Appendix 1: Tips on Using This Book for Small Group Study
Appendix 1
TIPS ON USING THIS BOOK FOR SMALL GROUP STUDY
AReasonable Response can be useful toward small group discussion. In this appendix, I suggest some perspective on how such a group might be organized along with five settings where A Reasonable Response could be discussed.
FEATURES OF A SMALL GROUP
Objective: With A Reasonable Response, to foster dialogue around relevant questions and answers for the sake of learning and growing.
Size: Three people (ideally), or at most, maybe five people, not including a leader.
Leader: Someone who has familiarity with the overall terrain of theology and apologetics, whether by formal or informal study. It is important that the leader is someone who is competent in these areas but who is also teachable, flexible, and eager to contextualize answers in a discussion of a topic and not just offer automated responses.
Environment: This is a discussion group, not a lecture hall. It is meant to be a learning environment for mutual dialogue and not for “grandstanding” by either the leader or a member of the group. Hospitality, trust, and eagerness to encourage should mark the gathering.
Tone: A welcoming, belonging presence aimed at encouraging people to attend to their cares and concerns as expressed in their questions. The tone should be non-contentious and non-alienating even if there are disagreements.
Frequency: Decide on a realistic routine to meet together at a time that is not only convenient for each member but also appropriate for giving people the space to chew and digest on material between the times of meeting. That may mean once a week or once a month, for example.
Outcomes: Try to patiently and faithfully achieve any or all of these depending on the needs of the group:
• Evidence of learning how to deal with questions-as-objections that stand between one’s confidence in God.
• Renewed confidence that there are worthwhile answers to questions.
• Strengthened know-how regarding how to skillfully ask and answer questions.
FIVE SMALL GROUP OPTIONS
There are various occasions to discuss A Reasonable Response in a small group. I suggest five occasions to consider. With each one, I suggest a goal to have with the particular setting. Local group leaders will know better what are the actual needs and relevant goals with members of a group.
1. Read as part of a theology, philosophy, or apologetics-oriented reading group.
Goal: To focus on some top apologetics and theology issues in the book that would be relevant to further study in light of the purpose of the group.
• Pick your top questions and choose a helpful supplemental text (e.g., On Guard or Reasonable Faith, depending on the needs of the members of the group) to expound the content in the answers.
• Discern how Dr. Craig’s answer to a question contributes to the relevant literature also on that topic and to the understanding of the group’s members.
2. Read with nonbelievers who are seeking answers to questions similar to those raised in this book.
Goal: To focus on questions that closely resonate with any objections to trust in God in order to gain a perspective on how a Christian scholar might respond to such objections.
• Help nonbelievers work through clarifying and understanding their own questions and objections.
• Understand any further questions they may have toward Dr. Craig’s answers.
• Gently help them become aware of any “reasons of the heart” that might shape their attitude and perspective toward understanding an answer to their objections.
• If they are willing, consider introducing them to other examples of Christian scholarship where they might have need or interest.
3. Read with pastors and local church small group leaders.
Goal: To focus on questions that closely resonate with common or prominent questions that seem to be before the minds of many members in this season of the life of the group.
• Encourage leaders to attend to the existentially relevant questions of their members and the theological, biblical, and philosophical understanding of their questions.
• Try to discern how the Holy Spirit might be at work in surfacing such questions and direction for how to answer.
• Discover ways in which Dr. Craig’s answers in the book might be fruitfully applied and contextualized for the questions that people are in fact surfacing.
• Discern areas of long-term need for understanding.
4. Read with high school and college students and their teachers.
Goal: To focus on questions that are either currently confronting students or likely to confront students as they mature as adults, go to college, etc.
• Help them discover their presuppositions relevant to their main questions.
• Consider with them how character formation and development of specific intellectual virtues might serve them well as they deepen their maturation as an adult.
• Discern with them how the Holy Spirit might be speaking to them through Bill Craig as a model of confident faith.
5. Read with parents of teenagers and of young adults.
Goal: To focus on whole sections of questions which most resonate with fellow parents in light of their own season of parenting the intellectual and spiritual needs of their children.
• Encourage parents to connect with other parents about the kinds of common questions their kids might surface. Maybe this means moms connecting with moms, for example, regarding a specific area of inquiry.
• Discover common or overlapping training needs among parents in the relevant areas of interest.
• Find ways for parents to receive intergenerational support and counsel from seasoned parents.