What are the essentials to good Bible study materials? And what makes a small group Bible study work well? Are we going to take prayer requests? Will there be homework or no homework? What makes the difference between good questions in curriculum and questions that frustrate the group?

These are the kinds of questions I talked through with Lydia Brownback who has just embarked on creating a new series of Bible study resources called the Flourish Bible Study series for which she plans to create three new studies a year for ten years. We talked about the importance of defining terms, studying a book of the Bible in the larger context of the Bible’s story and message, and the best way to go about making personal application. Because Brownback is a senior editor at Crossway books, I also asked her about the advice she gives when people ask her about how they can get a book published. Her bottom line? It’s really hard.