SACRED SPACES

Coming on December 1, 2025 at lifeway.com

Every Bible study group leader must maintain balance in three sacred spaces: 

• The sacred space of a daily time with God in prayer and in Scripture
• The sacred space of time spent with fellow group members outside of Bible study
• The sacred space of mental, physical, and emotional wellness

Without a healthy balance between these three sacred spaces, group leaders will experience burnout and a lack of spiritual fruit.

WELCOME ABOARD!

Guests to your church want to make relational connections, and they are hopeful they might find a place where they can belong—a place where they are cared for and made to feel special. But when they attend groups, they often don’t experience high levels of friendliness and inclusiveness.

At the beginning of a cruise, passengers are greeted on the sailing vessel with a hearty Welcome Aboard!. And during the voyage, they experience the very best in dining, music, entertainment, and service.

What if the many guests who come to your church experienced excellence like that? What if your groups and the people in them took ownership for creating a welcoming culture, one in which biblical hospitality inspires guests to return, ultimately uniting with your church?

The three chapters in Welcome Aboard! address how to show biblical hospitality in kids’ groups, student groups, and adult groups. Each chapter is written by an expert who has extensive ministry experience, providing practical ways to provide superior hospitality in all your church’s groups.

Purchase your copy at lifeway.com

BREAKTHROUGH: Creating a New Scorecard for Group Ministry Success

Breakthrough: Creating a New Scorecard for Group Ministry Success challenges groups and group leaders to consider a different way to measure group ministry success in a post-pandemic world.

Using a LIFE acrostic, four key tasks of groups are introduced as the new way to measure groups. Sixteen questions are asked, four per task, to help groups and group leaders evaluate whether or not they are on track in making disciples. 

Comeback Groups

The Comeback Groups Booklet examines the elements of revival during King Asa’s reign (2 Chronicles 14–16) and applies those principles to the ongoing work of Bible study groups today.

Comeback Groups are Bible study groups in which people actively return to the Lord spiritually, become aware of their sin, seek God, and allow God’s Spirit to change them. When these individuals and groups experience revival, churches experience revival.

But Comeback Groups also come back in other ways. As people seek the Lord, they inspire and challenge their groups to return to tasks that may have been abandoned over time. They start focusing attention on important aspects of ministering to people through their ongoing Bible study groups.

Get your copy of Comeback Groups here

Building a Disciple-making Ministry

Released in December 2020, this book chronicles the life and work of the greatest Sunday School pioneer in the Southern Baptist Convention, Arthur Flake. His ministry took place in the early 1900s, but the impact is still felt today through his 5-step formula for growing great Bible study ministries.

See more details about the book and order your copy at lifeway.com by clicking here.

Breathing Life Into Sunday School

Breathing Life Into Sunday School contains 12 essential actions that churches must take if they want Sunday School to be vibrant, relevant, and meaningful for group members and guests. Too many Sunday Schools and other Bible teaching ministries lack the power, draw, and enthusiasm they once had. In this practical book you will discover twelve ways that churches can revitalize their most important Bible teaching ministry. Some of the chapters include:

1. Feed it Financially
2. Train the Leaders
3. Clarify the Win
4. Embrace a Philosophy
5. Start New Groups
6. Know Key Metrics

Six additional chapters pair with these first six to help church and group leaders restore health and vitality to the church’s most important ministry. Click here to see the book and more details on lifeway.com

SADDLE UP! LEADING WITH PURPOSE, POSTURE, & PREPAREDNESS

Proverbs 21:31 states, “A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.” This important Proverb reminds us that there is a divine and human component to our efforts. 

In the three chapters that make up this book, group leaders are challenged to think about the purpose behind what they do. In the middle chapter, the topic of posture is dealt with, and how a group leader must be in a posture of humility, servanthood, and that of a life-long learner. The third and final chapter challenges group leaders to be better prepared for “for the day of battle.”

Download this book for free along with conference plans and other training resources! 

Shepherd: Creating Caring Community

This is the second book in the “3 Roles” series of books (Teacher-Shepherd-Leader) began by Ken Braddy and David Francis, Lifeway’s Director of Sunday School for over fifteen years. In this book, Ken and David delve into the topic of shepherd-teachers and how they can use their influence to create a caring environment in their Bible study groups.

.Dr. Ken Coley from Southeastern Seminary joins Ken and David in that final chapter, using his expertise as a seminary professor to help group leaders understand the science of teaching, and how through their preparation and in-class delivery, they can care for the needs of the men and women in their Bible studies.

Download this book for free along with conference plans and other training resources! 

 

Leader: Creating Commissioned Community

What would God have us do to become a commissioned community? Everyone in your Bible study group needs to be talking about this important question. The purpose of this book is to provide a framework for conversations about outreach and evangelism through Sunday School and small groups. You will find ways to talk about how to keep your group outwardly focused, what principles reinforce what your group does, and why you need to be worried about it in the first place.

Written for everyone involved in a Bible study group, Leader is the third of four books in the “3 Roles” series. These books encourage groups and group leaders to create conversational communities (Teacher), create caring communities (Shepherd), and create commissioned communities (Leader).

Download this book for free along with conference plans and other training resources! 

 

Teacher: Creating Conversational Community

This book is designed to help church leaders train volunteers who lead a Sunday school class or small-group Bible study.

Teaching is one of the three roles for which every Bible study leader is responsible, but that doesn’t mean the teacher simply has to stand and deliver a lecture. The book identifies elements of teaching that create a community built upon conversation around the biblical text using active learning approaches.

The book explores the four “voices” of conversational community: Bible, Holy Spirit, Learners, and Teacher. It also guides the teacher on what to Say, Ask, and Do.

Download this book for free along with conference plans and other training resources! 

3 Roles for Guiding Groups

This book, co-authored with Lifeway’s Director of Sunday school, David Francis, is a resource for helping those who lead Bible study groups understand more fully what it means to be the teacher who “stands before,” the shepherd who “sits among,” and the leader who is responsible for carrying out the goals and purposes of the group. This resource will ultimately help group leaders grow in all three roles. Features include:

• Three chapters – one on each role
• A group plan at the end of each chapter helps the pastor, minister of education, Sunday School director, or other leader use this booklet to train the Bible study “guides” in the church

Download this book for free along with conference plans and other training resources! 

 

How-To Sunday School Manual 

My friend Wayne Poling compiled this book that contains short, to-the-point chapters written by discipleship practitioners. Together with dozens of other contributors, Wayne offers practical tips for organizing and leading your groups ministry. I contributed several chapters to Wayne’s book, and I believe you’ll find it helpful and practical. Now out of print, you can still find digital copies online.