Leading Bible Study | Knowable Word

Against Springboard Studies

April 24, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

How can a Bible study go wrong when the entire focus is on the Bible? How can a Sunday school class or sermon be steeped in God’s word and leave us feeling empty?

Springboard Studies

Some Bible studies are springboard studies. The Bible study leader reads the passage and identifies connected biblical themes. Then the group time becomes an opportunity to teach on or discuss those themes.

I call these “springboard studies” because the leader takes the given passage as a jumping-off point—a springboard—to a different discussion. Springboard studies have the appearance of being faithful to the text of Scripture because the group is reading numerous Bible passages and talking about theology and doctrine. However, at the end of the hour, participants rarely have a good idea about the meaning of the discussion’s “text of origin.”

This is common for teachers, speakers, and preachers, too. People serving those in those roles should read on with their domain in mind.

What Drives Discussion?

Springboard studies can be lively and engaging. This is often because the leader jumps from the passage to a topic about which they are passionate or interested. As such, the leader puts a lot of energy into defending a doctrine or explaining some theological development close to their heart.

The problem with this approach is that it almost by definition misses the main point of the passage. People attending the Bible study may leave with a better sense of the leader’s allegiances and theological preferences but without an understanding of why the original text was written.

Bible interpretation is hard work, and we often need to fight to understand what the author was trying to communicate. But if a Bible study group claims to be studying a certain book of Scripture, the goal should be to observe, interpret, and apply that text.

Building a Theological Framework

Please don’t misunderstand me. Theology and doctrine are of great importance, and we sometimes build portions of our theological frameworks on the smaller points or assumptions of the Biblical authors. (Although, it is worth asking how devoted we should be to doctrines which are not the main points of any Bible passage.)

My issue is with Bible studies (or sermons) that claim to be expositional, verse-by-verse examinations of Scripture passages which may better be described as “inspired by the text.”

How to Avoid Leading a Springboard Study

Springboard studies come about, in part, because we don’t think the Bible is interesting or important enough to hold our attention for 45 minutes. So we map a word, phrase, character, or scene from the Bible onto something “more relevant” that will sustain a longer conversation. As though merely having a conversation—any conversation at all—were the goal of Bible study!

The main way to avoid leading a springboard study is to let the text of Scripture drive the discussion. After observing the passage, we fire every related question we can think of at the text. The Scripture in front of us may not have answers to all (or many) of these questions, but the work of interpretation is to keep asking and answering questions until we identify the author’s main point.

There is an important place in the church for classes, lectures, and conversations about Biblical topics which are not rooted in a single passage. But let’s not confuse this with Bible study.

Asking Better Small Group Questions

December 5, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

Small Group Network (2021), public domain

The longer I lead and attend classes and Bible studies, the more convinced I am of the importance of good questions.

Good questions cannot make up for sloppy study or errant understanding. However, without good questions, the Biblical truth that should pierce like an arrow may land like a jellyfish instead.

Questions are the delivery method, the interface between leader and participant. Assuming the leader does not want to lecture (please don’t!), questions are the primary way to fuel the discussion and learn what the Scriptures say.

Every leader and teacher can improve in their question-asking. Like anything else, this takes practice and training. Below, I offer three suggestions for those who want to grow in this area.

Envision Possible Answers

Here’s my recipe for level 1 improvement: As you write your questions, think of the specific people in your small group and how they are likely to hear and answer what you ask.

This depends on a leader knowing their small group members and having experience talking with them about the Bible. Every group is different, so a set of questions that work well in one setting might not fit in another—even with the same Scripture passage.

When I draft a question, I imagine trying to answer it myself. Then I picture the possible answers my small group members will give. This step sharpens my questions, helping me to discard any vague and ill-formed inquiries. I am better able to point my friends toward what matters in the text.

Review the Meeting

We can unlock the next level of progress by reviewing the small group meeting with a friend afterward. Ideally, this is someone who attended the meeting, though that isn’t completely necessary.

The goal is to think carefully about the questions after the fact. Did they accomplish what you wanted? (You did have a goal for each question, right?) Were they clear? Try to hang onto your meeting notes and go through the questions one by one.

The best time to debrief is while the meeting is still fresh in your mind—optimally within a day or two. I find that if too much time passes, it’s hard for me to remember the responses to individual questions.

A Pre-meeting Discussion

The most intense way to upgrade your question-asking skills is a hybrid of my first two suggestions: Meet with a friend in advance of the meeting to talk through and plan your questions.

After you have studied the relevant Bible passage and made a plan for the study, get together with a friend and discuss the questions you plan to ask. This friend can draw out your intention behind each question. They can also answer your questions, and you can learn how someone in your group is likely to interpret and respond to them.

No Perfect Plan

These strategies come with no guarantee. Asking good questions in a small group is a learned skill; it is something we can practice and improve. However, because people are unpredictable, one of the other skills we need is improvisation. No study will ever go exactly according to script, so we need to be ready to reframe, drill down, or pull back.

The job of the small group leader is to understand and apply the Biblical text and then help group members to understand and apply it as well. Because questions are central to the second part of this goal, it is worth the effort to ask the best questions we can.

How to Make the Bible Come Alive

November 7, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

If you lead a Bible study or teach the Bible in any capacity, and if you love God and his word, you want the Bible to come alive for your people. You want their hearts to catch fire as they read, listen, and engage.

The bad news is that we cannot do anything to make the Bible come alive. The good news is that we don’t need to make the Bible come alive, because the Bible is already living and active.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

The best way for us to “make” the word of God come alive for our friends is to recognize and act like it is already living and active.

Active in You and Others

If the Bible is indeed active, then it will change us as we encounter it. In particular, as we prepare to lead Bible studies or teach the Bible, we should be different people because of the text we have been preparing!

The most powerful evidence of the truth of the Bible is often the leader’s own testimony of its transforming power. Like all Christians, we should be growing in our love for God, growing in our love for our neighbors, growing in the fruit of the Spirit. We should not put ourselves as the focus of our discussion, but we should plan to testify to the ways God has been at work in us.

Sharing will not look like victory upon victory. That’s not my experience of walking with God, and I don’t hear that from others. Rather, the Bible works in us in many ways—to teach, to reprove, to correct, and to train us in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). Once we stop trying to be impressive, we can share about both the ways God is correcting us and the ways he is training us in righteousness.

Ideally this sort of discussion will help to create a culture within a Bible study group. Eventually, everyone will talk about the ways God’s word has been changing them.

What Do You Expect?

When we teach the Bible, our expectations influence our actions and interactions. Are we expecting people to be bored by the Bible or transformed by it?

Some leaders break out the bells and whistles. They think that if they jazz up the setting, or the presentation, or the activities, then people will really pay attention and get a lot out of the Bible study. However, this approach is doomed from the start. It presumes that the Bible is (at worst) boring or (at best) inert, and that what God really needs is a good carnival barker. If we expect people to be bored by the Bible, they will be.

A better approach is to recognize that the Scriptures are sharp and powerful. They may not affect every person the same way at the same time, but God’s word will accomplish what he wants (Is 55:10–11). If God’s word is at work within believers (1 Thess 2:13), then we should act as though that were true! This approach will affect the way we read the Bible out loud, how we ask questions, and how we pray for our friends.

The Living Word of God

How powerful is the Bible? To what degree is it living and active?

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; (1 Peter 1:22–23)

The word of God is living. It is abiding. It is an imperishable seed that brings new life to the dead. And it works mightily in God’s people.

We dare not act like it is boring or harmless. And we dare not presume that we can make that which is already living come alive.

When You Study the Wrong Bible Passage

September 26, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

I fear I have become too reliant on the chapter breaks in the Bible. I know these are not inspired and that they do not always produce the optimal portions of Scripture to study. But they are so convenient!

Also, sometimes the chapter breaks are helpful markers. I’ve been studying Ezra and Nehemiah in my small group over the past year, and the chapter breaks in Ezra are great. They occur at logical transitions in the text, and we moved a chapter at a time through Ezra without any issues.

The same has not been true in Nehemiah.

Nehemiah in Jerusalem

There is rarely a single “right” way to divide a book of the Bible into sections for small group study. We might choose to take larger or smaller pieces at a time, and when these divisions resonate with the structure of the book, everything is smooth. When we choose a section that doesn’t match the author’s logical argument, we’re cutting the wood against the grain.

My group studied the first chapter of Nehemiah during one meeting and the second chapter during the next. When I was preparing the third chapter for the following meeting, I realized I’d made a mistake.

Nehemiah 2:1–20 describes how Nehemiah asked the king of Persia for permission to go rebuild Jerusalem. The king granted his request, and this was evidence of God’s work (Neh 2:8).

Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and inspected the damaged walls and gates by night. He formed a plan and spoke persuasively to the Israelites in the city.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. (Neh 2:17, 18)

Biting Off Less Than We Should Chew

Nehemiah 3:1–32 is a list of the successful efforts to rebuild the walls and gates of city. We read of specific people, specific locations, and specific work. It is impressive.

However, at the end of the day, it is undeniably … a list. Lists are challenging to study. It is hard to find the author’s main point in a list.

It became clear to me that our group should have studied chapter 3 with chapter 2. After all, the work in chapter 3 is recorded as evidence to support Nehemiah 2:18 — “And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.”

It’s not that there is nothing fruitful to gain from studying Nehemiah 3. But the purpose of chapter 3 is to illustrate the work of God in chapter 2, so putting a dividing line between the two was not the wisest choice. In fact, I suspect the main point of chapter 2 would have landed with more force had we studied the two sections together.

Lessons Learned

This was another reminder to me of the importance of each book’s structure in the Bible. In preparing for my small group, I want to refer back to my book overview and an outline of the book when selecting the next portion of Scripture to study. This will help align my group’s focus with the logical units in which the original author of the book wrote.

The Power of Real Application Experience

May 9, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu (2022), public domain

There are few things better than a bowl of warm soup on a chilly evening. Paired with some fresh bread and butter, that’s close to a perfect meal.

Soup is an odd food, though. Most dishes are best fresh and then decent or tolerable as leftovers. Not soup. Many soups are better on the second day than the first. And if they last until the third day, they’re even better. The absorption and combination of flavors somehow doesn’t reach its peak for that first serving.

Application Takes Time

In the OIA model of Bible study, application follows observation and interpretation. And as the most effective Bible study leader is the one transformed through personal study, leaders must be committed to application.

But application takes time.

Application doesn’t take time as measured in minutes and hours. Like soup, application often needs days to mature. We don’t know how our ideas about applying a passage may encounter obstacles in our hearts and lives until some serious time has passed.

For this reason, I recommend that leaders complete the application portion of their study several days before their small group meets. (I hope preachers reading this will translate this advice to their own callings, because it is just as relevant for them.)

Time for Confession

I write this advice out of my weakness. I see an acute need for improvement in my own Bible study leadership, and I’m hoping that by broadcasting my shortcoming, it may help others excel where I have not. (And, as I’m planning to write a follow-up post, I’m hoping that accountability helps me!)

My habit in preparing Bible studies is to use my devotional time the week beforehand. My small group meets on Sunday evenings, so ideally I would complete my personal study of the text by Wednesday. This would give me four days to try on the applications that have come out of my study before I see my group. (In that time, I would also prepare my comments and questions for the meeting.)

Instead, I’ve recently been finishing my studying on Saturday. And as I rush to prepare for my group, I’m not engaged enough in personal application of the text to be helpful to my friends. I usually have a decent understanding of the passage, but my life does not often reflect the changes the main point of the passage demands.

Adjusting the Schedule

I realize this advice will not win me any popularity contests. I’m telling people who have little margin in their lives to finish their preparations earlier.

My own preparation schedule cascades from one meeting to the next. So it’s hard to simply declare that I’ll finish earlier this time around. Instead, I need to reset my “preparation calendar,” which means I need a break from leading for at least one meeting.

I’ve done this in different ways in the past. My group has met for fellowship and prayer but not for Bible study for a week. I’ve cancelled a meeting. And, I’ve asked a friend within the group to lead for a week. (This is a great opportunity to start or continue to train others to lead Bible studies!)

Grace for Leaders

As Bible study leaders read my suggestion, I hope they do not feel another burden landing on their shoulders. I’m not advocating for more work, just a shift in the preparation timeline that sets leaders up for greater effectiveness.

And we dare not lose sight of the gospel as we ponder these matters. Because of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, Christians are righteous, forgiven, adopted, and prayed for by the Son of God. Following my advice will not endear anyone more to God, and rejecting this advice will not make God love anyone less. God is committed to us, and he is transforming us by his Spirit as we walk with him.

The more we talk about and show that personal transformation to our Bible study friends, the more we will encourage them in their own transformation.

Individual Impressions Are Inevitable

March 28, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

I studied the book of Lamentations with my small group during most of 2021. Through thinking about lament in general, and the book of Lamentations specifically, God taught me so much more about grief, prayer, trusting him, and his faithfulness than I could have predicted. It’s no exaggeration—I think I grew more spiritually by studying Lamentations than I have through any other book study in the last five years.

However, not everyone in my Bible study felt the same! A woman in my small group could not wait for us to move on to study something different. She found Lamentations repetitive and deflating (despite all my cheerleading). I’m sure most of my small group friends fell somewhere in the middle.

The Bible lands on each of us differently because God works with different people in different ways. We see this in several places in Scripture.

Shouting and Weeping in Ezra

After King Cyrus of Persia sent a group of Israelite exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, their first order of business was to construct the altar. After this was accomplished, the people offered burnt offerings and celebrated the prescribed feasts (Ezra 3:3–6). They hadn’t been able to do this for decades!

After the altar, the Israelites laid the foundation of the temple (Ezra 3:10). This was a time for worship and singing.

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. (Ezra 3:11–13)

There was a loud, joyful shout from some people and loud weeping from others. Despite the celebratory occasion, some of the older Israelites mourned because they had seen the original temple (and they had also seen it destroyed). Each person’s history and experience shaped their reaction to this event.

It’s not unusual for God’s people to come away with different responses when he acts.

Surprise, Not Everyone Is Like Me!

When I have a strong reaction to something I expect others share my conclusions and enthusiasm. This is especially true when learning from God’s Word. I think everyone should be convicted in the way I’ve been convicted and focused on the same applications as me. I’m the center, and I’m the standard.

When I get some distance, I can see that my thinking is ridiculous. There is so much that determines how a Bible passage affects a person. Their background, interests, social circles, vocation, experience, and spiritual maturity all play a role.

I need to remind myself frequently that this is a good thing. My church would be boring and unbalanced if everyone took identical impressions and applications away from a Bible study, class, or sermon.

The Value of Application Questions

God works by his Spirit in large crowds with largely uniform responses. (The apostle Peter’s sermon at Pentecost seems to be an example of this.) But God also knows and works with each of us as a loving father trains his children individually according to their needs and disposition.

Bible study leaders can trust God to produce the fruit he wants in each Christian. We guide and lead our friends through observation and interpretation to understand the meaning of a passage, and we should press our friends toward application. But we cannot broadly dictate application to individuals.

This is one reason (among many) that I advocate for asking application questions. It may be better, through such questions, to suggest areas for our friends to consider than to list specific options. The Holy Spirit often helps us examine our lives in light of those questions, convicting and directing us.

Two people at the same study may come away with very different applications of a Bible passage. Bible study leaders can plant and water, but God gives the growth.

The Dangers of Recycling Bible Studies

February 28, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

As a teacher, there is a huge difference between teaching a class for the first time and teaching a class for the second (or third) time. When I’m new to a class, I prepare each class meeting from scratch—the lectures, the discussion questions, the activities, and the assignments. It’s a lot of work.

When I teach a class that’s not new, I can breathe a little easier. I can anticipate the common pitfalls, I know which lessons need to be improved, and my previous notes serve as a starting point.

Bible teachers may feel this same way. When teaching a lesson they’ve been through before, they think preparation will be a breeze. I’ve thought this same thing. And those have been some of the worst studies I’ve ever led.

What’s the Danger?

The biggest danger with recycling Bible studies is assuming that gaining information is the most important goal in a Bible study. A leader can think that if they’ve saved their earlier notes, they only need to brush up on the particulars and walk a familiar path. Surely the truths in the Bible haven’t changed, so if the study worked last time, why change a thing?

A leader with this mindset is missing a vital ingredient of teaching the Bible. Effective Bible teachers must be transformed by the text. A Bible study should aim much deeper than a mere transfer of knowledge.

If there is too much time between when I wrestle with the application of a Bible passage and when I teach that passage, I lose much of the power of my transformation to help others. My friends cannot see as clearly how the passage has changed me, so their application may lack the teeth it otherwise would have had.

I’ve even experienced this on those rare occasions when I finish my Bible study preparation “too far” in advance. If I don’t revisit all parts of the lesson before the meeting, the discussion can be weak and tepid. I try not to use this as justification for procrastination, but I know that my studies are generally more lively and the learning more lasting when I complete my preparation within a few days of the meeting.

Should We Avoid Recycling?

I don’t think we need to draw a line in the sand and insist on preparing every Bible lesson from scratch. However, we need to take great care when taking “old” material to new settings. Here are some practices that might be helpful in reusing old Bible studies.

We should prayerfully consider using recycled material in the first place. We need to weigh the risks against the benefits and take time to minimize those risks. And, yes, all of this should not just be done deliberately, but prayerfully.

As much as possible, we should approach the Bible passage fresh. Even though we’ve previously studied the passage, we should read it several times and, without looking at our old notes, try to understand what the passage says. In some ways, we should consult our previous work as we would use study Bible notes or a commentary. (This is good motivation for making and preserving decent notes when preparing Bible studies!)

After we’ve gotten a good handle on the structure and main idea of a passage, we should turn to personal application. Remember, the most effective leaders are the ones who have been transformed by the passage they are teaching. We skip this step at great cost to ourselves and our Bible study group members.

One note here about application. It may be helpful to include details on personal application when writing our leader’s notes for a study. (We just said they might be valuable in the future!) But, we rarely encounter a passage the same way twice. We are different people from month to month, so our application will—and, likely, should—change. We may have different people in our lives, different temptations to resist, different challenges with which we need to trust the Lord. So, our notes from a previous study will describe how God changed us last time, but that won’t be as powerful as sharing how God is changing us now. (There is a similar lesson here for preachers about recycling sermons, but I’ll leave that for someone else to tackle.)

Seek the Spirit’s Warming

When we prepare to teach the Bible, we need the Spirit to warm us—to change us—by his word. And if we teach that material again in the future, we need to ask the Spirit to bring us close to the heat and transform us anew. This gives us the best chance to share the fire with our friends.

Essential Resources for Bible Teachers

February 14, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

When corresponding with a friend last month, I recommended some Knowable Word resources for teaching the Bible. In this short post, I’m sharing those same recommendations with you. (These recommendations were at the top of my mind because I use them frequently myself. We have many posts on the blog about teaching and leading.)

Classroom or Small Group Study

While not identical, these resources can be used to prepare for either a class or small group setting. My first two recommendations are series of posts which live at the core of this website.

When teaching the Bible, the first and most important step is to understand what the Bible is saying. This blog was created to help with this goal! Start with this page on OIA Bible study.

Because we want to help people lead Bible studies, we also have a series of posts dedicated to this sort of training.

Helpful Worksheets

When preparing to teach or lead a Bible study myself, there are two worksheets that I use regularly. (You can find these and more on our Resources page.)

Teacher Preparation Worksheet — Once I’ve studied a Bible passage, this worksheet helps me organize my thoughts and create a plan for the class or small group. It also reminds me to apply the Bible to myself as the most effective way to help my friends apply it. I explain all of the details of this worksheet in this post. (I have updated this worksheet since I first posted it so that it now matches our other worksheets in appearance. Quite fancy.)
Question Writing Worksheet — One of the keys to a good class or small group is crafting engaging questions. This is hard work! I introduced this worksheet in this post, which followed a series on how to ask good questions in a small group setting.

Teaching the Bible is a great joy. It is also a great responsibility, one which we should not take lightly. It is our hope at Knowable Word that these and other resources might help you in this noble work.

Why Interaction is Good for Small Group Members

April 26, 2021 By Ryan Higginbottom

Small groups are everywhere in churches and Christian ministries. And there are almost as many kinds of small groups as there are ministries.

We write with some frequency about small group Bible studies on this blog, and it’s worth defining our terms from time to time. My aim in this article is to describe the sort of Bible study we advocate and explain why this structure helps Christians get to know the Bible better.

An Interactive Group

When we write about “Bible studies,” we have this in mind: a group of people who “are actively engaged in mutual study and examination of the text of Scripture.” This definition comes from the first post in Peter’s series on leading Bible studies.

The “mutual study and examination” part of this definition is important. We’re not talking about a lecture or a presentation. Every group member thinks, reads, and prays along, wrestling together with the text.

The main benefit of this kind of group is the interaction that cannot be replicated in private devotions, a Sunday sermon, or a theology class. Peter has written about the many advantages of this type of group for leaders, but this is also a fantastic group setup for those who attend.

Hearing From Others

At a healthy interactive small group study, there is bountiful discussion. And this means that everyone present hears not just from the leader but (likely) from everyone else as well.

Why is this important? We all bring different angles and experiences to the Bible, and hearing a diversity of perspectives helps us understand God’s word more fully. To take one passage specifically, think about how a study of the promise of a resurrection body (in 1 Corinthians 15) might land differently if a small group contained people of several generations. Someone who has chronic pain or who has been diagnosed with cancer will add much to this conversation that a healthy twenty-five-year-old couldn’t provide.

We also benefit from hearing the questions, interpretations, hesitations, and affirmations of others. The road to truth is rarely smooth and straight. Charitable pushback—even disagreement—is not to be feared or avoided. God’s word is sturdy and can handle all the interrogation we can muster. Others help us think and see things in the Bible that we would not glimpse on our own.

Actively Engaging the Text

If you’ll permit it, I’m going to wear my educator hat for just a moment. It is now a well-established fact, that from kindergarten through graduate school, the most impactful kind of learning is active learning.

Active learning is what is sounds like—learning in which the student participates actively. This is contrasted with the passive learning of the traditional 45-minute lecture. In terms of effectiveness, it isn’t close. Active learning beats passive learning like an NFL team drubbing a high school squad.

Hopefully you can see it now—interactive small groups are active! Everyone is reading, asking and answering questions, thinking deeply about the Bible, offering alternate interpretations, and sharing different ways to apply the truths they’ve learned. Participants in the best small groups burn a lot of mental calories!

This interaction helps us learn and retain information, it deepens conviction and hope, and it solidifies our thinking. Our engagement during our Bible studies accelerates our journey on the road of Christian growth.

Speaking to Others

While technically this benefit could fit under the umbrella of active engagement, I want to call it out separately. In a healthy small group, all members speak several times during the meeting. And this is of great value to everyone present.

The process of expressing our thoughts or questions verbally often brings a clarity we miss if we keep quiet. Our brains shuffle, combine, and file information in a new way when we form words for others to hear.

Additionally, your group benefits when you speak! Just as you need to hear from others, others need to hear from you. This is an essential part of what it means to be part of a community.

This doesn’t mean everyone is a born teacher or scholar. Your questions, requests for alternate explanations, or personal applications can help move your group toward deeper understanding and more lasting change.

How to Find Such a Group

My advice regarding joining a small group Bible study is simple. Find a group that is committed to studying the Bible. And seek a group with plenty of lively engagement with the text. Start with these criteria and add others as appropriate.

And if you can’t find such a group, perhaps you should start one of your own!

A New Worksheet for Bible Study Leaders

March 29, 2021 By Ryan Higginbottom

Recently, I’ve been writing about leading small group Bible studies. In particular, I’ve tried to help leaders minimize the chances that their questions fall to the ground in silence.

As a result, I’ve been thinking about the importance of questions. Aside from studying the Bible text itself, writing good questions may be the most important, difficult work of a Bible study leader.

I’ve created a worksheet which contains the fruit of this labor. My hope is that some small group leaders may find this helpful as they write questions for their groups. (In the future, you can find a link to this worksheet on our Resources page.)

The Worksheet

At the top of the worksheet, there is space to write the main point of the passage under consideration. This can act like a compass for all question writing; most questions will either lead to the main point or flow from it.

The largest section of the worksheet is the space to write discussion questions. On the right side of the page, I have listed the characteristics of a good question, about which I have written previously. I have found this helpful in my own study preparations—having these qualities nearby is a great reminder.

Finally, I have space at the bottom of the sheet for a study leader to work on a launching question. Though this usually begins a small group meeting, I frequently write it last because I want to get a sense of the whole discussion before thinking about how to kick it off. The characteristics of a good launching question are taken from Peter’s first post on the issue and a follow-up that I wrote.

At Knowable Word, we aim to help ordinary people learn to study the Bible. I offer this worksheet to small group leaders as a tool for your work bench.

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