Nathan
Member
To those of you who lead "Sunday School" or "small groups" (I'm sure there are other names for it also) - I have had something that has been an idea for a while. I have not tried it personally, but thought I would throw it out there in case someone was looking for something.
One thing I have noticed in these settings is that everyone looks to the 'leader' for all the instruction. Much like they do the pastor. I would hope that a leader of these meetings would be capable, but that does not mean the other people in the group don't have anything to contribute. I think in small groups like these it nice to get everyone involved. But most of the time they feel 'unable' to do it, which is mostly because the leader is going a certain direction. Much like a 'teacher' would.
So my thought was to have a box. And everyone would put down on a piece of paper a question, or something to that effect, they have come across when reading the Bible. It could be anything. Why did so and so say this? What did Jesus mean when He said this? What exactly is this that they are talking about? It could even be as simple as "is the Red Sea really red"?
Then a piece of paper would be pulled out, and everyone would see what it was, and spend the week looking into what they can find out about the topic. I think the leader in this regard would be more like a moderator, because it would not work if they did all the leg work. The topic might come to a conclusion in a short amount of time, or it may drag on. I think that would be the nice thing about it.
People tend to get in a rut. Comfortable. It might take a while for it to catch on, but if the members of the group started to really feel that their input mattered(not just a second rate comment to the leaders topic), then eventually I think it would pick up. Most of all, it would drive people to start actually looking into the Bible rather than just looking at what they are told too.
Anyways, that's the idea I thought of/was given to me. I usually just blow these off(I am always thinking of something), but this one has stuck around for a while.
One thing I have noticed in these settings is that everyone looks to the 'leader' for all the instruction. Much like they do the pastor. I would hope that a leader of these meetings would be capable, but that does not mean the other people in the group don't have anything to contribute. I think in small groups like these it nice to get everyone involved. But most of the time they feel 'unable' to do it, which is mostly because the leader is going a certain direction. Much like a 'teacher' would.
So my thought was to have a box. And everyone would put down on a piece of paper a question, or something to that effect, they have come across when reading the Bible. It could be anything. Why did so and so say this? What did Jesus mean when He said this? What exactly is this that they are talking about? It could even be as simple as "is the Red Sea really red"?
Then a piece of paper would be pulled out, and everyone would see what it was, and spend the week looking into what they can find out about the topic. I think the leader in this regard would be more like a moderator, because it would not work if they did all the leg work. The topic might come to a conclusion in a short amount of time, or it may drag on. I think that would be the nice thing about it.
People tend to get in a rut. Comfortable. It might take a while for it to catch on, but if the members of the group started to really feel that their input mattered(not just a second rate comment to the leaders topic), then eventually I think it would pick up. Most of all, it would drive people to start actually looking into the Bible rather than just looking at what they are told too.
Anyways, that's the idea I thought of/was given to me. I usually just blow these off(I am always thinking of something), but this one has stuck around for a while.