Bible Study Methods
Bible Study Methods
Grahame Knox
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As Christians, how can we make sense of our world, our relationships and our faith
without some knowledge and understanding of the Bible? Well, I guess we can't!
Finding ways to help young people explore, understand and apply scripture should
be high on our 'to do' list in Christian youth work.
So we facilitate creative stimulating and engaging opportunities to explore God's
word together as a group. Hmm. Easier said than done.
Over the years I've tried to read widely and adapt ideas Ive come across while
working with different church youth groups. What follows is a compilation of ideas
that have worked for me. But first, three key values for studying the Bible with young
people;
Listen up
Do I really listen to and respect the opinions of my young people? A good group Bible
study leader is also a good listener. Of course, there will be times we need to clearly
state the Bible's position on foundational Christian truths. On certain issues the Bible
is very clear. But, let's not use that as an excuse not to give time to hear the thoughts
and opinions of our young people. Listening first earns us the right to be listened to
when we speak.
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Ask questions
Questions are an essential tool in group Bible study. Good questions help you engage
with a passage, reflect on it and discover its meaning. Good questions can stimulate
your young people to participate in discussion.
Jesus frequently posed questions to get people thinking for themselves. He asks the
rich young ruler, 'Why do you call me good?' He asks the disciples, 'Who do you say
that I am?' Around 150 questions are recorded in the Gospels.
Prepare your questions in advance. Try to anticipate what kind of response you
might get. Is an important question too quickly introduced? If so, add other
questions which lead up to it. Prepare questions which encourage your young people
to dig into the Bible text.
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Open Questions
Open questions are great for stimulating group discussion because there are no right
or wrong answers. Open questions allow young people to share their own answers
and thoughts on the subject or passage studied. Open questions can have a variety
of answers. For example: Why do you think this is true? How is this important? Who
does this apply to? What could this mean for our lives today?
On the other hand, closed questions stifle group interaction and discussion. Closed
questions suggest an obvious answer or imply an answer expected by the leader. For
example: Paul says we are to rejoice in everything, doesn't he?
Finally, limiting questions do just that! They limit the number of responses or correct
answers your young people can give. For example: What 3 reasons does Paul give in
this passage?
Clearly, good questions are 'open questions' because they can have lots of answers.
They allow young people to comment more freely on personal experience,
implications and opinions. For example:
If this were true, what would it mean for our lives today? (Implication)
If you were God, how would you stop the suffering in the world? (Opinion).
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Dont ask questions which can be answered with one word (Do you agree
God loves you?)
Dont ask loaded questions which suggest the answer (Our bodies are Gods
temple, so should we smoke?)
Dont ask intimidating questions (If you really loved God, what you would
do?)
Dont try and make them guess the answers you want (What are the three
great truths from this passage?)
With some thought and preparation questions can be used very effectively in a
group bible study to stimulate discussion. Sure, its not as neat and tidy as a sermon,
but your young people will get more out of it.
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Questions of observation
Get your group to search for the facts who, what, where, when, why, any
commands? Any promises? Your prepared questions will vary depending on the
passage you're studying, but here are some typical ones:
Questions of interpretation
These questions encourage the group to examine the meanings of words, phrases,
actions, and the connections between them. Your questions should help them to link
the lessons of the passage with any biblical truth they already know. What is the
meaning of the passage for us today?
Remember to ask the Lord for guidance. The Holy Spirit is essential to understand
the depth of scripture John 14: 26, 1 John 2: 27
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Questions of application
How can I apply what I have learned to my life?
Application questions challenge us to put into practice the things we discover from
the Bible. Check out what James says about putting our faith into action (James 2:
14-18). True Christian faith transforms our conduct as well as our thoughts.
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Ten questions
This is a simple method for those who are new to Bible study. It works well with
passages from the Gospels. Divide into small groups and give your young people
details of the Bible passage to look at. From the passage ask them to list 10
questions of things they would like clarified, answered or have the opportunity to
discuss. After 15 minutes each group reports back and their questions are written on
a board or flip chart for all to see.
The rest of the time is given to discussion in the whole group until they find
satisfactory answers to their questions. Encourage young people to respond with
their own thoughts. As you move through the passage take time to explain the
background, give more information on the problem questions and provide clear
teaching where appropriate.
Meet Jesus
Select a passage from one of the Gospels. Read the passage together and ask the
group to answer the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Where is Jesus?
Where was Jesus before this event?
Who is Jesus talking to? (crowds, disciples, Gentiles or Jews etc)
Summarize or quote everything Jesus says. Note Jesus' feeling, tone, and
attitude. Note what Jesus does not say.
5. What are others saying about Jesus?
6. How do they feel about him?
7. How do people respond to Jesus?
8. What are my impressions of Jesus?
9. What is Jesus saying in this passage that could change my life?
10. What characteristics of Jesus would I like to see in my own life?
11. How can I work with Him to make it happen?
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Symbol study
This is a very effective method of introducing young people to Bible study. Ask a
member of the group to read the chosen bible passage aloud. Everyone then takes a
sheet of paper and writes the five symbols down the left hand side.
After quietly reading through the Bible passage again, each person writes (next to
the appropriate symbol) what they think the passage is saying. After 10 minutes of
individual work, encourage the group to share their findings together.
Where there are questions, encourage group discussion to try to find out the
answers together. Take a few minutes to summarise what you have discovered and
close with a prayer to act on anything learned.
ARROW POINTING UP
Write something theses verses tell us about Jesus/God
A LIGHT BULB
Write down any new discovery you have made reading these verses
AN EXCLAMATION MARK!
Write down the most exciting verse in your opinion and why
QUESTION MARK?
Write anything you don't understand or want to ask about
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Silent sharing
This is another simple method which can be used with all age groups.
Explain to the group they are to look for a verse which either: Means the most to me
OR tells me something new about the Christian life OR tells me something I need to
do.
1. Encourage them to work individually and in silence.
2. Explain they will be asked to share their answers when they have finished
reading.
3. Give the Bible verses to be studied.
4. You should also read the verses and be prepared to briefly share first.
5. Encourage the group members to share. Significant answers may be recorded
on a white board.
If some share the same verse, it's OK. They may have different reasons for choosing
it.
Examples of passages you could use are:
Psalm 139, John 15: 1-14, Romans 12: 9-21, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13, Ephesians 4: 116, Colossians 3: 12-17.
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My favourite
Ask every member of the group to bring a short Bible passage or a few verses which
are special to them. When you meet together encourage them to read out the
passage, explain what they think it means and why it is special to them. When each
person finishes, invite the rest of the group to comment on what they feel about the
passage.
Members of your group who are shy can prepare their verse with another young
person. It doesn't matter if the same passage comes up more than once, because
there are likely to be different perspectives on the text. This activity encourages your
young people to think about a Bible passage, promote personal understanding and
discover how it applies to them.
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In my own words
Divide into small groups and ask your young people to put a Bible passage into their
own words. This works well with parables. For example, ask them to rewrite the
parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) in a 21st century setting. Encourage
them to use modern words and phrases, but they must agree on and stick to the
original meaning of the passage.
Alternatively, the parable could be turned into a poem. Some members of your
group might want to act out their version of the story to the rest of the group.
Discuss the central meaning of the story and what it can teach us today.
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Montage a word
Take a word like worship, church, disciple, witness, salvation or fellowship and ask
your group to try to express its meaning in a montage. This is a large picture made
up from pieces of other pictures, photos, headlines and words cut from magazines
and pasted together on card.
Discuss how the montage helps us to understand more about the word and its
meaning. Follow this with a short word study looking at how the word is used in
several Bible passages.
Paint a story
Take a theme like I am the light of the world (John 8: 12) and ask your group to
illustrate the phrase in pictures using paints, crayons or pencils.
Alternatively, create a collage using scrap materials (magazines, newspapers, scrap
fabric or wool, cardboard boxes etc), or make a banner or mural using fabric or
wallpaper.
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What does it say about my relationship with God and with others?
Step 3: Feedback
Every person is given the opportunity to read their translation and share their
thoughts on the questions. The young people should do more listening than
speaking. The leader should not comment yet, but make notes on the main points
being shared. Thank everyone for their thoughts.
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Step 4: Questions
Encourage a time of more general discussion on the passage, beginning with any
common points raised by the young people. Here the group leader can also add
comments and guidance. Close with a time of prayer asking God to help us apply
what we've learned to our lives.
For this type of study narrative passages are generally less fruitful. Choose passages
which comment and guide on Christian lifestyle, witness and growth.
Some passages you could look at are:
Romans 12: 1-2; Ephesians 3: 14-20; Philippians 1: 27-30, 2: 1-16, 4: 4-13,
2 Timothy 2: 1-15; James 1: 2-7; 1 John 1 2: 7-11
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Word study
The study leader will need to prepare in advance using a concordance, topical Bible,
and Bible index to provide the verses for the group to study. Alternately, can I
encourage you use an online resource like www.biblegateway.com
This is a simple and effective resource for preparing bible studies. Here's how.
Choose the Bible version you wish to search. Click to do a keyword search. Enter
your keyword and the references you want will be searched. If you wish, you can
refine your search further and limit the search to selected books of the Bible.
Key words you might like to choose can include; grace, prayer, faith, assurance,
witness, sacrifice, servant, peace, redeem, fellowship, body. You get the idea. This
kind of study is a great way to encourage young people to discover things for
themselves. Let them dig into the Bible!
Here's a quick summary of a word study I've used. It's a word search on God. What
do we know about him? What is he like?
Give out a work sheet containing a list of verses on the attributes of God and ask the
young people to discover, what is God like? Of course, they will come up with their
own descriptions from the verses, but this should prompt an interesting discussion!
I've included my own answers to save you some work!
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Following the search activity, ask each of the young people to choose an attribute
(something about God's character) and share what it means personally and
practically to them that God is... (Forgiving)
Or select a particular attribute. Ask your group to think about why it's good that God
is like that. What would we (and the rest of the world) be missing if he wasn't like
that?
Character study
A colleague of mine told me there are 2,930 people mentioned in the Bible. I haven't
checked, but the Bible gives us a rich resource of illustrations of the human condition
and how lives can be transformed by God.
Use a concordance or the proper name index in your Bible. Look up each reference
of someone you would like to study. Again www.biblegateway.com gives a quick way
to do this. Put the name into the keyword search i.e. Gideon, Daniel, and Timothy.
Filter these results if necessary, to a more manageable number.
Check out some Old Testament characters for great adventures, personal challenges,
godly living and relationship with God. For example, Moses, Samson, Joshua, Gideon,
Samuel, Daniel, Hannah, Ruth, Esther. To illustrate this method, here are summaries
of three figures in the early church.
Barnabas
25 references. All in Acts. First mentioned in Acts 4: 36. Noted in Acts 9 as bringing
Paul to the apostles. Many of the other references are in Acts 11-14, where Barnabas
travels with Paul on his first missionary journey.
Timothy
25 references. Begins in Acts 16 when Paul meets a young disciple in Lystra. Travels
with Paul on missionary journeys. Final references are in personal letters to Timothy
as pastor of the church in Ephesus.
Silas
25 references. First mentioned in Acts 15: 22. Silas was with Paul during his many
adventures, including prison in Philippi. All references in Acts, except three
'signatures' in letters to the early churches.
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At the beginning of the study give out the worksheets containing the Bible
references and questions. If necessary, filter down to 15-20 key references.
Ask the young people to do some detective work and build up a profile of this
character. Working in three's, each group looks up the verses to answer the
questions you have selected for the worksheet. You can either ask each group to
answer all your prepared questions or just one section. Feedback the results on to a
whiteboard.
To get you started, I've listed 20 possible questions. They are divided into three
sections-background, character and significant events in their life. Not all will apply
to every character, but will give a guide for your preparations.
Background
What does his/her name mean? Why was he/she given that name? Was it
ever changed?
Where did he/she live? What was his/her home life like? What were the
characteristics of his/her parents? Did they influence him/her?
Character
How did he/she respond to failure? Did he/she get discouraged easily?
How did he/she respond to adversity? Did he/she handle criticism well?
How quickly did he/she praise God for the good/bad things that happened to
him/her?
How did he/she get along with other people? Was he/she a loner? Was
he/she a team person?
Significant events
Was there any great crisis in his/her life? How did he/she handle it?
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Did he/she experience a divine 'call?' How did he/she respond to it?
What crucial decisions did he/she have to make? How did they affect
him/her?
Why do you think God allowed this person to be mentioned in the Bible?
Is there a lesson in this person's life that can help or encourage me?
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Prayer
Ask the young people to find out what the Bible tells us about prayer. Get into pairs
and give each pair one of the references. (Suggested answers are in brackets).
Allow 3 or 4 minutes for the young people to find the answers. Each pair reports
back by writing their answer on a whiteboard or large piece of paper. Review.
Psalm 55: 17
Matthew 5: 44
Matthew 6: 5-7
Matthew 26: 41
Luke 18: 1
Philippians 4: 6-7
1 Thess 5: 16-18
James 5: 13-14
1 John 1: 9
Ask the young people to spend some time praying together in small groups of 4. In
their prayers ask them to apply some of the principles discovered in the study e.g.
pray for enemies, pray for the sick, confess sin, pray for strength to overcome
temptation.
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Prayer parable
Use the symbol Bible study method to examine Jesus' teaching on prayer.
Read Luke 11: 1-13 together and then hand out the paper to each person. Explain
that they need to think about the passage and write their answers and questions
next to each symbol.
Allow 10 minutes for individual study. Then lead a time of discussion where the
young people share their answers and questions with each other.
You may wish to end by giving a short talk on 'prayer changes things'. Use examples
from your own life of answered prayer, or what you learned from situations where
your prayer was not answered in the way you wanted or expected. Alternatively,
invite a member of the church to be interviewed about their experience of prayer.
Each person shares their answers. Make a list of what we can learn about prayer
from the feedback. Close by asking the young people to write their own personal
prayer (for their eyes only).
Examples of people in prayer:
1 Samuel 7: 5-11
2 Chronicles 1: 1-11
Nehemiah 1: 4-11
Nehemiah 9: 6-37
Psalm 51
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Jonah 2
Jonahs prayer
Luke 1: 46-55
Marys prayer
Luke 1: 68-79
Zechariahs prayer
Acts 4: 23-30
Acts 7: 59-60
2 Corinthians 1: 3-4
Ephesians 1: 3-14
2 Timothy 1: 3-4
Copyright
Insight by Grahame Knox is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
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