Besides JWs, are there other Christian denominations where meetings regularly consist of congregation-wide study sessions?

This question is about non-Jehovah's Witness meetings that regularly consist of congregation-wide study sessions.

The answer to the question is simply, "Yes, there are very many non-JW denominations that hold regular congregation-wide study sessions."

To try to list ALL the denominations that do this would take many pages. It would be less time-consuming to list the few that do not have Bible study sessions for all in their congregations, but I am not going to do that because the simplest thing for anyone wishing to know is to go to the church's own web-site and look for their weekly Bible study time, also the conferences they participate in where Bible study is the main focus (which conferences are open to all, not just members of any particular group). Some denominations also have part-time courses of study for those wishing to delve deeply into biblical and Christian topics. Again, they welcome people from different denominations or no denomination. These courses are usually led by qualified lecturers in biblical topics, reading lists of various books and essays from students are optional extras, and encouraged. I have gone through such study courses over many years and I also attend weekly local church Bible study meetings.

The format of all of these is different to the detailed description of the JW study meetings provided in the question, nor are such study sessions restricted to a Sunday. Many Sunday services of worship provide at least half an hour (or an hour's) sermon of Bible teaching (usually recorded and distributed to those requesting CDs). Anyone can ask the preacher for clarification, or can even disagree with some point or other, and debate it with him. There are also age-appropriate groups given specific Bible teaching that day as well (e.g. Sunday School classes for children, and discussion groups for teenagers). In addition to that, many churches have a mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting, Friday night lectures, Saturday study courses, annual conferences, and so on.

One local Bible study group I attend is going through a booklet called "Gospel Centered Church - becoming the community God wants you to be" by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester, published by 'the good book company'. The material first appeared as a series of articles in the UK edition of 'The Briefing' magazine. The format is: a scenario, a relevant Bible passage with questions for the group to openly discuss, the principles and practical out-workings made clear, more questions for people to go away and think about along with ideas and exercises to try out before the next meeting. The biblical principles established are not confined to those involved in 'professional' ministry. They create outlines of a gospel culture for the whole church. The goal of the booklet is to encourage practical obedience to the word of God, which leaves behind the traditions of men, to build spiritually healthy churches - irrespective of any denomination. Therefore, the answer to the question is, "Yes, there are very many non-JW denominations that hold regular congregation-wide study sessions."

I am unaware of any Christian denomination that follows exactly the same structure of meetings as Jehovah's Witnesses. They are unique inasmuch as every single congregation throughout the world will study exactly the same Watchtower article. The study takes the form of questions and answers - each paragraph in the article has pre-set questions and the answer is to be found in the paragraph concerned. Members of the congregation raise their hand to answer the question (based on the material in the paragraph) and the person conducting the study will select two or perhaps three persons to respond.

The public talk will also be the same throughout the world. An outline of the talk is given to each congregation and the person selected to give the talk will follow the outline. The result is that the same subject and the same material will form the public talk in every Kingdom Hall.

It is important to understand that ONLY the material provided by the Society can be discussed. Nobody can deviate from the script or the published articles. The only acceptable answers to question are the answers that are already contained in the published articles.

In Protestant churches I have attended, the minister is in charge of setting the topics to be covered over a six month period. There is usually a series of sermons based on a particular Old or New Testament book of the Bible. Members of the church also study these topics at home Bible study groups. The difference is that Protestant churches encourage input and questions from individual members and do not restrict the material they can study or quote from.