Resources for Small Groups

Connect with God: Sermon on the Mount by Bill Hybels  (Book)
Using this guide, groups will discover how Jesus' new vision for life found in the Sermon on the Mount addresses new ways to experience a restored relationship with God. God and His Kingdom are not distant possibilities but accessible realities in amazing and radical ways to ordinary people. This guide covers such topics as our motives and practices in approaching God as well as God's true nature and desires for us. Each guide contains helpful hints to enable groups to connect at deeper levels, to express love and acceptance to one another, and to serve one another and the world around them. This guide is appropriate for beginning or growing groups.

 
Connect with Others: Sermon on the Mount by Bill Hybels  (Book)
With this guide, groups will mine Jesus' words found in the Sermon on the Mount seeking to understand Jesus' new vision for life and how this new vision addresses our relationships with others and the world around us. Along the way, members will seek to allow God's truth to influence their relationships as God uses them to make a difference in the world. This guide covers such topics as mercy, peacemaking, how we relate to fellow Christians, and how we relate to non-Christians. Each guide contains helpful hints to enable groups to connect at deeper levels, to express love and acceptance to one another, and to serve one another and the world around them. This guide is appropriate for beginning or growing groups.


Commitment by Bill Hybels  (Book)
Using this guide, groups will use the Sermon on the Mount to assess and discuss the level of their commitment as followers of Christ. Discussions cover such topics as what God expects of us and what steps can be taken to deepen our commitment to Christ. This guide is designed to focus on sharing, deeper levels of accountability, and the process of moving people to action. This guide is appropriate for growing groups and for groups wishing to deepen the levels of study and accountability through the doing of life together.



Living the Sermon on the Mount: A Practical Hope for Grace and Deliverance by Glen H. Stassen  (Book)
In this book, Glen Stassen discusses the intersect of faith, the new vision for life found in the Sermon on the Mount, and real life. In so doing, Stassen takes his readers beyond the view that Jesus' words are simply high ideals to the understanding that Jesus is laying forth a path to life, wholeness, and healing. As Stassen points outs, Jesus' words do not present a life that is unattainable but a vision for who God is making His people to be, a life that reveals who He is and His deep desires for the world. This book is appropriate for groups or individuals who wish to consider how one might begin to live Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount in their own setting.


The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard  (Book)
In this book, renowned teacher and theologian Dallas Willard issues a calling back to the life Jesus originally intended for his disciples. Rejecting the idea that Jesus is a distant savior or that the primary goal for the followers of Jesus is to 'make it to heaven,' something he calls a bumper sticker faith, Willard weaves a rich discussion around Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to discuss what obedience to the teaching of Christ truly looks like. According to Willard, faith in Christ impacts our lives and the world around us in the present leading now to the life God has intended for people from the beginning. This book is appropriate for individuals or Small Group leaders who ae wishing to discover practical insight into applying Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in their every day lives.


The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John R. W. Stott  (Book)
In his typically understandable and approachable style, renowned preacher and scholar, John Stott offers his readers an excellent commentary on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. As a volume in The Bible Speaks Today series, this work provides its readers with a thorough background of Jesus' sermon, full discussions of the meanings of Jesus' words, as well as insights in how to apply the meaning of the text to the present world. Stott work is solid in its scholarship and yet incredibly useable and profitable for the average person, an excellent resource for individuals or small group leaders who are interested in going deeper in their preparations and study.


Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Decision Making in Matthew 5-7 by Charles H. Talbert  (Book)
In this book, Charles Talbert provides his readers with a unique commentary which bridges the gap between textual meaning and life by coupling discussions of the form, context, and meaning of Jesus' words with discussions of how these words contribute to the process of ethical decision making. This book is designed as a resource for those who truly wish to mine the depths of Jesus' new vision for life on their own or with a group. This work is recommended for students of the Bible who are looking for help bridging the gap between deep Bible knowledge and real world living.