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Many people in small churches find themselves in positions of leadership – sometimes accidentally and sometimes by default. Leading Bible Studies is no exception.
Whether you’re a seasoned leader or brand new to leading a small group, join me for some tips on facilitating a group, and why I think knowing too much can sometimes be a hindrance.
Join in to hear:
- Why the best facilitators are sometimes the least expected
- How knowing all the answers might be holding others back from deeper learning
- A few tips on getting better engagement in a small group
- Why the most important question you can ask is “Now what?”
Links Mentioned:
Women’s Ministry For Small Churches Conference: https://smallchurchsummits.com/
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056: How To Facilitate A Bible Study When You Don’t Know Enough (& Why That Actually Might Be A Good Thing)
Laurie Graham 0:01
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to the Small Church Ministry Podcast.
Laurie Graham 0:14
Hey, welcome to Episode 56 of the Small Church Ministry Podcast. Today we’re going to share some tips on facilitating your best ever Bible study. Now while I am 100% committed to staying focused on equipping people in small churches, the skills we’re going to talk about today really are great for any sized church and in any setting, because when it comes to facilitating small groups, we’ve all got them. Big churches may have more small groups, but the groups are usually about the same size and setup. Maybe there’s four to eight people, maybe there’s ten to twelve, but you’ve got a small group. Now, any bigger than twelve, it’s pretty hard to facilitate discussion and even twelve is a bit big, but the skills here are the same.
And even better news, anyone can learn the skills to facilitate well. You can be an extrovert or an introvert, you can be confident or shy, you could even be scared out of your boots, and you can still facilitate a great group. And I’m going to tell you how. In fact, if you think you don’t have the best skills, because you don’t know enough, or you’re not great at public speaking, here’s the truth. You may have the potential to be the best facilitator. I personally believe you’ll probably be a better facilitator than a lot of the talkers and those who have degrees in theology.
Because here’s the thing. If you’re a talker, it’s hard not to talk, and the biggest impact and transformation you will see in a small group is if you shut up a little more, and let others lead the way! It’s really a skill to learn, to draw others into participating and sharing. Now, if you’re a teacher, and you know it all, the same thing, there’s a caution. Have you heard the phrase ” the people don’t remember what you say, but they remember what they do?” Well, I just want to say that’s not just a quippy phrase, it’s actually true. It’s proven. It is the way that God designed us as humans. So, if you want to share all that you know and all that you learned, you can expect other people to listen and forget 90% of everything you just said.
It’s true. Now, if you want to help other people learn, and discover, and apply, and change your lives, now that is worth my time, and that is what facilitating is all about. It’s not about speaking better, it’s about listening better and also learning some skills to draw other people out. So, if you do want to know how to speak better, or teach better, I can totally share some of those skills with you in another episode, but I think the beauty of facilitating is so much less about what you have to say because again, people forget that anyway, it’s in leading them to learn and apply and even hear from God on their own, to be taught not just by you, but by the Holy Spirit Himself.
Like, do you ever consider that, that your role facilitating a Bible study, leading a small group might just be to help others hear from the Holy Spirit? It’s pretty mind-blowing, isn’t it? That it wouldn’t be about what we’ve learned or about what we say, but it’s about them being taught by the Holy Spirit.
Laurie Graham 3:38
Well, before I get into some practical skills, I just want to hit a couple of frequently asked questions. One is that “I don’t know enough to lead a Bible study. How could I possibly lead a Bible study when I don’t know enough about the Bible?” So I just want to say, this is not true. You don’t have to know more than anyone else to facilitate a Bible study. You might to preach or teach a sermon, but not to facilitate a Bible study. If you’re listening and thinking, wait, wait, wait, we’re supposed to handle the Word of God correctly, to show ourselves approved? Yes, I totally agree, but to lead a Bible study, we can also be learners!
In fact, I honestly think showing up as the expert, actually is a disservice to other people in the Bible study. So here’s why. If you walk in the room and start unpacking the Hebrew, and share stuff you learned in the commentaries, and show yourself to be this incredibly knowledgeable Bible scholar, you know what happens? A lot of people shut down. They have already decided they will have nothing to share or contribute. That’s not what I want.
Another thing that happens is there focus is on you, and how incredible you are, and you have now become the source of knowledge. People want you to answer their questions, it actually creates a weird dependency, and I don’t think that’s good. Sometimes we do this with pastors, that all pastors are supposed to know more about everything, or be connected more to truth, or to have the direct line to Jesus.
Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t study or that we shouldn’t have pastors to guide us, we should, but when it comes to studying the Bible or developing a thirst to study the Bible, or for God’s word, that thirst actually comes, as we start discovering things for ourselves in the Bible, with the help of the Holy Spirit. That is what grows the thirst. If you’ve experienced this, I know you know what I’m saying. We are not drawn to love the study of Scripture, by hearing what other people have learned or experienced. I think it is so important to lead people to seek, and read, and discover, and ask God to teach us as individuals, that everybody who loves Jesus can actually hear and learn from God.
Laurie Graham 6:13
I really think this is one of the reasons so many Christians and churches today don’t read their Bibles, or don’t ever feel like they’ve experienced the Holy Spirit. Because honestly, most of us haven’t been taught that. We’ve gone to Bible studies where somebody has taught us what they have learned. We have sat under teachers and preachers and listen to sermons online, instead of being encouraged to go dig in, and to see what God gives us. And at the beginning, it’s like these little tiny nuggets. But when you share, Gosh, I wonder if God said this to me, and somebody says, that is amazing, then we are more encouraged to go back and study for ourselves.
And this is where the beauty of facilitating a Bible study in a small group can actually light people on fire for God’s word, but it’s not in what they hear from you, it’s in what they learn and apply. So, if you love Jesus, and you want to learn from the word, you are totally qualified to lead and facilitate a Bible study a small group discussion about the word. Facilitating is not the same as teaching, and when it comes to leading Bible studies, where we are encouraging others in small groups, facilitating is really the skill that I believe is so needed.
Another frequently asked question that comes up is “What if I don’t know the answer? What about truth? If someone is asking for truth, and you don’t know the answer?” So truth is so important. Do you know what else is important, saying, “I don’t know,” being human together, deciding to learn together. If you are leading a study that was written for group facilitating, it probably has enough info just to keep you on track right there.
If you are leading a study straight from the Bible, like walking through verse by verse or in sections, it is also great to have some context. And if you are new to the Bible, there are going to be questions that you don’t know the answer to. And you know what? others in the group don’t know the answer either, but some might! We’re gonna get in how to answer questions that come up that you don’t know the answers to when I talk a little more about facilitating in just a few minutes, but for now, I just want you to know that it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” But let’s go ahead and get into some great tips on facilitating well.
Laurie Graham 8:46
So first off, your Bible study is going to have some important pieces, in addition to the Bible study. Kind of think of like blocks of time, because these other blocks in addition to the actual Bible study, are actually really important. So let me just break up like if you have an hour to do a Bible study, this is what this might look like. 10 minutes at the beginning to connect, 10 minutes to read, focus, and pray, 30 minutes to discuss 5 minutes to focus on application, and 5 minutes to share, pray, or close.
So that’s just a way to break it up. 10 minutes to connect, 10 minutes to read, or focus and pray, 30 minutes to discuss, 5 minutes for application, 5 minutes to close. That is your 60 minute time. So if first off you were terrified to like facilitate a one hour long Bible study, please know the Bible study part is usually about half that time or about 30 minutes. Now, if your time is longer or shorter, just adjust those times. There’s nothing magical or required about the different time segments. It’s just usually about where I land, but let me walk you through each segment and why it’s important too.
Laurie Graham 9:57
So to start with some time to connect, that 10-minute time that I mentioned, it’s really important not just to jump into Bible study when people walk in the room, because every single one of us, when we arrive at a location, we are coming in with stuff, with distractions, with needs, with things on our heart. It’s kind of like if you’ve ever taught children, you gotta do a little game to get the wiggles out, it is very difficult to get a child to walk in the room and sit down and listen.
And honestly, adults are not much different. Guide this time to connect. You’re gonna have to manage it because you don’t want it to take over, but start with some group sharing. There’s a few ways to do this. You can give everybody like one minute to share a high and low that they’ve had from the week or from the day. Now, you may have a few talkers, and maybe that, that system doesn’t work very well in your group. So the next time just try to do it in pairs, you can break people up into pairs or trios, and say, “Hey, share something that’s on your heart.” Your time to connect could include some time to pray for each other, but don’t let it take up too much time. Remember, it’s really about getting the wiggles out, getting first things first, trying to empty out our thoughts and our hearts so that we are able to focus on the Bible study that we came for.
So after the time to connect, I really suggest a time to read or focus and pray. Now, there’s something important to transition into the Bible study. It brings us back to the whole group, but it also invites God in, in a really intentional way. I love it when we see an experienced scripture being read out loud. There really is something beautiful about the public reading of Scripture, a big passage, whatever you’re studying, just to have someone read it. Now maybe you want to do the thing where you go around the room and read one verse at a time. My favorite way right now is just having one person read it while we all just close our eyes, silently, and just listen, trying to focus and hear the scripture passage. It’s also a really cool experience after it’s read, just to have everyone share one word or phrase that stood out to them.
And maybe you want to read it fully a second time through with our eyes closed. Now, if you do have people share a word or a phrase, this isn’t a time for them to teach, for them to unpack what it means to them, or share a story. It’s not an explanation. It’s just a word or a phrase. It helps us focus it helps us set our intentions on the Word of God and the power of the Word of God, and have the Holy Spirit to teach us through something we may have heard or read a million times. Then after the reading of that scripture to say a prayer, that’s a great way to transition into your study.
Laurie Graham 12:56
So after a time to connect, and then this reading/focus time, jump into your 30 minutes of discussion. If you are leading from a written study, there are probably already questions there. If you’re doing a study, scrape from, straight from scripture, you may want to prepare some questions ahead of time. Now normally, those questions, whether you come up with them yourself, or if it’s in a pre-written study, like you purchased a study that’s meant to last six weeks or something, it usually covers these kinds of questions.
What is this passage saying to you? What stands out to you? When have you experienced this? Why does it matter? How would it feel to be in this story? What would it be like to experience what Jesus is saying or what the psalm is saying? How does this apply to us? Now, whatever questions come up, you’re gonna hit, so what, why does this matter? And we’ll talk about how to get into what now or what next, but here are some great tips for participation because a lot of people struggle with, everybody’s just staring at me. Nobody’s answering. I ask a question and nobody responds. There’s a reason for this, and this is where some skill comes in, being able to ask questions that are able to be answered by everyone where you’re not just looking for one answer, asking people “What one word stands out to you?”
Another great tip is having people write down, write down one thing that you’ve experienced, and then it’s easier to call on people because they wrote it down. And then, instead of saying, “What do you think?” you’re saying, “Hey, what did you write down?” Having people share in partners or in small groups can help too, if your group’s a little bigger. Some people avoid calling on people.
It, that really depends on your group. Know your group because sometimes you can ask people ahead of time or in front of the group, “Hey, could you share what’s on your mind? What’s on your heart?” “Who has a question?” Being able to ask those kinds of questions frees it up a little bit. And especially if you did not set yourself up as the expert, people will feel more free to share. “What is this verse saying to you,” is very different than saying “What did Jesus mean by that?” Right? “What is this verse saying to you? How could you apply it?”
Laurie Graham 15:19
Now sometimes in small groups, people are talking too much. We’ve got a talker. Most of us have experienced this. A few tips, if you need to, you know, just kind of reel in a talker is sit by them, maybe touch them just briefly on their leg or their shoulder. Sometimes that’s a good signal for them to kind of wrap it up. Privately, you could ask them to help you say, “Hey, I know you’re so comfortable in there. I really want other people to feel free to talk and share. Could you wait until three people have shared before you share again?”
Define some group rules ahead of time, maybe part of the group rules will be “Hey, we want to keep sharing briefly.” If you have someone who loves to share stories and has a lot on their heart, one thing that is beautiful to do is in the middle of the group to say “Wow, you know, I would love to hear your story, can you share that with me after the group? We just need to move on to make sure we can hit everything on our lesson.” If they feel honored, and you really mean that, that you want to listen to them, it can be a really great way to continue that conversation, but in a way that you can also get through your lesson.
Now, as I mentioned, I was gonna give you some thoughts on what to do with questions when you don’t know the answer. I’ve got a few different ways to handle this. Yes, you could say to them, I’ll find out and get back to you next week, but I don’t recommend it. You could say to them, let’s ask the pastor. But you know what, I don’t recommend that either. A more interesting and fruitful way to turn that question is to say, “Hey, does anyone here have an insight on that question?”
And to ask, who knows where we could find the answer without going to the pastor, is there something someplace we could look some way we could research? And is anyone willing to do a little research and look up, see if you can find a great answer to that question, and loop back to it next week? Because remember, you’re the facilitator. Facilitate their learning as well as your own. Your job is not to show your knowledge or to be the experts. Let’s facilitate people’s learning so they remember and apply and get excited that they can hear from God as they read the word, that they can find solutions. And yes, sometimes, of course, we do want to loop in a pastor.
We do want to loop in some knowledgeable mentors and saints who have gone before us, right, with different quotes and different words and different, you know, just, I don’t know, different authors and different pieces of writing that we find, but we also want to remember to point people to Jesus, and that they can hear from God, that they could delve into the Word of God and start hearing and discovering and learning on their own.
Laurie Graham 18:10
All right, so back to our little agenda of facilitating a group study. We spent some time in connection, we spent some time reading scripture and focusing, and we spent some time discussing. The next 10 minutes are really key, even though they’re the shortest time to me, well, honestly, I think they’re the most important. The next five minutes after discussing is to focus on application. If you are not like strict about this or committed to this, it is very easy to study the Bible without ever applying a thing, without ever leaving the group to apply, but this five minutes to focus on application, hopefully you already talked about so what? Why does this matter? How does this apply? But now we want to get to the really important question of what now? What next for you? What will you apply? What will you change?
No matter how your time went, no matter how deep your discussion got, everyone should be able to pick out one thing that they want to start, stop, or do differently going forward. Maybe it is they want to talk to their friend in a different tone of voice. Maybe it’s that they want to stop and explore homelessness in the city. Maybe it’s that they want to delve into the Bible themselves and look up that question, but I really would ask everyone in the group to make this a habit at the close of your studies to say, “Hey everybody, as we always do, write down one specific thing that you’re going to start, stop, or do differently.”
And if there’s time, share it in the group. If there’s not, have them share it with one person next to them so that they are verbalizing it, and as you work with a group, try to get very focused on that. It’s really easy for us to say, “Oh, I’m just going to be nicer to people.” Well, that’s not very specific. So what does that mean? Who do you want to be nicer to? How could you be? Maybe instead of “I’m going to be nicer to people,” maybe the application is the next time I’m in the supermarket, I am going to smile at the cashier and put my phone down and ask him or her how their day is going. Do you see how that’s very different? Too many churches are in the habit of studying the Word and learning the Word, and never applying what they learn to make a difference and to lead to transformation in their own lives. So that five minutes on application becomes, it’s just about the most important time..
Laurie Graham 20:44
And then after your five minutes of application, make sure you spend five minutes to close, and pray, to come back together as a community, to remind people that after they shared their individual application to remember, we are all in this together. And we are also not alone, that God, our living God, Emmanuel, God with us, He is here. If you only have five minutes to close, which I honestly recommend, it’s not necessarily the time to share prayer requests, because hopefully, that may have even come out at the beginning, but just a reminder and encouragement, a time to share this responsibility of ourselves, of moving forward with God, maybe reflecting or closing on a blessing or a scripture to send us out to do and be everything that God wants us to be.
So what do you think? Is that helpful, to have kind of a framework, to lighten up the responsibility that it’s not all about you, but it’s about leading others to share responsibility in studying the Word of God and even to help facilitate too? I hope that you see that these are skills to learn, and even if you are terrified, you can get better. If you’ve been leading forever, you can get better. But on the flip side, I just want to encourage you that if you are nervous, or you don’t feel equipped, your humility is also such a gift to the people in the room, because when we promote ourselves as experts, it means they’re not. So could we all be learners together and in that way, building them up? If you are a talker, the skill to learn is how to draw others out, how to help them learn and express, and also how to create a safe place where people feel free to share and also to be wrong, and that their voice is important and their learning is part of the community.
It’s really not about how great a talker or a teacher you are. The real skill is building participation, building other people’s confidence, helping them see their value, their worth, that our amazing God isn’t just talking to you, but He’s speaking to them too. They don’t really need someone in the middle. What people need is the truth, that God is speaking right to them, if they sit and abide in Him. This is really the highest value in facilitating a Bible study, it’s illuminating this truth that God deeply wants to speak into the hearts of all His kids, that one person is not more equipped to study. Some may be further ahead in their journey, absolutely, and we want to learn from them, but nobody is more equipped to study or hear from God than the next person. Isn’t that worth learning to do this well, to facilitate this type of transformation?
Laurie Graham 23:48
So after hearing this podcast, just this last 20 minutes, what is one thing that you could apply, just one, specifically, individually? What is one thing that you as a facilitator, as a leader, as a future leader, as a student? What could you start, stop, or do differently as a result of the last 20 minutes? I’d love to pray for us as we close. Lord, we know that your word does not return void, and we are grateful and more than grateful. We are excited to know that you are speaking to us just like you spoke to prophets, to people, to saints of old throughout Scripture. Lord, I pray that whatever one thing you laid on one individual’s heart today, Lord, that we would commit to that, that we would follow through, that we would strive not just to be better teachers of others, but better disciples, better learners of you. That we would desire more of you, to hear more from you. Yes to study to show ourselves approved, but also to be that light to help others see that they also can hear from you in the same way. Thanks, God, I love you.
Laurie Graham 25:18
Well, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Small Church Ministry Podcast. I hope you are finding the encouragement you need just to keep walking the journey and being a light right where God has you planted. If you’ve been around us long enough, you know that for us, we are not impressed at all with numbers. We don’t care how many people attend your church, or how many people came to an event. We believe God calls us to transformation. We believe the ministry Jesus modeled is relational. Jesus focused on 12. That’s who he poured into. How about you? Is 12 enough? I think we could change the planet if each one of us took 12. Whatever that number is, God is moving right where you are and at this very moment. Our only job is to join Him there.
Laurie Graham 26:09
If you’re listening live, the event of the season is happening this Saturday, January 28! We actually kick off on Friday the 27th with a pre-conference kickoff, but if you are a woman in a small church, and you don’t have your free ticket yet for the women’s ministry conference just for small churches, we do four conferences a year and January is when we focus on women’s ministry, but if you don’t have your ticket yet, or you know somebody who would love to be involved, please grab one and don’t miss out! It is online and it is free, but it is so interactive. The stories and testimonies and connections that come out of our conferences are out of this world. So you can grab a ticket at smallchurchsummits.com. The link is also in the show notes and that’s what I got for today. Talk to you next week. Be a light.
Laurie Graham 0:01
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to the Small Church Ministry Podcast.
Laurie Graham 0:14
Hey, welcome to Episode 56 of the Small Church Ministry Podcast. Today we’re going to share some tips on facilitating your best ever Bible study. Now while I am 100% committed to staying focused on equipping people in small churches, the skills we’re going to talk about today really are great for any sized church and in any setting, because when it comes to facilitating small groups, we’ve all got them. Big churches may have more small groups, but the groups are usually about the same size and setup. Maybe there’s four to eight people, maybe there’s ten to twelve, but you’ve got a small group. Now, any bigger than twelve, it’s pretty hard to facilitate discussion and even twelve is a bit big, but the skills here are the same.
And even better news, anyone can learn the skills to facilitate well. You can be an extrovert or an introvert, you can be confident or shy, you could even be scared out of your boots, and you can still facilitate a great group. And I’m going to tell you how. In fact, if you think you don’t have the best skills, because you don’t know enough, or you’re not great at public speaking, here’s the truth. You may have the potential to be the best facilitator. I personally believe you’ll probably be a better facilitator than a lot of the talkers and those who have degrees in theology.
Because here’s the thing. If you’re a talker, it’s hard not to talk, and the biggest impact and transformation you will see in a small group is if you shut up a little more, and let others lead the way! It’s really a skill to learn, to draw others into participating and sharing. Now, if you’re a teacher, and you know it all, the same thing, there’s a caution. Have you heard the phrase ” the people don’t remember what you say, but they remember what they do?” Well, I just want to say that’s not just a quippy phrase, it’s actually true. It’s proven. It is the way that God designed us as humans. So, if you want to share all that you know and all that you learned, you can expect other people to listen and forget 90% of everything you just said.
It’s true. Now, if you want to help other people learn, and discover, and apply, and change your lives, now that is worth my time, and that is what facilitating is all about. It’s not about speaking better, it’s about listening better and also learning some skills to draw other people out. So, if you do want to know how to speak better, or teach better, I can totally share some of those skills with you in another episode, but I think the beauty of facilitating is so much less about what you have to say because again, people forget that anyway, it’s in leading them to learn and apply and even hear from God on their own, to be taught not just by you, but by the Holy Spirit Himself.
Like, do you ever consider that, that your role facilitating a Bible study, leading a small group might just be to help others hear from the Holy Spirit? It’s pretty mind-blowing, isn’t it? That it wouldn’t be about what we’ve learned or about what we say, but it’s about them being taught by the Holy Spirit.
Laurie Graham 3:38
Well, before I get into some practical skills, I just want to hit a couple of frequently asked questions. One is that “I don’t know enough to lead a Bible study. How could I possibly lead a Bible study when I don’t know enough about the Bible?” So I just want to say, this is not true. You don’t have to know more than anyone else to facilitate a Bible study. You might to preach or teach a sermon, but not to facilitate a Bible study. If you’re listening and thinking, wait, wait, wait, we’re supposed to handle the Word of God correctly, to show ourselves approved? Yes, I totally agree, but to lead a Bible study, we can also be learners!
In fact, I honestly think showing up as the expert, actually is a disservice to other people in the Bible study. So here’s why. If you walk in the room and start unpacking the Hebrew, and share stuff you learned in the commentaries, and show yourself to be this incredibly knowledgeable Bible scholar, you know what happens? A lot of people shut down. They have already decided they will have nothing to share or contribute. That’s not what I want.
Another thing that happens is there focus is on you, and how incredible you are, and you have now become the source of knowledge. People want you to answer their questions, it actually creates a weird dependency, and I don’t think that’s good. Sometimes we do this with pastors, that all pastors are supposed to know more about everything, or be connected more to truth, or to have the direct line to Jesus.
Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t study or that we shouldn’t have pastors to guide us, we should, but when it comes to studying the Bible or developing a thirst to study the Bible, or for God’s word, that thirst actually comes, as we start discovering things for ourselves in the Bible, with the help of the Holy Spirit. That is what grows the thirst. If you’ve experienced this, I know you know what I’m saying. We are not drawn to love the study of Scripture, by hearing what other people have learned or experienced. I think it is so important to lead people to seek, and read, and discover, and ask God to teach us as individuals, that everybody who loves Jesus can actually hear and learn from God.
Laurie Graham 6:13
I really think this is one of the reasons so many Christians and churches today don’t read their Bibles, or don’t ever feel like they’ve experienced the Holy Spirit. Because honestly, most of us haven’t been taught that. We’ve gone to Bible studies where somebody has taught us what they have learned. We have sat under teachers and preachers and listen to sermons online, instead of being encouraged to go dig in, and to see what God gives us. And at the beginning, it’s like these little tiny nuggets. But when you share, Gosh, I wonder if God said this to me, and somebody says, that is amazing, then we are more encouraged to go back and study for ourselves.
And this is where the beauty of facilitating a Bible study in a small group can actually light people on fire for God’s word, but it’s not in what they hear from you, it’s in what they learn and apply. So, if you love Jesus, and you want to learn from the word, you are totally qualified to lead and facilitate a Bible study a small group discussion about the word. Facilitating is not the same as teaching, and when it comes to leading Bible studies, where we are encouraging others in small groups, facilitating is really the skill that I believe is so needed.
Another frequently asked question that comes up is “What if I don’t know the answer? What about truth? If someone is asking for truth, and you don’t know the answer?” So truth is so important. Do you know what else is important, saying, “I don’t know,” being human together, deciding to learn together. If you are leading a study that was written for group facilitating, it probably has enough info just to keep you on track right there.
If you are leading a study straight from the Bible, like walking through verse by verse or in sections, it is also great to have some context. And if you are new to the Bible, there are going to be questions that you don’t know the answer to. And you know what? others in the group don’t know the answer either, but some might! We’re gonna get in how to answer questions that come up that you don’t know the answers to when I talk a little more about facilitating in just a few minutes, but for now, I just want you to know that it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” But let’s go ahead and get into some great tips on facilitating well.
Laurie Graham 8:46
So first off, your Bible study is going to have some important pieces, in addition to the Bible study. Kind of think of like blocks of time, because these other blocks in addition to the actual Bible study, are actually really important. So let me just break up like if you have an hour to do a Bible study, this is what this might look like. 10 minutes at the beginning to connect, 10 minutes to read, focus, and pray, 30 minutes to discuss 5 minutes to focus on application, and 5 minutes to share, pray, or close.
So that’s just a way to break it up. 10 minutes to connect, 10 minutes to read, or focus and pray, 30 minutes to discuss, 5 minutes for application, 5 minutes to close. That is your 60 minute time. So if first off you were terrified to like facilitate a one hour long Bible study, please know the Bible study part is usually about half that time or about 30 minutes. Now, if your time is longer or shorter, just adjust those times. There’s nothing magical or required about the different time segments. It’s just usually about where I land, but let me walk you through each segment and why it’s important too.
Laurie Graham 9:57
So to start with some time to connect, that 10-minute time that I mentioned, it’s really important not just to jump into Bible study when people walk in the room, because every single one of us, when we arrive at a location, we are coming in with stuff, with distractions, with needs, with things on our heart. It’s kind of like if you’ve ever taught children, you gotta do a little game to get the wiggles out, it is very difficult to get a child to walk in the room and sit down and listen.
And honestly, adults are not much different. Guide this time to connect. You’re gonna have to manage it because you don’t want it to take over, but start with some group sharing. There’s a few ways to do this. You can give everybody like one minute to share a high and low that they’ve had from the week or from the day. Now, you may have a few talkers, and maybe that, that system doesn’t work very well in your group. So the next time just try to do it in pairs, you can break people up into pairs or trios, and say, “Hey, share something that’s on your heart.” Your time to connect could include some time to pray for each other, but don’t let it take up too much time. Remember, it’s really about getting the wiggles out, getting first things first, trying to empty out our thoughts and our hearts so that we are able to focus on the Bible study that we came for.
So after the time to connect, I really suggest a time to read or focus and pray. Now, there’s something important to transition into the Bible study. It brings us back to the whole group, but it also invites God in, in a really intentional way. I love it when we see an experienced scripture being read out loud. There really is something beautiful about the public reading of Scripture, a big passage, whatever you’re studying, just to have someone read it. Now maybe you want to do the thing where you go around the room and read one verse at a time. My favorite way right now is just having one person read it while we all just close our eyes, silently, and just listen, trying to focus and hear the scripture passage. It’s also a really cool experience after it’s read, just to have everyone share one word or phrase that stood out to them.
And maybe you want to read it fully a second time through with our eyes closed. Now, if you do have people share a word or a phrase, this isn’t a time for them to teach, for them to unpack what it means to them, or share a story. It’s not an explanation. It’s just a word or a phrase. It helps us focus it helps us set our intentions on the Word of God and the power of the Word of God, and have the Holy Spirit to teach us through something we may have heard or read a million times. Then after the reading of that scripture to say a prayer, that’s a great way to transition into your study.
Laurie Graham 12:56
So after a time to connect, and then this reading/focus time, jump into your 30 minutes of discussion. If you are leading from a written study, there are probably already questions there. If you’re doing a study, scrape from, straight from scripture, you may want to prepare some questions ahead of time. Now normally, those questions, whether you come up with them yourself, or if it’s in a pre-written study, like you purchased a study that’s meant to last six weeks or something, it usually covers these kinds of questions.
What is this passage saying to you? What stands out to you? When have you experienced this? Why does it matter? How would it feel to be in this story? What would it be like to experience what Jesus is saying or what the psalm is saying? How does this apply to us? Now, whatever questions come up, you’re gonna hit, so what, why does this matter? And we’ll talk about how to get into what now or what next, but here are some great tips for participation because a lot of people struggle with, everybody’s just staring at me. Nobody’s answering. I ask a question and nobody responds. There’s a reason for this, and this is where some skill comes in, being able to ask questions that are able to be answered by everyone where you’re not just looking for one answer, asking people “What one word stands out to you?”
Another great tip is having people write down, write down one thing that you’ve experienced, and then it’s easier to call on people because they wrote it down. And then, instead of saying, “What do you think?” you’re saying, “Hey, what did you write down?” Having people share in partners or in small groups can help too, if your group’s a little bigger. Some people avoid calling on people.
It, that really depends on your group. Know your group because sometimes you can ask people ahead of time or in front of the group, “Hey, could you share what’s on your mind? What’s on your heart?” “Who has a question?” Being able to ask those kinds of questions frees it up a little bit. And especially if you did not set yourself up as the expert, people will feel more free to share. “What is this verse saying to you,” is very different than saying “What did Jesus mean by that?” Right? “What is this verse saying to you? How could you apply it?”
Laurie Graham 15:19
Now sometimes in small groups, people are talking too much. We’ve got a talker. Most of us have experienced this. A few tips, if you need to, you know, just kind of reel in a talker is sit by them, maybe touch them just briefly on their leg or their shoulder. Sometimes that’s a good signal for them to kind of wrap it up. Privately, you could ask them to help you say, “Hey, I know you’re so comfortable in there. I really want other people to feel free to talk and share. Could you wait until three people have shared before you share again?”
Define some group rules ahead of time, maybe part of the group rules will be “Hey, we want to keep sharing briefly.” If you have someone who loves to share stories and has a lot on their heart, one thing that is beautiful to do is in the middle of the group to say “Wow, you know, I would love to hear your story, can you share that with me after the group? We just need to move on to make sure we can hit everything on our lesson.” If they feel honored, and you really mean that, that you want to listen to them, it can be a really great way to continue that conversation, but in a way that you can also get through your lesson.
Now, as I mentioned, I was gonna give you some thoughts on what to do with questions when you don’t know the answer. I’ve got a few different ways to handle this. Yes, you could say to them, I’ll find out and get back to you next week, but I don’t recommend it. You could say to them, let’s ask the pastor. But you know what, I don’t recommend that either. A more interesting and fruitful way to turn that question is to say, “Hey, does anyone here have an insight on that question?”
And to ask, who knows where we could find the answer without going to the pastor, is there something someplace we could look some way we could research? And is anyone willing to do a little research and look up, see if you can find a great answer to that question, and loop back to it next week? Because remember, you’re the facilitator. Facilitate their learning as well as your own. Your job is not to show your knowledge or to be the experts. Let’s facilitate people’s learning so they remember and apply and get excited that they can hear from God as they read the word, that they can find solutions. And yes, sometimes, of course, we do want to loop in a pastor.
We do want to loop in some knowledgeable mentors and saints who have gone before us, right, with different quotes and different words and different, you know, just, I don’t know, different authors and different pieces of writing that we find, but we also want to remember to point people to Jesus, and that they can hear from God, that they could delve into the Word of God and start hearing and discovering and learning on their own.
Laurie Graham 18:10
All right, so back to our little agenda of facilitating a group study. We spent some time in connection, we spent some time reading scripture and focusing, and we spent some time discussing. The next 10 minutes are really key, even though they’re the shortest time to me, well, honestly, I think they’re the most important. The next five minutes after discussing is to focus on application. If you are not like strict about this or committed to this, it is very easy to study the Bible without ever applying a thing, without ever leaving the group to apply, but this five minutes to focus on application, hopefully you already talked about so what? Why does this matter? How does this apply? But now we want to get to the really important question of what now? What next for you? What will you apply? What will you change?
No matter how your time went, no matter how deep your discussion got, everyone should be able to pick out one thing that they want to start, stop, or do differently going forward. Maybe it is they want to talk to their friend in a different tone of voice. Maybe it’s that they want to stop and explore homelessness in the city. Maybe it’s that they want to delve into the Bible themselves and look up that question, but I really would ask everyone in the group to make this a habit at the close of your studies to say, “Hey everybody, as we always do, write down one specific thing that you’re going to start, stop, or do differently.”
And if there’s time, share it in the group. If there’s not, have them share it with one person next to them so that they are verbalizing it, and as you work with a group, try to get very focused on that. It’s really easy for us to say, “Oh, I’m just going to be nicer to people.” Well, that’s not very specific. So what does that mean? Who do you want to be nicer to? How could you be? Maybe instead of “I’m going to be nicer to people,” maybe the application is the next time I’m in the supermarket, I am going to smile at the cashier and put my phone down and ask him or her how their day is going. Do you see how that’s very different? Too many churches are in the habit of studying the Word and learning the Word, and never applying what they learn to make a difference and to lead to transformation in their own lives. So that five minutes on application becomes, it’s just about the most important time..
Laurie Graham 20:44
And then after your five minutes of application, make sure you spend five minutes to close, and pray, to come back together as a community, to remind people that after they shared their individual application to remember, we are all in this together. And we are also not alone, that God, our living God, Emmanuel, God with us, He is here. If you only have five minutes to close, which I honestly recommend, it’s not necessarily the time to share prayer requests, because hopefully, that may have even come out at the beginning, but just a reminder and encouragement, a time to share this responsibility of ourselves, of moving forward with God, maybe reflecting or closing on a blessing or a scripture to send us out to do and be everything that God wants us to be.
So what do you think? Is that helpful, to have kind of a framework, to lighten up the responsibility that it’s not all about you, but it’s about leading others to share responsibility in studying the Word of God and even to help facilitate too? I hope that you see that these are skills to learn, and even if you are terrified, you can get better. If you’ve been leading forever, you can get better. But on the flip side, I just want to encourage you that if you are nervous, or you don’t feel equipped, your humility is also such a gift to the people in the room, because when we promote ourselves as experts, it means they’re not. So could we all be learners together and in that way, building them up? If you are a talker, the skill to learn is how to draw others out, how to help them learn and express, and also how to create a safe place where people feel free to share and also to be wrong, and that their voice is important and their learning is part of the community.
It’s really not about how great a talker or a teacher you are. The real skill is building participation, building other people’s confidence, helping them see their value, their worth, that our amazing God isn’t just talking to you, but He’s speaking to them too. They don’t really need someone in the middle. What people need is the truth, that God is speaking right to them, if they sit and abide in Him. This is really the highest value in facilitating a Bible study, it’s illuminating this truth that God deeply wants to speak into the hearts of all His kids, that one person is not more equipped to study. Some may be further ahead in their journey, absolutely, and we want to learn from them, but nobody is more equipped to study or hear from God than the next person. Isn’t that worth learning to do this well, to facilitate this type of transformation?
Laurie Graham 23:48
So after hearing this podcast, just this last 20 minutes, what is one thing that you could apply, just one, specifically, individually? What is one thing that you as a facilitator, as a leader, as a future leader, as a student? What could you start, stop, or do differently as a result of the last 20 minutes? I’d love to pray for us as we close. Lord, we know that your word does not return void, and we are grateful and more than grateful. We are excited to know that you are speaking to us just like you spoke to prophets, to people, to saints of old throughout Scripture. Lord, I pray that whatever one thing you laid on one individual’s heart today, Lord, that we would commit to that, that we would follow through, that we would strive not just to be better teachers of others, but better disciples, better learners of you. That we would desire more of you, to hear more from you. Yes to study to show ourselves approved, but also to be that light to help others see that they also can hear from you in the same way. Thanks, God, I love you.
Laurie Graham 25:18
Well, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Small Church Ministry Podcast. I hope you are finding the encouragement you need just to keep walking the journey and being a light right where God has you planted. If you’ve been around us long enough, you know that for us, we are not impressed at all with numbers. We don’t care how many people attend your church, or how many people came to an event. We believe God calls us to transformation. We believe the ministry Jesus modeled is relational. Jesus focused on 12. That’s who he poured into. How about you? Is 12 enough? I think we could change the planet if each one of us took 12. Whatever that number is, God is moving right where you are and at this very moment. Our only job is to join Him there.
Laurie Graham 26:09
If you’re listening live, the event of the season is happening this Saturday, January 28! We actually kick off on Friday the 27th with a pre-conference kickoff, but if you are a woman in a small church, and you don’t have your free ticket yet for the women’s ministry conference just for small churches, we do four conferences a year and January is when we focus on women’s ministry, but if you don’t have your ticket yet, or you know somebody who would love to be involved, please grab one and don’t miss out! It is online and it is free, but it is so interactive. The stories and testimonies and connections that come out of our conferences are out of this world. So you can grab a ticket at smallchurchsummits.com. The link is also in the show notes and that’s what I got for today. Talk to you next week. Be a light.