Engaging Scripture as a Group

There are plenty of Bible book and topical studies available for small groups from Christian publishers. But there are many other creative ways to engage with Scripture.

The must-read article 7 Ideas for Improving Bible Engagement in Your Church by J.R. Briggs on ChristianityToday.com shares these suggestions that could work for entire congregations, small groups, youth groups, families, and other group gatherings (see article for details):

  • Write out Scripture by hand
  • Ask questions—even tough ones
  • Put yourself in the story
  • Practice lectio divina
  • Read the Bible communally and ask five simple questions
  • Memorize Bible stories together
  • Utilize art with Scripture

Following are some other ways to engage with Scripture as a group.

Read/Speak

  • Visit ReformedWorship.org and type “readers theater” into the search box for a list of dramatic reading scripts based on various Scripture passages.
  • Offer an adult Sunday school class with the main purpose of reading through the Bible, like the class described in this article by Doug Porter on ReformedWorship.org. For an intergenerational experience, invite your youth group to participate as well. (This interesting chart shows about how long it takes to read through each book of the Bible.)

See/Watch

  • Check out the Visual Faith Project—a way of connecting our personal stories with God’s story in Scripture through visual images. Play the videos at this link for an explanation of how “visual faith” works.
  • Check out The Bible Project's short video on The Public Reading of Scripture (see 1 Timothy 4:13).

Sing

  • Organize a “sing through the Bible” group using hymns and worship songs to represent the Bible’s 66 books.

Study

  • Join a Coffee Break group or another similar Scripture study group. See the blog post Creating Small Groups for Bible Engagement by Sam Huizenga for ideas on how to make these groups the best they can be.
  • Plan a small group study around Michael Williams’s helpful book How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens. This accessible introduction to the Bible shows how Jesus fills the pages of the biblical story. Complete with brief historical contexts, this resource provides an excellent overview, main themes, and suggested Scripture memory verses for each book of the Bible. Each entry also includes contemporary implications and “hook questions” that are great for small group discussion.
  • The good people at The Bible Project offer small group studies, each of which includes an excellent Bible Project video, a short audio message, Scripture readings, and discussion questions.
  • The excellent study The Jesus Questions by Sam Gutierrez encourages participants to reflect deeply on specific questions that Jesus asks of people in Scripture, such as “What do you want me to do for you?”

Also check out the ideas in Engaging Scripture Individually and Engaging Scripture as a Family.