Small Group Study
1. Your group chooses which course you will study.
As a group, pick which course or program you want to do. Then, everyone in your group individually signs up under that course. After enrolling via Paypal, each individual gains access to the course by their own username and password. Once inside the course, your small group or Sunday School will be able to interact via a private, password protected group discussion board. Each person completes the five tasks for the week in preparation for the weekly face-to-face meeting.
2. Your group gets a leader's guide.
Someone from the group will need to purchase the leader’s guide. The leader’s guide will provide a host of activities and guided discussions for the entire small group meeting. Each leader will facilitate others into collaborative learning, group discussion, and active learning activities found in the guide and based on what has been learned for that week. The leader’s guide does not require a ton of extra knowledge or prep. It just requires someone willing to choose which learning activities the group does for the week and someone to facilitate the group discussion time, as every participant will be bringing something to the group to share (following the 1 Corinthians 12 model).
3. Your group does the study and digitally interacts through the week.
In Acts 2:42-47, the church met together daily. This program will provide a digital means for your small group to interact with one another throughout the week as you do the learning activities. Via educational technology and digital means, your group will be able to re-discover the spiritual power and reality of a church who shares life together daily. In a disconnected world, you will be able to encourage your group to stay connected to one another while continuing your groups Christian growth throughout the week.
4. Your small group meets weekly face-to-face to interact with your study and each other.
There are several key elements to the weekly face-to-face meeting. First, it returns the idea of 1 Cor. 12 back to each small group and to each church. In that passage, every believer brought something to their weekly gathering. As part of this program, every week, each individual in your group will be able to choose from 3 or 4 tasks that they will complete and bring to the group meeting to share with others. Second, every meeting will involve each participant. The meetings will not be one person just lecturing or re-reading the content. Each meeting will use active learning strategies that involve active participation. At every meeting, every person will be doing something with the knowledge they have already gained earlier in the week. Third, every meeting will include learning activities and group discussions. From the beginning of the meeting till the end, people will be involved and actively participating the whole time. Fourth, every meeting requires minimal prep and allows for easy group facilitation. Gone are the days were one leader does all the study and everyone just sets there and listens to him talk. The leader of this meeting merely has to look through the leader guide and chose which activities is best for his or her group and then facilitate the meeting. Small group leadership has never been easier and accomplished more real growth than through this program and its leader guide!
