Welcome to On The Trail!

These notes grew out of the ministry at Trinity Church Scarborough.

Any royalties from the sale of these study guides will go to support the ministry of Trinity Church Scarborough, allocated to the discipleship ministry budget unless exceeding what’s required.

Small Groups and Small Group Leaders

At Trinity Church, we encourage everyone to be part of a small group. This helps a growing church remain small, fostering relationships so group members can know, encourage and support one another. Healthy small groups are more than just a Bible study, but they are not less than that. As well as a men's and women's midweek Bible study, we have a number of Life Groups.

Each term, study notes are produced to equip Life Group leaders to guide their groups through a book of the Bible (or part of a book). People from other churches have asked if these notes could be made more widely available, so here they are. The Life Group Leaders’ notes have been edited to make them less specific for one particular church, and the result is On The Trail.

The Mindset of a Study Leader

Following Colin Marshall in his Growth Groups course, our leaders are trained to think of a group Bible study as like leading a group hike. The aim is to make sure that the group as a whole discovers the treasure in one part of God's word. Leaders prepare carefully before they lead, not to give the group predetermined answers, but for the harder yet wonderful task of facilitating the group to study together. Good leaders give their groups freedom to explore, so they find treasure for themselves, but know how to keep the discussion on track. The same passage could lead to quite different studies in different groups. You can read more about the two different approaches a group leader might use.

The Resources a Leader Needs

Each edition of the notes contains a section on how to use the notes, before an introduction to the Bible book being studied. This does not replace the fuller introduction you’ll find in a commentary, but contains what you need to know to get your bearings and to answer questions the group may ask. Each study then follows. The passage is set in context, before notes take you through each section at a time. A summary section follows, summarising the message of the passage in 2 or 3 paragraphs, and giving a one sentence summary of the theme, and a suggested aim for your study. After two alternative sets of suggested questions, there is a list of possible applications to everyday life.

Explore. Buy. Use. Recommend.

Every volume of On The Trail is available from Amazon, both as a paperback and an e-book. If you're buying more than five copies, they can be bought from this website at a discount.

If you buy and use these notes, please leave a review on Amazon, or log in to this website and leave one here. This will help others discover and use these resources.

Any questions, please just drop me an email.

James Oakley
Scarborough