Introduction for leaders

The aims of these studies are to help small groups have an understanding of how the Bible fits together and to grasp the whole gospel from the whole Bible. The Bible is God’s self-revelation to humankind, so it is important that we learn about God from the breadth of the Bible and to realise that the Bible paints a consistent picture of God.

Having an understanding of the Bible should help us have a bigger picture of who God is and the extent of God’s mercy. It will also set a foundation for everyone to understand how each book of the Bible fits into the bigger picture.

This study was written with non-Christians in mind as well. It is important that non-Christians get a feel of how the Bible fits together and the big picture of God so that if they leave university (or New Zealand) without making a decision for Jesus, they still have an understanding of who God is and a basic foundation should they wish to keep reading the Bible (and maybe not have much contact with Christians).

Preparing to Lead

Pray

This is no ordinary book we are looking at, it is the very words of God, and all the authors were inspired to write by the Holy Spirit. And we need the same Holy Spirit to speak to us and to help us understand as we sit down to prepare to lead our group.

Work

Studying the Bible is not always easy. To understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to us today we need to work very hard at understanding what the authors are meaning to communicate, and how their first hearers/readers would have understood it.

Listen

It is vital that you have worked through the study each week beforehand. As a matter of integrity, before we lead and teach others, as leaders we need to have applied God’s word to our own lives.

If there are other small group leaders doing the same study, a great way to prepare is to get together to do the study together as leaders first. This time will hopefully feed you from God’s word, get you excited about God speaking through the Bible, bounce creative ideas for your group around, straighten out any questions which don’t seem to work well, and pray for each other and for your groups. You can also ask a staff worker to help you with your preparation or to answer any questions you may have.

How to use these studies

Word box in blue

The word box can be a useful tool for the group, even if your members all speak English as a first language. Note that although the words may seem simple, its meaning in the Bible may be different from its meaning in daily conversations. Depending on your small group, you don’t have to have all the words in the word box. But, please use your discretion as to which words you want to include or delete

from the word box for your group’s use.

Passages

Some of the studies have the Bible passage with it. If any of your small group members don’t have a Bible, print out the passage for them so that they can follow it easily.

Preparation – yourself

PLEASE NOTE: The leaders’ notes are not comprehensive and are not a substitute for working through the passage yourself beforehand. It is best to work through the passage with the questions first without looking at the notes. The notes will help with particular tricky bits in the passage and give any relevant background information. All this is to help you in your preparation, not to read out to your group! It is suggested that you do not take the leaders notes into the study because the temptation will be to read off the sheet. When you have worked through the study in your preparation jot down the key things you need to remember on your copy of the Bible study and have this sheet in your Bible to prompt you if you need it. You should give out blank copies of the Bible study sheet to your group for discussion.

Preparation – your group

Encourage your group to come prepared. It is really helpful if they read the suggested passages at the end of some of the studies. It will help them to understand much more clearly the flow of Biblical story and they will have had a chance to start thinking about the passage before they come to the study.

Leading the studies

The most important aim for each week is that your group goes away enriched and invigorated through studying the Bible together and excited by how it can help you share about Jesus.

When reading the passages for the first few studies, remember that people read differently. Some are better at reading it silently and some are better when hearing it read out loud. It would probably be quite helpful for the first few studies to encourage everyone to read out loud (taking turns to read out loud is normally a good way to encourage everyone to participate) and then allowing some silent time for them to read the passage again.

You will need to keep an eye on the time. You probably need to watch out that the first section of each session doesn’t over-run – allow 10 minutes at the very most. As a group leader you will know your group so feel free to tailor what you look at to fit them. When you recap at the beginning of each week ask people to share how they’ve applied what they learnt last week – the point of the Bible is to change our lives.

Be aware of those in your group who are not Christians. Be sensitive to this and help the Christians in the group to be sensitive to this too. Meet up with them one-on-one if necessary.

Books and commentaries you may find helpful for further reading:

• God’s Big Picture, Vaughan Roberts (IVP)

• Drama of Scripture, Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen (Baker Book House)

• The Symphony Of Scripture, Mark Strom (Pand R Publishing)

• Various commentaries of the particular book for the passage you are looking at

• New Bible Dictionary, Marshall I Howard (Ed), Millard A R (Ed), Packer J I (Ed), Wiseman D J (Ed) (Apollos) [or other Bible dictionaries for background information]

A rough gauge on how it would take a person to read the whole bible out loud:
(presumably reading books silently takes less time)

General Guide

1. When reading the passages for the first few studies, remember that people read differently. Some are better at reading it silently and some are better when hearing it read out loud. It would probably be quite helpful for the first few studies to encourage everyone to read out loud (taking turns to read out loud is normally a good way to encourage everyone to participate) and then allowing some silent time for them to read the passage again.

2. The word box is quite a useful tool for the group, even if your members all speak English as a first language. Although the words may seem simple, its meaning in the Bible may be different from its meaning in daily conversations.

3. It’s quite a good idea to recap the study from the week before as well as to go through the homework. Ideally, you should have read the passages given as homework as well as some extra information about it. Be prepared to give a short summary of the passages as well as its importance to the overall gospel story.

4. When asked a theological question, it is quite good to try and answer it based on a passage or draw their attention to a Bible passage they had studied before. It can be quite confusing if you offer too many complex statements with jargon. Before trying to explain any theology, make sure you have thought through it well and can articulate it too. Otherwise, it might be good to say you’ll get back to that question next week.

5. A number of the questions have appropriate references to help your members figure out where to look for answers and generally help them move down the passage. If you find that they are coping well with chapters and verses (some find it very confusing), then you can erase the hints)

6. There are homework passages for almost every study. If your members don’t own a Bible, please remember to print out a copy of the homework passages so that they can read them