As small group leaders we have the great privilege of helping others encounter God through reading and studying the scriptures. What a big responsibility! As I’m growing as a group leader and as a pastor of small group leaders, I am seeing this responsibility in two parts. Instead of solving them, I want to speak briefly to each and then turn your attention to a few current resources I regularly interact with. This list is not exhaustive but includes some of my favorites.

The first part is to help my people understand how to read and study their bible. Have you ever been in a group discussion with someone who has never really engaged in bible study? Better, remember when you were that person? Its uncomfortable and you feel like you can’t say anything with confidence. In fact, it’s not just first timers who lack confidence sharing in discussion is it? In my experience as much as 80% of the dreaded awkward silence that we all face as group leaders in our discussion times can be traced back to the fact that our people are just not confident enough in what they think the bible might be teaching them. (Chalk up the other 20% to bad/unclear questions and people forgetting to read the material before hand!)

All that to say, HEY! WAKE UP! Your job, our job, is to help people gain confidence in the truth that they can meet with the living and active God of the universe by opening their bibles and finding him waiting there with the very words of life. WOW! So, below are links to some resources to help you and your group members become confident with your bibles:

1. Article: “Studying the Scriptures”
This is an article by Kenneth Boa. It is fairly long as articles go, but rich with insight into the why and how of studying the bible. Boa is an excellent author who has written some great stuff on prayer as well.

 2. Website: biblestudytools.com
Here is one to put in the “research” section of your internet bookmarks. Just a good place to go with a lot of resources. Crosswalk went to some effort to pull all kinds of tools together. Be careful here and at other sites like these that you don’t get lost “clickity clicking” around cyberspace and not using it to help you engage your bible. This is to HELP you, not do it FOR you.

3. Book: Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods
That’s right. From the guru himself. Seriously, this is my favorite book from Rick Warren. I say that because in this book he does such a great job of communicating, in his accessible way, twelve different practices for studying the bible. It’s not overbearing at all and is definitely worth putting on your shelf as a group leader.

4. Book: Living by the Book
This book by Howard Hendricks is what I consider one of the best works on the Inductive study method. He breaks down the three steps: observation, interpretation, application in great detail and gives you plenty of practice as you go through the book. It is a little more thorough than Warren but leaves the reader feeling very confident in this method by the end of it. I wouldn’t give it to someone who is brand new to bible study to do on their own, but I have walked through it together with a beginner and seen great results from it.

Ok, those are just a few to help us out in learning how to study the bible. But those can never replace the bible itself. So the next set of resources are some that I regularly use to help guide my group through the pages of scripture.

1. Series: Life Change Series. A great resource put out by NavPress for a small group to use. The link I’ve provided is for the Ephesians book study. The great thing about these is they help you walk systematically through a book of the bible, creating manageable but deep discussions throughout. Though it doesn’t come out and say it, it mainly applies the inductive bible study method to each study.

 2. Series: MaCarthur Bible Studies
Written by one of “the guys” in popular bible study, a few of our groups here at the Summit Church have found these to be quite helpful. John MaCarthur definitely knows how to “dig” into the scriptures and to help you do the same. MaCarthur writes these as a guy seasoned in his faith and in his pastoral ministry. Very helpful.

3. Website: BestCommentaries.com
Nothing beats speaking with your pastor to get good guidance on a particular passage you are working through. With that said, whenever I’m confronted with the question “what would be a great commentary on (insert book of the bible)?” I now turn to this site in my search. As of fall 2009 it’s still relatively new, but good.

4. Series by a church: Redeemer Presbyterian Small Group Studies
Written largely by well-known pastor and author Tim Keller, these studies are deep, good, and very well priced. What I really like about these is that they were written by a pastor and his team, specifically for small groups. They are all very good, full studies that will challenge you and if you stick with it, really stretch you in your life as a follower of Christ.

Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list of resources. In fact, I bet you have some great ones you are using that others would benefit from knowing about. The point in all of this is to help the people coming to our churches and our small groups grow as confident followers of Christ. And to help them genuinely and regularly encounter the living and active God we find in the pages of scripture.