PART IV:
The Paladin Discussion Series
Creating the Framework
Plan of Attack
Healthy, thriving small church communities rely on our well-designed Paladin discussion series. Aspiring creators of these discussion series need guidelines and advice for developing them. So, if you are a Paladin SCC leader wanting to create a Paladin discussion series, this is where you should begin!
This chapter and the next will guide you in creating a Paladin discussion series. This chapter will outline the initial steps, primarily selecting an appropriate book and breaking it into manageable sections for the series. The following chapter will address the content, focusing on developing Questions to Contemplate in the Paladin way.
This process might seem a little intimidating as we try to address many possible complications; however, it’s more time-consuming than difficult—a puzzle to ponder. And don’t worry about your study guide being perfect; none of mine are. An imperfect yet sincere effort will yield good results.
Discussion Series Structure
A Paladin discussion series involves more than just a set of mostly open-ended questions. It also includes adapting the book to fit the discussion series format and timeframe. We decide how to split the book into 8-10 meetings and develop questions accordingly. Our goal is to cover 120-220 pages per series. Additionally, we include any relevant handouts or mention related considerations.
Sometimes, adapting a book isn’t straightforward. We might aim to cover one chapter per meeting, but most books have more than 8-10 chapters. Sometimes chapters are very short, so we divide them based on the number of meetings we plan to hold. Other times, chapters are long, and a book may have more than 10 chapters. If a book has 12 or 13 chapters, we could combine chapters for 2 or 3 meetings. When many chapters are large, splitting the book into two discussion series might be a good option. For books over 300 pages, this is worth considering. In fact, it’s unlikely we would handle a book over 300 pages in a single discussion series.
Many excellent books are not well-suited to discussion groups for various reasons. Some lengthy books are challenging to fit into even two discussion series. Some apologetics books may not lend themselves to open-ended questions. Certain Bible apologetics books, like those by Scott Hahn, can be used effectively in discussion series; however, these series tend to be less relational—less personal. We will use these kinds of books only occasionally. We need to be flexible when adapting books, but we must also recognize the limitations of some and the unsuitability of others.
Choosing a Book
We will now examine two short checklists for selecting a book. The first will focus on its content suitability; the second will examine its organization and structure. In other words, is the book both appropriate and usable?
Is the Book Appropriate?
- Material must be faithful—compatible with the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.
- Our materials embody the zealous yet ecumenical spirit of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
- The rare Protestant authors widely read by Catholics might be considered. C.S. Lewis comes to mind.
- Non-Catholic authors usually are only considered for scientific subjects related to faith—cosmology, history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc.
- The reading difficulty and style should be understandable to the average parishioner.
- The content should assume only a most basic understanding of Church teaching.
Is the Book Usable?
- Consider the book length—roughly 120 to 220 pages is best.
- If the book is longer, consider splitting it into two discussion series.
- Decide if you can divide the discussion series into 8-10 sessions.
- Consider combining small chapters and splitting large chapters to get a good number of sessions.
- Less desirable alternatives:
- Consider not covering the entire book—cover 10 of 13 chapters.
- Consider extending the discussion series to 11 or 12 sessions.
- Definitely discuss this option with your group before implementing.
Examples of Dividing Books
Determining how—or even whether—we can divide a book for a discussion series can quickly become complex. If the book is too long, should we split it into two discussion series? If there are more than 10 chapters, can we combine some into a single session? If chapter lengths vary greatly, should we split long chapters into two sessions? If none of these options work, should we think outside the box? If there are too many challenges, when should we decide to give up? These are the types of questions we need to answer when considering a book.
Rest assured, most books are not that tough. In fact, if you choose books with short chapters and about 200 pages, you won’t face many issues. You can split the 16-25 chapters into 8-10 sessions and be on your way. Sometimes, though, there’s a book you really like and want to use, but it doesn’t fit into that category at all. Only then do the following examples really matter.
Alright, we’ll begin with two moderately complex examples and then tackle two very challenging ones.
A Book with 13 Long Chapters: Cover the First 10 Chapters
Let’s examine Scripture and the Mystery of the Family of God, edited by Scott Hahn and Leon J. Suprenant, Jr. The first thing we notice is that it’s 310 pages long and has 13 chapters. It’s rather lengthy and won’t divide evenly. We might consider combining some chapters to fit into 10 sessions, but the chapters are very long, and the book remains quite lengthy. There’s no easy fix unless you decide to cover only the first 10 chapters and encourage the group to finish the rest on their own. That’s thinking outside the box, and it worked fine; however, I would try to avoid this approach whenever possible. Most books should be finished as a group. This solution should be rarely used.
A Book with 12 Chapters: Combine Chapters
Then there was Life, the Universe & God: 12 Mysteries of Cosmic Importance with 12 chapters and only 159 pages. We could simply read the first 10 chapters as we did before, but that seems silly for such a small book! Additionally, we want to avoid leaving the book unfinished. Instead, we combined Chapters 6 and 7, and Chapters 8 and 9. We selected these combinations because the subject matter was well matched. With the shorter chapters, this worked fine. We also included the option to extend the discussion series to 11 or 12 sessions. If your group is open to 12 sessions, that is undoubtedly the best solution.
A Very Long Book with Chapters of Varied Lengths: No Solution
At first glance, Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI seems promising with its neatly divided 10 chapters. However, we then notice that it’s 374 pages long! Upon closer examination of the chapters, we observe a range of lengths from 14 to 69 pages. That’s disappointing. On the plus side, there’s a glossary, which reduces the main part of the book to 355 pages—that might be more manageable. But we also discover that this book is part one of two, and the second book is even larger than the first!
The single positive—10 chapters—no longer exists due to the wide variation in chapter lengths. We might combine some small chapters and split the two largest ones, but it would feel awkward. Plus, it’s still a large book. Splitting it into two discussion series would create additional problems. And even if we manage to overcome all of this, part two presents even greater challenges! Though I’m tempted to make it work somehow, I’ve rightly decided against using this book.
An Extremely Long Book: Split into Two Series, Combine/Split Chapters of Varied Length
By all accounts, The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin is an intimidatingly large book—473 pages. The three sections even further complicate the split. It also has chapters ranging from 3 to 46 pages! Looking more closely, we see that the book is only 443 pages without the endnotes, and many pages have plenty of white space. That’s helpful, but we would still need to split it into two discussion series.
If we cover section one in the first discussion series, we will end up with eight chapters totaling only 180 pages. We will combine the introduction and the first two very short chapters and split the last chapter to end up with eight manageable sessions. Parts two and three could be covered in the second series. We will split the longest chapter to get 10 sessions, covering 259 pages. Each session would average 26 pages, with the longest being 34 pages. The second series is much longer than my preferred length, but it could work. If we actually create this discussion series, it would certainly be aimed at a mature SCC. Even then, I would definitely elicit their input before proceeding with this one!
Last Thoughts
I hope these examples are helpful. Determining whether and how to break a book into sessions, along with creating questions, is the heart of developing our discussion series. There is a learning curve, and you will likely want to start with a medium-sized book with many chapters, as those are easier to split. Believe me, it’s not as difficult as it sounds, and it’s a tremendous service to our SCCs.
Leaders are encouraged to use existing discussion series as templates for their own work. They may copy and adapt the introductory material to fit their discussion series. We will now continue the process by developing the content, with particular emphasis on the Questions to Contemplate.
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