My friend Tim and I were in a wedding this past weekend and it was a great chance to reconnect.  At the rehearsal dinner Tim was sharing with me the method that he is trying to implement in their small group.

From an email from Tim:

Column A:  Write down what touched you personally in a passage. How or why did it touch you? How do you relate to it?

Column B:  Write down what what i means to you. Paraphrase it in your own words, and relate it to yourself.

Column C:  What does it look like for you to apply it in your own life? What would it look like for you to apply it this week?  Maybe it’s a mentality change you ponder on this week, maybe it is an action of kindness to another, maybe you will pray it to God daily, be creative!  If people can’t think of anything, then their response/action can be to tell someone about what they learned.

The purpose of this is to move past intellectualizing the sharing/discussion time. Yes, making sense of the Word, discussing it theologically is great, but don’t spend more than half your time just talking about that.  Challenge each other how it relates to your own life. Speak only about yourself. How can you put what was discussed into action this coming week?  There may be no point to move on to another passage if the group does not move past putting into action and keep each other accountable for it. We respond in obedience to the Word because we love God.  Jesus says, he who loves God obeys Him.

Thanks for sharing this Tim.  I am excited about the emphasis of this approach to small group studies because it really levels the playing ground of interpretation as it increases dependence on the Spirit guiding us through the Word and decreases dependence on whoever had the best commentary or did the most research.

I believe that a lot of times, people end up being afraid or unsure of sharing their heart felt responses and interpretations of passages because they don’t want to be inaccurate or wrong, especially when they may lack the formal training that someone else in the group may possess.  I really appreciate the section devoted to paraphrasing the text in your own words because allows opportunity to personally contextualize the passage and allow it to speak more closely to your own situation.  I also really appreciate the emphasis that this model puts on application.  I know often times we spend just a little bit of time towards the end of studies for application, probably because it is the most difficult part and often times gets messy.  This is where this models idea of accountability gets to shine, in that the group supports not only brainstorming about how the passages moves them to act personally, but actually living it out.