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In our small groups or classes, it is always a challenge to keep the bible fresh as a leader or teacher.  At the Group Life Conference Bill Donahue shared a few different methods to help us do a better job at keeping the Bible fresh:

Guidelines to engage the text:

1. Study the bible for yourself, not by yourself – Acts 2:42 Devote yourself to the teaching
2. Never engage the text without encountering the author – you don’t need a backstage pass to encounter God in your study
3. Read the Bible for transformation, not just information – don’t just seek to know about something, seek to know something. Then we can use knowledge to provoke compassion instead of wielding power.

We Commit Biblical Malpractice…

• When we skim over the familiar
• When we trivialize something in the scripture
• When we take it out of context
• When the Bible is used for personal gain or agenda
• When it is more important to be right instead of righteous
• When we misuse the Bible it is Textual Abuse

Some Approaches to keep the Bible Fresh:

• Read and Reflect
  • Prepare your heart – some do this with silence, music, try to listen to God
  • Try using a spiritual reading or poetry
• Listen to the text
  • Ephesians 2:4-5 ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
  • Pause, reflect, read in different speeds, stressing different words. Slow, fast, soft, loud.
  • Ask what people hear
  • Ask people in the group to reflect and journal privately in the group meeting
• Engage and Examine
  • Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
  • Ask Questions like, “What does it say?” or “What does that mean?” or “What do you think is happening?”
  • Help your group bring some intellectual rigor to the meeting without being too academic.
• Observe and Obey
  • Is there a great truth coming from this text?
  • Ask and answer the question, “So what?”
  • Can you force this as a discipline in your group by trying ask, “How did you live this out last week?”
  • Once you’ve observed the truth you’ve got to ask, “How do we live?”
  • This approach moves us into the world

 Mix up your group to try all of these approaches so you keep your group fresh.