Lead a Balanced Bible Study

Are you organizing or directing a women’s Bible Study at your church? Are you a Bible Study small group leader or planning to lead a Bible Study group? Make sure you aim for a balance between content and community. This blog will discuss what these aspects are and how to keep them balanced.

Two Roles of a Group Leader

Women join Bible Study groups for many reasons. Getting to know God, understanding what the Bible teaches, making friends in a local church, overcoming loneliness, and needing regular accountability are just a few of them. Two words describe how those needs are met: CONTENT and COMMUNITY. Both quality content and caring community are important in any Christian small group. To have both of those needs balanced is especially important in a women’s Bible Study group.

The leader of any Bible Study group has two basic roles:

• Role #1. Content Guardian
• Role #2. Community Builder

Content Guardian:

A guardian is a “custodian, a keeper, or someone who maintains control of something important.” For a Bible Study, the “something important” is the truth from God’s Word and handling it correctly. The same is true for other small groups led by Christians. Always teach and uphold God’s truth.

As you are under Jesus Christ’s authority as His servant-leader, you have the authority of “Content Guardian” to control the content of the discussion. You are serving the women in your group “in Jesus’ name.” That means you are acting under His commission and according to His character. Encourage Christ-focused content as you lead the group discussion.

Community Builder:

How many women can walk into almost any room, anytime, and feel comfortable? Your group will have the confident, the nervous, and the insecure. You are that welcoming tour guide…that smiling face…that friend to welcome the women to the community of a small group.

Connect them with you first. Then, do whatever you can to connect them with each other. Arrange chairs so they can see each other. Help them learn each other’s names. Give them breakout time in groups of 2-4 to share about their own lives in response to the Scriptural text. Have a potluck meal every few weeks, or go out for lunch or dinner together. Encourage Christ-focused community to be built around your study of God’s Word together and how you are each applying it to your life.

Roles interlinked

Those two roles are very much interlinked. If you discuss great content without building community, the group will not gel. Yet, while group community is getting established, the members depend upon you to make sure the content of the discussion stays on track and is fruitful. There must be a healthy balance.

Modeled for Me

What I learned

Several years ago, I joined the weekly women’s Bible Study in my church. It was the most balanced Bible Study group of my life to that point. The focus of every meeting was always on the Word of God. And community was built around the lesson discussion and sharing life together based on what we were learning.

Women always want more fellowship time. That is just who we are and how we are made. So right up front, the leaders of the Bible Study told us this:

Because of the high value we place on teaching and learning the Word of God, JOY is first and foremost a Bible Study! We believe that it is upon this foundation that true Christian fellowship occurs freely and strong relationships develop, are nourished, and grow. (JOY Bible Study, 1990s-2010)

We wrote our own studies making sure they were Christ-focused, Bible-rich, and grace-based. That is where many of the Bible Studies I have submitted to Bible.org originated and where I learned to create quality Bible studies. To encourage fellowship, we met in small groups where the women were facing one another. Even when we had lecture time, we met around tables, which also encouraged community. Once a month, we skipped lecture time so we could spend the whole time in small group which allowed for extra fellowship time with potluck brunch food.

What I practice

Now whenever I lead a Bible Study group, we spend most of our time on the Bible Study discussion. But I incorporate short 5-minute breakouts where 3-4 women group together to share something from their lives related to the lesson. I also challenge them to get to know each other’s names. We write prayer requests on slips of paper and pair up to prayer over them. Then we pass them to one person who sends them out in an email so everyone can pray for all of them. And once every 4-6 weeks, we have a potluck lunch after our study. I try to keep that balance of quality learning from the Lord’s Word and fellowship to build community.

Download this free “Start and Lead a Bible Study Group” Booklet

Not So Good Examples

As a continual learner, I join other Bible Studies besides any that I am teaching. I have noticed two formats that are definitely not balanced.

1. The classroom format:

Some women are accustomed to sitting in a classroom setting to learn from a teacher. They think that is how Bible Study should also be experienced. I have been in groups over the years like that. We often sat in rows looking at the teachers in the front of the room. With this configuration, we were not able to see any other faces except the other person at our own tables or in our row. No one learned names. There was no breakout discussion of life experiences related to the Bible text. The result of that format is academic knowledge about God’s Word but very little application and community among God’s women.

2. The video format:

With the prevalence of video-driven Bible Studies, women listen to someone teach them what they think the Scriptures say. Discussion guides are usually filled with commentary with very little actual Bible study. Small group questions are almost always share questions such as, “How do you feel about this?” “What do you think about this?” The result of this format is that you may get to know one another’s opinions and some about their lives. But you are not really Christ-focused in either content or community.

Leading a Balanced Bible Study

If you are leading a women’s Bible Study, I challenge you to aim for a balanced one. Remember your two roles in leading a group:

• Role #1. Content Guardian
• Role #2. Community Builder

Remember this: If you discuss great content without building community, the group will not gel. Yet, while group community is getting established, the members depend upon you to make sure the content of the discussion stays on track and is fruitful. There must be a healthy balance.

Check out “Be a Christ-Focused Small Group Leader.” This handbook will help you be a wise content guardian and gracious community builder for your group. Be the best small group leader you can be!

Happy leading!

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