Small Church Communities
Main Article – Part 4 of 4
Paladin Materials
Contents
- Materials We Have Tried
- The Best Materials Available!
- Paladin Discussion Questions
- Discussion Series Structure
- Paladin Accessibility
- Moving Forward
Materials We Have Tried
We have investigated various Catholic evangelical materials and other faith-centered materials meant for small groups. Often, the material is not truly focused on promoting meaningful discussions. Bible studies are particularly notorious for close-ended questions—the facts and nothing but the facts—forget relating it to your life! We often found ourselves supplementing the discussion questions with questions of our own. And it’s not only the discussion questions that often disappointed us. Many sources for small group materials were quite limited in quantity, quality, or variety.
We have come across some powerful video series. These are often more impressive than the written materials; however, the focus still wasn’t on the discussion. Indeed, watching a video by nature takes away from the discussion. Not only does the video eat up time meant for a discussion, but also the folks don’t really have time to ponder the material and prepare for the discussion! There are many video series I recommend watching; however, there are none I would recommend for a small church community.
I concede that I have not searched for small group materials for quite some time. Things may have improved. And I gladly admit that even 20 years ago there were some good materials. However, they were seldom the best materials.
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The Best Materials Available!
So where can you find the best materials available? The best Catholic books are the best Catholic materials. Period. Of course, these don’t typically come with discussion questions. And even when they do, typically there are too few or they are otherwise insufficient for our purposes. And of course, one still needs to adapt the book to the discussion series format and timeframe. This is where we come in.
Our job isn’t all that tough. We basically create discussion questions for important books and develop a plan for covering the material in 8-10 meetings. Rarely, a book will come with adequate discussion questions; then we only need to make a brief guide on breaking up the material and adapting it to the small church community discussions. So far, only 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple by Fr. John Bartunek has met our requirements for this.
Our list of discussion series is steadily growing. And we hope that new group leaders will tackle making their own discussion series according to our approach and donating them to our website. We are hoping to build a co-op, though we can keep you supplied with plenty of discussion series in the meantime.
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Paladin Discussion Questions
We formulate our questions to inspire contemplation and discussion. We create open-ended questions, as much as possible, as this promotes vistas of contemplation and discussion that closed-ended questions never could. Open-ended questions are more subjective and personal—broader and opinion-based. They require us to evaluate our own views and experiences in light of the current topic. They ask us about our thoughts and experiences—about our opinions and speculations. Closed-ended questions are narrow in focus and usually answered with a single word or by choosing from multiple-choice options. Sometimes they simply seek a yes or no answer. Even when we occasionally ask a yes or no question, we do so as part of a group of questions seeking a very open-ended answer. Our goal is to guide you in pondering deeply and then hearing from you—hearing your thoughts, experiences, opinions, speculations, and feelings.
I have seen study guides written for books without a single open-ended question. The book was great; however, the study guide focused on the regurgitation of facts rather than relating those facts to people’s lives. One would be better off discussing the book without any questions at all.
Our discussion series usually have 5-6 groups of questions per evening. Each group typically has 3-5 questions. Each group is tackled as a single journaling cue or as a single discussion starter. Your reply is never meant to individually answer each question, but rather to share your thoughts based on the series of questions as a whole. You might journal on (or discuss) the general topic in considerable detail while only answering one of the questions—or even none of them. The series of questions are always meant to promote meaningful contemplation more than to test comprehension. And, of course, the answers may come directly from your personal experiences or what you perceive as the common experience, or simply your own logic. All this will benefit you most if you journal on the questions and then discuss them with others. This is how Paladins SCCs have ordinary people helping each other connect everyday life to their faith.
These groups of questions are normally related to one another. Often, they build on each other. And even when these are close-ended questions, they are nonetheless food for thought—inspiration. Even a somewhat close-ended question can be an invitation for a very deep and personal consideration.
For example, rather than simply ask what it means to “enter through the narrow gate,” we would ask a series of personal questions connected to indeed entering the narrow gate:
How willing are you to enter through the narrow gate? What in your life and attitude needs to change first? What is holding you back? Do you truly understand how eager God is to accomplish this wonderful work within you?
These questions get you thinking—get you pondering your life and your walk with Jesus. Your journaling and your sharing on these questions may indeed address only a single question, and even that might only be in part or indirectly. However, the group of questions offers lots of food for thought—for applying the material to your life.
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Discussion Series Structure
A Paladin discussion series is more than groups of mostly open-ended questions. A Paladin discussion series also adapts the book to the discussion series format and timeframe. We determine how to divide up the book into 8-10 meetings and create the groups of questions accordingly. We aim to cover 150-200 pages per series. We also include any relevant handouts or mention any related considerations.
Sometimes adapting a book is not straightforward. We might want to cover a chapter per meeting, but seldom are there 8-10 chapters in a book. Sometimes the chapters are very short, and we simply divvy up the chapters according to how many meetings we want. Sometimes the chapters are long and over 10 chapters. If the book is 12 or 13 chapters long, we will probably double up on the chapters for 2-3 meetings. If there are more large chapters, we may consider breaking the book into two discussion series. If we have a 300 plus page book, we will certainly consider this. Indeed, it is very unlikely that we would consider a 300 plus page book for a single discussion series.
Some great books simply don’t lend themselves to discussion groups for various reasons. Some devotional books will work for small groups; some will not. Some won’t nicely fit into two or even three discussion series. Some fact-driven books may not be particularly suitable for open-ended questions; a discussion series needs many open-ended questions. We must be flexible in adapting books, yet we must also know when to admit the book just isn’t a good fit for our purposes.
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Paladin Accessibility
We need to make both the materials and the workload accessible to most people. We need to choose reader-friendly books and cover them at a slow pace. Our goal is to have inspiring and challenging discussions in which we help each other connect our faith to our daily lives; our goal is not to cover many volumes of complex prose! We must not unduly burden our members. Folks have busy lives, and many are not inclined to struggle through long, difficult books. We need to meet folks where they are. The deep truths will come out in the discussions, often helped along by the disciples in the group.
Some of us tend to tackle too much in our goal to aim high. I might be tempted to somehow cover a 300 plus page book within 10 meetings rather than splitting it in two, or I might be tempted to extend the number of meetings to make it work. I might be particularly persuaded to do this when the book doesn’t neatly split into two discussion series. However, in the end, this isn’t aiming high at all. We need to aim high regarding the quality of the discussions and fellowship, not the bulk of material covered. We need to challenge folks through the content, the discussions, and self-driven goals. We do not need to challenge people with a lot of homework. Paladins SCCs are formed to meet people where they are and support them for the long run—for the entire journey to God.
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Moving Forward
We recommend that the first discussion series be particularly accessible and on the shorter side (8 meetings including an Orientation Night). The first series should focus on our relationship with Christ. We recommend Rediscover Jesus by Matthew Kelly or a similarly light yet profound read. We recommend the second series to cover a timely book on apologetics. This will offer lots of inspiration while letting up a little on the personal challenges of the first book. The third series should focus explicitly on discipleship. Here we will dive deeper into many of the personal challenges introduced in the first book.
We recommend that Paladin SCC leaders continue mixing it up. If you finish a series diving deeply into advanced prayer, then make sure the next series does not focus on prayer. Perhaps, something on apologetics, the virtues, sacrifice, or marriage. Likewise, if you have a somewhat challenging series, it might be wise to follow it with something less challenging.
Remember there is greater depth to everything we learn. We cannot simply read the gospels once and announce we understand them—that we’re done with them. Obviously, every time we prayerfully read them, we will discover something helpful, something additional, and something deeper. Likewise, all the spiritual subjects of our Christian faith have many great depths to plumb. Your group won’t cover only one book on discipleship, or prayer, or virtue, or apologetics—you will cover multiple books. And, if your group changes membership enough over the years, you might even repeat a discussion series. I promise you will still get a lot out of it a second time.
Of course, more important than either the book or the study guide is how the group approaches them. Members need to come prepared and feel comfortable. All those other guidelines we have discussed are important as well. While no group and no meeting are ever perfect, we need to work at what we can do to make them as good as we can. And, as with our journey, the Lord will do the rest.
Interested in becoming a Paladins SCC Leader?
Browse Available Discussion Series + Paladin Download Page
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