Writing a Small Group Study: Look Inside by Matthias Media

RICHARD SWEATMAN

Richard Sweatman has been the maturity pastor at Hunter Bible Church and UniChurch in Newcastle, NSW, for the past 10 years. He spends his time training and equipping leaders in small group ministry.

WRITING A SMALL GROUP STUDY

The Bible study you write for your small group can result in an exhilarating journey that opens God’s word up and leads people to grow and change. It can also be a hard slog that seems to have little impact on anyone. If you’re hoping for the former but worried you’ll end up with the latter, this book is for you. Putting together a faithful and illuminating Bible study might seem like a huge task, but in Writing a Small Group Study Richard Sweatman breaks that task down into clear and achievable steps that won’t overwhelm you. He carefully explains how to work your way through each step to create a study that will engage your small group with God’s powerful word. This book is a superb guide for the new small group leader, as well as an excellent refresher for those who have been leading for years.

writing a small group study Richard Sweatman

Writing a Small Group Study © Richard Sweatman 2018 All rights reserved. Except as may be permitted by the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher. Please direct all copyright enquiries and permission requests to the publisher. Matthias Media (St Matthias Press Ltd ACN 067 558 365) Email: info@matthiasmedia.com.au Internet: www.matthiasmedia.com.au Please visit our website for current postal and telephone contact information. Matthias Media (USA) Email: sales@matthiasmedia.com Internet: www.matthiasmedia.com Please visit our website for current postal and telephone contact information. Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ISBN 978 1 925424 33 1 Cover design and typesetting by Lankshear Design.

Contents

Introduction 5 Stage 1: Understanding the passage 13 1. Choosing and reading the passage

2. Historical context: How the passage fits in history 19 3. Literary context: How the passage fits in the book 23 4. Structure: How the passage fits together

5. Verse-by-verse exegesis: The hard detailed work

6. Biblical theology: Where the passage fits in the Bible

7. Systematic theology: What the passage says about big doctrines

8. Application: How the passage applies to us

9. Wrapping up stage 1

Stage 2: Setting teaching goals 53 10. Setting teaching goals

Stage 3: Building the study 57 11. Observation questions

12. Investigation questions

13. Summary questions

14. Application questions

15. The launching question

16. The review question

17. Putting it all together

Appendices Appendix 1. Preparing topical studies

Appendix 2. Using pre-written studies

Appendix 3. A sample study

Introduction

Bible studies are like sermons—they can be an exhilarating journey through the Bible that leads to massive life change, or a hard slog that seems to have no impact on anyone. If you’re writing a study you’re probably hoping for the former, but worried you’ll end up with the latter. If so, this book is for you. My goal in the chapters that follow is to help you prepare a Bible study that will get the people in your group deeply engaging with God’s life-changing word. That means we’re going to be looking very practically at the key steps and processes you will need to go through to achieve—God willing—that outcome.

Why write a Bible study? So why write a Bible study? Why not use a pre-written study or get your pastor to write one for you? For that matter, why study the Bible at all? Maybe your group would be better off just chatting about life and sharing advice? Maybe that would be just as good? These are important questions. Christian conversation and pre-written studies are good things, but here are some of the excellent reasons for us to actually study the Bible and write our own studies (at least some of the time). 1. The Bible teaches us First of all, we study the Bible because the Bible is God’s word given by him to teach us about himself. As people created by God and redeemed by Jesus we need to know him more and

Introduction 5

more and obey his commands. Jesus said: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:23-24) As good as Christian conversation might be, it can never replace actually listening to God speak in his word and obeying what he says. Bible study is essential.1 2. Writing studies is good for the leader Secondly, writing studies is good for the leader. It compels us to work hard trying to understand the passage. We’re forced to challenge our assumptions about God and we’re confronted with the need to make changes in our own life. The psalmist in Psalm 119 talks about meditating on God’s word and how that benefits him in all sorts of ways: Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. 1 For more about the purpose of small groups and why Bible study is so important, see The Small Group and the Vine by Tony Payne and Marty Sweeney (Matthias Media) and Growth Groups by Colin Marshall (Matthias Media).

Writing a Small Group Study

I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Ps 119:97-105) Ideally this is will be your experience as you write a study. Prewritten studies are good, and replicate this to some extent, but when you write your own you inevitably meditate more deeply over the passage and benefit greatly from that. The more deeply you have engaged with God’s word, the more equipped you are to lead others in doing the same. 3. Writing studies is good for the group Thirdly, writing studies is good for the group. Every group is different with different personalities, learning styles and past oral issues. Writing your own study allows you to account for these things and potentially teach more effectively. The group will appreciate the effort you’ve taken in teaching them thoughtfully and personally. So I’m convinced: writing your own Bible study is a good thing.

How to write a Bible study: 3 stages Writing a study is actually very straightforward. This book will take you through it, but the whole process can be summed up in three stages:

Introduction 7

Understand the passage

Set teaching goals

Build the study

Understanding the passage is the key stage—all else depends on this, and it takes the most time and care. It is the point where you read the passage, figure out its context and structure, work out what all the verses are saying, and decide what the whole passage means. This stage also includes application since you can’t say you’ve really understood a passage until it’s made a difference in your life. Chapters 1 to 9 are about understanding the passage. The second stage, setting teaching goals, is much briefer but is nonetheless an important and often neglected process. It’s the point where you look at all the wonderful things from the passage and try to work out what you want to teach to the group. This is where you think about how you’d like your group to learn and change from the passage. Chapter 10 will cover this stage. Building the study is the last stage and obviously the point where you write questions, put them in order, and produce a study you can print and give to group members. This is where we look at all the different types of questions and what makes a good question. Chapters 11 to 17 will cover this. That may seem like a lot of chapters, but they are mostly pretty short. If you feel a bit lost at any point, please remember that writing a study is at its heart a simple process of understanding a passage, setting teaching goals and building a study. Also, if you happen to have techniques and strategies you’ve learned elsewhere, it won’t be hard to slot them in to one of those three stages. That way you can adapt what you learn here into a Bible study writing process that fits with your learning and teaching style.

Writing a Small Group Study

The learning loop The way of understanding the Bible we suggest in stage 1 makes use of what Colin Marshall calls the ‘learning loop’:2

big picture

details

The learning loop describes the process of understanding the passage by looking at the big picture; then the details; and then the big picture again. When we look at the big picture it helps us better understand the details; and when we look at the details it helps us better understand the big picture. You can go round the loop as many times as you like until you think you’ve got a good grasp of the passage. Some chapters that follow—such as those about historical or literary context or biblical theology—are about the big picture. The chapter about verse-by-verse exegesis is about the details. Some chapters, such as the one on application, look at both.

How to approach this whole thing At times this book will sound a bit mechanical and like you’re learning a dry ‘technique’, so it’s important we have the right 2 Colin Marshall, Growth Groups: A training course in how to lead small groups, Matthias Media, Sydney, 1995, p. 32.

Introduction 9

attitude towards the whole task of writing a study. Here are three things we need to keep in mind. 1. Trust God God is a good God who loves his people and has given them his word. He promises that he will work through our teaching ministry even if the study we have written is not perfect. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2:1-5) We see here that the Spirit will work powerfully through the gospel message even if the words used are not particularly wise or eloquent. This fits with my experience as well. I have often seen groups genuinely built up and encouraged through a pretty ordinary study (frequently my own) because God’s Spirit was at work through his word. So if you’re nervous about starting out, take some comfort that God will almost certainly use your study to do good in people’s lives. 2. Take it seriously Teaching the Bible is a serious thing. James writes: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will judged with greater strictness. (Jas 3:1)

Writing a Small Group Study

Now it might look like James is mainly talking about people in an appointed regular teaching role. Actually, however, the words ‘who teach’ are not in the original and it is likely that James is referring to all Christians being held to a higher standard with the words they utter.3 Teachers tend to utter more words, so they should take great care. So even if you’re writing a study as a novice or trainee you need to take it seriously and give time and effort to the task. 3. Prayer Prayer is a massive part of how we approach writing a study. It is a key way in which we express that our trust actually is in God—not in our ability to write a perfect study. Firstly, it’s essential because we need the help of God’s Spirit to understand what we’re reading. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 2 where he talks about the role of the Spirit in teaching us and giving us understanding: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (1 Cor 2:12-13) So we should regularly pray during our preparation that God will help us understand his word. Secondly, prayer is also essential because we want people to grow through our study. The Bible teaches that even though we’ll do a lot of work in reading, thinking and preparing, it’s 3 See Lionel Windsor’s helpful article ‘The greater judgement’, The Briefing, 28 August 2008 (viewed 12 June 2018): www.matthiasmedia.com/briefing/ 2008/08/the-greater-judgement/

Introduction 11

God who will ultimately grow people. Paul writes: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor 3:6-7) So we need to ask God to grow people through the study. Thirdly, prayer is essential in Bible study writing because it is an intensely personal and relational experience. We spend time with our God, we are confronted with our own ignorance and sin, and we wrestle with our pride and despair as we try to create something good. Ideally, prayer will not only sit neatly at the beginning and end of our preparation times, but also be scattered throughout the whole process. So now is a good time to pray before getting into the next section about understanding the passage. Pray that God would help you read and understand the passage and apply it to your life. More generally, pray that you will be able to “present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15).

A word of acknowledgement In this book you will see that I quite frequently refer to and quote from Colin Marshall’s book Growth Groups: A training course in how to lead small groups (Matthias Media). I want to acknowledge how influential this book has been on me as I now train others in leading small groups. The book you hold in your hand is really just me taking a chapter of Colin’s book and expanding on it. But there are plenty of other chapters in Growth Groups that I would also recommend you read as a small group leader.

Writing a Small Group Study

Stage 1: Understanding the passage

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Understand the passage

Set teaching goals

Build the study

1. Choosing and reading the passage

Choosing the passage This might sound obvious, but the first step in understanding the passage is choosing the passage you want to understand and teach. Choosing the passage is a surprisingly tricky thing to do and hopefully, especially when you’re starting out, someone will look after this step for you. If not, the experience is like choosing food at a buffet: there’s so much good stuff to choose from that even once you choose you’re likely to overload your plate. So here’s some guidance on how to choose a passage. Let me start by saying that my assumption is that week-byweek your group is generally going to be working progressively through a whole book of the Bible, as opposed to jumping around to a different part of the Bible each time you meet. I think you will start to see why this is such a helpful practice when we look at many of the steps involved in understanding the passage. With prolonged study of a book of the Bible, your grasp of the historical and literary context, the relevant biblical theology, and the author’s style and use of key words, will all increase both for you and for your group members. How much harder would it be to start fresh every week on these core steps as you move to a different part of Scripture each time? When you choose the book of the Bible to study, the first choice is between Old Testament and New Testament. Both are wonderful and inspired parts of God’s word, and I personally

1. Choosing and reading the passage

love writing Old Testament studies. But when you’re just starting out it’s probably easiest to go with the New Testament. The reason is simply that we’re like the original readers of the New Testament, in that we live in the age when Christ has come, died and risen again, and we are now working out what it means to live in the light of his salvation. When we read the Old Testament we need to figure out how it points forward to Jesus—and that’s not always straightforward. So the New Testament is a good place to start. Within the New Testament you’ll need to choose between some thing from the Gospels, Acts and the letters.4 These different genres all have their own challenges and some people will feel more at home in one than another. If you like narrative and parables you’ll probably enjoy teaching from the Gospels and Acts. If you like logic and reasoning you’ll probably enjoy teaching the letters. Both are good; so go with the part of Scripture you think you might do well with. Once you have chosen your book of the Bible, you still need to break that down into manageable sections for the amount of time your group has—both in terms of the time available for each study (an hour? less? more?) as well as how quickly you want to move through the book. If you only meet monthly, and you want to get through Romans in a year, you’re going to have to take bigger bites than you might otherwise. What’s most important is to choose a passage within the Bible book that hangs together as a unit and is not too long. This means that it has some sort of beginning and end, and contains one or two main ideas. A good length when you’re 4 As tempting as it might be, I’d recommend not trying to tackle the book of Revelation as one of your earliest Bible study writing projects. There are many complexities and potential pitfalls for the novice. Hone your skills on some slightly easier sections of Scripture first, and then consider having a go at it.

Writing a Small Group Study

starting writing is about 10-15 verses (especially of one of the letters; perhaps you could cover more verses if it is a narrative in the Gospels or Acts). The chapter divisions, section headings and paragraphs in your Bible, although not in the original Greek, are probably a good default guideline. As you get a bit more experienced you might make your own choices about what makes up a good unit for teaching. If you’re unsure then ask other group leaders or your pastor for a bit of help, or look at how a published Bible study (from a reliable publisher) breaks the book into sections. There’s so much work to be done once you choose the passage that you don’t want to spend too long on this small step.

Reading the passage While we’re here it’s worth talking about reading the passage. It’s very hard to write a study without actually reading the passage (though, worryingly, I have tried). Reading the passage a couple of times with no particular agenda is a good place to start. Better still, reading the whole Bible book through from start to finish before you focus on the first study is something I strongly recommend. Perhaps even print it out and use a highlighter and pen to record your first impressions and things you notice.5 It’s worth reading the passage in the version of the Bible you will use with your group—the translation most of your group members will use. In my circles this is commonly the NIV, but it’s also worth getting out a more literal translation such as the ESV or NASB. These might not flow so easily in style but will often preserve features of the text from the original language that you’ll want to know about as you prepare. 5 You could use the Swedish Method as you read through: www.matthias media.com/briefing/2009/01/the-swedish-method/

1. Choosing and reading the passage

Choosing an English translation of the Bible is a big topic— too big to explore here. If you’re interested, there is often a useful introduction to Bible translation philosophy in the beginning of many Bibles.6 But to give you some guidance, in my opinion—and in the opinion of people I trust with far more expertise than I have—the New International Version (NIV), English Standard Version (ESV) and Christian Standard Bible (CSB) are all very suitable for use by the average small group.

A brief word about genre As you start to read the passage, you’ll probably pick up clues as to what sort of literature or genre you are reading. Some common genres in the Bible are letters, biographies (Gospels), prophecies, poems, law, histories and wisdom literature. And we read different genres in different ways. Indeed, experienced readers tend to do this fairly intuitively. So we don’t pick up a newspaper and read it as if it is a book of poetry. In the same way, when we come to the Bible, we don’t read apocalyptic passages as if they are literal narrative; we don’t read a proverb as if it is a law; we don’t read a parable as if it is one of Paul’s letters. Understanding the genre we are reading is an important part of understanding it correctly. Having said that, the text itself discloses the genre; we shouldn’t assume the genre when we start reading.

6 For example: www.esv.org/preface/

Writing a Small Group Study