No Curriculum at Xenos

Strange Things in Xenos
or Why Xenos will never be a model for other churches

22. No scripted ministry approach for lay leaders - Most churches we have studied provide a curriculum or lesson plan for their home groups. These may be based on the sermon that week, or may be nationally published small group curriculum like Serendipity or Touch. We have looked at these options and experimented with some, but in the end prefer not to use any.

Our leaders are equipped to develop their own lessons, mainly based on expository study of the Bible. By far the majority of our groups are engaged in expository Bible study of a New or Old Testament book at any one time. In addition, groups occasionally do topical series on subjects of interest, like marriage, finance, social ethics or theological topics. Our Study Center provides all the materials leaders need to do personal research, and groups also leave copies of series they have developed at the Center for other groups to use. In recent years, our leaders have also benefited greatly from our extensive Web site.

We find that leaders who base their groups on prepared curriculum lose interest in teaching. The curriculum is often oversimplified and seems to do too much for the teacher. Teaching people the ways of God becomes something anyone can do and loses its challenge. People who are doing sophisticated work in their careers may come to lead their Bible study group and find themselves doing childishly simple work. No wonder they lose interest!

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