Materials | Knowable Word

Choosing Good Bible Study Material for Women’s Groups

October 14, 2015 By Peter Krol

Mary Willson has a very good article with 5 Questions for choosing Bible study material for women’s groups. Her questions:

Will this material equip women by encouraging them to study and teach the Bible for themselves?
Will this material equip women by demonstrating the centrality of Christ and his gospel?
Will this material equip women by applying God’s Word to real life, showing the Scriptures’ relevance and power to transform hearts?
Will this material equip women by supporting the overall discipleship strategy I’ve prayerfully developed for this group?
Will this material equip women by coming under the teaching ministry of my pastor(s) and elders? Does it align with my church’s vision and doctrinal convictions?

Willson has very helpful things to say on each point, and I recommend you check out her article.

And I can’t help but ask a few questions: Why do we assume we must choose good Bible study material? Why can’t we just have good Bible studies? “This year’s women’s study will use Luke.” Would we not inspire people with deeper confidence to study God’s word, if we showed them how to do it? If every study uses another resource, another study guide, or another workbook, don’t we perpetually reinforce the idea that they need the experts to do the Bible study for them? Thus we might unintentionally undermine the first question Willson asks.

Imagine a women’s group (or men’s group, or co-ed group) that sat down with their Bibles, read their Bibles, and discussed what they read. Of course they’d want to reference supplemental materials from time to time to help with the thorniest parts. But what if they helped each other simply to open, read, and discuss? Soon enough, they’d each be able to do it on their own. Then they’d teach others who would teach others. And something truly amazing would take place in our churches and communities.

5 Practices for Preparing Effective Bible Studies

June 6, 2014 By Peter Krol

There’s an incredible market in today’s Christian world for Bible study workbooks and leaders guides. Apparently, many people want to discuss the things of the Lord. And God has gifted some writers to unveil the riches of God’s word for broad audiences. These are good things, but the unfortunate side effects are legion:

We train people to believe the Bible on its own is not sufficient for life and godliness.
We learn to trust the experts more than we learn to trust the text.
We never learn how to get lost and find our way through a passage.
We promote a priestly layer of materials mediation between people and God.
We communicate that others should not try this at home. Leading a Bible study is too difficult and dangerous for those with fewer than two graduate degrees.

So I’m not surprised when people tell me they’re scared to lead a Bible study. They should be scared if their idea of Bible study is limited to what can be published in a workbook. Not just anyone can take big truths and package them up for such wide consumption.

Generation Bass, Creative Commons

But a Bible study doesn’t need to be packaged for wide consumption. No publisher knows your friends as well as you do. Nobody is as well-equipped to bring God’s truth to that small group of people as you are. So why not be his mouthpiece to them?

Here’s how I do it.

1. Depend on the Lord

Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. We’ll bear no fruit unless we stay connected to the vine. For me, this usually means I have to pray before I begin preparing, but prayer isn’t the only way to express dependence. Often, I’ll feel short on time, and I’ll try to rush my preparation and get on to the next thing on my to-do list. But when I get lost in the text, I remember I can’t do it on my own, and I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit.

2. Figure out what God has said

Sometimes we make too much of the difference between studying to grow and studying to lead, as though we’d study the text differently for each purpose. Or as though we should block out devotional time and teaching prep time in different sections of the calendar. But both should look the same: Observe and interpret. Figure out the author’s main point. Once you’re clear on what God has spoken in the passage, you’ll be ready to lead others into that truth.

And don’t read study notes or commentaries until after you’ve wrestled with the text yourself. Take a guess at the main point of the passage before you read what others have said about it. That way your reading will correct your mistakes and connect you to the Christian community without replacing your own walk with Christ.

3. Allow the message to change you

Again, studying to teach is not much different from studying to grow. Your teaching should flow out of your growth. If you’d like to see the text change people, you’ll have to show them how it’s changed you. Invulnerable leaders produce invulnerable followers. But the beginning of wisdom is a soft heart toward the Lord.

4. Decide how to lead your group toward what God has said

Now that you’ve humbled yourself before the text, understanding it and applying it to your own life, you’ll be able to show others the way. Only at this point does teaching prep begin to look any different from devotional study. Consider the main point of the passage and how to frame it in a way that will make sense to your group. Think of what’s going on in their lives that might hinder or promote the truth of Christ in the passage. Consider what lies they believe and what encouragement they need to honor the Lord. Make a list of observation questions that will get them into the text. Anticipate some interpretive questions they might have. Develop some applications for the individuals, the group, your church, and their interactions with the world.

5. Consider the beginning

The most important part of the Bible study will be the first 2 minutes. You’ll want to hook them and give them a reason to engage with the rest of the discussion. So think of a specific story to tell, or a specific question to ask, or a specific application to share. Your first words will set the tone for the rest of the study, so nail that part down.

For most of the study, you’ll have a list of possible questions to stimulate discussion, but you’ll want to keep it flexible to allow the discussion to flow freely. But the flexibility works best when you frame the discussion well from the beginning.

The details of preparation will differ from person to person. But always trust the Spirit to equip you through the text to speak the very oracles of God to your people, so God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all glory and dominion forever and ever. (1 Peter 4:10-11).

Bible Study is Less Common than Bible Study Study

November 6, 2013 By Peter Krol

Meetings for Bible study may be at an all-time high (just my hunch), but how many of them are studying the Bible? From my observation, groups are more likely to study a Bible study than study the Bible.

In other words, groups of people with open Bibles are out. Groups of people with open study guides are in.

I’m not the only one to notice this trend. Dave Miller, writing at SBC Voices, asks an insightful question in his recent post entitled “Whatever Happened to Bible Study“:

Could there be value to a teacher sharing the fruit of his own studies of God’s Word as compared to just being a “facilitator” for a discussion of opinions about the third chapter of the latest John Piper book?

Miller doesn’t mind benefitting from the help of Piper (or David Platt or Beth Moore). Instead, he laments the habit of bouncing from one study guide to the next without learning to study the Scripture directly. He relates this counsel from his mentor Howard Hendricks:

Read the text, observe it – before you check other peoples’ opinions and insights. Let the Spirit be your first teacher. After you have studied, after you have labored over the text and figured it out, then you consult the wisdom of the wise (often to see where you went astray).

For further reflection on these points, see my posts on Four Mistakes When Using Commentaries and What Materials Do You Use.

And I recommend Miller’s post at SBC Voices. Check it out!