Leading Your Bible Study
by Lindsay OlesbergWe call these "communal discovery" studies because rather than you as the leader sharing your insights and answering the group's questions, you assist the community in digging into a passage of Scripture. The community, the group, discovers the truth together through asking and answering good questions and seeking Jesus together in His Word.
Consider using the "manuscript study format." The "manuscript study format" means that there is just the text of the passage, no verse numbers, chapter divisions, headings, or notes at the bottom of the page. This format helps you "see" the passage in a fresh way, and helps you see themes and relationships within the text. There is lots of room and white space to mark up your text and write notes and questions on the page that you can share with your small group.
If you use the "manuscript study format," start with a few minutes of personal time for the group to read and mark their texts. The group will spend the rest of the time sharing what they see in the text, sharing questions that arise from the text, and grappling with those questions as a group as they seek answers from the text. The leader will help summarize the main points or flow of the passage. Finally, the group will discuss how the passage relates to them and how they could apply it. The leader's role is to facilitate the discussion and the discovery process.
Preparing to Lead the Study
1. Study the Passage for Yourself First
• Read Daily Passion for the Word. It leads you through a systematic way to study the passages. You can prepare them in the context of your quiet times, or set aside a special time to prepare. Preparing each one should take you about an hour and a half, or two 45-minute quiet times.
• As you study each passage, make sure that you make a personal application from the passage that affects your life. What is Jesus saying to you in each passage, and calling you to do or change? In the book of Ezra in the Old Testament, chapter 7 verse 10, we see that Ezra set himself to study the law, then do it, then teach it in Israel. He studied first, then applied before he taught the passage. Ezra is the example for us to follow as we prepare and lead Bible studies. Study first, then apply it for our own lives, then teach it. In this way the passage will have gripped your own heart and life and you can teach it with real power and conviction.
• To start with, you may want to utilize the Manuscripts and Teaching Notes available in this Handbook. These notes contain some ideas for introducing and entering that particular text, some main questions the group may raise and some possible answers, a sample summary of the passage, and some possible application questions. These notes are for guidance only. They are intended to give you something to check your own study against after you have completed it and to help you with ideas as you prepare to teach the study. They are not intended to replace your own study and preparation. Therefore, please do not turn to the Teaching Notes until you have done your own study of the passage first.
2. Annotated Outline
A Case Study for Timing Your One-hour Bible Study
Introduction (1 minute)
Take a moment (a little longer the first time) to introduce:
• the "Communal Discovery" ideology and method.
• the passage.
Individual Time To Study the Text or "Enter the Text" (5 min)
Give your group about 5 minutes to study the passage individually. The Teaching Notes give you a creative way to have your group look at the text each time, or you can repeat the three basic ways of approach to study a text: Look for the "facts" such as who, what, when, where, and how; look for connections within the text such as repetitions and contrasts; and enter the text experientially by becoming one of the characters in the story.
Share Observations/Questions Together (15 minutes)
This time should be lively. You could have them share their responses to the creative "enter the text" exercise that you used from the Teaching Notes and let the observations and questions come out of that sharing. Or you could ask: "What do you see here, and what questions do you have?"
Note their questions but tell the group that we will hold off answering them yet.
Answer Questions Together (24 minutes)
• Walk through the passage again, answer their questions together.
• Encourage the group to base their answers on evidence from the text itself and the context. For example, if you're studying Gospel passages, remember that the Gospels were written to people who knew the Old Testament. Thus you may be able to find parallel passages in the Old Testament which is helpful in interpreting the texts. If you have a study Bible, look at the text in your study Bible and see if there are cross-references to the Old Testament.
• These 25 minutes of answering the questions together that the group generated are the heart of your study.
• If you have helped the group observe well, the group itself becomes self-correcting. Keep them in the text, and help them develop good questions and answer them from the passage, its context, and the Old Testament background.
Summarize (5 minutes)
After walking through the passage and answering the questions as a group, a few main themes should emerge. Summarize those with a few sentences or a paragraph.
Process/Apply (10 minutes)
Help the group process and apply the passage. Have some possible application questions ready to go. Make sure you leave about 10 minutes for this. This is where Jesus will solidify what He has been speaking to the group about in the study. He will transform them by His Word as they make specific applications and then do them.
Remember that you are the facilitator of the groups' learning. Trust Jesus, the text, and the Holy Spirit to be the authority, and trust the Holy Spirit working through the group to come up with a good interpretation and application of the passage.
3. Other Hints
Again, if you need more help after you have prepared the study on your own, go to the Teaching Notes for ideas and resources.
• Reminder: Don't just ask the questions in the Teaching Notes and have the group answer them. Rather, have the group itself generate the questions, and then dig together for answers.
• Don't preach, don't lecture, and don't share everything you saw. Get the group to share what they saw.
• Encourage those who are sharing a lot to tone it down and let others share, and encourage those who are not speaking up to share a simple observation that they see in the text.
• Colored pens or markers will help your group as they study the manuscript text. They can mark connections like repetitions, contrasts, and cause-to-effect with different colors and see them better. They can mark themes. You may want to bring along a set or two of colored pens or markers for your group to use during the studies.
• If you have any questions about your studies as you prepare, get in touch with someone from your church or your local InterVarsity staff person.
• Pray for the members of your group. Pray that they will be open for the study, will put themselves into it, will seek God in His Word, and that God would really speak to them as they dig into His Word together.
Return to the Guidebook for Small Group Leaders.
©2000 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, adapted from Guidebooks for Small Group Leaders, Bob Grahmann, Rachel Holmstedt, Lindsay Olesberg, Urbana 2000.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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