May 19th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Small groups are a big deal in our family. My parents have led them for years and my dad is a lay leader in the small group ministry at their church. My sister and I therefore were bitten with the bug, and we (and our husbands, of course) are both involved in small group ministry. My husband’s brother was the associate pastor over small groups in their church for a while, also. So, we tend to talk a lot about small groups. A lot.

Oddly enough, as common as small groups are becoming, we’ve had a hard time finding curriculums that we really like. Some are too dry without enough discussion, some are too shallow and have too much discussion and not enough study, some are too intense and the group loses interest… I’m sure they all are appropriate for certain groups, but we’ve had a challenge finding ones that really hit the “sweet spot” for our particular small group.

Because of that, I was glad to have a chance to take a closer look at a new group study that was put together by Christianity today on Faith and Pop Culture.

After reading through this book, I am excited to work through it with our group! Now, I will say that no matter how good a book looks when you read through it, it can have a completely different feel once you dig into it in a group. We’ve started some great looking studies in the past that fell flat and no one liked them. But from a reader’s perspective with some small group experience, here are my thoughts.

I so appreciated what the editors attempted to do in this study. This is a primarily discussion-based study that seeks to challenge Christians to examine how we are engaging and using the predominant “languages” of our culture that are expressed through movies, books, sports, television, video games, etc. This is not an easy, cut and dry subject, and I applaud them for taking it on.

Each chapter begins with an article taken from past issues of Christianity Today that provides a jumping off point for discussion throughout the session. I found these articles to be thought provoking – all of them are written by experts in their fields who have wrestled with how their Christian faith intersects with their work and play. The articles are well written and not simplistic. That being said, it is pretty much a guarantee that they will spark discussion in any group of serious believers – some will heartily agree, some will vehemently disagree. The interesting thing about this study is that it does not seek to draw clear-cut lines on these matters of “gray area,” but rather presents a topic in order to stimulate thoughtful discussion.

After the article, each chapter then has ice-breaker type activities. I thought many of these seemed a bit too youth-group-esque for an adult group. I don’t know about yours, but our group would look at us a bit strangely if we passed out glue and scissors and announced that we were going to cut pictures out of magazines and make a collage about the culture of Hollywood. To be fair, two options are always presented, with one being more discussion oriented and one more “hands on.” I think we would normally skip both and do our own thing!

My main objection to this study, being a person who deeply desires the Church to know the Word of God, is that the Scripture passages used in each session are not the primary focus. The primary focus is the article and people’s reactions to it. I think for this study to be more complete, the leader would have to invest some time in actually studying the passage and not just reading it for a few shallow discussion questions that follow. But again, this is a discussion-based application-dense study… perhaps instead of a “Bible study” it should be called a “How-to-live-out-what-you-already-know discussion group.” :)

This would be a great launching point for discussion amongst grounded, serious believers. For “seeker” type groups or groups full of very young believers, this topic would probably be appealing but I think the treatment of Scripture is far insufficient to give them a proper Biblical base for what they are discussing together. The discussion would very easily boil down to my opinion against yours, rather than looking at how Biblical Truth intersects with our daily lives.

We’ll see how it goes in our group… I’m anticipating some good discussion. It’s a nice light topic that will work well for summer. :)

**I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my review from Thomas Nelson Publishers. I am an amazon affiliate and would receive a small percentage of any sales resulting from the link above. The opinions expressed in this review are my unbiased thoughts as in keeping with my disclosure policy.