Why Do Sermon-Based Discussions for Small Groups?

Most churches have the admirable desire of making the people more knowledgeable when it comes to the Word of God and its implications. They have countless classes and Bible studies that go through every book in the Bible. In any given week at a typical church, you would learn about Judges in Sunday School, hear a sermon on the Beatitudes, then have a small group Bible study in Philippians. It's like if we can get one more Bible story or lesson into someone's head, then somehow we have accomplished our mission in equipping the people.

Unfortunately, I would argue that this has created a typical Christian that is vaguely knowledgeable about God's Word. How many times within a 30 to 40-minute sermon, does our attention wander? How many times do we spaced out in a Bible study? Studies have shown that with our exposure to media, our attention span have actually grown shorter. This means that for any given sermon or Bible study, you would be lucky to remember even half of all things said and discussed. So what ends up happening is that you have a congregation of people that "kinda know" what Scripture is talking about.

Instead of trying to throw as much Bible content at the people and hope that something sticks, why don't we just really focus on one text or theme and make sure the people really know it well? That's where sermon-based small group discussions come in. The goal of sermon-based small groups is to make sure people explore every nook and cranny—related themes, related texts, points of application, issues for prayer—of the one lesson they just had together in worship. One idea, one theme, one text, contends for people's minds at a given time. 

With everyone discussing and thinking about the same theme, you are essential fostering an environment of unity, which some church may lack. In most churches, everyone listens to the same message, which does create a sense of unity. But when a church uses sermon-based small groups, everyone interacts with the same message, which really sharpens the focus. It pushes people, who were marginally interested in listening to the sermon, to pay closer attention in order to be prepared for their group discussions. Why? Because no one wants to be left out from what everyone else knows.

These are some brief thoughts on this issue. But I would love to hear more from you on:

1) What are some additional benefits for sermon-based small group discussions?

2) What are some disadvantages for sermon-based small group discussions? How do we overcome these disadvantages?

3) Share some experiences that you have with sermon-based small group discussions.