Our class just finished this book by James Hallam. It covers eighteen different laudable human characteristics (e.g., Love, Compassion, Listening, Time, and Generosity) . We finished the book in six sessions, covering multiple gifts each week. It’s an easy read, and fodder for great discussion.
Read More & DownloadHymns
I’m changing gears with this latest study. There’s no book for group members to read. Rather, it covers some of the most popular hymns of our time. And, yes – the lesson plans call for singing them. Don’t worry, I’ve included links to YouTube instrumentals that will provide good background music. If you don’t have great voices in your group, just turn up the volume!
Read More & DownloadLove Wins – Rob Bell
When our Sunday School class first started meeting a couple of decades ago, Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis was the initial book we chose. Over the years, we’ve returned to his books and videos several times. The most recent series was on his 2011 book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
Read More & DownloadChasing a God You Don’t Want to Catch – Darren Wilson
Darren Wilson runs Wanderlust Productions, a film production company that focuses on advancing God’s Kingdom around the world. Chasing a God You Don’t Want to Catch proved to be a thought-provoking book that touched on several aspects of God that initially troubled Wilson, as well as several of us in our class!
Read More & DownloadThe Gospel of Mark: A Beginner’s Guide to the Good News – Amy-Jill Levine
Our class just finished this recent release by Amy-Jill Levine. If you’re not familiar with AJ, you should be! She’s a professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, and let’s just say I’d love to be in one of her classes! The next best thing is to study one of her books, and The Gospel of Mark is worth the read.
Read More & DownloadHoly Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others – Barbara Brown Taylor
If you’ve been involved in a Christian small group for any period of time, invariably someone requests that you do a lesson series on world religions. My Sunday School class has done several studies, most recently using Barbara Brown Taylor’s Holy Envy.
Read More & DownloadMaking Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today – Adam Hamilton
I wanted to make my first series a good one, and you don’t get much better than Adam Hamilton. His Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today does a great job of presenting scripture in a modern and still sacred context. You’ll want to allocate a fair amount of time for this one. It took our class eighteen sessions, but they were good ones!
Read More & DownloadWelcome to Studies on Faith!
My name is Mark Schneider, and I’ve been facilitating small Christian group studies for decades. As such, I’ve constructed lesson plans for dozens of spiritual books, scripture passages, and social reflections. These bespoke plans served me well in leading thought-provoking discussions with the goal of groups growing closer to each other and closer to God.
It seems a shame to develop lesson plans only to be used once, so I created this site to share what I hope are ready-to-use lessons for some of my favorite studies. I encourage you to use them as-is, or tailor them for your specific purposes. No attribution is necessary, but I would appreciate comments on which studies worked well for you (or not).
Also – let me know if you have any suggestions for additional courses of study.
Your brother in Christ,
Mark