Bible Study Methods and Resources for the Average Person
I think reading and studying the Bible can be intimidating and overwhelming for a lot of people. I’ve come to a place where I genuinely love reading and studying the Bible. However, by no means am I a theologian or Biblical expert. I’m just your everyday, average person who’s found some Bible study methods that work to help me read, learn and study the Bible effectively. Therefore, if I can do it, anyone can!
Several years ago we took a family vacation to Colorado. While we were there, we also had an opportunity to attend a church Bible study with some family. (I wrote about it in this post.) I really loved the way they studied and discussed the Bible because it was a similar method to how I like to study and learn. Prior to the meeting, they read a certain chapter or passage out of scripture. Then they came to the meeting discussing any insights they gathered and any things they felt like God spoke or revealed to them.
It was a very engaging and interactive discussion from which everyone in the room learned and received some type of benefit and wisdom. It seemed as though each person picked up something different from the passage, but as they shared others were able to learn from their observations and revelations too. In my women’s small group we’ve been doing a similar independent Bible study method of various books of the Bible. It’s been some of our favorite small group content, preferring it over doing book studies or an organized/guided Bible study written by someone else.
I’ll share with you some of my strategies and methods that help me, personally, to comprehend what I’m reading and be able to hear from God a little better.
Getting context
I recently read a great analogy that N.T. Wright used to describe getting a larger context for some of the well-known Bible stories and how they fit into the whole scope of scripture and plan of redemption through Jesus Christ (from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament). He talked about how he knows certain areas of London very well but isn’t extremely familiar with how they all join up because he’s used to traveling on the Underground with no mental picture of what was above him. He mentioned that if he tried walking between the different points that he would get lost.
N.T. Wright said that many people are like that with the stories in the Bible. They know the parables, miracles, and major stories, but they often have little to no idea of the context of how they all join up and are linked and weaved together. People tend to get “carried”, as on a transit system, from one story to the next, like a spiritual Underground, without really ever thinking about how things actually moved together from one thing to another in the real world. Therefore, people sometimes miss the full force of the messages because they miss out on some of the context and the connections.[1]
This analogy is a great way to describe getting context as we study scripture. That’s why some of the following Bible study methods are so helpful because they really aid in finding and creating context for a better understanding and application of scripture.
Start by reading book introductions
When reading a book out of the Bible, sometimes it’s helpful to start by reading the introductions at the start of the book. In most Bibles, there is a page at the start of the book that will give some introductory information and background of that particular book. It typically contains things like the author(s) of that book, when it was written, where it was written, to whom it was written, an overview of the main points or major themes, the purpose or intent of the author, and maybe some cultural context.
These types of information can be helpful to learn before you start reading to give you a foundational context from which to start. Knowing some of these bits of information can create a “big picture” that will help you piece together the parts of the reading as you go along, making it a little easier to understand and follow along. This might be comparable to looking at a picture of what a puzzle is supposed to look like before you start putting it together. Continue reading