Secular humanism is probably the worldview most represented in the lives of your small group members — not as something they have formally adopted, but as the air their neighbors, coworkers, and family members breathe. That makes it one of the most practical topics a small group can study.

But it also makes it one of the most sensitive. Because when you start talking about secular humanism, someone in the group is going to say, "But my sister is a secular humanist and she is one of the kindest people I know." And they will be right.

Here is how to lead that conversation well.

Small groups are not just for personal growth. They are preparation for the conversations you are already having outside the church. And the conversations most of your group members are having — with skeptical family members, with secular coworkers, with friends who have left the faith — are shaped by secular humanist assumptions.

When your group understands secular humanism, they are better equipped to listen well, ask good questions, and share the gospel in a way that actually connects with the people they love.

A good small group series on secular humanism does not need to be exhaustive. It needs to be honest and practical. Here is a simple framework.

Session one: What is secular humanism? Cover the core commitments — reason as the highest authority, no supernatural world, ethics without God, human flourishing as the goal. Help the group see that this is a coherent worldview, not just a collection of random opinions.

Session two: What does secular humanism get right and wrong? This is where you can have an honest conversation about what is genuinely good in the secular humanist vision (concern for human dignity, commitment to reason, care for justice) and where it falls short (the inability to ground dignity, the problem of meaning without God, the optimism about human nature that history keeps disproving).

Session three: How do we engage? Practical conversation skills. How to ask good questions. How to share your faith as an explanation of the world rather than a private preference. How to stay in relationship even when the conversation is hard.

This will come up. Someone will say that secular humanists seem like good people, and they will be right. Do not dismiss that observation. Affirm it.

"You're absolutely right. Secular humanists can be and often are genuinely good people. That's not the question. The question is whether secular humanism can explain why goodness matters, where human dignity comes from, and what gives life meaning when things fall apart. Those are harder questions."

This moves the conversation from character assessment to worldview examination. You are not saying that secular humanists are bad people. You are saying that their worldview has gaps that the gospel fills.

It also helps to remind the group that Christians believe in common grace — God's grace extended to all people, which allows human beings to reflect something of his image even without acknowledging him. The secular humanist's kindness is real. It is just not self-explanatory on secular humanist terms.

Some group members will be uncomfortable with the idea of examining another worldview critically. They may feel that it is arrogant or unkind.

Gently push back on this. Examining a worldview critically is not the same as condemning the people who hold it. We examine worldviews because ideas have consequences. The secular humanist account of human nature, morality, and meaning shapes how people live, how they vote, how they raise their children, and how they face death. Those things matter.

And the gospel is a truth claim. It says something specific about what is real and what is not. If it is true, then secular humanism is missing something essential. Saying that clearly is not arrogance — it is honesty.

The goal of studying secular humanism is not to win arguments. It is to love people well. And loving people well means wanting them to know the God who made them, who knows them by name, and who has acted in history to bring them back to himself.

Keep coming back to that in your group. Every session should end with the question: "How does this help us love the secular humanists in our lives better?" Not "how do we defeat them" but "how do we serve them."

The gospel is not a weapon. It is good news. It is the announcement that the thing secular humanism is trying to build — a world of dignity, justice, meaning, and hope — is exactly what God is building, and that he has already done the decisive work to make it possible in Jesus Christ.

Ask open questions rather than leading ones. "What do you think secular humanists find most compelling about their worldview?" is better than "Don't you think secular humanism is obviously wrong?"

Make space for honest doubt and confusion. Some group members may have more sympathy for secular humanism than they feel comfortable admitting. Create an environment where that is safe to say.

Use real examples. Ask group members to share conversations they have actually had with secular humanists. What was said? What worked? What did not? Real stories make the discussion concrete and practical.

Pray for specific people. End each session by praying by name for the secular humanists in your group members' lives. This keeps the study from becoming purely intellectual and reminds everyone that the goal is people, not arguments.

The Companion (free) is a great resource to give your group members as background reading before the series begins. The Christian Field Guide goes deeper and gives your group the tools to engage secular humanism — and the people shaped by it — with the clarity and grace the gospel deserves.