Reading: A Few More Important Encouragements Concerning Bible Studies

Here is an outline summarizing the main points discussed in the session on engaging and retaining participants in Bible study groups:

1. Introduction and Rationale:
• Discusses the need for intentionality in making Bible studies interesting and engaging to ensure participants want to return.
• Introduces the concept of using metaphors and engaging teaching techniques.
2. Interview with Steve on Engagement Techniques:
• Shares personal anecdotes and strategies for keeping Bible study engaging, such as using humor and creating an atmosphere where laughter is encouraged.
• Emphasizes the importance of presenting information in an intriguing way, such as "searching for gold," to make learning a discovery process.
3. Incorporating Participant Involvement in Discovery:
• Suggests involving participants in the learning process by letting them explore and discuss insights collectively rather than providing answers directly.
• Highlights the use of technology and resources to aid in exploration, such as researching Hebrew words or biblical contexts together.
4. Balancing Interest with Independence:
• Discusses the balance between making sessions interesting and avoiding making participants overly dependent on the leader for engagement.
• Encourages identifying and utilizing the unique skills of group members, such as someone who excels at creating games or someone knowledgeable about specific topics.
5. Transparency and Authenticity in Leadership:
• Stresses the importance of leader transparency as a means of fostering a deeper connection and maintaining interest among participants.
• Notes that most Bible study groups last only a few years, often ending as interactions become "too intimate" or "too safe."
6. Debating as an Engagement Tool:
• Presents the idea of structured debates within the group to explore and understand various viewpoints, such as different baptism doctrines.
• Recommends assigning roles opposite to personal beliefs to encourage understanding and reduce personal bias.
7. Creating an Engaging Environment:
• Talks about setting a tone for the group that is interesting and welcoming.
• Discusses the role of physical elements like food in creating an inviting atmosphere.
8. Strategies for Group Longevity and Leader Development:
• Explores the concept of having a fixed duration for Bible studies to make commitments more appealing and manageable.
• Discusses the importance of preparing groups for multiplication and leader development to prevent stagnation.
9. Encouraging Persistence and Adaptability:
• Encourages leaders to be persistent and adaptable, recognizing that not every group format or session will be successful initially.
• Emphasizes the importance of not being discouraged by early failures and to continue refining the approach.
10. Conclusion and Encouragement:

• Summarizes the key points discussed and encourages listeners to apply these strategies to make their Bible study groups more engaging and sustainable.
• Offers words of encouragement for ongoing persistence and experimentation to find what works best for each unique group.

Today we're going to talk about the end of the class. But then we're going to do one more, because we've noticed over the years that you can learn all this stuff right here and do a really amazing Bible study. But we also noticed, over the years, that we had to be intentional about using metaphors, making something interesting, we even have a class that we recommend that you attend on how to be interesting. But we did think after we did this, it was probably good to give like extra, just another presentation on some of the things that we've learned over the years to get people to come back to look at a theme or look at some metaphor. So I wanted to interview Steve. And then of course, I'd probably think of, as well. So what have been some of your ways that you kept things interesting, over the years to, to make people want to come back? I think one way is to be interesting yourself. So you know, that humor thing. I liked humor, and I like an atmosphere where people can laugh and have fun. You can, you know, when it's a special insight that you've learned through studying, let's say, Christian leaders, and you learn some deep things about a passage, and others might not know of that. And so in a way, a leader can often have special knowledge, right? And that's interesting, especially if you, I think presented in a searching for gold manner. 

In other words, I remember when I spent a year in the Philippines as a student at seminary. And a friend of mine, he went to somewhere in Hong Kong. And then he took a ferry, another ferry, and then he ended up on some island. Anyway. So then he told us all about. So Marie, and I followed his trip today in the very to the ferry to the island took the bus. Okay, it wasn't that great, right? And the reason one of them that great is because it was great for him, because he discovered it, didn't know what he was doing. And then he discovered this thing. I'm just following a thing. There's no mystery, I know where I'm going, I know what it's all about. And so to when you, when you present an insight, it'd be like, hey, instead of just giving the Insight all at once, let people fool around with it. Right? What does I thirst mean, right? When Jesus said, "I thirst," let's think about this, right? Now you have the answer, right? But let people kind of have fun as they're searching so that they feel like they're searching with you. So there's two different ways of making it interesting is, you know, stuff that they don't know. And it's really interesting, but to help them participate in the finding of it, right. And that's kind of an art to make people to take people along on your journey. That, you know, how did you figure that insight out in the first place? Right? Well, whatever it is, take those people on a journey. Maybe people are on their phones, and people can Google things and you give them five minutes. 

Alright, here's the word, what does it mean? And here's where you can look at the you know, the Hebrew words and what they mean. And then you have everyone do it, and all they share that. And they're one of those words is what you're going to bring up, but you led them to it rather than just right, handed it to them. So I think that's, you know, that there's a toss up between making something really interesting. And then making people dependent on you making it interesting, right? So it's more of you can actually find the interesting people in your group, and then give them an interesting stuff. Yes, like, you know, you're really good at creating games. Will you be the one that comes in with these games? So we right away hooked up? You know, that blood? So you got the Wannabe teacher guy, that person, right answer man kind of person? Well, hey, next week, we're looking at this passage, in those three words, I would like you to give a little five-minute little speech, these words, I want you to get into the background of it. And now. Now they do that, and hopefully they do a good job with that. But it's like making use of that person. Now you could do it. Right, right. You could just do the Hebrew word and so on. 

But then see now you're becoming the answer, man, and you're interested. But no one else is. So if you can help people sort of be interesting, and you can do that by example, right? Like, hey, let's tell a story that, that maybe in your life that relates to this as well, transparency. Yes, the leader is not transparent. Most people are not going to be interested in transparency is more interesting than, like platitudes. Most Bible study groups last maybe one or two years, right? And then they sort of peter out. And they do because in the beginning, people are sharing and it's an insight, but then a lot of times, it gets a little too intimate. So people step back, and they start being more safe. And safe is fine. But it's boring. are how many times have we've gotten into something? So you might have, you know, today's Bible study, we're going to have an argument. And You five are going to be on this side of this question. Is eschatology thing is something are even I did this in the Philippines, we had people that believe the infant baptism, adult baptism, and I just put them on opposite sides and say, Okay, today we're going to have a debate, a friendly debate, we're not going to hurt each other. Right. But we're going to have a friendly debate. And, in fact, now, I know you're an infant baptism person, but I'm putting you on the adult baptism team to argue the argue the opposite. So this is just, you know, this isn't life or death. This isn't a salvation issue. But hopefully, in the process, we're going to uncover all the relevant verses and, and thoughts that's in that we maybe understand the other side a little bit better.

 So it's just, you know, being the first part, you mentioned that, that in the group, you take responsibility for interesting environment. Okay, you have to set an interesting tone. Right? And we talked about you have to be transparent. What are some of the other things that we've learned over the years that will make you want to come back, it's going to be interesting to transparency, I think love the food throughout, I mean, little superficial, we talked about in this group, but I've noticed, like, I have over the years, I dropped the foods. And then I noticed from the groups or anything else that just sort of what I think about for myself. When, when, when people go on and on and like, you know, a 10 minute speech 10-minute speeches, you know, maybe one out of 10 is really interesting, right? But then I think about okay, the group's coming over tonight and do I I don't know why it's so hard sometimes to just listen for 10 minutes, and the person needs you guys remember to listen, but if you want people looking forward to this evening, so I think some of the more Yes. Okay, you know, I took a Dale Carnegie course, you know, and it was 12 sessions. And we had to take what we learned, there was always like a two-minute speech in those like 40 in the class, so people would get up one by one, and give a two-minute speech, which lasted forever. Right. Right. But it was interesting. And it was interesting, because people did it in two minutes. There was no, there was no fluff, I mean, people share their hearts out, they share their stories from one way in a pantomime something, you know, and the people had to figure out what it was. And it was just interesting, because people sort of honed it down to what what is interesting, and I learned in that class, that if you were asked the right questions, like what was the most significant thing that ever happened to you in your life? And and why it was significant time? Well, you're gonna get some real power to even think the same question on specific topics. If you're doing a Bible study on Grace, you could say, What's the most? What's the most significant example of how you received grace in your life? Or the most? What is your favorite verse, on grace, and why and why isn't your favorite? Or what was your darkest moment in your life? And what verse in the Bible help you get out of that dark moment? I'm telling you, you're going to have some stories, and it's going to be incredibly interesting interest. So so being able to ask some of those questions, even in a regular Bible study, to ask someone to reflect on that was, you know, you seem real passionate about this particular thing? Was there anything in your life that relates to this? Right? Now when they share, people are going to be listening? I want to shift gears, a few things are giving you about how to be interesting. 

The question, how do you grow a Bible study? So how do you get? How do you lead people in? Like increasing? Or have a new leader Come here? How do they get people to come without putting a notice in the bullet was often? Well, number one, if you have 10 people, you're already the size. You can be anything over 10 You just have another person not talking. Right? So 10 is about the max number. And then there becomes a teaching thing. You know, like, like a sermon, church service, we can't really house church, which is sort of different than a Bible study. Is that 10 or more? Yeah. And then you have leaders taking on more responsibility, right? sharing, sharing, if you're gonna have sharing, you can have, you know, once you go past 10, so it let's say you're at eight, well, you still have room for two the problem, often, you bring someone new, and they don't know all the special rules, they don't, they don't get the agenda, they don't get the ground rules that you all went over two years ago, a lot of things are being talked about, they have their own special language that you've all developed. So, so being aware that this person is new, and how do you onboard them? How do you make them feel welcome? How do you give them enough knowledge, so that they can catch up quickly, and explain why we do things. 

So that's really important. I think the biggest hindrance is, you know, once you have your 10, you stay there. And here's the here's the reason why being the answer man and doing all the talking and leading in a special manner, because you're so good at it. No one else will want to take that Bible study over. So the only way to grow is to divide, right? I mean, in the end, if you have 10, you're, you're done. And so if you're going to grow, you know, either you have to let a few go off and get some people or not but but if you're if the Bible study is such a success, because you're such a great leader, no one in the group is going to think that they can do what you do. Right? So really, so when we're talking about growing, we're talking about reproducing, too. So at 10 is not too difficult in many ways to get to 10. But to create a movement is to create 10 groups of 10. So now you started thinking about, rather than awesome, new questions are raised. So when you set the agenda, you want to set the agenda be a multiplying agenda for a movement in your church or your community. Unless you just want to be that person. Again, that's a possibility. And then the group will go on, and maybe it'll last maybe it won't last. And by the way. Another point, too, is a lot of groups go too far and too late. You know, it's sort of winding down, but no one right here. Yeah, like, how do you end the group. And so it goes another year, where no one really wants to go. And again, the problem with that is, then people don't want to be a part of a Bible study, again, they need a recovery of five years or something. So when you sense as a leader, you're the leader, right? So you're the one that has to do something about it. So if you sense that sort of winding down, you bring that up and say, hey, you know, I think either we should do something different, or we should divide for maybe, you know, our season is done. And you know, we can figure that out. And there's nothing wrong with that. Or is it a possibility to, like say that, like, We're gonna do one year maximum? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, even before, yeah, that's the best time to do it is right before the set the ground rules have been when the word schedule is that this will be a one year Bible study. This will be a one topic, Bible study here. And there were, and that, by the way, is an easy way to get people because some people go home, to Bible study, but it's forever. And so I don't want to commit myself forever. Right? So if you have a six-week Bible study, and that's all you're asking someone to do, way more people are willing to say, Yeah, you know, I'll try that. Right. 

You know, and then after the six weeks, you can say what it might be possible, you know, in the future, but you know, people are more willing to make a commitment to a shorter time then, you know, it's this unending thing, right? Is it possible to do like sort of leader incubation Bible study probably where you could people. What we're going to do is do one year, and all we're going to talk about how to talk about how to do a Bible study, we're going to talk, in fact, we're going to have one of us becomes an answer, man. It makes it fun almost making the game. And then at the end of that year, the whole point is all of you are leaders, we're going to help each other recruit people would be probably the best way to do a Bible study is to put multiplication right in the middle of it, because the problem is, if it doesn't, the Bible study doesn't go well. No one wants to be a leader in a Bible study. And if it goes really well, people don't want to leave that group. Right. So what we did way back when with Where's Philip? Remember, what we said is, okay, we have this Bible study with everyone, this is training for you to be a leader in the Bible study. But you don't want to lose this group. But we won't lose this group, because we will be leaders, and we'll have a leader meeting once a month where we get together and talk about how our groups are going. So we don't really we get the best of both worlds. We keep this group that we've invested in that we, you know, get along so well with and then we we expand it. And that's really, you know, the problem with all evangelism with church growth period is we get we get a group of people, we like this group of people, and we don't really want new people coming in and messing that up. Right? Well, and I feel there's also inertia that goes against growing after. And if you're not self-aware of it in the beginning, if that's not your goal, the inertia will ultimately lock I mean, there were hours there 1987, 88, 89 planted churches. 

Today, just six months ago, I found out that a group that we started in 1988, still meet. Another church has, you know, migrated into different things. But so I could say that, that 30 years, a small group in that small group is still me now on one level, that's okay. But I had talked to people on how I got where I really can't leave it. And I'm willing to want to leave joking about 15 years ago, so but the 30 year group, and they are not really reached anybody else. And again, it sounds like I'm being critical, because I'm sure that they have been each other and live their lives together all that. But I don't think I thought 30 years ago, about creating reproducing groups. But in a sense, you remember, we talked at the very beginning, that small group, small group thing came into existence, because the family, the extended family thing was falling apart, right. And the extended family stays together, right? Sort of, right, because at first, you're really close to your brothers and sisters. But then you get married. And having kids, you have grandkids, you spend way more time with your own family than you do with the extended family. So it's sort of it sort of works that but you still do things with the extended family, it's just once in a while you're talking about things, you can compare notes on grandkids, and all those things. So there's a built-in mechanism in the family system for growth, because we will keep growing up, they get married, have kids and that system keeps going. The problem with this sort of, you know, created extended family small group is you don't have a natural childbirth thing. You don't have a teenager that wants to leave home eventually and do his own thing. Right. So the family system has a built-in mechanism for growth in the small group system, we sort of have to the leaders have to sort of always push in that direction. So So to be a reproducing small group is to want that right off the gate. And into raise up leaders and train them to be the teenager that wants to leave. And that's why it's so important to encourage people when when they're in your Bible study. Because most people are thinking well, I can't do what you do. Right. 

So you have to overcome that mentality that you may not be as impressive as you could be. Yeah. You have to be impressive in the fact that you're impressed by your people and you communicate it all the time. And you challenge and you give responsibility and even when someone takes the responsibility and fails it's like we know that was a tough thing but I'm that you even tried is amazing to me. You I see your potential. So you have to be this cheerleader that's always trying to lift everyone out, or they will never want to leave their own group. We're probably To probably end here, read the 20-minute mark. If you were to look back at the movement of Christianity, but you are part of the Bible study, small groups, churches you planted and everything. Where would someone start? This? I mean, they've just seen a whole class now. What were they? Well, you know, we always talk about what you should. If you want to be a Bible Study leader, you're not walking with God in your own personal life. And you start there, start there and start in your own family. Timothy? Because we can't manage your own family, why should we put in charge of the church, and it's not like a, you know, a penalty or something like that. It's just that you learn so much in doing it in your family that all those lessons lead over. So that then from there, if you have something good going on in your own family, see, you're kind of aware of things, you know, what did we did, we had four boys were reading the Bible is also aware of the process. Yeah, and your progress, you know, so you're aware of the good thing is, is a good thing. So now you might be more motivated to start something than when you start something, it doesn't have to be 10 people, right, you can find just one other couple. The only thing that's having more helps is than when people can't make it that night, you have somebody, but you really only need a few people, right? So start with someone, start sharing your vision of what you want to do figure out what kind of study you want, you can make make up a little flyer or something. And I'm thinking of starting to read about it to see if you're interested, start passing them out to whoever and I think people really want to be a part of something and no one invites people to anything, generally. So if you are you might start with hospitality. Start, you know, this year, Honey, we're going to do hospitality, like nobody's business, every week or every two weeks, we're gonna have someone over after a year of that, you'll have a lot of connections to people, and you'll be able to see it. In other words, so in this whole class by saying start with your personal life, if it's not rare, then maybe start with a little hospitality, try something and then when you start a group we talked about, like, rules and all that stuff, but then have reproductions be a movement leader. Oh, if he's in a contract, that's fine, too. But in general, the opportunity before us is pretty incredible. Well, and let me just say, I mean, just to close this out is what I've learned over the years. is be persistent. Right? Just because it's not working. Right now doesn't mean it's not gonna work tomorrow, right? You know, I've had times when I started a small group, and it didn't go so well. But I just kept at it. Right. Right. And then all of a sudden, it started working. And I don't know why it wasn't working at first, but, you know, people are busy, people, it's a new thing for them, right?

 But just to be persistent, and just because it didn't work one time, or two times, or five times, doesn't mean it's not going to work the six times. So be persistent. And don't get discouraged. Because in the end, I'm telling you, I've just seen so many great things happen, when people have just persisted. And in the end, you look back on all those failures, and you think, Well, I'm so glad that I did that. Right? Because I would have never had that great experience. I would have never had this great group of people, you know, if I would have given up too soon. So that's just I mean, the word of encouragement. Absolutely. Well, Steve, I want to thank you for sharing all your insights today. This has been a really enlightening conversation. I think we've covered a lot of ground, and hopefully, our listeners can take away some valuable lessons from this. And I hope you all have a great day. Thanks again for being here. Thank you.