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How to Conduct a Group Discussion

1. Objectives:

• To align the group with the pulpit ministry of the church.
• To facilitate healthy discussion to meet specific needs relevant to the group.
• To encourage and be accountable to one another for the application of the Word that is preached from the pulpit.

2. Requirements:

• Prayerful preparation for each discussion:
• Decide on which sermon(s) the discussion will be based on. If the group meets once a week, discuss the most recent sermon. If the group meets once a month, you may choose 1 or 2 recent sermons which are most relevant to the group for the discussion.
• Go through the discussion questions on your own, and think of ways to encourage your members’ responses to them.
• Please click here for suggested answers to all the questions.
• Edifying communication (Colossians 4:6).
• Loving concern for all group members.

3. Suggested Format for Each Session:

a) Before the discussion:

• (Optional) Sing a hymn or chorus that is relevant to the topic for discussion.
• Open in prayer (This can be assigned to different a group member at each session).
• (Optional) Mutual sharing of thanksgiving and praise items.
• (Optional) Prayer for specific needs of members and for the discussion.

b)   Conducting the discussion:

• Introduce the sermon to be discussed and briefly go through the sermon outline.
• Get members to participate by asking them to share something new that they had learned from the sermon.
• Go through the questions provided by the speaker and let the members respond by turn or spontaneously.
• If there is no response, try to rephrase the question, or start the ball rolling by sharing your own response.
• Summarise the responses of the question, before going on to the next question.
• Don’t allow the discussion to digress too far.

c)  After the discussion:

• Give thanks for the lessons learnt, and pray for the application of the sermon in each member’s life.
• Announce the date and venue for the next meeting.
• (Optional) Fellowship around some light refreshments, celebrate birthdays, etc.

d)  Follow up action:

• Send out an email to everyone in the group to summarise the session, prayer requests, and the arrangements for the next meeting. This will benefit those who could not come for the session.
• If there is helpful feedback on the sermon, please convey them to the speaker. Also let the speaker know what impact his sermon has had on your group members.