There have been a few times in my life when people have asked me about how to teach the Bible - something like: “I’ve been asked to teach a lesson for my youth group/Bible study/campus ministry. Got any tips?”
At some point, I typed up a quick list of pointers that I have shared in person with people, but I am now expanding on it and sending it out for any of you who might find it helpful. While I know that not many of the readers of this newsletter are preachers for a living, I’d imagine plenty of you have had opportunities to teach Bible studies, Sunday school classes, youth group devotionals, etc. If this helps any of you in that regard, it will have been worth typing it out.
Note: Some of the points below are not the way to teach the Bible, as much as they are a way to teach the Bible. These are all pointers that I try to follow most of the time, but I don’t know that all of them apply equally to everybody.
At some point, I typed up a quick list of pointers that I have shared in person with people, but I am now expanding on it and sending it out for any of you who might find it helpful. While I know that not many of the readers of this newsletter are preachers for a living, I’d imagine plenty of you have had opportunities to teach Bible studies, Sunday school classes, youth group devotionals, etc. If this helps any of you in that regard, it will have been worth typing it out.
Note: Some of the points below are not the way to teach the Bible, as much as they are a way to teach the Bible. These are all pointers that I try to follow most of the time, but I don’t know that all of them apply equally to everybody.
- When introducing your topic try to say something interesting at the beginning. Sometimes I will try to use my words to create an interesting label for the lesson. Think of it like labeling a can of vegetables–it's important to give your audience a clear idea of what's inside. Other times, I will start a sermon by answering the question “Why is this important?” about my topic.
- Similarly, you want to have an interesting conclusion at the end of your lesson/speech. Depending on the lesson, there are multiple ways to do this. You could answer the question “So what?” That’s a method I use a lot. Or if you said a lot of things, you could summarize all of it in a sentence or two so that the whole lesson is easy to remember for people on the way out. Another good strategy (especially for lessons that are doctrinal, moralistic, or narrative) is to answer the question, “How is what I just talked about connected to the gospel?”
- When you outline a Bible passage, don’t break it down into too many points. If you tell people ten things in a speech, they’ll usually only remember points #1 and #10, if you are lucky. (Yes, there are always exceptions, but this is a good rule to follow most of the time.)
- Make sure the Scripture is speaking rather than you. People can tell if you are just saying something that you would have said even if there were no Bible, as opposed to when you are saying something because the Bible says so. Most of your best lessons will be you simply re-saying (in your own words) something that the Scripture already says... not you coming up with a novel idea and then finding a Bible verse to attach to it.
- Often the best way to do this is to make the main point/thrust of your lesson to be the same main point/thrust that the biblical author was making when he wrote the text the first time. For instance, it’s typically best to not use Ruth 1:16-17 as a lesson on Christian marriage. And that’s because the author of the book of Ruth wasn’t writing those words for that purpose.
Note: There are exceptions to the rule above. Sometimes, it is legitimate to find a principle in a Bible passage that is clearly true and then apply it to a situation that is nearer to you and your audience (even if the original biblical author wasn’t thinking about that as he wrote it.) The Apostle Paul did this in 1 Timothy 5:17-18. And Jesus did it in Matthew 19:3-6. Just be careful that you are truly re-saying what the Bible says. - Cut out almost everything that’s not related to your main point. When studying the Bible, you will always come across plenty of interesting information that you are happy to know but doesn’t help your listener understand or remember the main point any better. It’s usually better to take that stuff out. Good preachers leave lots of things “on the cutting-room floor.”
- Use illustrations that are clear. If you tell that big long story about how you were attacked by a blue jay in the courtyard outside your dorm, and everyone remembers the hilarious story, but has no idea what it had to do with the Woman at the Well (or whatever your text was) then it was a distraction, not an illustration.
- Use illustrations that are authentic/personal. Unless you are speaking to a very intellectual crowd, it seems to me that people typically appreciate a personal story more than a reference to a movie or literature. For instance, let’s say you are trying to teach people that temptation can pull you in toward further temptation. In that case, it’s probably better to tell them about that time where you chose to listen to a bad friend and ended up getting suspended from school, rather than retelling the scene from The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe where Edmund eats the Turkish Delight. And your story is probably funnier, too. Unless they are really into that kind of thing, your audience probably cares more about your childhood than they do about that scene from that book.
- Use “commercials” to vary the pace and content. My wife is the one who uses the word “commercials” to describe this. But the idea is: don’t do the same thing for too long. Whether it’s reading a text, enumerating a list, telling a story, or defining a word or doctrine… after a while, take a break and do something different for a little bit. Then go back to it if you need to. But people usually can’t handle the same thing (whether it’s dull historical background or even a highly-emotional appeal) for an extended period, without starting to tune out.
- Once you think you are done, think through your whole speech the way a skeptic would. You can also say it aloud, imagining the way a new believer would hear it (or the way a person who’s been going to church for forty years and thinks they know everything in the Bible would hear it.) You can then say to yourself: “What would they ask about this?” And then answer that. Answer it in the lesson; don’t make them have to come up afterward and ask you. You may still get objections and/or questions afterward. But try to address the biggest ones without having to be asked.
- Keep it simple. You want people to be able to walk away and summarize what you said in a sentence or two. If someone were to ask your audience “What was the lesson about?” and your listeners need fifteen paragraphs to explain it, you weren’t clear and simple enough.
- Cover less material than your first inclination. It takes longer to explain things than most people realize. I’ve seen people cover a whole chapter when they probably should have focused on a few verses.
- Aim to take up less time than you are allotted. It seems to me that a lot of teachers think they are more interesting than they actually are. It’s usually better to end your lesson five minutes early, rather than go five minutes long. I’ll never forget what my first pastor (once I became a youth ministry director) told me when I asked him how long a sermon should be. He said, “A sermon can be any length, as long as it feels like twenty minutes.”
And don’t stress out if you cannot fit all thirteen of these tips into your next Bible study preparation. You can start with two or three of them and add the other ones over time, if God allows. In my opinion, #4 is the most important one. Start there and get better at the other parts as you can.
