Knowable Word - Bible study help

How to Empower Your Church for Serious Bible Study

June 8, 2016 By Peter Krol

Last week, the blog for Logos Bible Software published a piece I wrote entitled “How to Empower Your Church for Serious Bible Study.” In the article, I explain 4 simple habits churches and ministries can pursue to foster a culture of strong Bible study among the membership.

A reader of my blog recently emailed to say, “I was never intentionally taught how to lead a Bible study, and, when the time came for me to teach others how to do it, I had no idea even where to begin.” Do you know this guy? Does your church have such people, eager but directionless? They might never go to seminary, but I assure you they can become terrific Bible students and teachers.

I present Exhibit A: my friend, who is a theoretical physicist. He wrote a dissertation about non-standard neutrino interactions and their oscillation degeneracy. You might expect such an intellectual giant to struggle communicating with mere humans. And you might not expect such an academic to thrive in relational ministry. But one night I witnessed him leading a knockout Bible study for ordinary folks. He never held church office, and his Bible training came only from his experience as a church member. Yet he got so much right:

He knew the text cold and could state its main point in a single sentence.

He asked thoughtful questions that kept us transfixed on the text.

He responded to the flow of the discussion without getting sidetracked.

He showed us the beauty of Christ.

He applied the text with both broad principles and specific life examples.

I’ve served in campus ministry for 17 years, and I’ve been a local church elder for more than half that time. I could recount many similar stories about regular church members—engineers, financial planners, school teachers, military officers and enlisted, factory workers, teenagers, medical professionals, accountants, artists, widows, retirees—who’ve learned to study, apply, and teach God’s word. My church and campus ministries have managed to empower people for serious Bible study.

How did we do it? By applying these four principles.

To learn the four habits, see the full post at Logos. If you’d like to hear more about the knockout Bible study led by the theoretical physicist, see my post on how to lead a great Bible study. To learn more about fostering a vibrant culture of Bible study in your church, see my post with a model for teaching Bible study or Ryan’s excellent series on building this culture.

Check it out!

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The Glory of Multiplication

June 3, 2016 By Peter Krol

A year ago, I had an assistant Bible study leader. Then he moved to another state. Now I have a new assistant, whom I expect to leave our group soon and start another one. Then I’ll be back on my own, bearing the full load of small group leadership once again. But I’ll pray and look for another assistant to help shoulder the labor and develop the skills.

Bible study is not glamorous. Training apprentices, one at a time, is even less so. We plod our way through it, week in and week out. Sometimes we see clear fruit; sometimes we don’t. But this mustard seed will grow to become the largest of all garden plants. And this leaven will penetrate the entire lump. The promises of Christ ensure it will be so.

Rich Bamford (2015), Creative Commons

Be Fruitful and Multiply

Having created man and woman in his image, God expected them to mass produce this image in the earth (Gen 1:28). After he undid everything and started over, he clarified that nothing really had changed (Gen 9:1). Not long after, as my friend Brian Seay put it, “God said ‘go,’ and we said ‘no'” (Gen 11:4). But who can stop the Lord? Let no men assemble whom God has called to disperse (Gen 11:9).

And so Abram’s people were to bless all nations (Gen 12:3). God’s people were always to be a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6), so the prophets longed for the day when God would collect his scattered people (Zech 8:7-8) and draw in citizens from every nation on earth (Zech 8:20-23). This house would be a house of prayer for all peoples (Is 56:7).

When Jesus arrives to fulfill what was written, we see the same goals at work. The lingo shifts from “being fruitful” to “making disciples,” but the mission stays the same. God wants to fill the earth with image-bearers. And now they can see and smell and touch that image in the person of Christ. His people become like him and move out from Jerusalem to help more people become like him. And when outsiders don’t know what else to call them, they coin the term “little Christs”—Christians (Acts 11:26).

But notice how God works among his people. He adds to their number so they can multiply his influence. His people gather so they can disperse. They draw people in so they can send people out. This community has always been a growing community. Sometimes you see it; sometimes you don’t. But the growth will happen one disciple at a time.

See the Unseen Glory

As I wrote, training apprentices will not be glamorous. But that can’t stop it from being glorious. I’ve done it one at a time over the years. And I can’t take all the credit, as most apprentices have multiple trainers. I’m never—by God’s grace—the sole influence in someone’s life.

But that guy who moved to another state? His wife already leads the women’s ministry at their new church. Together, they’re teaching more people to study the Bible for themselves.

And I could tell you of others. There’s one in Japan, working with missionaries and church leaders to put the Scriptures into the hands of the people. There’s another one in Texas, who just emailed me to say that his church asked him to teach more people good Bible study skills. I know some women who have infiltrated the leadership of a popular women’s conference, because they shine like stars when it comes to faithful handling of the word.

It’s worth it to teach people OIA Bible study. And it’s worth it to teach people how to teach people OIA Bible study in small groups. May the Lord strengthen us by his grace to press on.

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How Technology Affects Worldwide Bible Translation

June 1, 2016 By Peter Krol

Back in December, Wycliffe Bible Translators published a short post called “The Changing Face of Bible Translation,” where they explain how mobile devices and audio technology are making the Bible more accessible to illiterate people groups. It provides a marvelous testimony to the effective use of technological trends to spread the gospel more effectively.

Reading the article reminds me that most of the Bible’s original audience would not have had personal written copies of the text. We have a tremendous luxury in our day, which I know I take for granted.

Perhaps a more frequent use of audio Bibles could help you see the text you study in different ways. Sometimes we need to hear the words, and not just see them written on a page.

Check it out!

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Build Bible Study Culture Through Small Groups

May 30, 2016 By Ryan Higginbottom

Building a Bible study culture in your church is a huge job, only possible by the grace of God. Because such a culture is reflected in every area of church life, this hard work requires creativity and a long-term view. But the effort is worth it.

anonymous (2012), public domain

While a Bible study culture begins with church leaders, it is caught and carried forward from the pews. Godly leaders point down the road and give their people provisions for the journey.

Leaders must grasp the opportunity small groups present. As Christians meet to discuss and study the Bible, these groups become a powerful culture-making tool.

So, how exactly do small groups build a Bible study culture?

1. They show your values.

As a church creates, supports, and advertises small groups, it highlights their importance and advances their purpose. Church leaders promote small groups so their people will grow in Christ. The more people who engage in Bible study, prayer, encouragement, and fellowship, the better.

By building this ministry on a foundation of Bible study, your church repeats its reliance on the Bible. We want to know God through the study of his word.

This strengthens the Bible study culture in your church by establishing a common aim. If everyone knows the destination and the essential tools to get there, the swell of the crowd will attract attention, questions, and others drawn by the vision.

2. They help you grow.

Christians grow as they study the Bible. Perhaps this is obvious, but it bears repeating.

We need to know God, what he is like, what he has done for us in Jesus, and what he calls us to as his ambassadors. As we understand and apply the Bible, we renew our minds with truth and repent of our idolatry. We believe the truth and trust in God to greater degrees, and his Spirit produces increasing fruit in our lives.

We are animated examples, living proof both of the goodness of God and of his work through his means. As we grow, love abounds in the church, and we trace this overflow back to God, his grace, and the study of his word.

3. They provide hands-on training.

Small group studies offer unique opportunities to sharpen Bible study skills. The flexible and informal nature of these groups make them an ideal training ground.

Though most meetings focus on studying a specific passage, the group can take short detours for direct instruction in Bible study skills. The leader can structure his questions to make explicit the Bible study components of observation, interpretation, and application. (These ingredients form the core of the OIA Bible study method.) Group members have the chance to ask honest questions about the Bible and to interact with the responses. Perhaps the greatest training tool is the ongoing example of friends studying the Bible together and helping each other apply it.

This training builds a Bible study culture in obvious ways. You’re gathering forces. More people are equipped to model Bible study skills and pass them on to others. More people can serve as resources to those getting started.

Your Turn

Small group Bible studies have many benefits. Consider attending or even leading one. As you do so, pray that God would use your group to bless your church in building a Bible study culture.

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Keep in Touch

May 27, 2016 By Peter Krol

When we train apprentices or delegate tasks, sometimes we’re too slow to hand things off. I’ve written about this danger over the last few weeks, but we must consider another danger as well: being too quick to hand things off.

Yee Leng (2009), Creative Commons

When we hit stage 4 for training new Bible study leaders (“You do; I watch”), we may feel tempted to simply send them out and commend their souls to God. We might even be relieved to have someone to take on some of our responsibility. We have complete trust in the person to serve and full confidence in God to work. But sending out new leaders must not flick like a standard light switch, on or off. It should transition more like a dimmer switch with increasing shades of brightness.

So when you send out your apprentice to lead a new group, you’re not yet finished as a trainer. You still should check in with that person from time to time to see how things are going. You’ll want to encourage the leader with evidence of God’s grace. You’ll want to expose areas of potential blindness. You’ll want to stimulate the leader’s thinking about ways to excel. And you’ll want to make sure the new leader considers finding his or her own apprentice to train and launch.

We can see this approach in the Apostle Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles. Paul’s chief aim on his first missionary journey was to appoint and train leaders for fledgling churches: “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:23). But he didn’t merely set them up and forget about them. Notice the impetus behind his second missionary journey: “And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are” (Acts 15:36). That second trip covered the same ground before going farther and deeper into Rome’s empire. His third trip then revisited the same places as the second trip.

He kept visiting the same places to strengthen and correct the leaders. He didn’t control them or take those churches back over. He let the leaders lead, but he made sure to check in and offer help. There’s much for us to learn from this approach.

First, don’t forget your apprentices, even after they’ve gone to lead their own groups.

Second, you don’t need a curriculum or detailed training agenda. Just visit occasionally to “see how they are.” You might want to ask about what’s going well and what could be better. You may also want to make your own observations.

Third, decrease your involvement as they continue to develop.

Fourth, make sure your former apprentices take note of potential new apprentices they can train.

Fifth, rejoice in the Lord, who is multiplying your ministry and your influence before your eyes. Keep those eyes fixed on Christ so you can represent him well.

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Bible Study Magazine

May 25, 2016 By Peter Krol

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m happy to say it again: Bible Study Magazine is just terrific. If you don’t mind print magazines, and you’d like to be challenged more by your time in the word of God, this magazine is well worth the investment.

It publishes 6 issues per year. Each issue focuses on a book of the Bible. Many short articles tackle different issues regarding that book.

For example, the current issue is on the book of Mark. Sample articles deal with:

Why Mark portrays Jesus as hiding his Messianic identity.
Why the disciples are such bumbling ignoramuses in Mark.
How Jesus’ interaction with the legion of demons launches a campaign to reclaim the nations for his glory.
How the demon-possessed boy (Mark 9) helps us understand why some of our prayers go unanswered.

The best part of each issue is this “special section” on a book of the Bible. There are headline articles interviewing famous Bible teachers, but I can take them or leave them. And the suggestions for 8-week Bible studies sometimes get a little tedious and tunnel-vision-ed. But the 10 or 12 one-page articles on Mark (or other featured book) always stimulate and stretch.

Check it out!

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The 3 Laws of Launching New Leaders

May 20, 2016 By Peter Krol

In the life of every Bible study apprentice, there comes a time for independence. A time when trails must be blazed and sunsets must be ridden off into. New small groups must be formed, and new leaders must be set loose to form them. And when this time comes, three laws will inevitably take effect.

The Apprentice Will Not Be Ready

Nobody perfects a skill without first trying and failing. And an apprentice who stays close to the trainer, who is eager and capable to correct every misstep, can’t really fail. The goal, of course, is not merely to fail, but to fail in the right direction. Like major league sluggers, we need to be okay with high volumes of strikeouts. Each one teaches something about timing, bat speed, or pitch count expectations. Few apprentices will ever feel ready to lead their own groups, but that shouldn’t stop them from trying.

The Trainer Will Not Be Ready

Nobody likes to see a protege struggle. No decent Bible teacher wants a short-term decrease in ministry effectiveness. But eyes of faith see dormant glory. This mustard seed will become the greatest of all garden plants. This bit of leaven will penetrate the doughy lump. This jar of clay proclaims the surpassing power of God to grow his church. And this frail limb may eventually become a mighty oak of righteousness.

The World Will Not Be Ready

Do you remember how Hebrews speaks of our faith heroes, that the world was not worthy of them (Heb 11:38)? Then remember also that those folks, though commended, didn’t receive what was promised. God provided something better for us: Jesus, seated at God’s right hand (Heb 12:1-2). But before he took his seat, Jesus committed to sending his Spirit to empower his followers to do greater works than Jesus himself had done (John 14:12-14). So we ought to expect generation upon generation of new heroes who proclaim faith in Christ and trust in no other. The world cannot handle such titans.

In training your Bible study apprentice, perhaps you had a part in shaping one of these heroes.

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Two Kinds of Bible Study

May 19, 2016 By Peter Krol

At her blog Brown Sugar Toast, Christa Threlfall quotes an interview with Kelly Collier to explain two kinds of Bible study: by plow and by trowel. Both kinds should be part of your study diet.

Plow Bible study “moves through large portions of Scripture more quickly, looking for specific themes.” Trowel Bible study is “taking a passage or verse of Scripture and settling in to dig for a long time.” When we write about Bible study at Knowable Word, we normally refer to trowel Bible study. However, we also try to remind you regularly of the need for plow Bible study. For example, see the post on a Bible reading plan for readers.

Threlfall’s/Collier’s explanation of the two types of study will encourage you to press on. Check it out!

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Bible Study Begins With Church Leaders

May 16, 2016 By Ryan Higginbottom

anonymous, public domain

Leaders set the tone. A greedy, money-grabbing CEO will find his employees less than generous. Those who work for a patient, caring boss are likely to follow suit. Like a river into a lake, the culture of an organization flows downhill from the leadership.

Over the past five months, I’ve written about the importance of a Bible study culture within the local church. Today we examine the fount of that culture: the church leaders.

A Call to Prayer

If a healthy Bible study culture begins with church leadership, we should consider this important question: How can we encourage our leaders in their Bible study?

Above all, we should pray. We must plead for our leaders, that they would love God by reading and studying his word.

It’s easy to take this for granted. Surely my pastor studies the Bible; that’s part of his job! But a pastor’s life can quickly fill with meetings, hospital visits, phone calls, and administrative tasks. A pastor can wake up on Friday and realize he’s been “doing ministry” all week without much of a devotional life. Most pastors feel this tension acutely and know their weakness.

Church members can support their pastors by praying! We need our leaders to prize the Bible and give it serious, studious attention. The battle lines are spiritual, and we can pick up arms by folding our hands in prayer.

A Call to Sunday School

Sunday mornings are busy, especially for pastors and elders. But leaders can point to the importance of the Bible by the way they use the Sunday school hour.

Elders are often called to counsel or teach on Sunday morning, and preachers occasionally need before-service time to collect their thoughts. These are important callings.

But, whenever possible, elders should be with their people, learning with and from them. They should participate in the classes, join the discussions, and help people think through and apply God’s word. In this, leaders show they need to learn and that the Bible is as important for them as they say it is for everyone else.

Use the Bible During Elder Meetings

When the elders of the church meet, time is precious. There are events to plan, finances to discuss, requests to consider. Taking 20 minutes to study the Bible might seem like a waste.

It isn’t!! In fact, it might be the best use of your time together.

Studying the Bible brings a purpose and direction that’s hard to match. You see the gospel clearly and you break free from guilt, performance, and a hundred other wrong ideas about relating to God. What could be more important for a leadership meeting than passion for and unity around the most important truths in the world?

Personal Bible Study for Leaders

An elder might attend Sunday school and participate during elder-meeting studies, but what happens at home? Our priorities are revealed in our personal time, so how can we encourage our church leaders to study the Bible in private?

If we know our leaders well enough to converse with them (and we should), the answer is simple: Ask questions and give encouragement.

Ask your elders how you can pray for them. Mention you’d be glad to pray for their devotional life, since consistency and depth can be difficult, especially for leaders. Pray consistently and follow up after a week or two.

Ask your elders what they’re learning in their personal study time. Ask in humility, eager to learn.

Gracious, Christ-like leaders welcome these questions and ask them of each other. They admit to seasons of spiritual dryness and stretches of inattention to the Bible. They are glad for the support, encouragement, and prayers of others in the church.

Persevere in Doing Good

A robust Bible study culture in a church begins with the leaders. With grace, love, and courage, let’s persevere in our prayers and encouragement for them.

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Who Really Wrote The Psalms?

May 13, 2016 By Joel Martin

Who wrote the Psalms? Predominantly King David wrote them. Who spoke the Psalms? The witness of the New Testament is that Jesus is the primary speaker of the Psalms. It’s his voice we should hear as we read the Psalms.

Jesus Spoke The Psalms

When the author of Hebrews read Psalm 22, instead of David, he heard Jesus telling the Father of his intent to be the worship leader for the church: “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” (Heb 2:12)

When Luke read Psalm 31 he knew David wrote it, but the voice that resounded in his ears was Jesus’ voice as he hung on the cross, calling out with a loud voice, saying, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46)

Jesus had grown up hearing Psalm 118. It was written ages ago, but to him the words of Psalm 118 were his words. Psalm 118 was about him, and it expressed his thoughts. So, when rejected by the religious leaders, he spoke the words of Psalm 118 as his own: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”. (Matt 21:42)

We should hear the voice of Jesus when we read the Psalms. Jesus is the new David who spoke the Psalms, the new worship leader who leads his people through the Psalms in worship (Heb 2:12) and the new David who experienced the more ultimate suffering and victory that his ancient father expressed in his psalms (Matt 22:44).

Reading The Psalms Afresh

This truth has unlocked new treasures in some of my favorite Psalms. If Jesus is the primary speaker of Psalm 20, did you know that his prayer for you is …

May God grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans! (Psalm 20:4)

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! (Psalm 20:1)

May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! (Psalm 20:1)

May we shout for joy over your salvation! (Psalm 20:5)

Do you ever doubt that Jesus is for you? Does it seem that he has forgotten? I’ve lost loved ones, experienced heart-wrenching break-ups, seen loved ones destroyed by Parkinson’s, seen churches and ministries split because of fighting and pride, and experienced deep loneliness and separation. I’ve wondered if God even cares. Does he pay attention?

The resounding answer is “Yes.” He cares. In fact, right now he is praying for God to grant your heart’s deepest desires. He is praying for an overflowing joy in the very salvation that he bought for you. He is praying that God would protect from trouble. We know God hears his son!

Do you see the power of reading the Psalms with Jesus as the speaker? I encourage you to read the Psalms in a fresh way. See that Jesus is the primary speaker of the Psalms. See that the Psalms are all about Jesus (Luke 24:44).

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