6 Things I Learned Leading a 6-Week Bible Study (Part 2)

This spring, Hannah and I looked back upon a Bible study we were both apart of that spiritually affected us deeply. I’d been in a couple other Bible studies since then, and I knew how much power they had to make you think in ways you hadn’t before. 

Then we saw a need and an opportunity. There were many 9-to-12-year-old girls in our church, including our sisters, who hadn’t been in a Bible study before. And of course, Hannah and I had plenty of school to keep us busy, but summer break was on its way. Why not, just for the summer, lead a Bible study for the younger girls around us?

Last week, I shared about the first three weeks of leading my experience leading a girls’ summer Bible study. This week, I’ll finish up and share the last three things I learned.

Hopefully, some of these reflections will either amuse you or be applicable advice for you if you lead a ministry!

Week #4: The fourth week went smoothly to an average extent. We had mostly gotten the hang of things and gotten into a routine: game, testimony, study, prayer, snacks and chat and maybe another game… Except one of those items was not in the right spot at all.

What I Learned: Never, under no circumstances, hand over the sugar before the study. If you are ministering to kids, beware the pre-study chocolate. It makes the distracting kids even more distracting.

Week #5: The next week went smoothly, too. We had two college students over to share their testimonies, and they played a game called “Do you love your neighbor?” with us all until all the girls had arrived. Then we did our study, prayed, had snacks, and chatted.

What I Learned: Be flexible and have fun. For example, I had planned out a different game, but the girls got bored of it pretty quickly, so we played “Do you love your neighbor?” instead. Plans change. Roll with it. Which brings me to my next point…

Week #6: Funny story--for the longest time, I thought there were six chapters in James. So the sixth week, I planned to go over James 5, and then I planned an extra meeting for the nonexistent James 6. But on the week I planned for James 5, there was a bug making its way through several families, so I ended up canceling that one. Since I had already planned an extra week, and there was no James 6 to study, we got to finish James that week instead. 

I also planned an extra hour, so we had fun with it. Hannah and I provided ice cream, and the girls brought toppings. That combined with the games made for a pretty fun end.

What I learned: Plan an extra meeting! It will come in handy!

And I have one bonus tip left for you!

Bonus Tip: Find a partner to lead your Bible study with you! Even though I did more of the study stuff, just having Hannah there for me to do half of the hosting helped a lot in itself. Plus her snack-bringing and pool party-planning. ;) A partner makes leading a Bible study much more fun!

Also, I gave out a few copies of a simple poll at the end, and I thought you might find the results interesting. 

• The girls’ favorite parts of the Bible study were the testimonies, the studies, snacks, and the games. “Basically everything,” to quote one of them.
• Most couldn’t say anything they disliked.
• The girls’ answers differ on what changes they would make. Everything from “more Bible study” to “more snacks” to “more babies”!
• When I asked what book of the Bible we should study next year, many thought we should do something in the Old Testament. Hmm...
• On a scale of one to ten, my sister rated it an eight, a couple girls rated it a ten, and the other three rated it way more than ten. 

I found it very interesting that the girls want to study a book in the OT. I’m thinking we’ll do Ruth, if not Daniel or Esther. What do you think? Whatever next year is like, I’m already looking forward to it!

6 Things I Learned Leading a 6-Week Bible Study (Part 1)

A few of you may know that I co-led a Bible study over the summer with my friend Hannah. Beforehand, we planned out everything and even emailed a few people for advice. Then we invited all the 9 to 12-year-old girls at our church to come to our houses every other week to study the book of James. Hannah was in charge of the fun stuff (like the pool party!), and I was in charge of the study stuff. 

As the summer passed and we gained more experience, I learned A LOT. I learned something new every week we met. Today I’m going to share my tips, which apply to leading Bible studies for young girls, but also may help with teaching a Sunday school class, or maybe even an adult Bible study.

Week #1: For my Bible study, I decided to set aside the first meeting for introduction. Hannah and I shared our testimonies, we did an icebreaker, we watched the James Bible Project video (SIDE NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED A BIBLE PROJECT VIDEO BEFORE, GO CHECK THEM OUT!), and studied some background stuff on James.

What I learned: Some girls will be too quiet, and some will be too distracting. This problem is reduced by taking turns talking. At the first meet, four girls showed up, and exactly half were too quiet, and half were too distracting (both were extroverted and sisters of a co-leader). The icebreaker, however, went really well for everyone, because everybody picked a card with a Bible name and meaning and took turns sharing why they chose it. The quiet girls got a chance to talk, and the distracting girls had to talk about a specific subject.

Week #2: Starting the second week, we had a different lady from our church visit each meet to share her testimony. The girls loved hearing the first ladies’ testimony, and every testimony afterward. We also had tea, to make it extra fun. However, the study part of it was rather dull.

What I learned: The goal of a Bible study is to study the Bible. This may seem kind of obvious, but my perspective was a bit skewed. In my youth group Bible studies, I really enjoy the small group time where we split up, boys and girls, and go over discussion questions. So, I wanted my Bible study to be a lot like small group time. I brought a ton of homemade James 1 discussion questions and was set to dive into a deep conversation. But I soon learned that if you try to force people to talk, then you may end up having to do all the talking yourself. Instead, make your focus to study the Bible at your Bible study.

Week #3: The third week might have been one of the best ones of all. One of the factors of its excellence was that the lady who came to share her testimony requested to stay for the whole study, rather than just stopping by. She wasn’t intrusive, yet her presence seemed to keep the distracting girls from goofing off so much. The other factor was that I put together a James 2 study booklet for all the girls to fill out.

What I learned: Booklets are very handy! I made a three-page worksheet booklet and printed and stapled one per girl plus an answer guide for me. Then I split the girls into teams and they searched for the answers for the fill-in-the-blanks in their Bibles. This really helped! The booklets were so much better and even easier than discussion questions! If you make your study time interactive and focused on the Word of God, you will do well! (Let me know if you’d like to see my especially-geared-for-youth-homemade-James-study-guides for reference, or even if you’d like to steal them for your own Bible study.) ;)

Next week, I will share about the other three weeks, but for now, I’ll end with a few bonus tips.

Bonus Tip #1: Schedule enough meetings for your Bible study so that the first one can be all introduction. Go over the author, context, themes, when, and where of the book you are starting. And don’t forget to watch its Bible Project video!

Bonus Tip #2: Invite guest speakers. This might sound over-the-top, but if you invite people from your church to share their testimonies, for one, you won’t have to do all the teaching. It’ll also be very encouraging for the people in your Bible study, I’m sure. My church has a Google Group for the women members, so all I had to do was put up a “wanted ad”, wait for ladies to volunteer, and schedule who goes to what Bible study.

Bonus Tip #3: Send out some emails to experienced Bible study leaders and ask for advice! I sent out several questions to the leaders of Bible studies I’ve been in, and their advice helped me a lot as I got started.

Starting a Bible study is an excellent way to minister to younger people. I know that the Bible studies I’ve been in have spiritually helped me a lot. I would highly recommend that you grab a friend and start your own!