The following questions (in bold) were asked about Essentials and Small Groups.



I'm fairly confused by how this material is intended to be used?

A bit of history here may help. The material was first developed for use as an on-campus Bible study for the University of Central Florida. They wanted a small group curriculum that was more interactive in nature. That's where the .pdf lessons come in. A leader's guide was also developed. I've attached both so you can look at that original material.  (currentAll.pdf is the lessons).  and 


Over time, we added a video to each lesson to give a bit more opportunity for interaction. The videos are mentioned in the leader's guide, but in a confusing fashion because it refers to something that existed at one time, but was never finalized.  But we then moved to an interactive Web design which was designed for an individual to go through on their own. But we then had a few people who were looking for the PDF files but couldn't find them, so we put the PDF's back onto the Web site.


We started to look at making the Website be something that could be used for groups, but that never really took off. So again, the Website was adjusted to help accommodate that need, but we never got to the point of developing adequate training and "start-up" guides. 


Then.... we began devoting a lot of our resources to "Making Your Life Count" (MakingYourLifeCount.org). We took 11 of the Essentials lessons and condensed them down into 4 themes of "Walk, Pray, Care and Share." We have concentrated on individual use rather than small group... although we are now using the Making Your Life Count materials in a small group Bible Study with business and community leaders. It is going very well. 


The website isn't very clear or intuitive, and it's really hard to figure out how this is supposed to be used? 

As mentioned above, that isn't surprising because Essentials evolved over time to accomodate two audiences and we then devoted resources elsewhere. We probably should have split out the "small group" PDFs into their own sub-website rather than leave them on the original. But we hid them enough so as to not confuse the primary audience.


It seems like there is a way to do this individually?

This is now the primary audience and designed use for the Essentials24 Website. The majority of our users are coming from the Falling Plates video. They come as individuals and work through the material as individuals.


But it's also a group study?

The original PDFs can be done as a group study. We have also begun some of the programming so that a small group could use their Essentials materials in a small group setting, but we've done little so far to support the training on how to do it. If this is something you wanted to use and try, we'd walk you through it as best we can.

 

Or is it one or the other?

It's not one or the other, it's basically "three" things:

  • The original PDFs which were designed for the small group study.
  • The Essentials24 Website which was done to take the material and put it into an individually done, interactive online format.
  • To create small groups within the Website to allow people to work through the material individually but then also to see what each other in the group is doing (developed, but never fully documented with proper training)


When I go to the "lessons" page, there are just pdf files and videos, but they aren't labeled as to what they are or when to use them. They seem to be guides for group leaders?

As previously stated, .pdfs are from a previous life and just posted there for people who had been using them in the past and needed access. They are not part of the interactive Web experience.


So is this a small group curriculum or for individuals to go through?

It is a curriculum for individuals to work through on their own but with a vision and initial programming to allow groups to connect with each other and to be able to view/see/interact with each others answers. The later part was started but never finished.


This material seems like it has great content and can be used well, I'm just pretty confused by how it's presented on the website. Perhaps clarifying the options for how it can be used on the website would help? 

We may eventually change the Website, but right now it isn't a priority because we're pouring the limited resources we have into "Making Your Life Count" (MYLC). It's more condensed, has much better supportive options and is the future of where we are going. We have a partnership with The YouVersion Bible App. We've created individual daily devotionals that can be then used in a supportive way for a small group study. I've attached a third PDF which gives a bit of an overview of MYLC. We are in the process of building the leader's guides for the Interactive MYLC. 


WHERE TO GO FROM HERE:

I would say you can go one of three ways for using Essentials24 in a small group setting.


  • Original Design: Look over the attached PDFs and decide if that would work best for you. This should be self-contained and you should need little support from us.
  • Essentials24 Online: This is kind of ready to go, but we would need to work with you some to get it set up. But you'd get your small group members to register and sign up. We would then connect them as a group to work through the material on-line together. Some of the chat features are not developed, so it would be lacking in that way. But you would be able to see and interact with each other's answers.
  • MYLC Small Group: This would be even more pioneering (although probably better supported). You would be replicating what we are doing in our local MYLC small group here. If you're interested, I would get you some samples so you could see how it works.


Let me know what you'd like, and I'll respond accordingly (hopefully quicker this time).