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Bible Study 101

A student recently asked me to help her with the preparations of a Bible study. The answer I gave her was not the answer she was looking for, so it started me thinking. How do you teach a Bible study if you have never done it before and have no training. Here are a few basics that might get the beginner on the road, but are probably "old hat" to the seasoned teacher.

Should You Be Teaching?
This is a good place to start. Anyone who wants to lead in a meaningful Bible study needs to have some time carved out of their schedule to spend time in the Bible. This allotment of time will often come at a great price. Other items on the schedule will need to be sacrificed or scaled back. Also, the heart must have a spark of yearning in it to know more of Scripture, a thirst if you will. Without this, the Bible study will be bland at best. In my experience, few people have this desire - but they make for incredible Bible study leaders.

Meditate On Scripture
This is the key. Saturate your mind with the God's Word. Don't do all your preparations in one day, but read the passage you will be teaching well in advance and give the Holy Spirit time to brood over this text in your mind. God will work it into your heart and let you see the importance of it. For me, it is helpful to print the text of Scripture out on a piece of paper. Then I do a trace outline of the passage (see John Piper: Biblical Exegesis at desiringgod.org). This is where you relate every phrase of scripture to the phrase before and after it. I usually circle words that appear more than once, follow pronouns through the passage, ask questions of the text, and jot my notes off to the side. This takes time, but this is where it is at. This is where the fruit is.

Determine The Main Point
I feel that it is always best to pick a passage of Scripture and teach that passage. Topical lessons leave us skipping all over the bible and usually wasting time. Settle into a few verses or one chapter and try to determine what the author ( and the Holy Spirit!) were conveying in the passage. This is your main point. This is what the Bible study will revolve around, like the planets circling the sun. Every story or illustration should help undergird this point.

Draw Out A Few Sub Points
These will serve as steps to keep the Bible study trucking along. Once one sub point is finished, you move on to the next sub point. All of these sub points should support your main point and have a reference back to the text.

Shape It Up
This is where I try to put an introduction and a conclusion on the Bible study. It is simply a story that will help those in the bible study grasp the main point of the lesson. I try to make it interesting, relevant, and appealing to the heart. My method is usually like this:
Read entire passage
Pray
Introduction
1st point
2nd point
3rd point
Conclusion
Pray

It may sound overly simplified, but you really can't lose with this method. If it needs to be altered you most certainly can, no real rules about it. But this is a good place to start.

Pray It Hot
This may be the second most important part. Prayer is the spark that sets off the gunpowder of God's Word. Spend some time in prayer before you deliver the message or Bible study. Ask God to make it clear and to be a shining light or hot microphone of for His wonderful and perfect Word.

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