So what would be the basic concepts you would want to teach someone about Bible study? Let’s say that someone who has been a Christian a year or so comes and says, “I want to learn to study the Bible better.” Besides offering resources, what are some of the concepts that you would think they would need to learn?

I’ll throw out a few to get things started:

• Context. That’s the biggie for me. The whole idea of context: literary, historical, cultural… all the different kinds that you can think of.
• Big picture thinking. I often tell new learners that one way to remember this is to think about how we cite a passage. John 3:16, for example. To study that passage, start with John, then think about chapter 3, then look at verse 16. That’s overly simplistic, I know, but it gets the point across. We start with the big picture and work down. Along the same line, people need to think in terms of the whole biblical story.
• Basic history. We need to know the basic flow of the history told within the pages of the Bible and have an idea where a certain passage fits within that timeline (both in terms of what is told and also in terms of when the book was probably written).
• The concept of the Bible as a translated book. Even when a study of the original languages may not be practical, an awareness that there are original languages behind what we are reading is very important. We mustn’t get too hung up on individual words and prepositional phrases. We should spend time reading in multiple versions, to get an idea of what things might be translated in different ways.
• Focus on themes. What does the Bible itself emphasize? It’s amazing how often this one gets overlooked. What things are said time and again? Rather than straining out gnats, we need to make sure we’re not swallowing camels. (Matthew 23:24)
• Genre. We can’t overlook the differences in the various literary styles we find in the Bible. Reading a symbolic passage literally does not lead you to the truth. Reading narrative as legal code does not help you discern God’s will. We need to learn to recognize different genres and understand the basic concepts for reading each.

Those are some basic ideas. There are lots more. Which ones would you want to emphasize? Which of these do you think are not important for beginners?

photo by Billy Alexander

Guy made an important point in the comments yesterday, when he noted:

These kinds of lessons can give the impression that basic Christian doctrine just has no connection with real life–the incarnation, resurrection, ascension–these are just oddities that have nothing to do with the ethical choices i make every day.

Bingo! It’s interesting to read Paul’s letters and see that he found theology to be very practical. When discussing the second coming in Thessalonians, he spends more time talking about how to live in light of Jesus’ return than he does talking about the return itself. When addressing the strife in the Philippian church, Paul uses the cross as key to resolving the conflict.

We need to think about what the Bible presents and why. Why is there so much narrative? Why aren’t there longer sections of “practical” teaching? At the same time, why aren’t there longer sections of pure theological reflection? The “practical” teaching is supposed to found in the theology, and the point of the theology is practical teaching. Instead of saying, “Let me tell you what to do” or “Let me discuss the nature of God,” the Bible says, “Let me tell you a story.”

Rather than boiling the Bible down to bullet points, I think we need to teach people how to hear God’s voice in the Bible. How to know more about living from hearing a story. How to let the image of what we are supposed to be shape the way we live. Rather than changing the Bible to fit the audience, I think we need to change the audience to be more in line with the Bible.

And that takes time. It gets back to what we talked about last week as far as process. Maybe one of the biggest things we need is the acceptance that maturity and growth take time. Reaching the point to where the teachings of the Bible really shape and guide our lives take time.

That’s not an easy lesson to hear in our Western world.

photo by Gracey Stinson

As I was writing yesterday’s post, I came upon a thought that I’d like to expand on a bit. Yesterday I said

People need to see that the Bible isn’t a reference book where we go to find information on this subject or that subject; the Bible defines the subject, then gives us the information.

The more I think about it, the more I see that this is one of our biggest problems with Bible study and with preaching. We’re driven by a need to make things relevant, to make the Bible speak about the subjects that people are wanting to hear about. People want something that they can take home and apply today.

It’s the complaint teachers deal with constantly in our schools. Why learn algebra? It’s not relevant. Why study Beethoven’s music when I’m more interested in what’s on the radio now? Why read Shakespeare, let alone Chaucer, when we can hardly recognize the words as being in our language? Give me something relevant to me today.

And we cave in to those complaints. We give people what they want. Ten steps to an affair-proof marriage. What the Bible says about stress and how to reduce it. Biblical principles for remaining debt free.

All of those are lessons are fine. But if a church is fed a steady diet of such lessons, there will be no depth in that church, no roots which will allow the church to mature.

People need God’s Word. All of it. They need to be shaped and transformed by the overarching story of the Bible, not prodded by a series of texts ripped from their context. Rather than platitudes on parenting, they need the reshaping of our characters that leads us to be the kind of people who can parent.

Let me clarify that I believe in doing what we can to make the message plain. Like the Levites in Nehemiah 8, we stand alongside people and help them not only understand God’s Word but to find the joy in it as well. But let’s not cut the Bible into bite-sized pieces to do it. Just as an understanding of mathematics and history and literature prepares us to face the problems of our world, so the breadth and depth of the Word of God will prepare our people for life in the Kingdom.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God*may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

photo by Gracey Stinson

During the course of the discussion last week, the subject of what preaching should be came up. I wanted to explore those topics together, the idea of the need for depth in Bible study and the discussion of the nature of preaching.

To what degree should preaching model good Bible study? In what way can the principles of good Bible study be displayed in the assembly? Is there any way the gathered congregation can grow together in understanding the Bible?

Or is that a better topic for one-on-one teaching? Or for Bible class? Small group studies? I’m one who believes that there are many things that can be accomplished in a smaller setting that can’t be done in the main assembly. Yet I also know that, in most congregations, we’re missing a significant portion of our members if we limit ourselves to other settings. Plus the only time that the congregation hears the same thing is in the main assembly.

How would you go about raising a congregation’s biblical reading level? What would be the best ways to go about it?

Photo by Alvimann

On Tuesday, I had a scheduled phone call with Gailyn Van Rheenen. Gailyn heads up Mission Alive, working with church planting teams. He wanted to share some thoughts on discipling that he thought could be useful to the Cuban church.

Gailyn shared some things he had learned from a book called Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen and Steve Cockram. As I reflected over some of what he shared with me, I realized one concept had a lot to say about our topic this week. (Yeah, I know… I should have realized in time to write this post yesterday. So sue me.)

Gailyn talked about four stages in discipleship, which he described as:

• Unconsciously Incompetent: The new convert doesn’t realize all that he doesn’t know. Enthusiasm reigns.
• Consciously Incompetent: Here’s where someone becomes painfully aware of their limitations. It’s at this stage that many reversions occur.
• Consciously Competent: People know how to do what they need to do and tend to be very aware of the process of doing those things.
• Unconsciously Competent: People reach the point where doing what needs to be done becomes second nature.

I’m not sure if that’s an adequate description of those categories, but maybe you get the idea. I can see this applying to some degree to Bible study. There’s the initial stage, the pick up the book and read it stage. “It says what it means and it means what it says.” When growth occurs, people become aware of the fact that Bible study is much more complicated than they thought. For some, the daunting nature of good Bible study will make them throw up their hands in despair; others will be motivated to learn and move on to the next stage. That next stage involves going through the necessary steps of Bible study until they become second nature. That’s the final stage. A man like N.T. Wright may not go through the steps of exegesis that a graduate student goes through, but he uses the concepts and tools because they have become an unconscious part of who he is.

The problem is, we’re afraid to move people to that second step. We know that we needed it in our own lives, that moment of “wow, I don’t know how to do this” that drove us to learn how to study. We know the richness that comes from a deeper study of God’s Word. But we hate to make people realize they don’t know how to study God’s Word. Instead of a necessary step in the maturation process, it feels like arrogance on our part: I know this and you don’t.

We accept it in other fields. Someone may be very good at arithmetic, but they have to accept that their professor knows calculus better than they do. Gifted athletes never reach the highest level until they understand that other people can teach them techniques that will improve their performance.

We also need to remember that the more we learn, the more we realize that we don’t know. I can say, “This isn’t as easy as you might think” because I know what a challenge it is for me. I know how far I have to go, after all these years.

So, to put it bluntly, we can’t be afraid to show people their lack of knowledge… as long as we’re willing to help them learn the skills they need to improve. Maybe we need to spend more time on teaching Bible study skills and hermeneutics and less time presenting pre-processed applications.

What do you think? Does this process make sense, either as a view of the discipling process or the process of learning to study the Bible? Do you agree that we’re afraid to show people the fact that they don’t know how to study the Bible? Do you have any suggestions as to how we help others move along this process and how we further our own progress?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Photo by Alvimann