Sermon-based groups are all the rage these days. I see it as the #2 trend in church life in this decade. (#1 is the multi-site church.)
The leading spokesman for sermon-based groups is Larry Osborne. He says,
“By far the most powerful tool for keeping our back door shut and making the church sticky has been our commitment to sermon-based small groups.[1]
If you would like to read more about why Larry Osborne is such a fan of sermon-based groups, check out this article.
If you would like to experiment with sermon-based groups, but don’t have anyone locally that can write lessons for your groups, I’d love to work with you. I write lessons for a living and feel it is my #1 calling. I think I have written more lessons than any human, living or dead. I have close to 300 series of lessons on Amazon.
Each lesson consists of about 20 ready-to-use questions that save teachers time and gets groups talking. Samples are available here.
I also have a massive electronic library of searchable books. If Max Lucado ever mentioned a particular passage, I will find it and provide it for your teachers. (By the way, with custom lessons I can stay away from, or lean into any authors you choose.)
Scott McClellan of Poplar Springs Baptist Church, Moore, SC wrote:
Our classes were divided by several curriculums. When I began my ministry as Worship/Discipleship Pastor I was looking for a way to lead all classes through the same study of scripture when I ran across the Josh Hunt Sermon Based offering. This has been a blessing to our church and better prepares us for the weekly sermon by our Pastor. The Hunt material more than fills the bill for us and I recommend it without reservation.
Some of Scott’s teachers wrote:
Josh Hunt makes me think. He asks me questions about scripture, and they cause me to ponder the WORD and then dig deeper for truth. I’m truly thankful!!
Mark Brown
- The lessons are very thought provoking and seem to go deeper in the Scriptures.
- The fact that the lessons are sermon based really better prepare us (the Congregation) to understand the Pastor’s sermons.
- After a little initial reservation, I now see the change was definitely a very positive move for our Church.
Bud Babb
Josh’s lessons help me to grow in my Bible study. I am maturing and developing as I dig deeper to develop each topic. He gives the topic we are studying, asks questions, and supplies an answer with the reference from well known Christian authors. Through the questions and answers he challenges me to dig deeper and find what God is providing for me and my class.
Kay Melba
This is an idea that lends itself to experimentation. Here is what I suggest. Pick one Sunday in the next month and ask your groups to try sermon-based groups for that one Sunday. I will write one lesson for that Sunday. There will be no charge for this lesson.
If your people like this approach, and you would like to use me as your ongoing lesson writer, the cost will be $500 per month. (For a large church, this is likely less than you are paying for literature now.) As a bonus, you get unlimited access to all my existing lessons for all your members. To sign up, click here https://www.mybiblestudylessons.com/signup
Contact me at josh@joshhunt.com
[1] Larry W. Osborne, Sticky Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008).
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