Homegroup Leaders' Notes on Jonah

Here are some notes for 4 studies on the book of Jonah I've prepared for the homegroup leaders at Holy Trinity, Eastbourne.

The studies basically follow the chapter divisions:

Ch. 1: The Disobedient Prophet Shown Up By The Pagan Sailors
Ch. 2: God’s Merciful Rescue of the Repentant Prophet
Ch. 3: God’s Merciful Rescue of the Repentant Ninevites
Ch. 4: The Angry Prophet Shown Up By The Compassionate LORD


And here are a few words of explanation and advice for the study leaders:

Please feel free to use the notes flexibly and adapt them to the needs of your group – missing things out or spending more time on one point as seems appropriate. It’s great if you can do some of your own preparation on the text too. I never find it easy to use other people’s questions! Obviously you’ll need to interact with what people say and not just go through the sheets. Remember that ideally we’re neither pooling our ignorance nor preaching a sermon: we’re aiming to ask questions so that people see the truths of God’s word for themselves and are able to apply them to our lives. I’ve tried to write the questions in blocks so that they build on one another and lead towards the points that the passage is making. Sometimes your group might hit on the point in one leap from just one question, in which case you’ll want to pass over some questions. In other cases you might need to break it down, re-word the questions or point at particular bits of the text. Some of my questions are different ways of getting at the same thing so it might be overkill to use them all. I hope there aren’t too many “guess-what’s-in-my-mind” questions!

Personally I would recommend encouraging your group members to read the text in advance but not giving them these notes before the study as the notes give away the points you’re hoping to discover together from the Bible in the studies.

With the notes in an electronic form you can play around with them, if that’s helpful. For example, perhaps one or two questions given out to group members in advance could work well.

Do remember to make time in the sessions to pray in the light of God’s word.

Please feel free to get in touch if you’d like to talk about any of the studies or anything from Jonah.

I’d appreciate your feedback on the notes and on how the groups go.

With my prayers,

Marc