Small Group World

08.19.10

Small Group Hairs Worth Splitting IV... Accepting Opinion as Truth vs. Seeking God's Truth

Seeking God's Truth and Accepting Opinion as Truth is not the same thing. In fact, when a small group leader allows "my truth," an individual's choice of what truth is, to trump God's truth, false teaching has just occurred. It is extremely important that small groups, when studying the Bible, be in search of God's perspective.

A small group leader accepting opinion as truth…

utilizes a worldview other than a biblical worldview as a starting point for the conversation
doesn't realize the importance of knowing the context of a passage when studying it
doesn't realize the responsibility of guiding the group to search for absolute truth
doesn't know what absolute truth is or hasn't yet embraced absolute truth as reality
allows the final word of the conversation to be someone's opinion of truth rather than ending the conversation by proclaiming God's truth as the final word
does not realize a red flag has been raised when phrases like, "my opinion concerning what this means is," or "my experience would lead me to believe…" or "a friend of mine once told me that…" or "with what we know because of psychology and/or philosophy and/or science God that can't mean that…" etc…

A group leader seeking God's truth…

utilizes a biblical worldview as the starting point for the conversation
prepares and knows the context of the passage being studied before arriving at the small group meeting
understands their role and the responsibility of guiding the group to find God's absolute truth
knows what absolute truth is and has embraced absolute truth as reality
is careful to be certain that the final word of the conversation is God's truth, not someone's opinion, as whatever is left hanging is perceived as what most believe the leader is embracing
allows honest conversation but knows a red flag has been raised when phrases like "my opinion concerning what this means is," or "my experience would lead me to believe…" or "a friend of mine once told me that…" or "with what we know because of psychology and/or philosophy and/or science the Bible can't mean that…" or "the world has changed so much since the Bible was written so we have to be sure we filter what it means to us today…," etc… are verbalized.

Other Posts in this series:

Small Group Hairs Worth Splitting I... Recollecting vs. Reminiscing

Small Group Hairs Worth Splitting II... 90 percent of the Story vs. The Full Story

Small Group Hairs Worth Splitting III... Advice Giving vs. Mining for Wisdom