Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions: Shepherding Hearts in a Holiday Season
- steveguidry
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
For many of us, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas feel like a swirl of warmth and exhaustion at the same time. The lights go up, music fills the stores, and families plan special traditions. At church, attendance bumps up, guests slip into the back row, and your calendar quietly doubles in size.
If you shepherd adults—whether as a Sunday School Teacher or small group leader, Discipleship Pastor, Education Minister, or small-church Pastor—you know something else is true: this season is not joyful for everyone. Some are grieving an empty chair at the table. Others feel the weight of family strain, financial pressure, or simple loneliness.
In the middle of all that, your adult Sunday School discussion questions can become a gentle way to care for people’s souls. Done well, they help your class move beyond chit-chat or routine answers into honest, hopeful conversation around God’s Word.
The quiet ministry of good questions
Picture a December Sunday morning in your class.
Coats are piled on chairs. Someone brought Christmas cookies. A visitor you’ve never seen before is carefully choosing a seat where they can listen without being too visible. A faithful member arrives late and tired after a long week of work and care-giving.
When you open your Bible and ask the first question, you’re not just “starting the lesson.” You are:
Giving tired adults permission to slow down and listen
Offering lonely people a place where their voice matters
Helping long-time members hear familiar Christmas passages with fresh ears
Making space for guests to explore who Jesus is without feeling put on the spot
That’s what thoughtful adult Sunday School discussion questions can do, especially in a season like this.
Two different ways to guide the same conversation
Let’s say your class is in Luke 2:8–20 sometime this month.
Version A – The routine approach
“What were the shepherds doing when the angel appeared?”
“What did the angel tell them?”
“Where did they go afterward?”
These questions are true and necessary—but they mostly check whether people remember the story. Your quieter members can hide. Those who are hurting can stay behind a safe, factual answer.
Version B – Questions that shepherd the room
“When you picture the shepherds in the dark fields, what part of their experience feels closest to your life right now?”
“The angel calls this ‘good news of great joy.’ Where has joy been easy—or hard—to find for you this year?”
“If you responded like the shepherds this week, what might change in your conversations with family, coworkers, or neighbors?”
Same passage. Same amount of time. But in the second version, the questions give people permission to bring their real selves into the story. That’s where ministry happens.
A gentle checklist for holiday-season questions
As you prepare lessons during this season, you don’t need a complicated system. Just take a moment to ask of each question:
Does this lead us back to the text?
Can people point to specific verses or phrases as they answer?
Does this see the whole person?
Does it leave room for both excitement and sorrow, energy and exhaustion?
Can anyone answer?
Would a guest or newer believer feel safe responding, even if they don’t know all the “church words”?
Does this help us see Jesus more clearly?
Not just Christmas traditions, but the character and work of Christ.
Does this invite a next step?
Is there a way to respond—however small—in the coming week?
If a question passes most of that checklist, it’s probably worth keeping.
Three kinds of questions that serve adults well in December
To keep your planning simple, think in terms of three kinds of adult Sunday School discussion questions each week.
1. Grounding questions
These help everyone settle into the passage itself.
“What words or phrases in this passage stand out to you today?”
“What do we learn here about who Jesus is and what He came to do?”
They quietly gather the room around Scripture instead of around opinions.
2. Heart-opening questions
These acknowledge how people are really doing this season.
“Where does this passage speak into the stress or noise of your December?”
“Is there a phrase here that comforts you—or challenges you—right now?”
These are the questions that make room for tears as well as laughter, and let people know it’s okay to bring both.
3. Hope-and-response questions
These look forward with gentle expectation.
“Because of what we’ve seen in this passage, what might change in the way you approach this week?”
“Who might God be putting on your heart to encourage or invite during this season?”
Application doesn’t have to be big or dramatic. Sometimes the most faithful response is a simple conversation, a word of encouragement, or a quiet act of generosity.
When you don’t have much prep time to write Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions
Of course, all of this sounds great on Tuesday afternoon. But by the time Saturday night rolls around, reality hits. You’ve had:
Extra services and rehearsals
Hospital visits or counseling conversations
Family gatherings and school events
A long list of “one more thing” tasks at the church
Sitting down with a blank page to craft fresh questions may be more than you can do.
That’s one reason I create Steve’s Bible Questions discussion worksheets. They’re designed to:
Keep the class centered on a specific passage
Offer a sequence of questions that move from grounding → heart-opening → hope-and-response
Give teachers a printable, walk-in-ready guide they can still adapt to their group
You still know the stories in the room. You still decide what to skip, shorten, or lean into. The worksheets simply lighten the load so you can focus more on shepherding people and less on wrestling a blank cursor.
A small next step for you and your teachers
Before next Sunday, you might try this simple pattern:
Choose the passage your class will be in.
Write or adapt just three questions:
One that grounds people in the text
One that opens the heart
One that points to hope and response
If it helps, start from a worksheet instead of from scratch, and tweak the wording so it sounds like your voice.
In a season when many adults feel hurried, scattered, or quietly hurting, your adult Sunday School discussion questions can become one of God’s kindest gifts to them—a weekly moment to slow down, listen to His Word, and remember that they’re not walking through this season alone.
Like this post ? Here are a couple more you might like: https://www.stevesbiblequestions.com/post/bible-discussion-questions-for-adults
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