Leading a Bible Study
“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” – James 3:1.
Leading a Bible study can be extremely rewarding. At the same time, it’s a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly (as described in James 3:1). One of the primary reasons why I enjoy doing it, is because it forces me to get into the Word more. Because, if I’m to teach others, I need to first learn and study it myself. I’m not just facilitating; I’m leading and teaching.
Currently, I’m leading a group of mixed adults (men and women). We’re working our way through the Pastoral Epistles (1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus). These are letters from Paul to Timothy and Titus regarding leading the church.
Typically, we meet once a week. Our study time is set for one hour. Sometimes we go over. That’s because we’re so engaged. If we go over more than a few minutes though, I will ask for consensus before proceeding. They know that I respect them and their time.
It’s important to invite God into the studying of His Word.
Once we’ve prayed, each session starts with a review of what we’ve learned thus far. For instance, right now we are in chapter three in the book of 1st Timothy. We start by reading the passage of scripture that we would be working through. Then, go through the passage analyzing each verse word by word.
We recently started with verses one through seven in chapter three. This particular passage is describing the qualifications for being a leader in the church. Therefore, it’s important to unpack it slowly. Because of that, we were only able to get through verses one and two.
Why would it take an hour to get through two verses of scripture? In order to understand scripture, we have to reference other passages of scripture. Just because we are in 1st Timothy, doesn’t mean that’s where we stay. We utilize both the Old and New Testaments to better interpret it.
For example, in verse one, Paul says that wanting to be a leader in the church is a noble thing. However, there’s a responsibility that comes along with that. Therefore, I led the group to James 3:1, which says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
It’s important to let others know, who might want to get into leadership, the weight of it. At the end of the second chapter of Timothy, it specifically points out that leadership in the church must be men (males). In the description of the leaders, it further emphasizes that.
That particular portion of passage is quite controversial (even though it shouldn’t be) because of the feminist movement that has tried to infiltrate the church. Therefore, I wanted to be sensitive without taking away from the scripture itself. In order to do that, again I referenced other passages of scripture to further amplify it.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” – 2 Timothy 3:16.
When leading a Bible study, it’s not meant to be a sermon. Therefore, participation is important.
Most people just want to sit and listen. Therefore, it’s important to invite participation.
In order to get participation from the group, I ask others to read the various passages of scripture being referenced. If I notice the same person/people reading the passages, I might ask specific individuals to read a certain passage.
Because just reading the scripture doesn’t fully engage the group, I ask questions of them as well. I might ask something like, “Why is that important?”, “How might this have been received?”, “Where else have we seen this?” and other such questions.
One thing that I never ask is, “How does that make you feel?” The reason, I never ask that, is because our feelings are irrelevant. What’s relevant is what the passage means. Not just to us, but to the audience to which it was originally written. In this case, the original audience was Timothy and indirectly the church at Ephesus.
When others speak up, it’s important to listen for understanding, and the need for clarification.
I listen not only for understanding of the passage, but also to see if what’s being said pertains to what is being taught.
It’s important to keep in mind, when asking for responses, to make sure the responses aren’t based on something that’s off-topic. What can happen, if it’s not corrected immediately, is someone might take the conversation down a rabbit trail. Meaning, they start down a topic that has little to no relation to what’s being taught.
Ironically enough, that’s one of the problems that was going on in the church of Ephesus. In 1st Timothy, it’s described how leaders were getting tied up in conversations that were not based in the Bible. They were getting wrapped up in genealogies and mythical non-sensical things.
The way to get that under control, is to gently bring the conversation back to the current passage being discussed. If the same person keeps taking the group down various rabbit trails, it’s important to speak with that person, on the side, about the distractions. If you’ve had more than one discussion on this, and they won’t stop, then it may be necessary to ask them to leave the group.
Use the Bible as your references – not other books.
When teaching from the Bible, refrain from referencing books that aren’t the Bible. For instance, a book written by someone about the Bible. Though the author might have good points, it’s important to allow scripture to interpret scripture. The term for this is hermeneutics. Additionally, do not hold Bible studies where you’re studying a book on the Bible. That’s not a Bible study, that’s a book club.
What does it look like to study scripture using scripture? You use the Bible to see where certain words, or passages, are also used elsewhere. For example, 1 Timothy 3:2 says that the leader should be, “above reproach” (or blameless).
To help understand what it means to be blameless, I directed the group to Psalm 101:6-7, “My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.”
Another reference I might provide is if there’s a parallel passage. In this case, the parallel passage to 1 Timothy 3:1-7 is Titus 1:6-9.
Before closing, make sure to give an invitation for the next meeting.
Once the study is over for the night, I give a brief of what will be covered the next week. And then, I invite each one of them to come back. Don’t just assume that they will return. People want to be invited. It helps us to be wanted and included.
To close the meeting, I typically ask one of the men to close us in prayer. Because it’s not official church, I could ask one of the women. However, I choose men because it’s men who are to lead. Additionally, I want them to get confident in praying with others. Hopefully, it will give them confidence to pray with strangers by praying with friends
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