The new year has come, and for many of us, our resolutions or hopes include growing spiritually. What does choosing a Bible study that helps us meet that goal look like?
Personal study and group discussion
The best studies work for small groups that meet in a larger church setting, in a home, or even on Zoom. Educators tell us that we learn best when we wrestle with the material ourselves (our personal study of the Word) and then discuss it with a small group of people.
Having a knowledgeable and prepared teacher who provides answers to questions and important background information is a great plus. Sadly, the same studies on learning prove, however, that we forget what a speaker says far more than we forget what we noticed in our own study and then discussed with our peers. If you have a teacher who is live or on video, wait until after the group discussion to hear from her. It’s the wrestling together that helps us grow most long-term, not having her answers–even though it may not feel that way.
I’ve participated in and led small groups with teaching before the group discussion, and our conversations were not nearly as robust as those with a live or video teacher who followed the small group conversation. Learning is at its peak when we build it on the foundation of our own study, then a discussion and finally teaching.
Types of Questions
The quality of the questions provided in our study guides is an important aspect of choosing a Bible study. Questions that require no real thinking, only observing should be minimal. The best questions to help us grow as disciples of Jesus are open questions. That means they can’t be answered with yes or no, by matching, or by filling in a blank. Open questions cause us to process and wrestle with God’s Word. The Bible isn’t always easy to understand, so we need time to think about its message. What’s important to look for is not the number of questions but the kinds of questions that are asked.
To grow as disciples, we must take the Scriptures to heart. That requires questions that force us to think about how the Word applies to us. Listening for God’s voice in the midst of our personal study is essential. If I’m doing a study without application questions, I can easily ignore something important that I need to hear. One of my favorite questions in the BOW studies is “What has God said to you about your own life through this passage?”
Background information
To truly grasp both the biblical story and its application, it’s necessary to understand the culture and history of biblical times. The Bible wasn’t written to us, but to people who lived thousands of years ago. What was the message that they would have heard from the same words?
Too much commentary by the writer takes away from our own study, but too little means that we don’t have the information we need to understand what we’re reading. Choosing a Bible study with some background help without much personal commentary is best for our spiritual growth.
Consider BOW Bible studies
At BOW all of our studies meet these criteria. We provide a preview of a lesson from each study to help you get a feel for what such a study might be like. To find them, start on the Bible study page. You can learn the basics about each study there and choose one or two to preview. Several of our studies are free on bible.org where you can look over an entire study without cost.
To help you with specifics and suggestions about the BOW studies, go to our Bible Studies FAQs page. We have also posted a written interview of several women’s ministry leaders discussing practical elements in choosing Bible study curriculum. Or read our post on how the adult learning process helps inform the best studies.
May God lead you to a Bible study that draws you closer to him.
