Discovery Bible Study Format

[This is Chapter 7 of Disciple Maker: Fulfill Your Destiny in the Disciple-Making Movement Launched by Jesus Christ, by Phil Bickel (© 2020). Free download at www.philbickel.com/store. More details about disciple-making movements here.]

Let’s take a guided a tour through an entire Discovery Bible Study session.  The details provided here are all you need to facilitate your own group.  Also, we will compare what occurs in a Discovery Bible Study to the Bible studies you have been in.

A. Living the Word

The group begins by sharing about events of the past week, including personal assignments they had accepted at the previous session. 

1. What are you thankful for?
2. What is causing you stress?
3. With whom did you share last week’s passage?  
4. Did you apply or obey what you learned in last week’s passage?
5. What happened this past week as we helped someone outside our group?

Items 1 and 2 are not merely icebreakers to initiate conversation.  In time they generate gratitude toward God and train the group to bear one another’s burdens.  Rather than devoting a chunk of their meeting time to one person’s problem, the facilitator advises the person to look for an answer in the passage they will study.  Often they are amazed at what the Word reveals.  Even when the passage has no obvious connection, the group is learning to seek solutions in the Word.  If the person’s issue requires more attention, the facilitator will address the matter with him or her at a later time.

The group devotes no more than 25% of their time to these questions.  

B. Open the Word

Now they familiarize themselves with the Bible text.  In some groups, the members know the text beforehand and have spent time reading of listening to it.

1. Who would like to read the Scripture passage for this week?  The others read along silently.  
2. Who would like to read it again?  This time the others just listen.
3. Who would like to try retelling the passage in their own words?  Members take turns doing this, with the others filling in whatever someone left out.

This is not a competition.  It is group learning, to prepare each of them to share their personal paraphrase of the passage with someone outside the group.

C. Discuss the Word

Now they engage in open conversation about the ideas and surprises they find in the assigned text.

1. What happens in this scripture passage?
2. In this passage what do we discover about God?
3. In this passage what do we discover about people? 
4. Did you discover advice about your stressful challenge?  (See A-2 above.)

Participants have agreed to confine their remarks to the passage being studied.  If anyone shares something from an outside source, the others patiently inquire: “Where does it say that in this passage?”  By listening to Scripture alone, Jesus becomes the group’s disciple-making Rabbi.

The Open the Word and Discuss the Word portions consume about 50% of the group meeting time.

D. Obey the Word

This is where the rubber hits the road.  The seekers are not just learning facts; they want to know if this Book contains truthful counsel worth practicing.

1. If this scripture is true, how does it change how we see God?
2. If this is true, how does it change how we treat others?
3. If it is true, how does it change what I will do this week? 

Responding to what they discovered in God’s Word, each person writes an “I will” statement: an agreement to alter some practice in their behavior during the coming week.  Someone records these personal assignments for the next session.

E. Pass on the Word

The journey they are on is too exciting and eye-opening to keep to themselves.

1. With whom will you share this story?  When and how?  Someone records these for the next session.
2. Do you know anyone who needs help?  What can our group do to help them?

When Discovery group members eventually become followers of Jesus, they will need no urging to witness and or to serve folks in need, because these godly disciplines have already become embedded in their spiritual DNA.

The Obey the Word and Pass on the Word portions consume about 25% of the group meeting time.  More information, a DBS “tour guide map” is available here.

Option: Soak in the Word

In addition, groups can prepare for their meetings by dwelling on the next Scripture text.  A sheet of paper with three-columns is a helpful aid.

• Column 1 is for writing by hand the assigned text.  This practice compels one to slow down, so that each word is seen and pondered more deeply.  
• Column 2 is for writing down one’s personal paraphrase of the text.
• Column 3 is for deliberating over one’s answers to the action questions: How will I obey this word?  To whom will I tell this story?  Who has a problem we can help with?

Such “homework” is not busywork.  By soaking in the Word, the group is better prepared for heart-felt discussions when they gather and for fruitful, daily practice of what God is teaching them.

Compare Bible Study Methods

What an amazing set of questions and hands-on activities!  How does it compare to small group Bible studies you have attended?

1. Did your group focus on the Word of God, or did you wander far afield?
2. Did you identify what God was calling you to change in your behavior?
3. Did you hold one another accountable to obey what God showed you to do?
4. Did you learn the Scripture passage well enough to say it in your own words?
5. Between each session did you share your Scripture paraphrase with anyone?
6. Did you identify the needs of people outside your group and help them?
7. Was God, through His Word, the principal leader of your group?
8. Would you like to participate in a Discovery Bible Study?  Why or why not?

When a group internalizes God’s Word in this manner, shares the Word, and seeks to obey it, marvelous things occur.  They gradually discover who Jesus is, and they can’t resist following the One who makes them disciples who make disciples.