Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
This week, the Logos Talk blog published a guest post Ryan and I worked on together, called “How to Ask Excellent Bible Study Discussion Questions.” The post abridges some of the lengthier material from our series on how to lead a Bible study. If you’d like to lead a small group discussion well, we recommend you master these four kinds of questions:
Check it out!
A year ago, I had an assistant Bible study leader. Then he moved to another state. Now I have a new assistant, whom I expect to leave our group soon and start another one. Then I’ll be back on my own, bearing the full load of small group leadership once again. But I’ll pray and look for another assistant to help shoulder the labor and develop the skills.
Bible study is not glamorous. Training apprentices, one at a time, is even less so. We plod our way through it, week in and week out. Sometimes we see clear fruit; sometimes we don’t. But this mustard seed will grow to become the largest of all garden plants. And this leaven will penetrate the entire lump. The promises of Christ ensure it will be so.
Rich Bamford (2015), Creative Commons
Having created man and woman in his image, God expected them to mass produce this image in the earth (Gen 1:28). After he undid everything and started over, he clarified that nothing really had changed (Gen 9:1). Not long after, as my friend Brian Seay put it, “God said ‘go,’ and we said ‘no'” (Gen 11:4). But who can stop the Lord? Let no men assemble whom God has called to disperse (Gen 11:9).
And so Abram’s people were to bless all nations (Gen 12:3). God’s people were always to be a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6), so the prophets longed for the day when God would collect his scattered people (Zech 8:7-8) and draw in citizens from every nation on earth (Zech 8:20-23). This house would be a house of prayer for all peoples (Is 56:7).
When Jesus arrives to fulfill what was written, we see the same goals at work. The lingo shifts from “being fruitful” to “making disciples,” but the mission stays the same. God wants to fill the earth with image-bearers. And now they can see and smell and touch that image in the person of Christ. His people become like him and move out from Jerusalem to help more people become like him. And when outsiders don’t know what else to call them, they coin the term “little Christs”—Christians (Acts 11:26).
But notice how God works among his people. He adds to their number so they can multiply his influence. His people gather so they can disperse. They draw people in so they can send people out. This community has always been a growing community. Sometimes you see it; sometimes you don’t. But the growth will happen one disciple at a time.
As I wrote, training apprentices will not be glamorous. But that can’t stop it from being glorious. I’ve done it one at a time over the years. And I can’t take all the credit, as most apprentices have multiple trainers. I’m never—by God’s grace—the sole influence in someone’s life.
But that guy who moved to another state? His wife already leads the women’s ministry at their new church. Together, they’re teaching more people to study the Bible for themselves.
And I could tell you of others. There’s one in Japan, working with missionaries and church leaders to put the Scriptures into the hands of the people. There’s another one in Texas, who just emailed me to say that his church asked him to teach more people good Bible study skills. I know some women who have infiltrated the leadership of a popular women’s conference, because they shine like stars when it comes to faithful handling of the word.
It’s worth it to teach people OIA Bible study. And it’s worth it to teach people how to teach people OIA Bible study in small groups. May the Lord strengthen us by his grace to press on.
Building a Bible study culture in your church is a huge job, only possible by the grace of God. Because such a culture is reflected in every area of church life, this hard work requires creativity and a long-term view. But the effort is worth it.
anonymous (2012), public domain
While a Bible study culture begins with church leaders, it is caught and carried forward from the pews. Godly leaders point down the road and give their people provisions for the journey.
Leaders must grasp the opportunity small groups present. As Christians meet to discuss and study the Bible, these groups become a powerful culture-making tool.
So, how exactly do small groups build a Bible study culture?
As a church creates, supports, and advertises small groups, it highlights their importance and advances their purpose. Church leaders promote small groups so their people will grow in Christ. The more people who engage in Bible study, prayer, encouragement, and fellowship, the better.
By building this ministry on a foundation of Bible study, your church repeats its reliance on the Bible. We want to know God through the study of his word.
This strengthens the Bible study culture in your church by establishing a common aim. If everyone knows the destination and the essential tools to get there, the swell of the crowd will attract attention, questions, and others drawn by the vision.
Christians grow as they study the Bible. Perhaps this is obvious, but it bears repeating.
We need to know God, what he is like, what he has done for us in Jesus, and what he calls us to as his ambassadors. As we understand and apply the Bible, we renew our minds with truth and repent of our idolatry. We believe the truth and trust in God to greater degrees, and his Spirit produces increasing fruit in our lives.
We are animated examples, living proof both of the goodness of God and of his work through his means. As we grow, love abounds in the church, and we trace this overflow back to God, his grace, and the study of his word.
Small group studies offer unique opportunities to sharpen Bible study skills. The flexible and informal nature of these groups make them an ideal training ground.
Though most meetings focus on studying a specific passage, the group can take short detours for direct instruction in Bible study skills. The leader can structure his questions to make explicit the Bible study components of observation, interpretation, and application. (These ingredients form the core of the OIA Bible study method.) Group members have the chance to ask honest questions about the Bible and to interact with the responses. Perhaps the greatest training tool is the ongoing example of friends studying the Bible together and helping each other apply it.
This training builds a Bible study culture in obvious ways. You’re gathering forces. More people are equipped to model Bible study skills and pass them on to others. More people can serve as resources to those getting started.
Small group Bible studies have many benefits. Consider attending or even leading one. As you do so, pray that God would use your group to bless your church in building a Bible study culture.
When we train apprentices or delegate tasks, sometimes we’re too slow to hand things off. I’ve written about this danger over the last few weeks, but we must consider another danger as well: being too quick to hand things off.
Yee Leng (2009), Creative Commons
When we hit stage 4 for training new Bible study leaders (“You do; I watch”), we may feel tempted to simply send them out and commend their souls to God. We might even be relieved to have someone to take on some of our responsibility. We have complete trust in the person to serve and full confidence in God to work. But sending out new leaders must not flick like a standard light switch, on or off. It should transition more like a dimmer switch with increasing shades of brightness.
So when you send out your apprentice to lead a new group, you’re not yet finished as a trainer. You still should check in with that person from time to time to see how things are going. You’ll want to encourage the leader with evidence of God’s grace. You’ll want to expose areas of potential blindness. You’ll want to stimulate the leader’s thinking about ways to excel. And you’ll want to make sure the new leader considers finding his or her own apprentice to train and launch.
We can see this approach in the Apostle Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles. Paul’s chief aim on his first missionary journey was to appoint and train leaders for fledgling churches: “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:23). But he didn’t merely set them up and forget about them. Notice the impetus behind his second missionary journey: “And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are” (Acts 15:36). That second trip covered the same ground before going farther and deeper into Rome’s empire. His third trip then revisited the same places as the second trip.
He kept visiting the same places to strengthen and correct the leaders. He didn’t control them or take those churches back over. He let the leaders lead, but he made sure to check in and offer help. There’s much for us to learn from this approach.
First, don’t forget your apprentices, even after they’ve gone to lead their own groups.
Second, you don’t need a curriculum or detailed training agenda. Just visit occasionally to “see how they are.” You might want to ask about what’s going well and what could be better. You may also want to make your own observations.
Third, decrease your involvement as they continue to develop.
Fourth, make sure your former apprentices take note of potential new apprentices they can train.
Fifth, rejoice in the Lord, who is multiplying your ministry and your influence before your eyes. Keep those eyes fixed on Christ so you can represent him well.
In the life of every Bible study apprentice, there comes a time for independence. A time when trails must be blazed and sunsets must be ridden off into. New small groups must be formed, and new leaders must be set loose to form them. And when this time comes, three laws will inevitably take effect.
Nobody perfects a skill without first trying and failing. And an apprentice who stays close to the trainer, who is eager and capable to correct every misstep, can’t really fail. The goal, of course, is not merely to fail, but to fail in the right direction. Like major league sluggers, we need to be okay with high volumes of strikeouts. Each one teaches something about timing, bat speed, or pitch count expectations. Few apprentices will ever feel ready to lead their own groups, but that shouldn’t stop them from trying.
Nobody likes to see a protege struggle. No decent Bible teacher wants a short-term decrease in ministry effectiveness. But eyes of faith see dormant glory. This mustard seed will become the greatest of all garden plants. This bit of leaven will penetrate the doughy lump. This jar of clay proclaims the surpassing power of God to grow his church. And this frail limb may eventually become a mighty oak of righteousness.
Do you remember how Hebrews speaks of our faith heroes, that the world was not worthy of them (Heb 11:38)? Then remember also that those folks, though commended, didn’t receive what was promised. God provided something better for us: Jesus, seated at God’s right hand (Heb 12:1-2). But before he took his seat, Jesus committed to sending his Spirit to empower his followers to do greater works than Jesus himself had done (John 14:12-14). So we ought to expect generation upon generation of new heroes who proclaim faith in Christ and trust in no other. The world cannot handle such titans.
In training your Bible study apprentice, perhaps you had a part in shaping one of these heroes.
For this week’s Check It Out, I bring you this gem from the fake Christian news site, The Babylon Bee: “Church Small Group Looking Forward To Six-Week Study Of Awkward Silences.” If you’d like to turn your mediocre Bible study into a thing of beauty, just consider following this example:
“I think it’s great how the group is really all participating in making things as awkward as possible,” [Pastor] Parker stated to reporters after the first session. “Trust is so important in a small group, and I know that if I ask anyone any sort of question whatsoever about the text, or application, or life, or anything at all, I will be greeted by a deafening, unbearable, soul-crushing silence that, while in reality only lasts 30 to 45 seconds, goes on for several consecutive eternities within my tortured mind.”
Parker’s small group appears to be off to a great start, according to sources present at the study. Parker’s query, “So, what does ‘redemption’ mean to you?” was met not only by awkward silence, but at least two throat-clearings, two sniffs, and one sudden, brief inhalation. A question about the deity of Christ resulted in multiple Bible pages being rustled in a contrived manner, as well as one uncomfortable murmur before lapsing into abject quietude once more.
“I feel blessed to lead this group,” enthused Parker. “I can hardly wait for our study of Galatians and the empty, mute void of uncomfortable despair ahead.”
What causes that sinking feeling when a parent watches his freshly-licensed teenager drive off alone for the first time? Why do field trips require chaperones? What tempts a supervisor to micromanage? Why do I gasp every time my 17-month-old hurls herself down a sliding board?
I’ve already covered one possible answer. When I wrote about the “I do, You help” stage of training a Bible study apprentice, I explained why it’s hard to delegate responsibility, and I challenged leaders to find the courage to let them try. The chief obstacle I focused on was fear of failure.
But now that we’ve hit the “You do, I watch” stage of training, we ought to consider another possible answer: We believe it will go better if we’re with them. And we’re right, after a fashion. It will go better. For now.
Finn Frode (2014), Creative Commons
Here are 3 reasons why you should not launch an apprentice to start a new group without you.
We’re here for the people, right? We can give them $10 Bible studies, or we can give them 50-cent Bible studies. Let’s give them the best. Why send people to start a new group, when the teaching will be weaker, the main points will be less clear, and the application won’t be as specific or transformative?
There is a lot of pressure involved in leading a small group. You’re used to that pressure by now, but your apprentice is not. It might really serve this person not to have to take that burden when you carry it so competently.
When you keep your apprentice close, you’ll have a better perspective on how you can help. You’ll know what’s going on and how you can support the work. You can provide quality control, mature discernment, and immediate responsiveness. You won’t have to worry about mission drift or incremental cynicism.
However, consider your situation. If you want it to go better now, it will never change then. You can bury that shiny talent right in the ground. Don’t worry; you’ll still have it when your master returns. Then you can give it back to him and be done with it (Matt 25:24-25).
Or you can take some risks. You can trade with your talent to produce more. Send that apprentice out. Start a new Bible study, inferior to the old one. Over time, that inferior apprentice-led Bible study might actually surpass the quality of your own. It might grow faster than you could have grown it. It might reach some people you never could have reached.
And someday, without your help, your “apprentice” will launch another new apprentice. What will your Master have to say to you then? Are you ready to enter his joy (Matt 25:20-23)?
As you train a new Bible study leader, how do you know when the person is ready to lead a separate group? When should you move an apprentice from the “You do, I help” to the “You do, I watch” stage of training? If we advance people too quickly, they may burn out and give up. If we move them too slowly, the training could become stagnant and lifeless. What are the signs of a good balance?
Rick Bolin (2011), Creative Commons
Of course, no leader matures beyond the need for continuing education. But over time, apprentices should become increasingly self-sufficient. They should be able to figure out the main point of a passage. They should be able to develop good questions. They should be able to launch a study well. They should find greater comfort in studying the word and greater ease in teaching it to others. Your 1-1 meetings should focus more on shepherding the people in the group and less on the mechanics of leading the group.
Of course, no leader matures beyond the need for assistance and feedback. But over time, apprentices should become increasingly effective. They should be able to observe group dynamics and shift their plan according to the needs of the moment. They should be able to hear what people say and ask good follow-up questions. They should have built strong trust with regulars, and they should know how to welcome newcomers. They should model good Bible study skills and teach them to others. Your presence at small group meetings becomes less about helping the apprentice see the obvious and master the basics; it becomes more about observing—so you can later reflect to the apprentice—the extreme or unusual situations.
Of course, no leader matures beyond the need for refreshment and reminder. But over time, apprentices should become increasingly self-motivated. And their motivation should increasingly inspire others. They should be able to articulate a clear vision for the group. They should be able to instruct, remind, encourage, and inspire others to Christlikeness. They should rely more on the Lord than on the trainer to relieve their stress, strengthen them with grace, and to move others to action. You can continue coaching, even from afar, but the life of this leader and this group must not depend on your ability to cast a compelling vision.
Of course, no leader matures beyond the need for comfort and encouragement. But over time, apprentices should become tougher and more committed to the cause. They should be able to face some opposition or setbacks without crumbling. They should know to get enough rest and nourishment to enliven them through tiredness. They should know why they believe the Scriptures to be worth studying, so they can press on when it feels tedious. They should find some creativity to freshen up routine, boredom, or persistent unresponsiveness with group members.
I gave this as a sign for when they’re ready to help, and for when they’re ready to lead. I keep it on this list, because it’s so crucial for any training. If your apprentice has no ambition to reach people, grow people, serve people, improve things, influence outcomes, honor God, or move forward—you should ask some hard questions, of both the apprentice and yourself. But when a godly drive for more compels the apprentice to launch a new group, God be praised. His kingdom is not dependent on you, and the Lord of the harvest is sending more laborers to work his fields.
I hope your training has this end in sight: Preparing apprentices to fly on their own. Too few parents have this vision for their kids. Too few supervisors encourage this ambition with their employees. And too many Christian leaders, busy keeping themselves at the center of their ministries, fail to launch more warriors into the foray.
When the time comes, may we find the courage and influence to launch the next generation of leaders.
I was going to be the best. As a college student, I wanted to know God’s Word, and I wanted to interpret the Word well—and I wanted everyone to know it. Though God was working in many people, He was obviously working in me more! I expected people would see me as a deep thinker with an influential voice. What I didn’t expect, however, was that, during Bible study, I would find a better interpreter.
At our meeting we studied Matthew 13. In the chapter, great crowds gather to Jesus, and he tells of a sower who sows seed. Four soils each produce a result. Three yield no fruit, but the fourth yields lots of fruit!
As a proud, young, Christian, I of course knew the parable. But my greatest surprise came at what Jesus told His disciples afterwards:
Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom… (Matt 13:18-19a)
Jesus explains the parable. The sower sows the seed of God’s Word. And the soils? They represent people who hear the Word. At this point, the Bible study leader remarked, “Do you realize that as we interpret the Bible, the Bible is actually interpreting you?”
Ed Yourdon (2008), Creative Commons
I was in shock. I wanted to prove myself as a great Bible interpreter. But I hadn’t yet realized that the best interpreter in the room was the Word itself. It exposed my hard heart, and it revealed my lack of fruit. My invulnerability, pride, and self-centeredness were in the open. God’s Word had found me out, as it always does.
Now, of course we want to observe, interpret, and apply. We should be good students of the Word. But we must remember it isn’t a one-way street. We need more than good scholarship; we need exposure. As we look at God’s Word, it’s being sown in our hearts. And our response to that Word reveals what kind of people we are.
Can a book know us better than we know ourselves? The book God wrote can, and exposure produces change in us. Consider Hebrews 4:11-13:
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 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.
Imagine that. The world’s sharpest sword pierces your heart; it sees and understands all your thoughts and intentions. And nothing is hidden from God. You are naked and exposed. Why? So you may strive to enter that rest. In other words, only exposed people will cling to the cross of Christ.
So, as you interpret God’s Word, have you considered how it’s exposing you? Or do you hide behind facts, theology, or pride? Do your applications penetrate the surface of your life? Is God’s Word showing you where you are weak?
Let’s interpret God’s Word well. But as we do, let’s remember that this Word is always the best interpreter in the room.
For a few months, I’ve written about how to train a Bible study apprentice. Some of you may have picked up on the method to my madness, but I imagine many have not.
So I’ve created a table of contents page for the series, which outlines the training model and links to each post. There is no better way to grow a small group ministry than to continually train apprentices to launch new groups. If you’d like to see the big picture and get a glimpse of where the rest of the series will go, check it out!
