Pages

Friday, 18 March 2011

Potted Proverbs: Don't cap it, leave it

Don't cap it: leave it!
Most of the proverbs I have been writing about are aimed at helping you grab hold of some of the simple skills that will make your group just work better.  But the core of the issue in this proverb is directed more towards your heart as a leader. So I might ask first:
Just exactly what do you think your job is as a bible study group leader?
Often, we rightly cast ourselves in role of teacher. I have led a number of groups where the members have been young Christians who have known very little. They are hungry, and they just need someone to teach them.

Of course in the middle of that, you always have to maintain a respect for the life experience of adults in your group. I have been privileged to share a living room sofa with people who are at the highest levels of their professions - doctors, businessmen, lawyers, engineers and scientists - but who have been infants in the faith. And they have been humble enough to take instruction and advice from me, as we have opened the Bible together.

But in the end, we must always recognise that it is the Holy Spirit who is our true teacher. He is the one who inspired the Scriptures that we look to as our final authority. He is the one who opens our eyes to its truths, and applies them to our hearts. And it is he who is speaking through anyone in the group who articulates the God's truth from the scriptures - whether they are young and self taught, or have more theological degrees than Fahrenheit.

And what this proverb is getting at is you and me, if we think that our job as leader is always to have the last word on anything - because we wrongly think that we are the most important authority in the room. You know the scene, and may have acted a starring role in it at some stage. Someone makes a profound and deep comment about something. They have hit the nail on the head, and there is a momentary silence, as people think about it.

And you just can't help open your mouth to agree with it, and to add some slight technical modification, or to add a rider. And in doing so, you make three terrible mistakes:

  1. You discourage the person who made the remark. Because by adding to it, you imply it was not complete or quite right.
  2. You unhelpfully  imply that you are "in control" of the group, and the measure of what is right and wrong (you're not!).
  3. You reduce everyone's confidence to speak out for the encouragement of others what God has spoken to them as they look at His word.
Instead, a simple "thank you - that's dead right" will do the opposite - it will affirm and encourage others, and be honouring to God who speaks to and through each of us as we peer into the scriptures.


Yes, we will often need to be teachers, but more than that we need to be humble leaders, who are prepared to allow the Lord to teach the group through others, and be taught ourselves.

3 comments:

  1. I want to thank you for the last couple of reminders; both times, you have noted that limited, specific, uplifting words are the best way to lead people into open conversation.

    I am praying and thinking on how to better balance out the need for "Go ons" and "That's dead rights" in our group. Thanks for the challenge!

    Coincidentally, on the note that the Holy Spirit is the real authority in the room, I am curious how you go about building a mutual understanding of the need for serious pause and reflection to let the Spirit move. As a young adult leading a group full of young adults, I find that any silent space very quickly fills with chit-chat. I love the friendliness our group shares, but it does at times have the effect of undermining some of our more serious moments, such as open sharing of scripture and prayer time in smaller groups. Any thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks nebcanuck - I see you are in Peterborough. I have family in your area (my wife is Canadian), and have spent many happy hours in the town.

    You are suggesting that hearing the Spirit is about giving space and silence for reflection. I was trying to say the more obvious thing - that the Spirit has written a book (the Bible), and that what He works to make happen is for us to understand what He has written in it about the Lord Jesus.

    There may be other ways that God the Spirit will lead and guide us in our lives as individuals and as a group, but he never speaks more clearly or definitively than he does in the pages of Scripture. And as that is what (I hope) is open before us in a Bible Study, that is what we should be focussing on...

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's neat that you're familiar with Peterborough! I have extended family here and my wife and I came for school at Trent University. Our encounter with the Trent Christian Fellowship, which was based on a small group model at the time, completely transformed our faith. As a result we haven't left since graduating!

    Thanks for the reminder about the scriptures being the way that the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us. I'm still curious about some of the ways you might go about building a mutual appreciation for this. Our group is very good at being tadpoles, to use an analogy from your newest post. But it's not always very good at being tumblers. Do you have any tips on tumbler training?

    P.S. I should add that last night I stated plainly that it would be wonderful to avoid tangents during the study sections, and people were definitely on-board. I'm learning that as a leader, communication of your intentions and desires is sometimes overlooked and vital to building any sort of group consensus!

    ReplyDelete