Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
Kevin Halloran proposes “5 Blessings of Marking Up Your Bible.”
Halloran also suggests what exactly to mark when you study your Bible. If you’d like ideas for a new markup Bible, see our post comparing the options.
For a few months, I’ve written about how to train a Bible study apprentice. Some of you may have picked up on the method to my madness, but I imagine many have not.
So I’ve created a table of contents page for the series, which outlines the training model and links to each post. There is no better way to grow a small group ministry than to continually train apprentices to launch new groups. If you’d like to see the big picture and get a glimpse of where the rest of the series will go, check it out!
John Wells has a helpful article on teaching children the Bible. He gives 4 things to avoid and 5 things to embrace.
Don’t:
Do:
I think Wells overstates his case at a few points. For example, his first “don’t” almost sounds like the Bible doesn’t teach ethics (but it does). And his second “don’t” misses an important part of interpretation: Putting yourself there, and using your imagination to picture the scene. In arguing against an extreme situation (ignoring the text in favor of one’s own interpretation), Wells might react too far the other way.
But that said, I heartily agree with most of what he says. Give your children the Bible, not just children’s Bibles. Give them the whole Bible. Teach them to read, think, study, and apply. Show them Jesus. You can read the full article for more explanation of each point.
Ralph Häusler (2013), public domain
As reliably as winter gives way to spring, churches need teachers and helpers for children’s Sunday school.
Not everyone is called to this ministry, but far more are equipped than are enlisted. Why do we have a shortage?
Sunday school is not just a way to occupy the children. For those 45 minutes, teachers talk to students about God, point them toward Jesus, and train them in Christian disciplines. What a high calling! What an opportunity!
We can become fearful when facing a weighty mission like this. Like a pot on the stove, the heat accelerates the anxieties in our hearts, and they bubble to the surface and pop.
Teaching children is difficult work, to be sure. But if we put the difficulty aside, I suspect fear and doubt are at the heart of our reluctance to step into this service.
Some people think they’re not the teacher type. They worry about connecting with children, answering their questions, and handling crises. They’re afraid of causing long-term damage.
But if you love the youth of your church and are willing to serve, you are ready to talk about teaching. You don’t need to be perfect. In general, children are resiliant and eager to forgive. And your mistakes will be more evident to you than to your five-year-olds.
An additional note: The church at large needs more men teaching our children. Boys and girls need to see godly men and women serving and caring for people of all ages.
Many people don’t serve the children because they want to hear Bible teaching themselves. They’re jealous for their own sanctification.
However, your Christian growth will not be stunted by teaching children. In fact, you’ll likely mature more through service than through study.
The crucible of preparation and explanation brings a unique clarity and conviction. And your growth isn’t just intellectual. God refines our character through challenges (James 1:2–4) because we’re forced to rely on him. So as a teacher you’ll have tremendous opportunity to flourish, especially if you don’t think you’re a natural.
The Bible should play a central role in Sunday school instruction. But many people think the Bible is too difficult for kids to understand.
They shrink from teaching because they fear the material won’t be engaging, relevant, or meaningful. They yearn for supplements that do all the work and leave nothing to chance. But when we pull the Bible away from our children, we keep them from the fountain.
Children might not understand every passage right away, but they’re usually ready for the Bible before we hand it over. Because it is God’s word, it is powerful and appropriate for Christians of any size, height, or age.
Some shy away from teaching because they don’t feel qualified. They know they will be teaching the Bible, and they don’t consider themselves intelligent, studious, or insightful. They would rather the duties of studying and teaching the Bible be left to the pastor and elders of the church.
But the Bible is for everyone. You need no degree, certification, or minimum IQ score. The Scriptures are for the children in the classes and the teachers. Everyone can learn to study the Bible.
While churches need pastors, the most vibrant churches foster a Bible study culture where everyone embraces the privilege and responsibility of digging into God’s word.
I don’t write to provoke guilt. Rather, think of the vast opportunity! The children of your church need a teacher, someone who loves God and is committed to His word. Someone who wants to help young people follow Jesus and be changed by the Scriptures. Someone who wants to influence the next generation for the kingdom of God.
Might God be calling you to step forward?
I’ve written about how to coach a Bible study apprentice before and during a small group Bible study meeting. Once the meeting is over and you meet to debrief, what should you cover?
First, don’t be afraid to speak truth. You are coaching this apprentice, after all. Of course you should share evidences of God’s grace and highlight what went well. But don’t avoid sharing what could improve for the future.
Second, avoid the urge to criticize everything that went wrong, even if you’ve got an exceptionally teachable apprentice who asks you to speak frankly. Don’t do this to your apprentice because God doesn’t do it to you. Imagine how you’d feel if God revealed every weakness, sin, and failure of yours at one time. Even if you just sang, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee,” the Lord is merciful and compassionate. He instructs us piecemeal over the course of a lifetime. Take the same approach with your apprentice.
Third, avoid the tendency to nitpick. Keep in mind that there are some things your apprentice can never go back and fix. Once they’re done, they’re done; you can help the apprentice to move on by not highlighting all the things that should have been different. Just focus on the things that will help this person to improve.
Gabriela Grosseck (2010), Creative Commons
I’ve read some who ridicule this “criticism sandwich” approach (positive-negative-positive) because it can certainly be done in a trite and patronizing way. But when it comes out of love and has real substance to it, this approach helps leaders build influence. Would you prefer for your apprentice to come to your meetings dreading the laundry list of failures to be aired once again, and expecting to be labelled as weak if offense is taken? Or would you prefer for the apprentice to come with delight and eagerness, knowing that much profit and encouragement will come from the feedback offered?
Let me explain the process a bit further:
I can’t take credit for this threefold approach to offering after-the-fact feedback. I learned it from others, and we can see it in the Scripture. For example, look at John’s approach to offering feedback in his third letter. John wrote a prior letter to a congregation of Christians (2 John), but this letter was ill received by some. John has some feedback for one of the leaders to help him address these issues for the good of the church.
In training Bible study apprentices, we strive to raise more laborers for the harvest. We aim to encourage and strengthen them in their labor. And we want to keep them aware of one or two things they can practice for improvement. Such clarity in our training will root them in the gospel, motivate them to lay down their lives, and enable them to overcome adversity. And with such personal training, the Kingdom of God advances in the earth.
I was delighted when Dr. Vern Poythress, professor of New Testament interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary, was willing to endorse my book Knowable Word with the following kind words:
Here is an excellent practical guide to interpreting the Bible. Krol has thought through, tested, and illustrated in a clear, accessible way basic steps in interpreting the Bible, and made everything available in a way that will encourage ordinary people to deepen their own study.
I’m equally delighted to see that he believes enough in the OIA method of Bible study to write about it himself. From Crossway’s blog:
In the simplest form, we sit down and read the Bible with a focus on the fact that God is present and speaks to us through what we read. We consider a three-step approach to studying the Bible. The three steps are observation, elucidation, and application.
Observation answers the question, “What does the text say?” Elucidation answers the question, “What does it mean?” Application answers the question, “What does it mean to me?”
Of course, you’ll see Poythress uses the term “elucidation” instead of “interpretation,” but he clearly means the same thing.
Poythress illustrates the method with a brief discussion of 1 Samuel 22 before concluding with the value of these three steps:
Breaking the study of the Bible into three steps, rather than seeing it as all one process of interaction, has an advantage. We all have weaknesses and biases in how we look at Scripture. The three steps help people not to overlook one or more aspects of interpretation as they hurry to get to their favorite part.
One person loves application, and tends to leap into it without taking time to think through what the passage is really saying. Another person avoids application, and tends to think and think and think without ever acting on the message. By contrast, James tells us that we should make sure that we act on what we hear: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22; see also vv. 23–27). Still another person reads and reads, without asking himself about what it means or how it applies. He remains largely on the level of observation.
The division into three steps encourages people to look at the passage in several ways, and not to neglect aspects that they tend to minimize.
Poythress gives evidence of what I’ve written before: “The OIA method has many benefits. It teaches us to hear the text and respond to it. It trains us in critical thinking and clear communication. It interests post docs, preschoolers, and everyone in between. It can be learned in five minutes and perfected over a lifetime.”
Poythress’s full article is worth a few minutes of your time. Check it out!
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, shortly before his execution, why did the crowds quote from Psalm 118? “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:9). In the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, Rick E. Watts states:
Although the evidence is late, its widespread nature suggests that Ps. 118 was sung during the Second Temple era on Passover Eve and subsequently integrated into other feasts in which Ps. 118:25 [“Save us!” = Hosanna] was recited.
Lawrence Lew (2007), Creative Commons
So, as Jesus entered Jerusalem for that last Passover feast, Psalm 118 would have been on worshipers’ minds. No wonder Jesus also quotes from the Psalm a few days later while disputing the religious leaders (Mark 12:10-11). To understand Jesus’ triumphal entry, his passion week, and Good Friday, we should get a handle on this Psalm.
Psalm 118 has more repetition than most psalms:
All this repetition gives the psalm a lilting, chanting feel. You can imagine the energy and rhythm carried throughout.
We find the most significant repetition in verses 1 and 29. The psalm begins and ends with the same statement:
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.
These bookends highlight the psalm’s main purpose: To recruit others to give thanks to the Lord. Why?
Structure: Digging deeper, we can see the psalm following these thoughts in its very outline:
Why is there so much repetition of short phrases? Clearly, the poet wants the people to join him in giving thanks. He tries to whip up the crowd, and he does so with a poem, a few mantras, even a song. He says it explicitly in verses 14-15:
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.
While Ps 118:5-13 describes the Lord’s salvation for this distressed king, out among the nations and fighting the Lord’s battles, Ps 118:14-18 shows him including the crowds in his celebration.
So in Ps 118:19, a homecoming parade begins at the city gates. From Ps 118:22-23, the pronouns shift from singular (I) to plural (we), so the crowds have joined the parade. In Ps 118:26, the parade makes its way to the temple, from which the priests call down a blessing on this returning, conquering king. And the parade continues into the temple complex, up to the altar of burnt offering, where they give thanks for the festal sacrifice (Ps 118:27).
The parade climaxes with the offering of a substitute for king and people. The king didn’t die among the hostile nations (Ps 118:10,17). The people didn’t die; God is building them up around the cornerstone of their king (Ps 118:22-24). But the festal sacrifice dies in their place so they can shout, “You are my God…You are my God” (Ps 118:28).
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good (saving the king from his distress); for his steadfast love endures forever (causing the people to join the king’s celebration).
Can you see any parallels yet between Psalm 118 and Jesus’ passion week? He rode into Jerusalem like a conquering king (Mark 11:7-10). The crowd joins the homecoming parade.
Yet his true distress is yet to come. He is not threatened by the hostile nations, but by his own people. Upon entering the city, he makes a beeline for the temple (Mark 11:11), but he finds no celebration. Instead of blessing him, the chief priests try to trap him (Mark 11:27-12:44).
Instead of a celebrating a climactic festal sacrifice, Jesus must himself become the festal sacrifice. If the people are to rejoice in the day the Lord has made, this king must die.
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David Kieffer has a good overview of the book of Ecclesiastes on his blog. Here’s a taste:
When Solomon asked for wisdom God gave it abundantly! Royal court officials and foreign dignitaries marveled at Solomon’s wisdom. “[Everyone] perceived that God’s wisdom was in him.” (1 Kings 3:28). Though Solomon never asked for wealth and honor; wisdom landed him on top of the world — financially, politically, and socially!
It’s remarkable that the person most qualified to sing Wisdom’s praises instead warned us about its limitations. Solomon wrote, “I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business… a striving after the wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:13,17-18)
Wisdom’s limitations present unsettling news for hope seekers…
As a young adult, a few people tried to warn me about wisdom’s limitations. When they suggested my search for understanding might lead to frustrated uncertainty, I thought them jaded or faithless. But then life’s unexpected twists and turns led me to the precipice of my vain assurance and I fell to humbler ground. I realized I might never understand why certain bad things happen. Soon afterward, Solomon became my empathetic friend. He shared my sense of futility — “Meaningless, Meaningless…utterly meaningless!”
Unexpected comfort comes when we realize the Bible doesn’t conveniently dismiss life’s most troubling dilemmas. In fact it often silences those offering easy answers to allow space for frustrated voices to wail. Even Jesus wailed, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” from the cross (Matthew 27:46).
I differ with Kieffer on his sharp distinction between proverbs and laws, but I confess it puts him in good company. I’ve written about R.C. Sproul’s “proverbial peccadillo” on this very point.
But as for his broad overview of the message of Ecclesiastes, Kieffer’s full article is well worth checking out.
“You can’t win a golf tournament on Thursday, but you can lose it.”
Professional golf tournaments stretch over four days (usually Thursday through Sunday), so a strong opening round is essential. But without excellent play through the weekend, a player has no shot at the trophy. He needs a good start, but he needs more.
Stefan Waldvogel (2012), Public Domain
A Sunday school class is a great venue for teaching Bible study skills. But direct instruction like this, while necessary, is only the beginning of lifelong training.
Imagine an aspiring novelist who attends an intense, week-long workshop, complete with all the instruction, feedback, and discussion one could want. A wise writer won’t just lean on this experience; he’ll use this learning, along with inspiration and ideas from ongoing reading, as he works toward a final product.
Over the long term, we all need reminders and examples of good Bible study. So whenever we teach the Bible, we should model and pass along Bible study skills.
Most churches have numerous openings for Bible teaching: Sunday school classes, Wednesday night studies, even weekend seminars. To build a Bible study culture in our churches, we must take advantage of every opportunity.
When a teacher is intentional, modeling Bible study skills is neither difficult nor time consuming. Here are five suggestions.
The other suggestions on this list are worthless if you’re not studying the Bible using a solid method. Teachers are an example of how to think about, understand, and apply the Bible. By God’s grace, make sure you’re an example worth following. (Start here if you need help learning to study the Bible.)
Develop a “local language” around Bible study at your church so everyone knows what you’re talking about. On this blog we advocate the Observation, Interpretation, Application (OIA) method of Bible study, but the specific words you use aren’t important so long as the meaning is clear.
When teaching the Bible, discuss your observations about the text and use that word. Talk through the different interpretations that came up in your study. And so on. Repeating these words will remind the class about the different phases of Bible study.
If you want discussion in your class, use the structure provided by the different aspects of Bible study. Ask broadly for observations from the text, then start a conversation about repeated words, comparisons, connector words, etc.
On the heels of your observations, ask interpretation questions to move the class along. Having studied the passage yourself, you should be able to explain the main point.
Don’t forget application! Spur on your class by sharing how God has worked in you.
When modeling Bible study skills, the resources you recommend to your class are a powerful tool for Bible study instruction.
You might prepare a sheet for students to use for notes during class. Construct something simple with Bible study principles in mind. When I taught 1 Corinthians last fall, I emphasized the main point of a passage and subsequent applications. I designed my class handout with this in mind.
Additionally, consider recommending other resources on Bible study to interested students. There are many excellent websites and books on Bible study, including the Knowable Word book by Peter Krol (founder of this website). When people are looking to read and get training on their own, you can give them reliable places to turn.
Some students in your class will be eager for extra work, and some…will not. Be careful to structure your class so no one is excluded.
Make a special effort to connect with the people who are hungry to learn, study, and grow. Your assignments may offer just the extra boost they need.
If you can work a week ahead in your class preparation, distribute a sheet of questions for your students to ponder between meetings. As they think about the relevant Bible text, your handout can guide them through the stages of Bible study.
If you aren’t this far ahead in your planning, encourage the class to study the upcoming passage on their own. Provide them with a few general Bible study guidelines, and urge those who are interested to take some OIA worksheets home with them.
I’ve encouraged you to be a coach, not a lifeguard, when your apprentice begins leading Bible studies. Last week, I explained how to do this when helping the apprentice prepare for the meeting. But what does it look like to do this at the meeting itself?
John C. Baker (2013), Creative Commons
A lifeguard looks for failure; a coach encourages success.
A lifeguard is vigilant, on edge; a coach inspires.
A lifeguard demands attention; a coach demands excellence.
A lifeguard rescues; a coach stays on the sidelines.
What does this mean for you, the coach, during the Bible study?
Let the apprentice decide when to make transitions (for example, from mingling to beginning the discussion). If the apprentice looks to you to signal a transition, just sit there patiently looking back. Respond quickly to the apprentice’s leadership; don’t drag your feet if you would have done it differently.
If the apprentice asks a question that meets with silence, suggest a possible answer. Don’t revert to “teaching mode”; just offer an answer to help reignite discussion. Don’t sit there like a sack of potatoes; take part just like everyone else.
If the apprentice asks a confusing question, respond respectfully with a clarifying question. “When you ask how this applies to our lives, are you asking about Jesus’ parable or the disciples’ response to it?”
Participate, but don’t dominate. If the apprentice asks a poor question, and the discussion falls flat, don’t rephrase the question or ask a different one. Let the silence sit, and let the apprentice figure out how to recover. Moments of awkward silence generate terrific coaching opportunities later when you meet to evaluate the meeting.
It’s okay if group members know you are coaching the apprentice. But they shouldn’t feel excluded, as though you and the apprentice have a secret, non-verbal code between you. Avoid too much body language or conspiratorial collusion in the corner of the room. Just act normal; you’ll have plenty of time to evaluate and instruct when you meet with the apprentice one-on-one.
If you want the apprentice to learn to lead, you must give the apprentice room to lead. Go ahead and call the plays in advance. But once it’s game time, you get to watch your team do its thing. You could be the sort of coach who shouts and gets mad during the game, but why would you want to? Better to simply let the games reveal what to work on in practice.
