Making It Work
Over this past weekend, I attended a men’s ministry meeting at my current church and a worship service at my former church. Being at these church events reminded me it has been more than a decade since I have been a racial or cultural majority member of a church. Our former church was a multiracial, […]
Why Plan for the Future
A pastor recently shared an observation and a dilemma all leaders face. He told me about his strategic plan for 2020, and how it disintegrated and had to be recreated in a very different form in March 2020 when the COVID pandemic emerged as the defining cultural event for last year. His observation: our best-laid […]
When I Don’t Feel Like Teaching
You are working from home due to the quarantine. It just seems harder to get anything done. Preparation time for your Bible study has been hard to find, and you are frustrated at the lack of excitement and participation when you get your class together on Zoom. When you don’t feel like teaching, what do […]
Teaching “Deep” Bible Study – Part Three
Deep Bible study causes learners to contemplate the truths of God’s word. But, Bible study that only leads to understanding and does not affect transformation can’t really be called “deep.” Deep Bible study is transformational. It leads people to life change. How do we teach for life change? Here are some suggestions: Depend on the […]
Teaching “Deep” Bible Study – Part Two
Sometimes Bible teachers confuse their own deep Bible study with deep Bible study for their group members. It is true that you cannot lead learners to deep Bible study if you have not dug deeply into the passage yourself. (It’s hard to lead someone to a place you haven’t been to.) But, your deep study […]
Teaching “Deep” Bible Study – Part One
Many Bible teachers want to know how to make their Bible study “deeper.” Too many Bible studies teach familiar passages in the same old ways. The concepts addressed by learners may seem moralistic (“just try to be a good person”) or simplistic (“Jesus will help you with your problem”), and leave people hungry for something […]
Creative Teaching: Being A Storyteller
If you were going to create a theological book, would you write it in narrative form? Oddly enough, the bible, the book that tells us truth about God, is largely written as a story. God uses the stories of his interaction with people to reveal himself — his character, his activity, his passions. Why? Perhaps […]
Creative Teaching: Using Photography
Finding new ways to make your Bible study come alive for learners can be difficult. We tend to use the same teaching approaches over and over again. Shera Melick, retired professor of educational leadership, used to say that the only wrong teaching technique is the one that you use all the time. Perhaps she was […]
Teaching the Poetry of the Bible
“When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?” Psalm 8:3-4 The Book of Psalms contains some of the most beautiful and encouraging passages in the Bible. The […]
Teaching the Bible on Facebook
I am a big advocate for face-to-face Bible study. Sharing deeply with each other as we contemplate the truths of Scripture meets the needs of group members in a way that is difficult to duplicate on social media. Still, in these weeks in which the Coronavirus has us staying at home, how does a Bible […]