Kay Daigle
Happy New Year! It’s that time of year to consider ways to grow. Do your resolutions or hopes include growing spiritually? What does choosing the right Bible study look like if you want to meet those goals?
I’ve spent decades choosing and writing studies for groups of women. I know how difficult and frustrating it can be. Here are my best suggestions as to what to look for in a study whether it’s for you or a group.
Personal study and group discussion
Ideally such a study will work for you or a small group that meet in a larger church setting, in a home, or even on Zoom. Educators tell us that people best learn when we wrestle with the material ourselves (our personal study of the Word) and then discuss it with a small group of people. (So I would encourage you to find at least one friend to study with.)
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 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, not having her answers.
I’ve participated in and led small groups that followed teaching instead, and our conversations were not nearly as robust as those where the teaching followed the small group conversation. Learning is at its peak when we build it on a foundation of our own study followed by discussion and finally teaching. Of the three, the teaching is the least helpful in the long run—and yet a needed component.
Types of Questions
The quality of the questions provided in the study guides is also essential. 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 filing in a blank. Open questions cause us to process and wrestle with God’s Word.
The Bible isn’t always easy to understand, so it requires time to absorb its message. What’s important isn’t the number of questions but their quality.
To grow as disciples, we 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.
When I’m doing a study without good, solid personal questions, I find myself too easily ignoring God’s message to me.
One of my favorite questions to ask when I write a study is “How has God spoken to you through this passage?”
Background information
To grasp both the biblical story and its application, it’s also 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. Yes, it was written for everyone, but not to everyone. What was the message that the original audience would have heard from the same words? Then we move to application.
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. Choose a Bible study with some background help but without a lot of answers that the student can see for herself.
Difficulty
All of these essentials for a great Bible study won’t work out unless you know your audience. Find a study that fits their experience level and time commitment. If I were choosing for a small group or church-wide women’s study, I would start with the basics and build on it. Are they veterans of other studies who are ready to dig in more deeply? Or has the group been spoon-fed by primarily listening to a teacher instead of doing their own hard work? Is the majority of the group made up of moms whose time is stretched with family or women with full-time jobs? Find a study that will speak to them with meaty but few questions.
Look at the Previews of Beyond Ordinary Women Bible studies
At BOW all of our studies meet these criteria and looking at our previews may help you see examples of these essentials. On our site we provide a preview lesson for each study that will help you get a feel for what you’re looking for. To find the previews, start on the Bible study page where you can choose one or two topics to preview. To help you with specifics about length and suggestions (such as the difficulty of each BOW study), go to our Bible Study FAQs page.
Several of our studies are free on bible.org where you can access or download an entire study without cost.
We’ve 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.
