A12 Usual Discovery Situations
List of the Online Lessons: A B C D E F G H
A12 Usual Discovery Situations
I imagine, your Discovery meeting just starts. Mutual welcome and offering drinks is a clear thing; introducing each other by names, too.
1. Only today’s passage
If my George comes to Discovery for the first time, he doesn’t know anything from the Bible! He has the only little piece in front of him that we just read together!
Remember that the essence of Discovery is George’s own discovery!
We must therefore remain exclusively with today’s text. This rule should be emphasized especially to believers present! If George is with us for the fifth time, we can refer to the biblical stories he has already completed with us. But we are not opening anything new that George doesn’t know yet!
2. Cheat sheet
If you don’t remember the discovery questions, yet, you can easily read them from your „cheat sheet“. I do to paraphrase the questions, don’t develop them, and don’t talk about them. When two or three people answered, I simply repeat the question. After a while of talking, the concentration may be weakened: “Thanks for your answer, George. Is there anything else about Jesus in the story?”
3. Answers out of the text
What to do when someone has a wise judgment but outside of our text? Important principle: Even a wrong answer is well meant! While it’s not a bad answer, it just goes beyond our text, I respond: „Um, that’s interesting! Where do you see it in our passage?” The nice thing is that after a short time, my unbelieving friends ask this key question, too! I say something deep and they say, “Um, an interesting thought! Where do you see it in our passage?”
Occasionally, some guides tended to improve some of the participants‘ responses. For example, they corrected George when he said „God“ instead of „Jesus“. With our well-meaning corrections, we can disrupt the activity of some or even their next participation.
4. They say nothing
What to do when they don’t say anything after my question? They probably need to scroll through our passage again. So, I’m waiting quietly for a while. Or, I might repeat the question calmly with a smile.
When it comes to silence after a question, don’t be afraid of it. It’s a dense text! People need to think.
5. Participants‘ questions about the text
So far, you yourself have asked the questions according to your „cheat sheet“. What will you do when one of the participants asks a good question about our text? „Who was the feast manager when he didn’t know the wine was running out?“ The classic used to be, that I answer, as the guide. We greatly limit this at Discovery! The guide’s preferred response would be to look into the passage, „Um, and what does our text say about that?“ And if there is no answer, we say there is no answer. We leave it open and move on.
6. Questions / comments outside the text
„How do you look at the mother of Jesus?“ some George sometimes asks, inspired by the story of the wedding in Cana. If I can, I would answer by one sentence. But immediately, I will repeat my last question or say a new one. When George’s interest requires more than a single answer, I say: „This is an interesting question, George. We would need a little more time and a look at the other passages. Let’s finish this, and if you want, we’ll take a look afterwards.“
7. An individual does not speak
People have different temperaments and experiences. Sometimes a participant says nothing at all. So I will try to ask by name: „George, what do you see about people in the story?“ If he doesn’t want to talk after this challenge, I’ll let him to stay quiet.
8. An individual dominates
What to do when an individual dominates? He has the first answer and several answers… I will simply say: „Thank you, George, and how do others see it?“ If he speaks too much I would try gentle confrontation, „I’m very interested in observations of others.” Keep in mind that some people have no intention dominate; they just think deeper and have more of the thoughts. With danger of dominating, think about yourself as a guide, also!
Discovery helps us make new disciples! However, our long-term goal is to create informal communities that will reproduce many times over and over.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for drawing everyone to you, for salvation, and then to walk with them as your disciples. Give us the courage to create new small communities that will effectively support it.