“More and more churches seem to be moving to a sermon-based curriculum for their small groups. That is, they review and study the same text the pastor preached on the previous Sunday. On the other hand, I’ve met church leaders who oppose this approach. Here’s a summary of the arguments I’m hearing” - Church Leaders
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)
Sermon Based Small Groups: Yes or No
Since 2005
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Discussion
NewMeh
Sounds good. I’m neutral about it. We don’t do it. One pastor does the morning sermon. The other does the Sunday School lesson. We each work through different series. The other guy is wrapping up Colossians and I’m wrapping up 1 Corinthians. We switch speaking slots in two weeks, and I preach and he does Sunday School.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
NewMeh
Our church small groups switched to sermon-based curriculum last year. By curriculum, it’s really just reviewing the main points of the sermon and discussing the application questions provided each Sunday in the bulletin.
Before that, each small group did its own thing, whether that was a book (of the bible) study, video series, or theology study.
I generally prefer the latter approach, but it really depends on how the leaders run the group.