Potted proverbs: apply as you go

Lost in translation...

The conversation had been brisk and lively. We'd laughed, puzzled and provoked each other in our discussion. The leader glances at his watch, and bursts out:

"Oh Goodness, look at the time – just before we pray, how are we going to apply all this?"

I've already posted about my hatred of "The Big Bang" at the end of Home groups - when we disconnect what we have heard God say from how we pray to him. But the scene above is just as common in many groups and is just as damaging. (And yes - I was guilty of this for years, and am only just learning to repent of it!)

The problem is that we get so involved in understanding and pinning down the big ideas in the passage, or the theology or the doctrine that's contained in it, that we leave very little time to the application, so that it all happens in a rush at the end. Or to put it another way - it doesn't happen at all!

And there are some who think that this is the right thing to do. If we get our theology right, it is argued, then we will automatically live it out. If we so know and understand the truths of the gospel deep down in our hearts, then the life we are to live will just flow out from us.

Love the theory - but doubt the psychology, practicality and truth of it.

Others may argue that Bible studies should be all application, in other words that every little piece of scripture needs to be applied in detail as you read it.

Again, love the idea - but would probably run a mile from a home group like that.

Head, hearts and hands
As usual, the answer lies in the Bible's creative joining together of the two things, because in their pure form, the first leads to intellectual inaction; and the second to a scary "works religion". The key is to understand how our head and our hearts and our hands relate to each other.

In our culture, we are adept at splitting these three areas of our lives. We think one thing, feel and desire another, and do a third. I know that eating fatty bacon is a bad thing for my health and weight, I desire to be slim and "heart healthy" but, man, when the smell of bacon frying hits your nose in the morning, nothing but the pig will satisfy.

But in the Bible's understanding, these things belong together. When we understand the amazing grace that saved a wretch like me, we want to reach out to other wretches with the message that has brought us new life and forgiveness, and so we see others in a different way - we treat everyone as our equals, because we know we are all sinners for whom Christ died. The message of the Gospel is not do this and live; but you live because of Christ, therefore do this. How we live as believers is intimately connected with our God-shaped understanding of the world and who we are; it is gospel-centred living. It springs from the Gospel message.

Or to put it a posh way ortho-praxy (right living) always comes from orth-doxy (right belief).

socks go together (but please not with sandals)

Or to put it a less posh way - thinking and doing are like a pair of socks*. One is useless without the other. It's why Paul often wrote his letters in this way. A slab of amazing mind-bending theology up front (like Romans 1-11; or Ephesians 1-3), followed by a therefore, then or so (Ephesians 4:1; Romans 12:1), followed by loads of application. (Romans 12-14; Ephesians 3-6).

Back to the study
So, what this means is that we must never stop at studying theology - we must always take it on to application. Particularly as God also suggests that we will never properly understand the truth unless we start to live it out (see Philemon v 6). And that we will never live out our faith with joy if it becomes a gospel-less pattern of living (Colossians 2:22-23). And squeezing "a little bit of application" in at the end is never sufficient to do this.

The answer? You guessed it from the title. Apply as you go. When you have grasped a particular truth, pause to earth it in practical reality. Make it specific, and don't move on until you've grabbed it.

More on how to apply in due course.

* Got this lovely idea from some children's Bible studies I did with my kids called XTB. They're great - check them out here

What are we - tadpoles or tumblers?

I was looking at a verse of scripture with some friends at church last night that nailed an issue that I have struggled with for many years. It's an issue that lies at the very heart of our Christian lives, and something that is core to how you think about and run a home group. Are we tumblers (the thing for drinking out of that's often made from glass) - or are we tadpoles (the slightly icky things you find in the pond in spring that eventually turn into big icky things that you find in a pond). Or to put it less mysteriously more helpfully - How does God speak to us?

Here's the verse:

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 2Timothy 2:7 

Here is the apostle Paul, writing to his young disciple Timothy, giving a simple instruction about how to read what he has just written. He says two things:

1. You need to think about it! The meaning, and it's implications for us may not be immediately obvious. The Bible isn't like Cooking for Idiots - where we just have to slavishly follow every detail of the recipe to get a fragrant and edible end result. To do it's work in our minds and hearts, and from there into our lives, the words of scripture need to have the active engagement of our minds. We need to think about them. We need to meditate or ruminate on them. And in the context of our home groups, share our thoughts with each other on them. 
2. God will give you understanding. Notice that this understanding is a gift. It is something that God gives us in his love and mercy. The Bible may be difficult in places and need thinking about, but that's not because God is trying to hide the truth from us. He wants to give us understanding. But notice also, that understanding is a promise. God promises to give us understanding when we engage with what he has said. The Lord will give you understanding.

So what's the stuff about the tableware and juvenile amphibians?

Simply this. We need to hold the two halves of this verse together. 

If it was all about point 1 - thinking about it - then we end up like tadpoles with massive heads and little bodies. It's all down to how clever and hard working you are. Put in the hours, learn the Greek, study the commentaries, scribble your mindmaps and eventually you gain understanding. But Paul tells us that this can never be the route to hearing God speak. Only to pride and false religion.

If it was all about point 2 - God giving us understanding - then all we would do is sit around like glass tumblers, doing nothing and waiting for God to fill the glass with his good things. It all seems terribly "spiritual" and humble, but it is just as bad a mistake as being a tadpole. In my experience, this approach leads to exactly the same place as the tadpoles - pride and false religion. 

But as we hold them together we see the truth about how God speaks to us today. We listen to the authoritative, God-given teaching of the apostles in the Bible. We think about it. We discuss it, we study it, we get what help we need to from the clever people who write deep books. But we do our thinking humbly and prayerfully, knowing that only God himself can take these words on the page, and make them live in our minds and hearts, and show us how to live for Christ as a result.

Not tadpoles or tumblers, but people to whom God has given minds and Bibles and His Spirit, so that we can grow in our relationship with Him.

 

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.

Potted Proverbs: The best questions are not questions

One of the greatest skills that you need to run a good Bible study is the instinct to craft good questions. You know what I mean...

1. Never as a question where the answer is Yes or No. "Is this verse saying that God is good?"
2. Never ask a question that is so blindingly obvious that no-one will want to answer it: "Who loved the world so much that he gave his only Son?"
3. Never ask multiple questions: "What has God said he will do for his people in verse 7, why will he do it, and what will be the result, and what horse won the 3.30 at Kempton Park Racecourse?"
4. Always ask open questions that get people to think about what the Scriptures are actually saying: "what is the big surprise in v 15?"
5. Ask not just about facts (what), but also about motivation (why), and connections (how): "Why do you think Jesus asks this question the way he does?"

But I've discovered over the years that, as the title says, often the best questions are not questions at all. Here's what I mean.

You've asked one of your finely crafted questions, and Janice, a young Christian who doesn't usually say very much, gives a hesitating answer, that shows she's on the right track. You can tell by the wrinkled forehead that she has got a lot more thoughts in her mind, but is unsure about her first answer, so has not said any more. So now is your chance to deploy the finest two words in Bible study history. 

Are you ready for them?

Take a deep breath and repeat after me:

"Go on"

Say these two words out loud now - they will change the face of your home group forever!

"Go on"

These words say loads of things to Jittery Janice, or shrinking Stephen, or hesitant Hannah, or timid Trevor. They tell them:

1. You're on the right track
2. I'm interested in the thoughts that are in your head - please share them round so that other people can be encouraged by them
3. The stage is yours...

It's the equivalent of what some books call an "extending question" - but without the need to think of another question. With the right tone, or even prefacing it with "I think you're on the right track here, go on..."or "That's an interesting idea, go on...", you are encouraging them to speak so they can encourage everyone else.

Try it at your next home group meeting, and you will be astonished by the power of these two little words to transform your group.

But a word of caution. Don't tell your group to read this blog post. Word got back to a group I once ran about a training session I ran, where I talked about these magic words. From that time on - all they did when I said "Go On" was laugh at me...

Potted Proverbs: Sit to be seen

There are always arguments in my family about who sits where at the table and why. And the gospels record a famous argument among the disciples about the seating arrangement in the new creation - The Thunder Brothers wanting the posh chairs on either side of Jesus (Mark 10:35-45).

Seating arrangements are especially important when you are leading a homegroup as well. Here are some thoughts on how you can subtly (and not so subtly) make chair choice change the dynamics of your time together:

• Your chair: like it or not, the chair you choose to sit in can give the wrong dynamic to the group. If it is taller than everyone else's, or larger and more comfortable than everyone else's, then you can unhelpfully give the impression that you are the teacher/guru that everyone else should listen to. If you insist on occupying the same chair every week - even if it's your chair - your favorite chair - you can reinforce an idea that you are in charge/in control/top dog. Christian leadership is, remember, all about being a humble servant, not about being overbearing - see Jesus reply to the Sons of Thunder above. And it is about helping your group discover what is in God's word for themselves - We want them to sit at Jesus' feet - not yours.
• Their chairs: soft sofas are squashy armchairs are good for relaxing, but also for putting people to sleep. Think about ringing the changes every now and then, and putting people round a table on dining chairs. This can create a more "business-like" atmosphere that will help to focus people for some harder work on the Bible text. If you are tackling a particularly tricky part of scripture this may help. Particularly if you pike the table up with Bible dictionaries and commentaries etc, and encourage you group to grab and read.
• Eye contact: you most naturally make eye contact with whoever you are sitting opposite, and you can use this to good effect. If you are anything like a typical homegroup, then you will have some quieter, more shy people who are reticent to contribute. They will naturally gravitate to a quieter corner in the room so that they will not be noticed. Simple plan - sit opposite them, so that you catch their eye more often. These visual "body language clues" will encourage them to speak up.
• No eye contact: the opposite of the above. You may have a group member that always answers the question before anyone else gets a look in, and tends to hog the conversation. By sitting next to them, you will catch their eye less often. And you'll be able to dig them in the ribs when they've gone on too long!

And while we're on environment, you should also keep an eye on temperature (not too hot to put them to sleep - not too cold to distract them), oxygen (opening the window for fresh air will keep them more alert); and lighting (dim light creates a cosy atmosphere - but will not help people read small Bible print - especially older ones or those who struggle with sight.

Any more practical points that anyone can suggest for other homegroup chairmen?

What's it all about?

I asked a group of Home group leaders that question this last week:

Can you give me a single word that sums up what you think your house group is about?

The answers were varied and interesting. We had caring; fellowship; worship; growth; love; and several others along the same lines. The slightly surprising answer I shared to that question was the one found in Hebrews 10:23-25.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Encouragement.
As far as I can tell, this verse in the NT is the only one which actually commands us to meet together as believers. It doesn't specify what day, or in what numbers, or in what set, or subset of the local congregation we should meet. Simply that we should not neglect doing so, and that the purpose of our meeting together is for mutual encouragement. But encouragement for what? The context of the verse tells us.
The writer to the Hebrews has been establishing for his readers some of the enormous privileges of being Christians. And our verse is a part of the paragraph where he sums them up with a call to action. The primary call is to "draw near to God" because Jesus has opened up the way for us to meet with God through his own blood. We should stand before God with absolute confidence, says the writer, because what we receive from Christ is absolute forgiveness, cleansing and removal of our guilt before God.
More than that, the writer tells us that Jesus is our great high priest, who is now in the heavenly temple making intercession for his people.
But we also need (v 23) to "hold fast" to our confession (belief and trust in Jesus as God's one true King) in face of opposition, with the encouragement that "God is faithful". And more than that (v 24) we must think hard how we stir each other up to live the new life that we have received - by doing good to others, and being filled with the love of the Lord Jesus for our lost world. And there is an urgency to this (v 25) because we know that a day is coming when Jesus will return and the world will be judged, and the new creation established.
So central to any gathering of God's people, and therefore your homegroup, I would suggest is that people leave with the following things having been underlined, impressed upon them, stirred up within themselves, or taught to them for the first time:

• The past work of Christ. The facts of the gospel, and their new status in Christ. Forgiven, cleansed, renewed by the blood of Christ
• The present work of Christ. He is your King and Priest in heaven, and is utterly committed to getting you through to the end. We need to know this, because life as a believer can be brutally hard.
• Our calling to follow him now in very practical ways. Expressed not just by being known as a Christian, but through being loving, and doing good works. Our badge of recognition as a believer is not church membership, but the character of Christ, a passionate lover of all people, and being committed to doing good to others.
• and all this set in the context of...
• The future work of Christ. Who will return as judge.

One lady at the training session said that her aim with the group she leads is "to keep them going as Christians for another week". A brilliant answer. And the way to keep people going, is not just to care for them, and look after their human needs for friendship, food and fun. It is to feed their souls by reminding them of what the Lord has done, is doing and will do for them. It is to remind them who they serve, and what he calls us to.

How does your homegroup match up to this standard?

Potted Proverbs for home group leaders: we don't believe in the Big Bang

I'm not talking about the dawn of time and all that bewildering Cosmology stuff that lots of clever people like to think about with their calculators at hand.

I'm talking about what so often happens at the end of home groups:

We've finished reading and thinking about the Bible together. We've been amazed at how brilliant / surprising / strange / terrifying God is. We've been challenged deep down to think about how we can serve Christ better. And then the leaders says:

"Right, what shall we pray for?"

And then comes the Big Bang! The sound of Bibles closing around the room.

The Problem
The problem is that we falsely think of prayer and Bible reading as two separate and distinct activities. But when you think about it, this Big Bang really amounts to a bit of an insult to God. We've been sat round trying to hear and understand the voice of God, as he has spoken to us in Scripture. God has been talking to us - amazing!

But as soon as soon as we have finished listening to what he is saying - we quickly change to subject to talk to him about how much Dave's knee has been bothering him! Weird!

I hate it when I have conversations like that - because they are actually not really conversations at all. If I talk to my daughters about how much I love them, and what plans we have for our family future, and then they don't comment on it, but start to talk about something completely different (not to mention totally irrelevant), I will just assume they haven't really been listening. (OK - they're teenagers, so this happens a lot!).

In the Bible, the great prayers of God's people nearly always come as a response to something that God has done or said. And these great prayers, like Nehemiah 1 or Daniel 2 or Acts 4, are all filled with God's people quoting back to the Lord things he has said, or promised to them. They actually talk to God about the things he has said to them! It's a single conversation - not two separate ones that never meet.

A Soloution
So here's one solution I've come up with to help the groups I have been part of deal with this issue.

I have two prayer times! 

I make sure that, after we have finished the "listening to God from the Bible" part of our time together, we give ourselves time to "pray in" the things we have heard - either by saying sorry to God for the way we have failed him, by praising him for something we have seen more clearly about how fantastic He is, or by crying  out to him for help to change so that we can serve him more faithfully. It's only after we have done this, that we open our eyes again and ask if there are any specific things that people would like prayer for.

Of course, sometimes there are things going on in people's lives that are so enormous that they need to be brought before God before we do anything else. Including read the Bible together. So I think it's worth being flexible in what you do. If you pick up at the start of your time together that someone's relative is on the point of death, or if someone comes in looking jittery or haggard, it's worth asking what's going on, and have the group pray for that issue at the start.

But whatever you do, don't let the Big Bang happen in your home group. It's just plain rude.