Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions: A Simple Checklist That Changes Everything

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If you're a discipleship pastor, education minister, or small-church pastor, you already know this: your adult Sunday School rises or falls on the quality of the discussion. Your teachers want deeper engagement, less one-way talking, and more real growth-but they're busy, tired, and often starting from a blank page.

That's where Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions can be your best ally... or just noise. The difference isn't magic. It's method. And a simple checklist can help.

In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande shows how pilots, surgeons, and builders use checklists to keep important things from slipping through the cracks-especially when life is busy and the stakes are high. Adult discipleship may not be a hospital operating room, but the principle holds: simple, repeatable checklists free us to focus on what really matters.

Let's build a checklist your teachers (and you) can actually use.

Why Your Questions Matter More Than Your Notes

Most of us were trained-formally or informally-to prepare content:

- Background notes

- Word studies

- Outlines

- Illustrations

All of that is good. But adults rarely grow in Christ because they heard one more fact. They grow when they're invited to:

- Reflect

- Wrestle

- Apply

That happens through well-crafted Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions. Questions turn a lesson into a conversation and a class into a community.

What We Learn from Checklists

A good checklist doesn't try to do everything. It does two simple things:

- Protects the essentials-the things you can't afford to forget.

- Keeps you from getting overwhelmed-so you can be present to what's in front of you.

For Bible teachers, that means a checklist that helps them quickly evaluate:

"Are my questions clear, biblical, and likely to spark real discussion in the time we have?" In my view, you don't need 30 steps. You just need a short list you can run through every week.

A 5-Part Checklist for Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions

Here's a practical checklist you can hand to every teacher. Ask them to run their questions through it as they prepare.

1. Rooted in the Text

- Does this question send people back to the Bible, not just to their opinions?

- Strong questions:

- Point clearly to specific verses ("In verses 10-12, what do you notice about...?")

- Ask "What do you see?" before "What do you think?"

- Keep the group anchored in the passage, not drifting into vague spiritual chatter

- If a question could be answered without opening a Bible, tighten it up so Scripture stays front and center.

2. Open-Ended, Not One-Word

- Will this question invite more than a quick "yes/no" or "Jesus" answer?

- Thoughtful Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions:

- Start with phrases like "How...?", "Why...?", or "In what ways...?"

- Make room for more than one honest response

- Assume adults can handle nuance and the tension between conflicting ideas.

- If you can answer a question with one word, rephrase it until it requires a sentence or a story.

3. Aimed at the Heart and Life

- Does this question move toward real life, not just abstract ideas?

- Good adult questions connect:

- Truth → emotions

- Truth → choices

- Truth → relationships

- Examples:

- "Which part of this passage is hardest for you to live out this week?"

- "Where do you see this truth colliding with our culture?"

- "How might this change the way we respond at home or at work?"

- Aim for at least 2-3 questions per lesson that press gently but clearly toward application.

4. Shared Air Time

- Will this question help more people talk, not just the same two voices?

- Healthy classes don't just have good content; they have shared participation. Questions can help:

- Start with an easier, personal question to warm up the room

- Occasionally invite quieter members directly ("Anyone who hasn't shared yet-what do you see here?")

- Use pair-share ("Turn to the person beside you and answer this, then we'll share a few out loud.")

- When teachers write questions, encourage them to think:

- "How will I use this question to hear from different people, not just my usual talkers?"

5. Progression, Not Chaos

- Do these questions move in a clear, intentional order?

- Great discussions usually follow a simple movement:

- Observation - "What's happening in the text?"

- Interpretation - "What does this mean?"

- Reflection - "Where do you see yourself in this?"

- Application - "What needs to change or be strengthened?"

- Ask your teachers to check: "Does my list of questions walk somewhere, or am I just hopping around?"

- A good rule of thumb: 5-7 well-ordered questions are better than 20 scattered ones.

How This Fits With popular Lifeway Lessons

You don't need to abandon your existing Explore the Bible or Bible Studies for Life lessons to do this. In fact, this checklist works beautifully with your existing curriculum.

You can encourage teachers to:

- Start with Lifeway's passage and aim/posture

- Keep any questions that already fit the checklist

- Rewrite or replace the ones that are:

- too shallow,

- too similar, or

- too "teacher-talk" oriented

Over time, your teachers will begin to recognize the difference between:

- "What happened in the story?" and

- "What is God saying to us through this story?"

That's where you start to see real discipleship fruit.

What If Your Teachers Don't Have Time to Do All This?

Here's the tension: most of your teachers believe in thought-provoking questions. They just don't have the bandwidth to craft them week after week. And the last thing you need is another thing on your won to-do list - right ?

That's exactly why I created Steve's Bible Questions.

Each week, I provide a worksheet with:

- A short, focused introduction to the passage

- About 10 Adult Sunday School Discussion Questions built around this very checklist

- Life application prompts that land the lesson in everyday life

- Versions aligned with the Explore the Bible and Bible Studies for Life lessons you're already using

Some teachers use the worksheets "as is." Others use them as a starting point and let teachers adjust language for their own people. Either way, the checklist is baked in, so your teachers aren't starting from scratch.

If you don't have time to write fresh questions-but you still want deeper discussion-outsourcing part of that load can be a very practical act of stewardship.

One Simple Next Step This Week

You don't have to overhaul your entire adult ministry to get started. Try this:

- Print the 5-part checklist for your teachers.

- Ask them to bring one upcoming lesson to your next meeting.

- Work through the checklist together and tweak just 2-3 questions.

- Then watch what happens in the room over the next few weeks.

If you'd like a ready-made example of what this looks like in worksheet form, you can explore the current month's Explorations or Life Lessons discussion guides at StevesBibleQuestions.com and see whether they might serve your teachers in the new year. (Pro tip: Buy the February lessons, and get the January ones free.)

For a one-page pdf summary of this article, Click here.

Print and use as a reminder.

Or if you're a church leader, print and pass it out to all your teachers.