Leadership Thought: A Response to a Concerned Writer Regarding My Leadership Thought.

Dear Friends,

“I have read it, cover to cover, twice, with no effect.  It just doesn’t stick.  So, I’ve read “The Story,” the “Message”, and other versions.  No impact.  So, I get mini doses through your messages, 3-4 small groups, and occasional Daily Bread online reviews.  Hey, I tried!!

This was one reader’s response to yesterday’s Leadership Thought on reading the importance of bible study.

Do those words ring true or sound familiar? Have you ever read the Bible and felt like “it just doesn't stick?”

Maybe it's because you possess the wrong goals. Possibly you have been reading for information and not transformation. Maybe trying to digest all those names, places, and events- the factual content- have taken precedent over reading for the bible’s transformational content-how it will change your life.

For a number of years, I read through the entire bible every year. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes not. But when I didn't achieve my goal, I felt discouraged and defeated.

One day I finally decided to change my approach. In trying to read through the bible every year, I felt like I was reading it  to complete a ‘task’- just reach the finish line.

Several years ago, I decided to change my approach. I narrowed my goal and decided to pick a particular book and study that book until I felt I really knew it. My study became less goal oriented- reading through the bible in a year.

I narrowed my goal from reading through the whole bible to picking a particular book of the bible and reading through it as many times as needed until I could envision those verses in my mind.

I took the four-chapter book of Philippians, and for the next month I read those four chapters every day. I read them using the New International version (NIV) as my basic translation, but I varied my translations using more contemporary ones like the Living Bible, the Message Bible, and the Promise Bible to get different nuances and perspectives.

I used a couple of commentaries: Warren Wiersbe’s excellent one volume commentary on the Bible- With the Bible- and John Courson’s Old and New Testament Life Application Commentaries that emphasized biblical life application.

In reading though those four chapters each day I would ask myself. “What does what I am reading teach me about how I am to walk more closely with God?  

I took notes, and I outlined the key points in each of the four chapters, and then I took take time to memorize that outline.

After one month, I felt like I really knew the book of Philippians. Those verses I had marked in my bible had marked me, and I experienced the satisfaction of achieving both information and inspiration while achieving the ultimate goal of transformation.

For larger books that are more than four chapters, you can break down your study, into four chapters a month until you have finally completed the book

In my file cabinet can be found the notes and outlines of each of the books I have studied, providing me an excellent source for sermon preparation or spiritual enrichment.

In closing, I would point out that there is not only one way to study the bible. The best way is the way that works best for you. But, if you are not getting what you had hoped from your bible study, if “things are not sticking” as my friend responded, then try something new.

And don’t forget, “It is not how many times you have been through the bible, but how many times the bible has been through you.

Comments and suggestions gladly accepted!

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom