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Answering Kids’ Questions About the Bible

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Desiring God posted an article from Jon Bloom called “Be Ready to Answer Your Kids’ Questions About the Bible.”

Christianity stands or falls on the reliability, inspiration, and authority of the Bible. Children pick up on that early. We tell them that they should trust the Bible. At some point they will (and should) ask why (if they feel it’s okay to ask).

He goes on to answer the following questions in language suitable to a 9-year-old.

  1. How do we know the Bible is reliable?
  2. Who decided what should be in the Bible?
  3. How do we know the Bible has no errors in it?
  4. Who can understand the Bible?
  5. Why do we need the Bible to know God?
  6. Does the Bible tell us everything we need to know?

Are you ready to answer these questions? Check it out!

Six Bad Habits in Leading Bible Study

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This is a guest post by Andy Cimbala. Andy has a passion for college students to become committed disciples of Jesus Christ, and he loves seeing them lead great Bible studies! Andy & his wife Melissa are the lead campus staff for the DiscipleMakers ministry at Shippensburg University, and he blogs for The Relentless Fight. If you’d like to write a guest post for Knowable Word, please see the guidelines page.
Dennis Larson (2012), Creative Commons

Dennis Larson (2012), Creative Commons

If God can use a silly donkey to speak his word (2 Peter 2:16), he can use anybody. But the wise of heart will use sweetness of speech to increase persuasiveness (Prov 16:21).

Thus, even when truth is present, a bad Bible study can leave participants confused, wondering if they’ll ever understand what the Bible says. But as leaders we can prevent Bible studies from being dull by learning how to study well and how to lead well—and by avoiding at least six bad habits.

1. Winging It

The Spirit of God works as we lead Bible study, and he also works as we prepare for it. Before you lead, spend time in prayer and preparation to discern the main point of the text and to generate some helpful questions to guide the time.

2. Being Vague

When God speaks, he means to communicate something knowable and specific, and what he means is not a matter of one’s own interpretation. Your job as leader is to direct people to the text to discern what the author is saying. Clarity is a rare but precious commodity. Strive for it as you frame the time and ask good questions. Feel free to guide the group by taking tangential discussions offline.

3. Talking a Lot

The answers are in the text and not your brain. Direct the group back into the Bible, and ask questions to help them seek and find the truth there. Be quick to listen and slow to speak. By all means, draw the group out, and dominate the time with God’s voice, not yours.

4. Keeping it Academic

What good is it to understand the point of a passage but never have it change our lives? James says this is like looking in the bathroom mirror but having to pull down the car visor 15 minutes later because you forgot what you looked like (James 1:23-24). When you lead a Bible study, reserve time for application and push folks to grapple with the text’s connection to their lives. Don’t be satisfied with purely cognitive but apparently spiritual answers.

5. Sputtering to the Finish

Leaders are servants, and a great way to serve people is to communicate start and end times—and hold yourself to them. Also, a strong way to end the study might be to restate the main point, summarize a few applications, and close with prayer. You may want to sneak any announcements in before the closing prayer. What you don’t want is for people, who sacrificed time to attend, to wonder whether it was worth it.

6. Neglecting Prayer

Since the Holy Spirit wrote the Scripture, sensible leaders ask his help to understand it. While prayer might not fit your goals for the discussion time itself (particularly if the group’s purpose is outreach to unbelievers), prayer during your preparation expresses dependence on the Lord and gives him the honor he deserves.

May God strengthen you to be an excellent Bible study leader! May you lead with consideration, clarity, and confidence in the author and perfecter of faith. And if your study doesn’t go well, remember that our gracious God can still speak through anyone.

Matthias Media Home Group Leader’s Digest

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I recently subscribed to the Home Group Leaders digest from Matthias Media. This digest is a free monthly email with practical tips and encouragement to those who lead small group Bible studies.

The September edition was quite helpful on a number of topics:

  • How to follow up with people whose attendance has been spotty.
  • How to develop closeness in the group outside of the Bible study meeting.
  • Why it’s important not to ask questions that leave people feeling like they have to read your mind.

You can check out the newsletter online, or—even better—subscribe! In the subscription options, just check “The Home Group Leader’s Monthly Digest.”

Ask Good Application Questions

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This is a guest post by Ryan Higginbottom, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. When he’s not solving differential equations or blogging at A Small Work, he loves spending time with his wife and two daughters. He also leads a small group Bible study for his church. If you’d like to write a guest post for Knowable Word, please see the guidelines page.

Welcome to the most uncomfortable part of your small group Bible study. Regardless of how energetic the discussion has been, getting personal will be hard work. Your group may float on the momentum of observation and interpretation like a shiny soap-bubble on a breezy spring day, yet that bubble can pop as soon as you transition to application. Safety and abstraction give no further covering. You’re asking people to reshape their thinking and their lives according to the Word of God, and such requests normally feel uncomfortable.

Serge Melki (2010), Creative Commons

Serge Melki (2010), Creative Commons

But don’t shy away from the discomfort! When you discuss the work of God to conform us to the image of Christ, any tension you feel is evidence of progress. When you lead your group through the awkwardness, your courage will be infectious.

Lead the Group in Application

First, apply the text to yourself. A leader who hasn’t already made personal application from the text is like a skinny chef, an unkempt barber, or a disheveled tailor. If the text hasn’t changed you, you’ll have little capital with which to invest in others’ change. In fact, the areas where God’s word has most powerfully affected you will likely be the ones that stand out the most to your group. So, as you plan your study, apply the Bible to your own life. Build such application into your preparation.

Second, ask a general question. In my small group, I usually transition to application with a generic, open-ended question: “How can we apply this text?” On this fishing trip, I wait five seconds before cutting bait. I’m looking for any pointed, clear work of the Spirit, because sometimes God will bring conviction and insight for change to the mind of a group member as we meet. I don’t want to bottle that up, but to allow room for spontaneous eruptions of confession and grace-dependent plans to change.

Third, ask specific questions. This work is hard but good. People don’t often respond to big, broad questions but need help to consider specific applications. To stimulate your preparation, consider the two directions and the three spheres of application. Additionally, consider applications for individuals as well as for the group and/or church/ministry as a whole. You won’t have time to touch on every area of application every week, but make sure that you balance the categories over the weeks and months so the group doesn’t list too much in one direction.

Case Study

Consider an example. Last week I suggested the following as the main point of Isaiah 25:1-12:

Praise God! He will swallow up death, and He gives us glimpses of that now.

Here are some potential application questions that flow from this main point:

  • How could you live as though God will swallow up death? What gets in the way? What glimpses do you now see that can remind you of God’s victory?
  • What opportunities do you have to speak about God’s victory over death? To your children? To your neighbors? To your coworkers? How do they view death? What glimpses of God’s victory might they now see?
  • If God will swallow up death, how will that affect our approach to risk-taking? What keeps you from taking risks? How can we help each other take God-glorifying risks?
  • How can we remind each other that God will swallow up death? To what “now” glimpses can we point?

Final Thoughts

Here are some final ideas to help you ask better application questions.

  1. Questions belong to you; conviction belongs to the Holy Spirit. By all means, study, think, and pray in your preparation. But remember you cannot convict sinners of their sin. The Holy Spirit holds this job. Your job is to ask questions that lead to applications of the text and to share how God has changed you through this study. You must labor in faith, knowing that you can plant or water but that God causes the growth. (1 Cor 3:5–9)
  2. Be specific and personal in your questions. As the members of your group get to know each other, you will start to know where others battle against sin. So, as the moment allows, you can ask specific application questions that tap into the group’s shared history. “Jane, a few weeks ago you mentioned that you often don’t know how to offer hope to your coworkers. Can you think of a way to bring the truth from tonight’s passage to anyone specifically?” Be sensitive to personalities and confidences, but leverage this great benefit of a small group: giving and receiving help in targeted, personal, specific ways.
  3. Ask honest questions. If you ask a question and it is clear to your group that you are expecting only one correct answer, you’re not encouraging discussion, and the group may feel manipulated. See how the group responds to suggestions, but leave room for the Holy Spirit to push the changes through.
  4. Connect your application to Jesus. Too often Christians leave Bible studies in a rush of grit and determination rather than a dependence on God’s grace. Though a burst of adrenaline may enable you to push a car for a few feet, that’s no way to cross the country. We need Jesus’ life and death for us all the time, both for forgiveness when we fail and for strength to obey. And as the group leader, this must sink deeply into your heart so you can guard your friends against the let’s-go-do-this-woo-hoo application fever.

What have you found helpful in regard to asking application questions in Bible studies?

Ask Good Interpretive Questions

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This is a guest post by Ryan Higginbottom, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. When he’s not solving differential equations or blogging at A Small Work, he loves spending time with his wife and two daughters. He also leads a small group Bible study for his church. If you’d like to write a guest post for Knowable Word, please see the guidelines page.

But who do you say that I am? (Luke 9:20, ESV)

This piercing question follows a simple observation question (“Who do the crowds say that I am?”). Jesus requires his disciples to consider the popular answers (John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets of old) along with the witness of his teaching and life. Jesus presses them to make sense of their observations.

Eric (2005), Creative Commons

Eric (2005), Creative Commons

Interpretation questions provide an indispensable turning point for small group discussions. Though we must observe well, we must not stop there. Wise leaders challenge people to make sense of observation through vibrant interpretation. Thus, having seen how to ask good observation questions in a small group setting, we are ready to take the next step.

One key idea will help you learn to ask good interpretation questions: Work backwards. Plant your flag on the main point of the passage, review the trail you hiked to get there, and develop questions that will guide your group back to the summit.

Working Backwards

Since the chief goal of interpretation is to identify the author’s main point in the passage, we want to lead our groups to that end. Ideally, we want to be able to state the central theme in a single sentence.

Then it is time to work backwards. Which observations were most significant? Which questions directed me to the main point? Which questions were good but tangential? How does the argument of the passage flow from beginning to end? Which highlights will best serve the group?

Case Study

My small group recently studied Isaiah 25:1-12. I stated the main point of the passage this way:

Praise God, for he will swallow up death, and he gives glimpses of that future reality now.

How did I structure my questions to guide the group toward this idea?

Beginning with the first stanza, Isaiah 25:1–5, I asked observation questions that pointed the group to previous themes in the book—such as the destruction of strong cities—and to repeated words or ideas, like strength (Isaiah 25:2, 3, 4) and the “ruthless” (Isaiah 25:3, 4, 5). I also asked what this stanza teaches about God.

These conversations set us up for the following interpretive questions that led the group to the main point:

  • Why will the strong and ruthless people glorify God? How would such people glorify God? This question prods the group to see God’s victory being so complete that his enemies can do nothing but honor him for his strength. God is such a stronghold for his people that his enemies are in awe.
  • Why does Isaiah 25:5 refer to “the song of the ruthless”? Probably, the ruthless would sing when victorious; if God silences this song, it means he is weakening their military power.
  • Why do the verb tenses keep changing (past, present, future)? This question explores the relationship between what God has done and what he will yet do. Thus, arriving at the chapter’s second stanza (Isaiah 25:6–12), we’ll see the connection between God’s having defeated human enemies and God’s coming defeat of the greatest enemy, death. The “forever” tone of Isaiah 25:2 foreshadows the eradication of death prophesied in Isaiah 25:7-8.

Final Thoughts

Here are some final tips for asking good interpretive questions.

  1. Prepare, but be flexible. By all means, prepare well. Study, pray, and trust God as you prepare notes to guide your leadership of the discussion. But be flexible as well. Multiple paths of observation can lead to the same main point. Remember that you are fallible and others may correct or adjust your interpretations if they can prove it from the text. You may have even missed the passage’s main point and landed on a sub-point! Don’t dismiss unexpected responses. Push your group’s collective noses back into the text, and if they see something you didn’t, be ready to learn and rejoice. This is part of the beauty of studying the Bible in a group.
  2. Ask honest questions. This point is related to the previous one. Make sure that your questions are offered in a spirit of honest inquiry. Do you want to know how your group interprets the passage, or are you just waiting for them to catch up and agree with you? Be curious. Seek the truth. Remember that the Holy Spirit gives understanding in different measures and at different times. When you ask a “What did he mean?” question, be ready to listen for sensible interpretations, not just for confirmation of your own conclusions.
  3. Take one step at a time. Figure out the meaning of one stanza or paragraph and then move on. You don’t have to survey the entire passage before discussing the component pieces. The themes from each paragraph usually swirl together in the same current to bring the main point to shore.
  4. Avoid asking, “What does this mean to you?” Since God’s truth lies in the text and not (naturally) in our hearts, we can extinguish this tricky little flame for good.

What about you? What have you learned about asking good interpretive questions in a small group?

Ask Good Observation Questions

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You’ve finished preparing, and you’re ready to lead your Bible study discussion group. The next few Friday posts will focus on the skills we need to lead people well through OIA Bible study in a group context.

This first article is a guest post by Ryan Higginbottom, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. When he’s not solving differential equations or blogging at A Small Work, he loves spending time with his wife and two daughters. He also leads a small group Bible study for his church. If you’d like to write a guest post for Knowable Word, please see the guidelines page.

When reading the Gospels, have you noticed how often Jesus asks questions? His disciples must have been incredibly frustrated. They wanted answers; he served up another round of questions. Why? Through intentional interrogation, he often showed them to be asking the wrong questions entirely.

Tim O'Brien (2006), Creative Commons

Tim O’Brien (2006), Creative Commons

Because Jesus bound up so much of his ministry with inquiries, Christian faith and discernment will lead us to develop the ability to ask good questions. Such questions (and willing answers, of course) are a key part of healthy marriages, vibrant classes, joyful homes, and thriving mentorships. But in particular, good questions are the engine that chugs effective small group Bible studies into the station.

The Function of Good Questions

Perhaps you’ve been in a Bible study with a skilled and wise leader, whose questions guide the group through the critical parts of a passage. You may not even remember these questions, however, since good questions are almost invisible. But without them the group would function like a legs-up turtle. These are not the clever, witty, eloquent questions of the orator or debater. They don’t draw attention to themselves.

Bad questions, on the other hand, are as subtle as a fire alarm. Instead of encouraging discussion, they shut it down. They interrupt the flow of dialogue and generate silence, while the leader squirms and the group members wonder what’s for dinner.

What is the difference between a good question and a bad one? What are some characteristics of good questions?

Observation Questions for Small Groups

The foundation of any Bible study lies with careful observation of the text. This is no less true for group study than it is for individual study. So how do we ask good observation questions?

Let’s take Acts 19:1–10 as a sample passage. Imagine you are preparing to lead a discussion on it, and you want to draw people out by drawing them into the text. Your questions will make all the difference.

Bad Observation Questions

  1. What baptism did the Ephesian disciples receive?
  2. What was the first thing Paul did when he arrived in Ephesus?
  3. When did Paul move to the hall of Tyrannus?

Good Observation Questions

  1. What experience of Christianity did the Ephesian disciples have before Paul arrived?
  2. How does Paul interact with the Ephesian disciples?
  3. How is the passage structured?

Though the bad questions require observations for answers, the dialogue goes no further. These queries focus on a single detail, and the group members serve only to fill in the blanks left by the leader, who diligently steers clear of the conversation highway. Let’s be honest: While this approach offers a safe and easy way to create an appearance of participation, it also safely avoids the powerful, spontaneous, and unpredictable work of the Spirit in the minds and hearts of others.

The good questions, however, encourage meaningful discussion and interaction, while still drawing out specific observations. They are more open-ended, enabling group members to pick up on the important features of a passage and leave the smaller details alone. These questions simultaneously engage the group and open the door to interpretation.

What about you? What are some examples of effective observation questions you’ve asked (or answered!) in a small-group setting?

To Prompt or Not to Prompt

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This summer I met a professional (minor league) baseball player. I asked him if he still uses a tee for batting practice, and his response confirmed my suspicions: “Every day.”

A good Bible study guide is like a baseball tee. While it is not part of the actual game, it performs a critical function in training all players, be they youngsters, pros, or anyone in between.

Similarly, while Bible study guides should not be the heart and soul of our Scripture study, they are invaluable for refining, training, and conditioning our study skills. This goes not only for printed guides—workbooks, commentaries, etc.—but also for oral guides like discussion questions and prompting from a leader. In this final post on preparing to lead effective Bible studies, I’d like to reflect on something I often wrestle with: Should I give people specific questions to help them prepare for the next meeting?

Ken Bingham (2009), Creative Commons

Ken Bingham (2009), Creative Commons

What I Mean by Prompting

Last week, my small group was planning to study Romans 1:1-17. We had just discussed a book overview at the previous meeting. A few days before the meeting, I emailed participants with a few questions to help their preparation:

  1. According to this passage, what is the gospel?
  2. Why is Paul so excited about it?

That’s it. I didn’t put a huge effort into crafting a careful study guide. I just wanted to give a few open-ended questions to stimulate their thinking in the right direction. Is it helpful to do this?

Reasons to Prompt

There are many good reasons to prompt people in their preparation:

  • People who have never studied the Bible before won’t know what to do without some help. They’ll sit and stare at the passage (if they have the fortitude to do even that) before giving up hopelessly.
  • Some who have studied can still get in ruts. Familiarity may cause them to presume on the text’s meaning. A skilled leader can prompt them in the right direction.
  • People eventually learn how to ask good questions after they’ve had good models to imitate.
  • Such prompting sets the meeting up for success:
    • It enables the group to begin the discussion farther down the road toward the main point.
    • It may limit the number of rabbit trails.
    • It provides structure for the group discussion.
  • Prompting shapes expectations and communicates key ideas.
  • It helps people to begin meditating on these key ideas before they get to the meeting. Such advance notice often makes interpretation and application discussions more fruitful.

What are some other good reasons for prompting?

Reasons Not to Prompt

I don’t have a long list for this category; just one chief danger. Prompting can short-circuit people’s ability to interact with the text directly.

When I ask (good) questions, people will (usually) answer. But how can they learn how to ask their own questions if I never give them the chance? The first step of interpretation is to ask questions of our observations, and Bible study participants should have opportunity to practice this skill as much as the rest. Though I may succeed at communicating the truth of the text, will I succeed at showing people how to find that truth in my absence?

Conclusion

To prompt or not to prompt? Like most areas where we need wisdom, the answer is: It depends.

It depends on who the people are. It depends on how much experience they have with Bible study. It depends on what my goals are as I lead them. It depends on what the people are ready for. It depends on what they want. It depends on whether they’ll feel stretched or broken.

I believe neither that we must always prompt nor that we must never prompt. But I believe we must at least think about it if we want to lead effectively.

DeYoung’s 5 Tips for Leading Small Groups

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Kevin DeYoung posted a great article last week on leading small groups. His tips are:

  1. Communicate early and often, and then follow through.
  2. Think through your questions ahead of time.
  3. Be mindful of group dynamics.
  4. Know how to handle conflict.
  5. Plan for prayer.

I wrote some similar things in my posts “How to Lead a Great Bible Study” and “5 Practices for Preparing Effective Bible Studies,” so I highly recommend the full article. Check it out!

How to Lead A Great Bible Study

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A few nights ago, our church small group met in our home, and we had one of the most engaging and encouraging Bible studies in the history of the group. Since I didn’t lead the discussion, I was able to reflect on what made the discussion so effective.

Steel Wool (2009), Creative Commons

Steel Wool (2009), Creative Commons

I now offer you the fruit of my musings.

1. Know Your Point

The leader came to the study with a clear grasp of the text’s main point. He knew exactly where he wanted the group to end up.

2. Ask Good Questions

There’s a place for lecture, and there’s a place for interactive instruction. The key to fostering constructive interaction is to ask good questions. When have you experienced such leadership before? What kinds of questions encourage you to engage in the discussion? And you know what sort of questions shut down the discussion, don’t you?

3. Set a Direction

The leader led. He didn’t let the group meander through the conversation. He didn’t just wing it. He set a course, and he began moving along it.

4. Respond to the Group

Though the leader set a direction, he did not drag the group with him. He didn’t leash the discussion or get insecure when it swerved unexpectedly. He kept us moving toward the main point, but he didn’t control the group’s pathway toward that main point. I’m sure we ended up exactly where he wanted us, but we felt all along like we had gotten there ourselves.

5. Stay in the Text

Here’s the silver bullet. The text provides self-corrective measures to a group prone to tangents. A leader who keeps the people in the text doesn’t have to fear unpredictable discussion. As soon as the discussion gets off-topic, the leader can ask, “So how do you see that in the text?” and get things back online.

6. Clarify the Point

The leader took us to the text’s main point, and then he camped out there. He didn’t pursue every possible theological or interpretive quandary. He got us to the main point, and he had us restate the point numerous times. Then he took us to Christ and on into application.

7. Broaden Application

The leader had more than one application in mind. He had prepared a series of questions about our thinking, character, and behaviors. He had considered applications for both individuals and the group. He had considered how the text should impact our engagement with the world around us. In the end, he didn’t ask every question he had prepared, but he had a broad range of ideas in place so he could respond to whichever topics connected best with the group.

8. Specify Application

The leader didn’t let us get away with clichés or vague principles. He asked good follow-up questions that made us get more specific.

These are not the only eight things leaders can do; they just stood out to me after this week’s study. And my intention is not to ignore the impact of character or knowledge on one’s leadership.

But if we had more leaders who practiced these skills to the glory of God, people would be far more interested in going to Bible studies.

We Three Kings… Sorta

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Christmas in the Hallman household always comes with an abundance of some of my favorite things, including my mom’s holly candy, incredible Christmas light displays, and, of course, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

One of TSO’s lesser-known songs is this fun tune [link no longer available] about “what really happened” when the three wise men showed up looking for the baby Messiah. It’s obviously a work of fiction but is bound to make you smile knowingly and say, “That’s creative, but we all know that’s not what actually happened!”

3 Kings

Image courtesy of Vectorportal.com

Do we?

Let’s take a closer look at what Matthew records in his gospel to see how our nativity traditions measure up! First, refresh your memory by reading over Matthew 2:1-18. Okay, ready for a quiz?

How many kings were there?

If you guessed “three”, you might be right, but that’s the most we can know. Matthew never tells us how many there were; he only tells us that there were at least three kinds of gifts offered (gold, frankincense and myrrh.) In fact, since these guys could obviously afford to offer some nice presents to young Jesus, they probably also traveled with a large company of servants and/or guards.

Were they actually kings?

Matthew doesn’t call them “kings”. Some translations call them “wise men”. The best word is probably “magi”, but there are many theories about who “magi” actually were.

One possible clue to their identity is way back in Daniel 2:48: “Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men (magi) of Babylon.” It’s entirely possible that Daniel went on to teach these Babylonian magi all about Yahweh and His coming Christ such that generations later, wise men in the east were expectantly watching for the star of the promised King.

When did they arrive?

If your favorite nativity characters happen to be our magi friends, I have sad news for you: they weren’t there!

We know from Matthew 2:7 that Herod asked the magi when the star had appeared. We also know from Matthew 2:16 that Herod, in his rage when the magi do not return to him, has all children under age 2 killed “according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.” It seems likely therefore that the magi had noted the star two years earlier but hadn’t made the trip for some time. By the time Mary welcomed these foreign visitors, Jesus was probably a toddler! Also, Joseph’s little family had upgraded to a house during that time (Matthew 2:11).

Application… sorta

So, consider this blog post your permission to have a new “nativity” where 2-year-old Jesus is getting piggy-back rides from a couple dozen Babylonian decedents. It’s at least as Biblical as the traditional nativity scene, and perhaps a bit more fun.