Basic Home Bible Study Interaction
Carl Fuller

Here's some excellent guidelines to assist you in becoming a better home Bible study teacher and relate to your students more effectively.  These guidelines will help you become a better teacher, and in turn, a better soulwinner.

Listening

	Listening is hard work. If you're not listening hard, you communicate that you can't care and you can't help. Do not interrupt another person with your voice, your body movement, your eyes, your gesture, or your lack of concentration. Do not interrupt mentally. Do not plan what you are going to say when the speaker is finished. Listen. Listen to intent as well as content. The deepest level of communication is nonverbal. Understand what's being felt as well as spoken. Hear every nuance of tone, meaning, accent, body movement, posture, and eye contact.

Speaking

	Be personal. Use the first person singular—"I." Don't preach! Preachy words are: we, should, ought, everyone, all Christians, no (real) Christian, all, no one, all of us, everybody. Talk unpretentiously, on a level of your own personal experience. Don't substitute theories, sermons, great books, or long passages of Scripture (unless they have helped you personally). Talk about "what," not "why." Don't probe. Unless you are a psychotherapist, leave the analysis to someone else. Point to what you see or feel in the here and now

Personal Sharing

	Be as honest about "where you are not" in the Christian life as "where you are." Let the other person know that it's okay for him or her to struggle, to be human, to fail, and to be vulnerable. You are "Exhibit A" that God can work in anyone's life, that He has an investment in frail humanity, and that He can change people. Don't worry; you won't make God look bad. And remember, you have yet to walk on water! Avoid giving advice. Even if you are asked, give advice only as a last resort. The secret is to help people find their own answers. Share your common identity if you have had a similar problem.

Dealing with Pain

	Always acknowledge when another person is hurting. Never ignore crying or make excuses for it, and don't allow the group to do so either. Show that you care—you do not always need to speak to do this. Touch an arm or shoulder, hug him or her (if you are free enough), take a hand, lend a handkerchief. Verbally or silently, pray for him or her on the spot. You may feel led to ask, "How can I (we) pray right now? . . . Help you? . . . Support you?"

Making Promises

	Make specific promises and covenants: "Bob, I promise you that . . ." "Bob, I covenant with you . . ." Do not require others to promise you anything unless they really want to. You may, of course, enlist their help, support, and prayers. The great relationships of life between God and people, and between people and people, are sealed with promises.
	—From an unpublished pamphlet, Enabling a Small Group, Bel Air Presbyterian Church,
					Los Angeles, California. Used by permission.

Fifteen Questions to Help You Get Better Acquainted

1.	What is your favorite Sunday afternoon pastime and why?
2.	What hobby was most enjoyable in your teens?
3.	What is the one thing that gives you the most satisfaction?
4.	What is one thing you are good at doing?
5.	Who is the most influential person in your life?
6.	When you are fifty, what do you hope to be doing?
7.	What three things do (did) you most like about your father? Mother?
8.	What one thing did you dislike about your parents?
9.	What is the most frightening experience you've ever had?
10.	When did God become more than a word to you?
11.	Describe your ideal house and how you would furnish it.
12.	If you knew you could not fail, and money was no problem, what one thing would you like to do in the next five or ten years?
13.	When and how did you first meet your spouse? What do you most remember about that time?
14.	What is one thing you worried about this past week?
15.	What is one thing you are proud of about yourself?

									-Dr. Donald Reed

Glad You Asked

	Building relationships is a goal of every small group. This requires sharing at increasing levels of intimacy. Mixer questions are one way to encourage this, not just in the early stages of getting acquainted, but throughout the group's life cycle.

	Most small-group leaders pour considerable time and effort into writing Bible study discussion questions, but rarely give much thought to mixers. I suggest writing a variety of mixer questions for each of the following categories.

·	History-giving: How did your family celebrate Christmas when you were in grade school?
·	Personal values: Describe three characteristics of an ideal friend.
·	Future dreams: What would you like to be doing in five years?
·	Affirmation: What are two of your strongest skills?
·	Current events: Tell us three things that happened to you today.

	After writing several questions for each category, consider several different formats for sharing. You might divide your group into pairs or threesomes. You might separate men from women. You can write different questions on slips of paper, and then have each group member draw one and answer it in front of the whole group. As you try different formats you will learn which works best with your small group. Just take into account your time limit, the level of intimacy in the group, and whether you want to help others bond with only a few or with the whole group.
									—David Gschwend

This article “Basic Home Bible Study Interaction” was excerpted from the book Small-Group Ideas. Pg.84-86. March 2011. It may be used for study & research purposes only.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”

From:  www.churchcentral.com web site.  May 2009