Discovery Bible Study (DBS)

Introduction

Discovery Bible Studies are optimized for discipleship and disciple-making, regardless of the participants' faith. A discovery group goes together through sequences or 'story sets' of Bible passages to learn who God is and how to hear from him and grow. A story set is a self-contained curriculum that teaches essentials of following Jesus. All discovery group members are rapidly equipped to start next-generation groups in their own social circles. In the mission field, these groups can develop into simple churches that mature and multiply.

Forming a group? Then decide where to start. You will follow this basic 'three-thirds' structure whenever you gather. Each element is essential!

1. Look Back: You'll review what has happened since the last meeting. Care for one another. Check on last meeting’s commitments. Refresh the vision to multiply.
2. Look Up: You'll hear from the Lord from his scriptures, using simple questions to facilitate a participative discussion that remains focused on discovering what's in the passage.
3. Look Ahead: You'll make practical plans to do what you’ve learned and tell others.

You'll follow the 3/3 format in every meeting, dividing the time about equally among each third. Try to finish within an hour, preferably less.

Larger groups will need to break into subgroups of 3-5 for the sake of time. Leadership is just facilitating, not 'teaching.' Scripture is the teacher, under the Holy Spirit's agency and the group's own internal discipline. Facilition rotates each meeting, so everyone soon learns how to start new groups. No one needs to prepare a lesson ahead of time; the scripture passages themselves are the lessons.

Each person shares, briefly: in sentences, not paragraphs!

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Use this structure when you meet, or use the Waha app:

• Who will lead (facilitate) this time?

Look back:

• What are you thankful for?
• What are you struggling with? (Pray for individual struggles; can you help?)
• How did you do on your last meeting’s 'Do & Tell' commitments? (Encourage with positive accountability.)

Look up:

Leader, ask a member to read the Bible passage(s) aloud. Then repeat it.

Then close your Bibles and try as a group to remember all of its details. This helps you remember and apply it long after the DBS.

Then share brief answers to these standard questions. If answers wander, or if people start bringing in other passages or outside authorities or philosophies, anyone in the group should ask "Where is that in the passage?"

• What does this teach about God, God’s character, or what God does?
• What do we learn in it about people, including ourselves?
• Depending on time, or the passage: What's the main point of the passage?

Look ahead:

Members should write down their answers to these questions so they don't forget. I put mine in my phone's calendar for the next seven days.

• Have you learned something here that you need to obey? Alternately in the USA: What will you do about what you've learned? (Make your 'do' SMART: specific, measurable, achieveable, relevant, and time-bound. Try to accomplish it in the next 48 hours if possible.)
• With what specific person should you share who needs to hear it, or the good news, or your personal story? Alternately in the USA: Whom will you bless in light of this?
• When and where will we meet next time?

Your group can close with a commissioning prayer.

Advantages

DBSs are simple. Simple things can multiply. Ordinary people can learn them quickly and start reproducing them. Typical Bible studies rely on a teacher with special expertise, which drastically limits multiplication and raises costs.

DBSs center a group on the Word itself, not a teacher's interpretation. This grows every member's skill in interpreting and judgment in discerning one another's interpretations, equipping and maturing the whole group. When one teacher (or group member) dominates, others grow dependent, passive, and bored.

DBSs train every participant to hear as well as do the Word (James 1:21–25). Typical Bible studies prioritize informing over seeking and obeying, despite Jesus' priorities for disciples (Luke 6:46–49).

DBSs facilitate personal discovery of what scripture teaches. Finding something oneself is far more effective and transformative than just hearing from someone else. One teacher or preacher cannot possibly anticipate a group's whole range of specific needs, perspectives, and insights.

DBSs transfer the DNA of church even before participants come to faith. No one in a group even needs to be a believer. In the mission field, discovery groups can and do grow into simple churches coached by the people who started them, and multiply into whole networks far beyond the reach of cultural outsiders. In traditional churches they equip and mature members as disciples who make disciples, leaders who make leaders at home, at work, and in the community, and ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 6:20) who make more ambassadors wherever they go.