Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
John Piper continues his excellent video series showing how to study the Bible. In the video below, he shows how to observe and interpret connector words and purpose statements in Proverbs 22.
https://vimeo.com/152714380
If you’d like to train someone to lead a Bible study, and you’re ready to take the risk, you might just be waiting for a post about what to actually do when you meet with your apprentice. This is your post. There is one thing you must know, and then I’ll share some specifics about how I do it.
First, what you must know: You don’t need to follow a curriculum. The most common question I receive is “What materials do you use in your ministry?” And I don’t want to sound rude, but, ahem, the Bible is enough. You don’t need workbooks or study guides to tell you what question to ask next. Writers of study guides have much to offer, but they will never know as much as you do about you, your apprentice, your situation, or the needs of your small group. So make clear goals and find whatever direction you need. But major on getting to know your apprentice, shepherding his/her character, and discussing what will most help your group.
Now, when I say “you don’t need to follow a curriculum,” please don’t hear me saying you shouldn’t use a curriculum. Sometimes it can help. Sometimes it scratches the right itch. Sometimes.
So here’s what I do with my current apprentice, Jon. The training with my last apprentice looked different, but Jon and I are still early in our relationship, getting to know each other and learning how to encourage each other. Jon and I meet about every 2 weeks, at 8:15 pm on a weeknight (after our children are in bed), for 60-75 minutes.
Nathan Rupert (2008), Creative Commons
This meeting is neither an interview nor a lecture, but a conversation. I inject it with as much of my personal life as possible so we can get to know each other. Because I’m not the holy Prophet descending the mountain to convey my wisdom before returning to my contemplation, the relationship goes in both directions.
After we finish Knowable Word, I’ll probably have Jon read Growth Groups by Colin Marshall. But again, the discussion will center on the need of the moment, not the next approved subject. The key is not to follow a plan, but to live life together and offer real-time coaching.
I’d love to hear what else you’ve found effective in training apprentices.
Last week, Tim Challies wrote a great article called “The Hidden Beauty of a Bad Sermon.” Challies describes all the poor sermons he sat through at his church, because they were training young preachers. And Challies simply knocks it out of the park when he describes the only way a young preacher can learn to preach:
A man can read a hundred books on preaching and watch a thousand sermons on YouTube, but the only way he will really learn to preach is to preach. Sooner or later he will simply need to stand behind a pulpit, open his Bible, and launch into his introduction (assuming he remembers to actually prepare one). There are not many preachers who get away without preaching a few stinkers along the way. There are not many preachers who can become skilled without first being novices, who can grow into excellence without first being mediocre or average.
In light of my recent reflections on why it’s hard to delegate responsibility and how we need to take more risks in training ministry apprentices, I found Challies’s article timely. Though Challies singles out preachers, his comments apply equally to any teacher or Bible study leader.
Young preachers, new preachers, preach bad sermons. They preach bad sermons as they learn to preach good sermons. And in some ways, those bad sermons serve as a mark of a church’s health and strength because they prove that the church is fulfilling its mandate to raise up the next generation of preachers and the one after that. They prove that the church refuses to be so driven by a desire to display excellence that they will not risk the occasional dud. They prove that the congregation is mature enough to endure and even appreciate these first, messy attempts. There is hidden beauty, hidden value, in these bad sermons.
I wish I could quote the whole article. Check it out!
jacinta lluch valero (2012), Creative Commons License
Want to know which way the wind is blowing? Just look at a weather vane.
Want to know how a church approaches the Bible? Just listen to a sermon.
A sermon won’t give a complete picture. But if a church has a robust Bible study culture, the sermon is a good indicator.
Now a sermon is not like an IV drip, where you passively receive nourishment. Rather, a sermon is like a hearty meal—the cook labors in the kitchen to measure and mix and simmer. He sets down the food and urges you to eat. But you won’t enjoy or benefit from the meal unless you raise a fork and tuck in.
With a sermon, this happens in three stages.
To get the most from a sermon, consider two important activities in the preceding week: prayer and study.
Both the preacher and the hearer need God’s help. Pray for your pastor as he studies the Bible and prepares to proclaim it. And pray for yourself and your fellow listeners, that you would understand and be changed by God’s word.
During the week, there’s another way to plow up your heart to prepare for the Sunday morning planting. Find out the Bible passage for the sermon and study it on your own. (If you aren’t sure how to study the Bible, start here.) Take a stab at the author’s main point, connect that to Jesus, and write down some applications. If Sunday morning is the second time you’ve grappled with the preacher’s text, God’s word is more likely to take root and sprout up in you.
Honoring God during the sermon is straightforward, if not easy: Focus and listen.
We should give our full attention to the preaching of God’s word. Grab a Bible and locate the relevant passage. Think carefully with the preacher as he talks through the text.
For some, taking notes is essential. Writing helps these people follow the main ideas of the sermon and gives them a record to consult later.
For others, note-taking is a distraction. Trying to listen and write leaves them with scattered scrawlings and murky memories. These folks should consider jotting down their thoughts after the sermon, so those God-given impressions and applications don’t flit away.
We all have difficulty listening to sermons from time to time. This may have nothing to do with the preacher! Late nights, a difficult week, restless children, illness, or a hundred other factors may make it hard to concentrate. We should do our best to pray and prepare and focus. Beyond that, remember that God knows his children. His love for us doesn’t increase or decrease based on our attentiveness during the sermon. It is full and secure because of Jesus.
When the preacher finishes his post-sermon prayer, your obligations are not over. Like The Carpenters, you’ve only just begun. The best ways to promote a Bible study culture in your church after the sermon are to apply and discuss the Bible.
Assuming your preacher handled the Bible faithfully and connected his applications to Jesus, now it’s your turn. With the help of the Holy Spirit, take your pastor’s suggestions, mix in your own, and apply this passage to your head, heart, and hands.
If you question the preacher’s interpretation, study the passage again. Request a meeting later that week. God brought this passage to your attention and you should pursue understanding and joyful obedience.
In addition to applying the sermon text yourself, talk about it with others in your church. If you do so right after the worship service, you have a ready-made entrance to fruitful conversation.
Encourage others with the truths of the Bible you’ve just heard, especially the good news about Jesus Christ. Brainstorm necessary and creative applications, both for yourself and for your church. Confess the barriers to obedience in your own heart and offer help and support to your friends. We need community to apply the Bible.
Make sure your discussions about the sermon aren’t an excuse to criticize your pastor. Talk about the Bible and how best to understand and apply it, but don’t become an Olympic figure-skating judge.
Imagine the growth you would see if even half your congregation invested time before, during, and after the sermon to give attention to the Bible. It would transform your church.
So, what’s on your menu for this coming Sunday?
I just finished my annual speed-read of the Bible, so the contest I announced on December 28 is now closed. Two brave souls read the entire Bible and finished before me, winning a copy of Knowable Word and their choice of study Bible. May the rest of the year be filled with more fruitful time in Scripture for you!
Two of my daughters are 18 months apart in age. And Little Sis wants to try everything Big Sis does. Big Sis reads a book; Little Sis wants to read the same book. Big Sis plays a sport; Little Sis wants to try the same sport. Papa hurls Big Sis into the air during a playful tussle; Little Sis demands fellowship in behurlment.
Little Sis spouts her “Can I try?” mantra like a doll with a pull string, and her repetitive, invasive pushiness tempts most of her siblings past the brink of annoyance. Honestly, I’m tempted to be annoyed by it…until I remember how biblical it is.
The second stage of training a Bible study apprentice is “I do; you help.” In this stage, you invite the apprentice not only to watch you lead but also to lead along with you. You give the apprentice real responsibility, which is hard to do.
AlmazUK (2009), Creative Commons
But as you let that leash out, you run the risk of the apprentice coming up with ideas. And the apprentice may want to carry out some of those ideas. And some of those ideas will be dumb.
Let’s say you are God in the flesh, and you can master the elements of nature however you see fit. You are special, and there is nobody on earth like you. Though most human leaders feel indispensable, only you truly are indispensable. You can do things nobody else can do. In fact, you must do things nobody else can do.
So you go about your business, proving you are the Son of God and preparing to die for the sin of the world. And one night, during the fourth watch, you do the impossible, striding across the sea as though it were a stage for one of your grandest pronouncements: “Take heart; it is I.”
And suddenly, from the cheap seats, a pipsqueak chirps: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Yeah, he’s your top guy. Yeah, you’re training him for leadership in great things. You’ve let him begin to help with your ministry. But he’s still a pipsqueak, and it’s still a dumb idea. Shoot it down. Now.
“Come.” (Matt 14:25-33). What?!
My point is that none of us can out-risk Jesus. Unlike us, he would have succeeded by letting the world revolve around him. Of course, he did exactly that, after a fashion (Col 1:16-17). But unlike us, he quickly drew others in and relied on them to assist in the work. He had the courage to set them loose and let them try things.
He wouldn’t let them exact vengeance (Luke 9:51-56), and he never tolerated idleness (John 4:27, 35-38). But he constantly let them try things.
Jesus knew he was in control and could turn their mistakes into something beautiful. Our hope is the same: Jesus is in control and can turn mistakes into something beautiful. His resurrection guarantees his plan to make all things new, so we don’t have to fear failure on the part of immature or inexperienced apprentices. When we believe this good news, we’ll find the courage to let them try, and occasionally fail.
I’ve written before about how we must learn from the Bible before we’re qualified to teach it. Seminary professor Dan Doriani has similar thoughts. He writes to pastors, but his words apply equally to Bible study leaders, Sunday school teachers, and parents.
I especially appreciate the section where Doriani explains the stages of a ministry leader’s devotional life:
As we spend more time in ministry, we’ll be tempted to separate our study from our own application. We must not do this. We must keep pushing ourselves into that fifth stage.
Doriani’s article is worth reading for anyone who feels the tension between “ministry prep” Bible study time and “personal devotions” Bible study time.
Peter Rasmussen (2014), Creative Commons
In family life, we call them helicopter parents, because they hover close and swoop in when their wards need rescue. They keep younglings caged and well-padded. They argue over grades with college professors. They sit in on job interviews. They expect daily phone calls and pre-decision consultations.
And these “helicopter parents” run rampant also in Christian ministry. I confess: I am prone to be one of them. But by way of contrast, let me tell a few stories.
I know one guy who served the Lord in a previously unreached part of the world. This community tolerated monotheism, and some folks had been influenced by Jewish ideas. But they had never heard of Jesus or his saving work until this man arrived. His ministry got kicked out of its meeting place several times. He made a remarkable number of enemies. He was even abducted and brought before the local judge on charges of anarchy (thankfully, he was acquitted). But he stayed there for a total of 18 months, preaching and making disciples. When God called him elsewhere, he left a thriving church with regular worship services, a reputation for strong teaching, and a group of pastors and elders to shepherd them.
Did you hear that? This guy trained and launched leaders from unbelief, through conversion, and into competent shepherding in 18 months! If someone new came to my Bible study, I might not even let them lead a prayer time in 18 months. I care too much to allow such reckless indiscretion.
Another fellow in my acquaintance focused on itinerant ministry. He gathered a few trainees about him and poured himself into them, while he hit the preaching circuit. I was amazed by his ability to turn absolutely anything into an object lesson. He coached, explained things, served people, and let his apprentices participate and practice. Within a few years, he began booking his apprentices to preach on his behalf.
While I appreciated the multiplying ministry, I also had significant concerns here. A few of these apprentices didn’t yet have a clear Christology (doctrine of Christ). They hadn’t gone to seminary or received any other formal theological training. But this missionary was convinced their syllabus for learning needed a good proportion of teaching to help them progress faster in their training. It was pretty risky and almost created a disaster.
Why is it so hard for me (and perhaps for you) to let people go, to send them out and let them try their hand at ministry? Why do we hover, hang on to responsibility, and pass things off with stalwart reluctance?
Of course, there are many possible answers. But the main reason for me is that I fear failure. It’s the same reason I hated group projects as a student. It’s why I carry burdens I don’t need to carry. It’s why I find it easiest to do something myself.
Can you relate?
One of the best ways people learn is by feeling the pain of their mistakes. If we are serious about training others to lead Bible studies (or do any other kind of ministry), we must take risks. We must launch apprentices quickly, bring them back to debrief, and send them out to try it again. We need to give them real authority to try things. We must be okay with imperfection. We have to make peace with some people’s needs going unmet while the apprentice figures out how to meet them. We can’t jump in and fix it.
We should be okay with mistakes in the Bible study, mistakes in the small group, mistakes in the pulpit. We should never hammer ministry apprentices for trying and failing, though we might need to admonish them for not really trying.
I was not ready to lead my first Bible study, but I needed that first one so the second one could be better. Someone trusted me enough to let me try it. If I were that leader, training up that younger me, I might not have taken the risk. But I praise God for the courageous leaders in my life, and I want to be more like them.
Postscript: I want my argument to be biblical and not merely anecdotal, so allow me to introduce my two missionary friends from the case studies above. You may find them in Acts 18:1-18 and Luke 10:1-24.
Last week, Al Mohler wrote about “The Scandal of Biblical Illiteracy,” where he proposes a connection between biblical illiteracy and moral decline. If we think Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife, how will we learn from their destruction?
We will not believe more than we know, and we will not live higher than our beliefs. The many fronts of Christian compromise in this generation can be directly traced to biblical illiteracy in the pews and the absence of biblical preaching and teaching in our homes and churches.
Mohler challenges us to recover vibrant Bible teaching at home and in church. We must know the word if we are to apply it to all of life. Though Mohler’s tone may be alarmist, he offers helpful insight. As you read, just remember that widespread biblical illiteracy provides some opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have: If people don’t even know what the Bible says, they may be less likely to presume what it means. And that means the truth must break through fewer defenses.
A church with a healthy Bible study culture is a blessing to members and visitors alike. Though all aspects of a church contribute to this culture, the sermon is among the most noticeable.
by William Hamilton (1788), license
Evaluating the sermon in this context demands that we move past the good-or-bad question asked over bowls of Sunday soup. How can a sermon help create a Bible study culture?
In evangelical churches, the sermon is the centerpiece of weekly worship. Singing, giving, praying, testimonies—these are often seen as appetizers before the main course.
Without minimizing other elements of the worship service, the sermon is critical. For thirty or so minutes, God’s gathered people focus on hearing and understanding his word. The way the preacher handles the Bible communicates the church’s values and shapes the culture.
At Knowable Word, we’re committed to helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible. We rarely target preachers. But as preachers prize God’s word and encourage its study, “ordinary people” will flourish.
So, a word to non-preachers: This post is for you, too! Through the sermon, you can recognize a church with a Bible study culture. You should also find ways to pray for and encourage your preacher(s).
Enough jibber-jabber. Here are nine strategies for a sermon that can help create a Bible study culture in your church.
Many thanks to Peter for his help with this post. He uses the categories in point 5 but does not claim them as his own—he has seen them in places like the Simeon Trust.
