Fall Planning

ChristianBibleStudies.com has everything you need for small groups and adult Sunday classes.

Many small-group leaders and adult Sunday school coordinators are scrambling at this time of year to find material to launch their ministries this fall. We have good news!

ChristianBibleStudies.com now has over 700 Bible studies to choose from. And instead of ordering numerous books for everyone, you can download just one study or course and make up to 1,000 copies for use in your church.

Some of the categories we have to choose from are:

Quarterly Study Plans—These 10-13 week courses are topical, including in-depth overviews on marriage, parenting, art and literature, bioethics, and knowing God. Some you may want to consider in this category are:

Bioethics & Compassion: This course looks at how Christians should view the ethical debate that swirls around scientific discoveries that both extend and take life. This innovative resource will help you think about bioethical issues from a Christian perspective, and how we can be wise and compassionate.
Prayer & Worship: There is nothing more important in our relationship with God than prayer and worship. Through prayer we establish a relationship with God, and through worship we recognize who he is. This course will help you sort through what it really means to speak to and honor God.
Essentials in Knowing God: This course will help you deepen your relationship with God by focusing on him and discovering what he is like. It will also teach you how to repent, find forgiveness, and get rid of guilt. Finally, it will help you fill your prayer life with joy and beauty.

Study Through the Bible Courses—Based on sermon series by well-known pastors, these studies cover books of the Bible. They range in size, although most are 6-8 weeks long. Some of our top sellers in this category are:

Psalms: Managing Our Emotions: Emotions are both complicated and complex, both mysterious and mystifying. Even the experts are not sure what causes us to experience emotions. Both social science and neurobiology have tried, to no avail, to explain the origin of emotions. And for Christians, emotions can be troubling, frustrating, and untrustworthy. Some emotions seem deeply spiritual; others seem downright sinful. God created us to experience emotions, yet there are still godly and ungodly ways to manage them. This 12-session course on the Book of Psalms will help you sort this out.
The Gospels: How Not to Be a Pharisee: This 6-session course looks at Jesus' interaction with a group of first-century Jewish religious leaders called Pharisees. As revealed in the four Gospels, these Pharisees received the brunt of Jesus' criticism. The ability to see sin in others and ignore it in your own heart is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a Pharisee. Unfortunately, this tendency is as common today as it was in Jesus' time. This course will help you learn to pursue God with an open heart.
1 Corinthians: Basic Christian Living: When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he knew they needed to be instructed in the basics. Today, we also need to be taught the basics of the Christian life. This 7-session course from will remind us why we go to church; how to use our bodies to honor God; how to find unity in diversity; how to love, serve, and worship together; and how to face death.

Specialty Courses—These courses are for different types of groups, such as men, women, couples, and parents. They also cover numerous hot topics, such as divorce and remarriage, sharing your faith, how to be a true disciple, dealing with the empty nest, and why we can trust our Bibles. Our top sellers are:

Ortberg on Understanding God: John Ortberg—pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California and author of numerous books including The Life You've Always Wanted and If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat—helps us to understand God better in this 5-session course from our Great Teachers of the Bible series. Ortberg challenges us to partner with God in our spiritual growth by responding to the tests he sends, waiting on him patiently, and standing boldly for him.
Keys to Biblical Relationships: Nothing is more important than the relationships in our lives. This 3-session course points out that true fulfillment lies not in individualism but in sharing life with others. Being part of the community called "church" is not about being more religious; it's about being fully relational and helping others find the love they're longing for.
Why Should I Believe the Bible?: How can we know whether our Bible is truly the Word of God? This 3-part course will help you discuss inerrancy and truth in Scripture and will move you toward confidence that this is a book you can set your life by. These studies draw from the Bible and church history to defend the Scriptures from critics and deepen our understanding of Christianity's sacred text. It also covers whether or not the gnostic gospels are reliable.

Current Issue Courses—Using articles from CHRISTIANITY TODAY and other related magazines, these studies cover all sorts of items relating the Word of God to the society in which we live. They include a wide range of topics, such as suffering, worship, overcoming sin, the nature of God, missions, death, and impacting culture. Suggestions from this category are:

Faith Questions: This 8-week course will help you and your group think about and answer common questions that believers have pondered over the years about the Christian faith: Is God fair? Does he always bless believers? Can we judge others? How do you know that you have truly forgiven someone? Does God know your next move? How can trials and troubles lift us to glory? and What is heaven like?
Impacting Culture: This 4-week course will help you and your group think about important issues facing Christians in the workplace. Being a Christian in the secular world can be a struggle, especially at work. How do you immerse yourself in the culture, but not be negatively affected by it?
 Spiritual Growth: This 5-week course deals with both individual and church responsibility in spiritual growth. It will help you discuss the following questions with your group: How do you grow spiritually? What is the church's responsibility in our spiritual development? And what cultural influences are there on our spiritual growth?

Individual Studies—With over 500 of these to choose from, you can cobble together your own courses or deal with a variety of topics that will be hard to find elsewhere. Because most of these are based on articles from the Christianity Today magazine group, these studies deal with almost any culturally relevant issue you can come up with. If you are curious about it, we probably have a study on it. If not, let us know what you are interested in, and we will consider doing a study on it. Our top sellers are:

Letting Go of Guilt: Some people struggle with guilt; others have simply learned to live with it. Philip Yancey says there's a better way for believers to handle guilt. It can even work for us as we seek to grow in Christ's likeness. In this study we'll ask, "If God forgets our sins, why can't we? Or should we?"
God's Purpose in Our Suffering: When we face hardship, many of us take comfort in the thought that we'll grow and become better people for it. But is that always the ultimate reason for our suffering? What is the purpose of suffering? Does it happen randomly? Does God send it or simply work through it? How does suffering demonstrate God's character? These are the questions we'll be asking and discussing in this study.
The Minor Prophets: "They all sound alike"—who hasn't had the same thought about the Books of the Prophets? Philip Yancey is no exception. For years he avoided reading the Prophets. But when an assignment required him to open that dreaded section of his Bible, he discovered some surprisingly relevant food for thought. Can the Old Testament prophets teach us something new as well?

We also have many free studies so you can try our format out. We're sure that once you've found how easy it is to use ChristianBibleStudies.com, you'll find us invaluable for your small group or Sunday school class.

JoHannah Reardon is the managing editor of ChristianBibleStudies.com. She has written seven novels and a family devotional guide, and blogs at johannahreardon.com.

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