openswitch

Based on my experiences in ministry so far it seems to me that many people think it’s difficult work to put together a good, accurate and poignant Bible study. While I do believe there’s a great deal of responsibility placed upon the shoulders of the teacher in terms of dealing correctly with God’s Word, the task itself is not difficult so much as it just takes a little time. In this post I’m going to write briefly and simply about how to plan a Bible study from scratch.

Up front I do realize that there are hundreds or even perhaps thousands of books out there which are chock full of great pre-planned Bible studies. These books have some merit. But I firmly believe that the Bible study which you personally plan and comes from your heart will be much more meaningful to your audience. This is my reasoning for taking you through the process from scratch as opposed to planning a Bible study based around a series or some other preset topic.

Step one – Personal prayer, study, reflection and meditation

Make no mistake, great Bible studies will be a natural out flowing of your own spiritual life. If your spiritual life is dry and dead then so will your studies be. There is a one to one correlation here. Don’t neglect your own spiritual life.

What usually happens with me is as I’m having my daily quiet times (during which I pray, read and meditate) I’m usually inspired to address a particular area of my life. It’s from these inspirations that most of my Bible studies come. Occasionally an idea for a study will come as I’m reading my Bible and something just “jumps” off the page at me. But usually it’s quiet inspiration that ideas come to me. At least, that’s how it works in my life. For you it may be completely different.

Step two – Research and more study

After you’ve been inspired to prepare a study on a particular topic or issue the next step is to do your research. This will obviously be the most time-consuming part of planning your study. How you study is more important than what tools you study with (though I will talk about tools in a minute.) Instead of getting into an explanation of what Hermeneutics is and how to avoid certain exegetical pitfalls I’ll impart to you a simple, easy to remember process for good Bible study. It’s called inductive Bible study. The goal here is to read as little into the text as possible.

• Observation. Simply read the words, observe their literal meaning. Don’t try to interpret what they figuratively mean yet, don’t try to analyze the passage or topic; just observe. You’ll also want to make sure you’re asking yourself some basic questions about the text. Ask yourself, “Who wrote this?”, “To whom were they writing?”, “Why were they writing it?”, “What were the current events at the time of the writing?”, “What was the cultural context?” Remember, context is everything. Understanding all these questions is going to be vital to correctly understanding what the original author intended as he wrote, which is the next step.
• Interpretation. What did the author mean to convey in his writing? This is where it can get hairy. Here you try to take all you learned in observation and interpret the writing in light of that information. It’s in the interpretation of the Bible and its passages that theologians begin to show their differences. I would venture to say that interpretation isn’t as vital as observation. If your observation is thorough and accurate then you’re more likely to interpret well. Then, when someone does disagree with your interpretation, you can fall back on the fact that you “did your research first.”
• Application. It’s from this step that you will get the actual content of what you’re going to present to your audience. To learn spiritual truths is a great endeavor, but to leave them unapplied to everyday life is to leave them incomplete. Truths find their fullness in application. Observation and interpretation are useless without application. What I do here is I’ll ask my audience to give me three specific real-world examples of how they could specifically apply what we learned here to their personal lives. The key in this step is specificity. If you study John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son; that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” and all you get out of it is “God loves me” then your application is lacking. Be more specific such as: God loves me more than my parents, more, even, than I love myself. There’s nothing He wouldn’t do for me to know me personally. It’s that kind of specificity that will lead to meaningful application.

So, that’s the skinny on prep work that goes into a good Bible study. But now you may be asking what kind of tools you will need to accomplish this. Here’s the list of my main tools, with a short explanation of why I like them.

• 1. A good study Bible. I use a Life Application Study Bible but any one will usually do. Bar none this is the most important and most used tool in my arsenal. Everyone who plans a Bible study needs one.
• 2. A Bible handbook. A Bible handbook is like Cliff’s Notes for the Bible. I use a Halley’s Bible Handbook. They’re also great for getting a grasp of what the culture was like at the time a particular book was written.
• 3. A Bible dictionary. I use a Holman Bible Dictionary and I highly recommend it. The use for this is basically to gain further insight into biblical culture, biblical writing genres, biblical characters, timelines and it has a ton of pictures showing you what life is like in the modern-day Middle East.

So you see, there are really only three basic tools that I use on a regular basis to plan good Bible studies. Also, you’ve seen that the study process is fairly simple too. I believe that anyone who wants to can prepare a great Bible study. The only thing keeping you from it is time.

Step three – Delivery

Delivery is the least important step (relatively speaking) but if we were all to be honest with one another we’d find that it’s the step that proves most troublesome. All psycho-analysis aside, delivering a great Bible study is relatively simple. The key to great delivery is discussion.

Discussing with your audience is simple if you have a small group. Remember that your audience isn’t just a bunch of empty pots waiting for you to fill them up. They are people who have pasts, experiences and ideas they bring to the table. Take advantage of this by getting them involved in the study. Not only will it keep their interest level up but it will make your task much easier.

If your audience is too large for discussion, such as is the case in sermon delivery, then you must put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Anticipate and plan for the questions they’ll ask in their minds as you’re presenting information. Granted, this is an extremely challenging thing to do and many public speakers are never able to master it; I know I haven’t.

In conclusion, planning a quality Bible study is simple to do but takes an ample amount of time. I hope some of this post has been of use to you personally. If it has been helpful to you drop me a comment in the form below to let me know. It’ll make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside ;).