Adding a Haverim Study Group to Your Existing Bible Talk

Thoughts on how to use the haverim study group concept with your existing Bible Talk group.

I recently posted thoughts on how to get a “haverim” study group started using six steps I learned from starting my morning men’s group. These steps start with “building a tribe” by inviting others to participate, then setting a time, choosing a topic, creating a schedule or outline (the “tools”), and setting up how you’ll run each session (the “timetable”). Since the members of the group all joined voluntarily, the last step was to allow for transitions so that members can join another group or take a break as needed.

These steps worked well when starting my men’s haverim study group, and should work for any newly formed group, but how can you apply them to your existing Bible Talk or other small groups?

Many of the Bible Talks in the Hampton Roads Church are meeting online for evangelistic Bible Talks and discipleship groups. Most groups meet about once a week. For example, Marrieds groups tend to follow a pattern of Bible Talk every other week, with a men’s discipleship group on one of the “off weeks” and a women’s group on the other. As noted in the six steps article, a once-a-week schedule isn’t enough to build a haverim study group. However, the concepts of the haverim can be applied using this type of schedule by adding one or more times per week that focus only on the haverim outline. The existing times can then be built around the outline used for the haverim study.

Below are some thoughts on adding haverim concepts to your existing Bible Talk group.

Transform Your Tribe

Most Bible Talk groups were formed in the pre-COVID days based on how close members were to the leaders, either geographically, as in the same neighborhood, or relationally, as in they already had built great relationships. Bible Talks and other small groups typically have both an evangelistic and a discipleship mission, with scheduled times that focus on one or the other part of the mission. These groups also are a unit within a congregation for accountability and organization, and in most small groups-oriented congregations there is an expectation of all members being part of a small group. The level of commitment to the group can vary, but in general all are expected to be involved and active members. Most congregations limit the Bible Talk schedule to about one meeting a week so that members aren’t burdened with too many commitments on top of their work, household and family schedules and obligations.

Haverim study groups are focused on reading, discussing and praying about a scripture passage. It’s a voluntary group and all the members agree to attend regularly. The group is viewed as an extra commitment, not an expectation for everyone in a small group or congregation. If a member isn’t able to make the group regularly, there’s no obligation, and at the end of each series, all are given the opportunity to continue or not as they see fit for their needs. The members of our men’s morning group have given me feedback that the voluntary commitment aspect is a key element of the group’s success. As mentioned in the six steps article, a haverim group will work best with at least two meetings per week, and a daily or weekday schedule is ideal.

With all this in mind, our recommendation is to transform your Bible Talk group by adding voluntary haverim meetings rather than making all existing meetings into haverim study groups. However, the existing meetings can and should follow the same topical outline as the haverim group.

Using Existing Scheduled Times

One way to start quickly is to use existing times on your group’s schedule to do a deeper study of lessons from the Sunday sermon series. You could also focus on another outline, but taking a key scripture from the Sunday lesson, or following the outline from a Sunday expositional series, provides a coherent and consistent approach.

The key is to write down a few questions about the Sunday lesson and share them with the group to prepare for the time together. Your questions should include ones that dig deeper into the key scripture and prompt discussion on how to apply it. Other questions, including opening icebreakers and ones for contemplation can also be added.

For example, the Hampton Roads Church is currently focusing Sunday sermon lessons on the book of Hebrews. In my region (Tidewater), we’re encouraging the Bible Talk leaders to use questions from the Sunday lessons for their group sessions. We’re even providing the questions: see this link to view the questions from all of the Hebrews Sunday lessons. Each lesson has three sets of questions: Opening the Discussion, Understanding the Scriptures, and Applying the Lesson. Other regions are following the general pattern of the Purposeful Questions from the Disciplemakers lessons: Interpretation, Application, and Contemplation. Whatever format you use, tying questions back to the Sunday lessons has several benefits.

First, the leader doesn’t have to spend valuable time and effort coming up with a lesson for each d-group or Bible talk. By following the Sunday sermon lessons, the prep work is mostly done, and good background material is available from the effort that the speaker put into the Sunday lesson.

Second, the Bible Talk members are already familiar with the key points from the lesson and the scriptures used. With the group times during the week focused on that lesson, they’ll be naturally encouraged to pay attention, take notes, and consider the key points from Sunday lessons.

Third, the reinforcement of the Sunday lesson allows all to better understand the scriptures and apply them to their lives. The group will share what they’ve learned individually and the convictions they gain for their lives, and sharing these will help others in the group to grow in what they’ve learned and in their convictions.

Add a Focused Haverim Time

As mentioned in my previous “six steps” article, ideally a haverim group will meet two or more times a week. My men’s morning group meets five days a week on workdays, which has quickly matured the relationships and the ability of the group to better study the scriptures and share them with each other.

One key aspect of our men’s group and their devotion to the haverim is that they voluntarily joined and continue to stay members. We’re currently finishing up the book of Hebrews, our fourth outlined series, and about to begin a four-week study of the “one another” scriptures. At each transition, I’ve asked if they want to continue, and for the past few series, all have committed to continuing on with the next series. The voluntary aspect of the haverim group allows any who find it too difficult to meet more often than Bible Talk and d-group to not feel guilty or to burden the rest of the group by inconsistent attendance.

This leads to a recommendation: as the leader, find one or two other times during the week that you can personally commit to the haverim and ask your group members if they’d like to join you. You can use those times for a more in-depth study of the scriptures from Sunday, or use the ideas from the “six steps” article to build the haverim group based on an outline for that group. The other existing times can be used to share questions from the haverim with the broader group or to build your Bible Talk lesson.

Team Up To Fill Your Haverim

What if you don’t have enough men or women in your group who want to commit to a haverim study group? The haverim should have at least three regular members, and up to 10 should be effective, but five to seven is the ideal number.

If your group is five or less, what about combining with another small group? With groups meeting online, the biggest limitation is finding a time that works well for all of the group members. Even after we’re able to meet in person, virtual meetings will still provide advantages in many cases, since travel or finding a suitable group meeting place are not required. Building a haverim from two or even more Bible Talk groups is relatively simple: our men’s morning group is from three different Bible Talk groups with men scattered geographically over the range of our Region’s cities and neighborhoods.

Another benefit of teaming up is that the leaders can share the load of preparing for and leading the sessions when the group is starting out. As the group matures, each member can grow into leading sessions and potentially into leading their own haverim study group.

Test and Transform

We’re just beginning the process of applying haverim group principles into Bible Talk groups in the Tidewater region and other regions of the Hampton Roads Church. The suggestions above are a starting point: they need to be tested, refined and transformed as we learn more. The principles in the “six steps” article were formed from testing and transforming my men’s morning group, and my hope and prayer is that we’ll develop similar steps to help transform Bible Talk groups through haverim study group principles.

Please contact me and let me know about your plans and what you learn as you test the haverim principles and transform your group. Also, in addition to the Hebrews series questions for small groups, I’ll be posting the outlines our men’s morning group has used and developing new resources, so please check back and let’s learn how to build haverim groups together!