The four main curriculum sources
Most churches use one of four approaches: published Bible studies, sermon-based guides, custom material written by staff or volunteers, or topical video series.
Published curriculum from companies like Lifeway, RightNow Media, or Bible Study Fellowship offers polished teaching and thorough preparation. Your volunteer leaders get a guide with commentary, application questions, and sometimes videos. The trade-off is cost and the fact that your groups may study something unrelated to what your congregation heard on Sunday. That disconnect works fine if your groups run as standalone discipleship tracks, but it can feel fragmenting when your church is working through a series together.
Sermon-based curriculum keeps everyone on the same page. When the pastor preaches Philippians on Sunday and groups discuss Philippians on Wednesday, conversations deepen because people already heard the passage explained. The challenge is creating those guides every week. Some larger churches have staff who write them. Most rely on volunteers or the pastor to draft questions after an already-full Sunday, which is why many attempts fizzle by week three.
Custom material written in-house gives you total control over theology, tone, and application specific to your congregation. A volunteer who knows your people can write questions that land. The downside is time and sustainability. Finding someone with the skill and margin to produce a quality guide every week is harder than it sounds.
Video-based topical studies from teachers like Francis Chan or Priscilla Shirer work well for groups that want a structured series without a teaching leader. Press play, discuss, pray, done. The limitation is that topics may not align with your preaching calendar, and some groups find the video length eats into discussion time.
Matching method to your situation
If your groups operate independently and leaders want proven material, published curriculum is the simplest path. Budget for it and let leaders choose studies that fit their group's season.
If your church values alignment between Sunday and midweek, sermon-based material makes sense. Tools like sermon-to-study generators can automate much of the writing, turning your pastor's message into discussion questions without adding hours to anyone's week. That's one option worth exploring if you want cohesion but lack the time to write guides manually.
If you have a staff member or gifted volunteer with bandwidth, custom writing lets you tailor every question to your context. Just build in a rotation so one person doesn't burn out.
If your groups prefer structured teaching and you want low prep, video series provide consistency. Pair them with a few discussion questions and you're set.
Next step
List your current groups and note which leaders have time to prep and which are reading the guide for the first time in the church parking lot. That honest inventory will show you whether you need low-prep published material, alignment through sermon-based guides, or a hybrid where some groups follow the sermon and others choose their own path.