6 Ways to Discuss Politics in Your Small Group

By Ken Braddy

It has been said that the only two things in life that are guaranteed are death and taxes. In my experience, there’s a third: it’s guaranteed you’ll blow up your Bible study group if political conversations aren’t managed well. Perhaps you’ve been in a group when politics came to the forefront of the discussion. People literally have felt more passion about political topics, candidates, and policies than they have about evangelism, financial giving, or serving! It’s crazy. But it is also reality. And in the political season we now find ourselves, with the first Democratic debates having taken place already, and Republican debates soon to hit the airwaves and internet, you can bet that there will be conversations in your Bible study group that will have the potential to be a powder keg. How can you lead and teach your group, guide them well, and manage the political conversations you know are going to come up between now and the next presidential election? Here are some ways you can do that and lead your group well.

Set ground rules. It’s not too early to lay down some ground rules in your group since the presidential election process has begun. Tell your group how you’re going to lead them when the conversation turns political. Above all, remind the group that you will follow biblical mandates such as pursuing peace (I Peter 3:8), relating to one another with humility (I Peter 5:5), and showing patience towards one another (Ephesians 4:2).
Agree that both political parties are represented in your group. Anything said to malign one political party is going to offend a large percentage of your group members in most cases. That being said, your group members need to keep in mind that if they speak against one political party, they are risking offending their brothers and sisters in Christ, and perhaps losing friendships in the process.
Acknowledge that there are no perfect candidates. There is only one perfect ruler, and his name is Jesus. While we are thankful for the leaders he allows to rule us, our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus, not the president or the president’s political party. Or governor. Or mayor. You get the idea.
Pursue the biblical mandate of unity. Unity doesn’t mean uniformity, but it does mean that I place my thoughts and actions aside for the greater goal of maintaining unity in my group and in my church. You wouldn’t want discord in the Bible study group to spill over into the church and cause the church to develop a reputation for being a divided organization. That wouldn’t be a good witness to the community.
Agree to disagree. As much as you try, you’ll never completely agree as a group about a political candidate, a policy, or issues surrounding a political party. Disagreement is going to be a part of life, and a part of group life even in the church. Generations of people’s families have voted a certain way in some cases, and no amount of reasoning or Bible thumping is going to change their minds and cause them to vote against their family’s traditions. Deal with it and move on.
Agree that a political conversation is only allowed if it directly relates to the Bible study at hand. This one simple rule will greatly reduce the impromptu speeches that can take place when a passionate member of your group waxes eloquently about politics. Call a foul and ask the group member to not introduce political comments into the Bible study. Remind them that it is acceptable only if it relates to the study at hand.

Christians and churches should talk about politics and consider the positions of candidates and parties, but it can be a powder keg. Do your best to approach political conversations with great humility and a dependence upon God to know how to guide your group’s conversations. Above all, remind people that the earthly leaders we have are temporary leaders we are placed under while on earth. We have a heavenly King who is our ultimate authority – the One who is right, just, and will one day return to establish His kingdom where righteousness will reign. Until then, we pray for our leaders as Scripture commands us to do, and we eagerly await for Jesus’ return.

Ken Braddy manages LifeWay’s adult ongoing Bible studies and leads a group at his church. He has just released a book to help churches strengthen their Bible study ministries. Find Breathing Life Into Sunday School at lifeway.com.

4 Scriptures to Pray Over Your Groups

Four Questions to Ask as You Launch your Group

Two Ways to Craft Effective Small Group Questions

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at LifeWay, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends, and serves as an adjunct at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Five Characteristics of a Good Question

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at LifeWay, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends, and serves as an adjunct at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Top 5 Articles to Send Your Leaders before Fall

Group Answers Episode 110: David Platt

Three Things That Describe A Life-Changing Bible Teacher

Open Group or Closed Group?

6 Ways to Discuss Politics in Your Small Group

Ken Braddy manages LifeWay’s adult ongoing Bible studies and leads a group at his church. He has just released a book to help churches strengthen their Bible study ministries. Find Breathing Life Into Sunday School at lifeway.com.

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