Question: “How do we grow in knowledge and understanding of Scripture?”
Answer: “Ask more questions”.
If you want to grow in knowledge and understanding of anything, asking questions is a great way to go about it! The sure and true way to stagnate in anything is to simply be satisfied with your current level of development and understanding and let yourself slowly atrophy.
So, if you want to grow in your knowledge and understanding of Scripture, ask questions about it! If you read a passage which contains lots of things in it that you don’t understand, get a good study Bible, find a Bible geek and keep asking questions until you’re satisfied with the answers!
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently leading a Bible study through the Book of Acts. I wanted to do a quick post to make a note of where I got the maps for the study. I got them from the Archdiocese of Toronoto. The site gives a brief synopsis of each of Paul’s letters and also has three great maps showing St. Paul’s missionary journeys:
Today I would like to finish by looking at some of the suggestions I received regarding the conclusion of the meeting.
Assigning “homework” or a challenge each week can really help bridge the gap between life inside and outside the Bible study… but, if you’re not careful, it can end up feeling like a burden…
Today I’m going to continue looking at some of the feedback I received from my series on Leading a Bible Study. Yesterday I considered the meeting location and today I’m going to look at the comments concerning the discussion itself.
A Bible study leader should try and encourage the shy members of the group to speak up
Last month I published a series entitled Leading A Bible Study. I wrote those posts for two reasons. The first reason was to clarify in my own mind some of the lessons I had learned from leading various church groups. The other reason was to provide a resource for those beginning similar endeavours.
Upon completing the series, I sent out requests for feedback. I contacted friends, other Bible study leaders, as well as some random people on the Internet!
In response to the feedback I received, I decided to write a few follow-up posts on this subject. I will devote a post to each area of feedback, quoting the feedback received and offering my own comments in RED.
One of the wonderful treasures of the Catholic faith in the Roman Rite is the Lectionary.
Every Sunday the congregation hears large chunks of Scripture selected from different parts of the Bible, from both the Old and New Testaments:
1. Old Testament passage 2. Psalm 3. New Testament Epistle 4. Gospel Reading
Making Connections
The Readings selected for each week are usually united by a common theme. This is especially true for the Old Testament passage and the Gospel Reading. The brilliance of this arrangement is that it shows the unity between the Old and New Testaments. As the great Early Church Father, St. Augustine, wrote:
“The New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old is revealed in the New”
– St. Augustine of Hippo, “Quaestiones in Heptateuchum” 2.73
However, as good as this arrangement is, I have found that it can lead to certain difficulties. In particular, Catholics can sometimes have difficulties understanding how the Readings they hear on Sunday relate to the respective books of Scripture from which they are drawn, and also how those books fit into the the New Testament as a whole.
What can be done to address this problem? Well, when leading small Bible study groups, I always begin by asking those present to walk me through their New Testament’s “Table of Contents” page. I do this because, as with most things, once one comprehends the overall structure of something, the contents becomes less intimidating and more memorable because one already understands the framework and context in which that content has been placed.
Saturday was the last installment of my “Do’s and Don’ts of Leading Bible Study” series. I’ve decided to create this short post to aggregate all the different entries in the series:
I have used this blog series to capture some of my experience in leading Bible study, as well as record some of the hard lessons I’ve had to learn. It is my hope that this will be a useful resource for anyone new to leading a Bible study group, such as the many new people we’ve recently had leading in the JP2 Group.
DO: Be welcoming…just not too much…
When I began this series, I had hoped that there would be more discussion. Unfortunately, despite these posts getting a large number of hits, there was fairly little feedback in the Comment Boxes.
Therefore, over the next few days I’m going to be emailing this post to everyone I know who has been involved in leading Bible studies, discussion groups or are involved in leadership in some kind of way 🙂
I invite you to do the same 😀
Even if you’re not a Bible study leader, what have been some good experiences and bad experiences you’ve had in a Bible study group?
What, in your opinion, makes for a good Bible study?
