10 Teaching Tips for a Bible Study

Over the years I’ve gathered a few ideas for teaching an interactive Bible study.

  

1. Get them talking

Unless they talk they usually do not really engage in the class- they hear and don’t apply it.

2. Use a starter question

 Not everyone will talk unless you ask a simple question they can all answer. Often I use a question from their homework from the last week and ask everyone to answer it.

3. Break into Small Groups

Everyone will talk in a group of 2 and most of the time in a group of 3 or 4.  More people than that and they will need a facilitator to direct the conversation. Therefore I break up into small groups at some point in the discussion for no more than 10 minutes or you lose them. This also takes away all the focus from me/you as the facilitator. Small groups also break up the time and help keep them attentive, focusing on how this applies to their life.

4. Write on the board

Write something on the white board and solicit ideas from the group; a great time for brainstorming an idea and to get them talking.

5. Read Scripture

Every class needs to look at and read Scripture seeing that what we talk about actually originates from the Bible.

  

6. Keep it moving

Set up a tentative amount of time for each portion of the class. This keeps it moving and get to all the parts you want to cover without getting side tracked.

7. Limit number of concepts

 Introduce one or two major concepts per class.

8. Teach to all learning styles

 Include seeing, hearing, talking, writing, discussion, Scripture, small and large groups.

9. Discover an application

Help them figure out how they can apply the lesson to their lives 

10. Pray

Start the class and end with prayer for their needs. Use a prayer request sheet to get input from everyone and keep the requests concise so you have time to cover all of them.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 

Here's my plan for this week’s Bible Study from the book Boundaries by Drs Cloud and Townsend. Focus on what a Boundary difficulty looks like now and in our childhood.

1. 5 min-Welcome- Prayer & Intro (Hearing)

2. 10 min-Starter-Everyone- Question from their homework- What is an attitude or belief causing you to make poor choices or experience pain? I always go first to give an example. (Talking)

3. 5 min-Boundary Difficulties-Description from the book- write on board (Seeing)

   10 min-Small Groups- Each group takes 2 questions (Application)

   5 min-Large Group-Small groups report on their answers; fill in the blanks (Writing)

4. 10 min-Scriptures-Examples for each boundary difficulty (Reading)

5. 5 min-DVD (Seeing)

6. 10-15 min-Causes of Boundary Problems-Presented by my co-teacher helping them identify what caused their problems (Discussion)

7. 15 min-Prayer-Read the requests. Ask anyone to pray for one of them if they would like. Close covering any prayers which were not covered by someone else. (Prayer)

Photograph by Linley Zook