From the Babylon Bee: “Revolutionary Women’s Bible Study to Actually Study the Bible”
Check it out!
Questions to Avoid in Small Group Discussions
Melissa Kruger has some helpful thoughts on the types of questions that tend to stifle conversation in small group settings:
- Questions with an obvious answer
- Questions with a one-word answer
- Questions only researchers could answer
- Application questions that get too personal too quickly
My co-blogger Ryan has written helpful posts on how to ask good observation, interpretation, and application questions—right along these lines Kruger hopes to avoid.
Kruger has some helpful explanation. Check it out!
HT: Jake Swink
Bible Study Leaders: Watch the Clock!
Jiyeon Park (2017), public domain
One of the most practical—but least expected—pieces of advice I give to Bible study leaders is to wear a watch.
I know it’s easy to keep track of time on your phone. And maybe you can consult your phone in a way that isn’t obvious or distracting. But a Bible study leader needs to monitor the time, and there’s nothing quite like a watch.
Love Each Other
As a Bible study leader, I’ve far too often lost track of time. I’ve ended the study late, put a strain on the parents in the room, and inconvenienced those for whom driving later at night is difficult.
We don’t often consider time management when leading a Bible study, but it has much to do with how well our friends learn from and apply the Bible. When we rush, we can miss the supporting truths and observations on which a solid interpretation rests. When we proceed too slowly, we risk boring our friends and ruining the interaction that is so vital to a good Bible study.
The way we structure the time within our group study can have a huge effect on the way we engage with the Scriptures. Let’s take a look at six different time-related ways we can love our group members.
1. Start on time.
Try to arrive a few minutes early and begin at the agreed-upon hour. I’m not advocating you cancel any built-in mingling and conversation time. But when it’s time for the Bible study portion of the meeting, be faithful to that committment.
2. End on time.
This is even more important than the previous point. When you’re setting up the group and inviting folks to join, make sure you allow enough time for your intended purposes. Then honor the committment your friends make to the group by ending on time.
3. Manage the other parts of the meeting.
Most small group meetings include other aspects of fellowship besides Bible study. Perhaps it’s a meal, a time for prayer, singing, or door-to-door evangelism. Try to stick to a rough schedule that everyone knows so that no one is surprised and the gathering flows as expected.
4. Plan the pacing of your study.
As you get to know your group, you’ll have a sense of their interests, their strengths, and their weaknesses. You’ll learn roughly how long it will take to discuss certain passages. As you prepare your Bible study, in addition to the questions you will ask and the applications you will raise, plan out the time. Divide your study into well-defined sections so you can press the accelerator or the brake as needed.
5. Plan time for application.
Application often comes last in our Bible studies. This makes sense, since good observation and interpretation are critical before we can engage in honest application.
But application is hard. It involves a raw look at ourselves, our group, and our church or organization, confessing our failures and pressing the truth of Scripture into those areas for obedience. It takes time.
We have to do better than tacking on a half-hearted two minutes of application to the end of our studies. To nurture application-focused discussion during which real transformation can happen, set aside at least 10 minutes for this part of the conversation.
6. Be flexible and gracious.
In advocating an eye to the clock, I’m not arguing for cold schedule-keeping. All that we do as Christians, and especially as leaders, needs to flow out of love for God and neighbor.
Sometimes love—and a sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit—demands flexibility. On a few occasions I’ve ditched my Bible study plans entirely in favor of encouraging, praying for, and lamenting with a brother or sister with a tremendous spiritual burden. People are more important than plans.
Additionally, sometimes the Spirit is at work during a group discussion when the meeting time ends. I suggest announcing to the group that the meeting is over and acknowledging that some people may need to leave. Offer to stay and continue the conversation with those who are able and interested.
Mind the Time
By keeing an eye on the time, we love and serve those in our small groups. This isn’t easy, and it is a skill we develop with experience. As you pray for your group, ask God to help you use and manage the group’s time for the group’s good and God’s glory.
Don’t Be Like This Guy
And for something a little light-hearted, check out this satirical report on the “Home Bible Study Leader Asks If Anyone Else Has Any Blatant Heresy They’d Like To Share.”
HT: Caleb Olshefsky
How to Discuss the Sermon in Your Small Group
Jon Flobrant (2015), public domain
Sometimes the best solution is the obvious one.
My small group at church was between books. We finished Isaiah and were about to begin Luke, but we needed a topic to fill a gap. Since we meet on Sunday nights and attend the same worship service on Sunday mornings, I realized the answer was staring me in the face. We could discuss the sermon!
A few people in my group had experience with sermon discussions. They knew this wasn’t just a repetition of the preacher’s outline. This was good, hard work. Like strong hands kneading dough, God can use discussions like this to press the application of his word deep into the lives of his people.
Why Discuss the Sermon?
The preacher isn’t the only one with sermon work to do. He studies, prays, and prepares, but the folks in the pews have a job too.
We need to listen carefully and weigh the sermon against Scripture. We’re also called to apply the Bible, and this is where a small group discussion can be helpful.
Consider the benefits of having a conversation about the sermon.
People who anticipate a discussion like this are more likely to pay close attention during the sermon. This greater engagement naturally leads to greater spiritual blessing.
The small group will focus on application, and when several people work hard to apply the sermon together, powerful things can happen. You might see connections or sense conviction you hadn’t noticed on your own. A friend might mention needs in the church or the community that would be an ideal outlet of application.
Think of the benefits to your church if your small group members were diligently discussing the sermon and applying the Word preached! It would mean quite a transformation.
How to Lead a Sermon Discussion
It doesn’t take much to lead a sermon discussion in your small group or Sunday school class. With a little preparation and some good questions, you’ll be ready to go.
- Announce it. Let your group know your plans to discuss the sermon. This will encourage them to listen carefully and take notes in preparation.
- Apply the sermon yourself. To lead a good discussion, be sure to prepare yourself. Listen to the sermon, think about the connections and implications, and pray for insight and conviction from the Spirit. Bring some personal applications to share in case the group discussion slows down.
- Read the Bible passage. If your group meets directly after the worship service, this might not be necessary. But if your group meets hours or days later, reading the Bible passage will start your discussion with the proper focus.
- Ask open-ended questions. Begin the discussion by asking for broad takeaways from the passage or sermon. This gives an opportunity for people to share what God is teaching them. Conversations that drift into criticism of the preacher aren’t usually productive, so be prepared to steer the conversation back to the Bible.
- Ask application questions. Here is the heart of the discussion. Most of the work of observation and interpretation should be completed by the preacher during the sermon. Your small group provides a great setting to go deep on application. Ask your preacher to write two or three application questions for the congregation to consider; these can be printed in the bulletin along with the sermon outline. Use these questions as starters, but follow the conversation naturally into other areas of application. (You might need to remind your group about the two directions and three spheres of application.)
- Ask about obstacles to application. We can dream up all the applications we wish—putting them into practice is the difficult part. Once the group discusses a few concrete applications of the passage, ask what might get in the way of the changes you’re proposing.
- Pray! Real change in our lives doesn’t happen because of a sermon, an insight, or a small group discussion. We need the Holy Spirit’s powerful, transforming work to help us glorify God. Before your small group adjourns, be sure to commit your applications to God.
If you use your church’s sermon to propel your small group into the Bible, you’ll have lots of time to wrestle through applications. As you’re confronted with ways you need to change and encourage others to change, it won’t be easy, but it will be worthwhile.
Thanks to Peter for his help in preparing this article.
The Summer of the Bible
Paolo Rosa (2015), public domain
Today marks the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. The next three months promise sunshine and thunderstorms, lightning bugs and mosquitoes, picnics and sunburn. Summer is here, whether you’ve gathered your frisbees and watermelon or not.
Summer has a rhythm of its own. The children are out of school, we’re anxious to travel, and the longer hours of daylight call us outside for yard work and play.
Though it seems we should have more time in the summer for spiritual pursuits, for many the opposite is true. We float into the fall like a dry leaf, wondering why we feel so distant from the Lord.
Let’s make this summer different. Let’s fill this summer with the Bible.
Seven Reasons to Read the Bible
As I urge you to pick up your Bible this summer, I realize some will consider this a stuffy burden. But if you think the Bible is boring, you’ve got the wrong book.
The Bible is the word of God! It is our light in the dark, it is our way back to our Father, it is the food we need for life. There are millions of reasons to read and study the Bible. Consider these seven.
- We read the Bible to know Christ.
- We study the Bible because knowing Jesus is eternal life.
- The Bible gives us wisdom (Proverbs 1:1–7).
- The Bible makes us fruitful (Psalm 1:1–3).
- The Bible warns us about sin and folly (Psalm 19:11).
- The Bible gives us hope (Romans 15:4).
- The Bible gives us the truth, and there is freedom in knowing the truth (John 8:31–32).
Five Suggestions for a Bible-filled Summer
There’s no need to wait until January 1 to make a life change. If you’ve been neglecting God’s word or if you’d just like to make the most of the summer, here are five ways to get started.
Read and study the Bible yourself. You’ll never regret focusing on the Bible. If you’ve never studied the Bible before, don’t be intimidated! We’ve got you covered. If you need the refreshment of simply reading the Bible, three months is plenty of time to read the whole thing. Really!
Join a Bible study group. A small group study can be just the thing to get you out of the house and into God’s word. Ask around at church to see what’s available this summer, and if you don’t find anything that works, start your own group!
Read the Bible with a friend or spouse. Groups can be great, but the simple practice of reading the Bible with one other person is powerful too. This really is as easy as it sounds: find a friend, find a time, and dive into the Bible together.
Read the Bible with your family. Pick a book in the Bible and start reading out loud. Once you finish, start again with a different book. Keep going. A family reading time will be fruitful for everyone (especially if the children ask questions).
Point your children to the Bible. School-age children invariably have more free time in the summer, and they can’t spend the whole time blowing bubbles. Whether your children can read or not, the summer is a great time to help them develop a daily devotional habit. Follow up and show them how the whole Bible fits together.
Three months of summer stretch out before us; let’s use them to immerse ourselves in the Bible!
Not Every Bible Study is a Bible Study
Writing for Christianity Today, Jen Wilkin encourages us to “Stop Calling Everything a Bible Study.”
On the typical church website, it’s not uncommon to find classes on marriage, finances, parenting, prayer, and books of the Bible all listed as “Bible studies.”
In these gatherings, good things happen. People connect to one another in community. They share needs, confess sins, and explore topics through the lens of Scripture. But not all of these classes are Bible studies…
As we have expanded our use of the term, we have decreased the number of actual Bible studies we offer. Churches have gradually shifted away from offering basic Bible study in favor of studies that are topical or devotional, adopting formats that more closely resemble a book club discussion than a class that teaches Scripture.
I’ve also written before about how book discussion groups are not Bible studies. Getting this right is not merely a matter of terminology. Getting this right can mean the difference between training our people to read the Bible on their own, and training them to believe they can’t do it without expert guidance.
Wilkin’s short article is worth considering. Check it out!
How to Use Multiple Bible Translations
In the English-speaking world, we are blessed with a wealth of good translations of the Bible. For most of church history, this was not the case.
Chances are you have a few translations you prefer, and occasionally switching between these versions in your devotional reading can prove eye opening. You see a phrase or scene from a slightly different angle, and you have a fresh appreciation or insight as a result.
congerdesign (2016), public domain
Bible study leaders can also use multiple translations of the Bible to great profit. But it’s best not to introduce variety too early in the process.
When Not to Use Multiple Translations
In your personal study of a Bible passage, I suggest you stick to one translation. Because different translations have different philosophies and tendencies, switching between Bible versions at this stage in the process will slow you down.
At this blog we advocate an old method of Bible study called Observe-Interpret-Apply (OIA), and when observing we suggest you pay attention to words and grammar (among other things). Observing all that a passage contains can be a tall order—bringing in alternate translations might double or triple your work!
For your primary Bible, consider something closer to a word-for-word translation (“formal equivalence”) than a thought-for-thought translation (“dynamic equivalence”). Since Bible study should focus on the words of the original authors, we should use a translation that does as little interpreting as possible while still making sense of the text.
Note: If you’d like an explanation of some of the most popular Bible translations, Daniel Wallace does a decent job here.
When to Use Multiple Translations
After observing the text and working through the answers to your interpretation questions, you should have a sense of the main point of the passage. You may also have some questions you weren’t able to answer.
At this point I usually read my passage in multiple translations. I find software like e-Sword or websites like Bible Gateway perfect for this, because they allow you to view several versions in parallel. For example, here’s the first chapter of John’s gospel in the ESV, NASB, and NIV.
Reading a passage like this is revealing. Staring at your main translation for hours can bake the words into your brain. But this exercise will show you the differences between translations quickly. You’ll see the vast agreement as well as the small areas of disagreement. For particular words, a variety of translations will show you that Bible translation is a difficult task!
You may be able to resolve any word-related confusion by looking at a commentary or two. Most commentators geek out over words and translations, so you’ll have no shortage of food for thought.
Preparing to Lead Your Small Group
If you are leading a small group Bible study with regular participants, it’s a good idea to note which translations those folks read. Take a look at your passage in these translations before the small group meeting so you won’t be thrown or surprised by an odd word choice.
If I notice a drastic difference between translations when I’m preparing, I’ll often point it out to my group. This “pre-emptive strike” allows me to bring the issue into our discussion if it seems important. However, it’s easy to get bogged down in discussions like this, so I usually try to direct our conversation elsewhere.
Though they can differ widely, most of the major English Bible translations are very good. And the deviations we see almost never change the interpretation of the passage. We can use the variety to inform our ideas about the author’s original meaning, but we must also remember not to freak out over the differences we see.
Don’t Tell Me Something New
Most small group Bible study leaders share a few goals. We want our friends to love and obey God more and more. To that end, we want our group members to be engaged during the studies. We want our groups to pop; we want fireworks.
Ralf Vetterle (2016), public domain
The Pull Toward Novelty
Our desire for effective, exciting Bible studies is a good thing. And as we point our friends toward the most important truths in the world, we should long for transformation.
But there’s a dangerous temptation that can surface when we focus on excitement. We’ll want to say something new each meeting, and we’ll end up reaching. We’ll stretch for connections between passages. We’ll present interpretations that are half-baked. In our quest to animate our group, we’ll fall into the trap of never-ending novelty, and we’ll end up softening the impact of God’s holy word.
Fortunately, this is a trap we can avoid.
How to Resist the Temptation of Newness
A hunt for newness in the Bible is often a symptom of boredom with its basic truths. Some Christians read and teach these truths so often (and with so little imagination) that the Bible seems to lack power.
But nothing could be farther from the truth!
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. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12–13)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10–11)
The foundation of all strategies to resist the pull toward novelty must be a trust in God and his word. But strategies can still be helpful. Here are three that come to mind.
Engage in faithful Bible study. The surest way to proclaim and believe the Bible is to study the Bible carefully. Don’t let others interpret the Bible for you.
Careful Bible study is a joy, an art, and a discipline. If you’ve never studied the Bible on your own, or if you’d like a refresher, look no further. The time-tested method we promote is called Observe, Interpret, Apply (OIA), and anyone can do it. Dig into the Bible prayerfully, asking God to help you communicate his word to your small group.
Use Bible resources. While you should study the Bible on your own first, don’t neglect other God-given resources. Both study Bibles and commentaries should be handled with care, but at the right stage of the process they can be invaluable.
We 21st century Christians are not on an island; great clouds of saints have read, studied, and lived out the Bible for centuries before us. The best commentaries and study Bibles will identify the most common errors and the most likely interpretations when discussing difficult passages. Check your own conclusions with some solid commentaries to see how your thoughts line up with the body of Christ over time.
Consult your church. Your local Christian community is a precious support and an important resource. We need people close to us to encourage us when we’re right and to tell us when we’re wrong.
If your interpretation of a passage doesn’t match up with what you find in commentaries, take it to your church. Seek out a pastor, an elder, or a wise friend who can weigh the evidence with you. This requires a humility produced only by the Spirit.
Fresh Statements of Old Truths
Instead of seeking out what’s new and shiny, take comfort in the powerful, unchanging words of God. His word is reliable, eternal, and earth-shattering.
What you and I need is usually not a brand-new teaching. Brand-new truths are probably not truths. What we need are reminders about the greatness of the old truths. We need someone to say an old truth in a fresh way. Or sometimes, just to say it. – John Piper, from preface to The Dawning of Indestructible Joy
Our small group members will be more transformed and engaged by the true word of God than by anything we import ourselves. Let’s commit to reminding our friends of old truths in new ways.
2 Words That Kill Effective Bible Study
At For the Church, Zach Barnhart writes of those two small words that could potentially undermine everything you seek to accomplish in Bible study. Those words are “to you,” as in, “What does this passage mean to you?”
Those two words turn a glorious question into gobbledygook. They mistake the authority of the text as the authority of the interpreter. And in the name of application, they cut away observation and interpretation. Such application has no power.
“To you” seems like an innocent way to invite everyone’s voice to the table for discussion, but I contend that it’s a surefire way to kill effective Bible study. Of course, some fiction books, for example, are written for the sole purpose of leaving their interpretation open-ended. But this is not the way of historical, bona fide Scripture, the words of God Himself. Though nuance and opinion has its place at the table, the problem with “to you” is that the phrase elevates a reader’s interpretation over the author’s intention.
Barnhart goes on to suggest ways we can avoid the “to you” chaff without shutting down room for disagreement or different perspectives.
