When I taught a class on how to lead Bible studies and teach in a group, the biggest push-back I received was when I promoted writing out – in full – your lesson for the week. People objected that writing out a lesson would squelch the Spirit of God and would make the lesson mechanical.
After having led adult Sunday School classes and small group Bible studies for over fifteen years, I disagree. Instead, I have found that thorough preparation – including writing out as completely as possible everything you want to say – brings only benefits to the group or class you are leading. And that holds true regardless of whether the class is more lecture-oriented or more discussion-oriented. Here are three areas that benefit significantly from taking the time to write out your lesson:
1. Content
Writing helps you focus your lesson and achieve your goals. It requires you to define your main point and decide how to explain it, support it, illustrate it, and apply it. Writing out your lesson ensures that you have enough content to fill the allotted time. You won’t have to suffer the embarrassment of being done with your material and still have 15 minutes of dead time to fill, nor will you find that the bell has rung and you have 15 minutes of material still to cover. Teaching is about expounding on points, not just stating points. It’s one thing to say “God calls us to forgive others.” It’s another to talk about the reasons we resist forgiving others, the process of forgiveness, and the benefits of forgiveness. When you write out your lesson, you can carefully develop all aspects of your main focus. Since you know the points you want to cover when you write out your lesson, you can also prepare effective handouts and note-taking sheets to help the participants engage with the material and remember it.
2. Presentation
By writing out your lesson, you can learn how to pace yourself. You will see in black-and-white where you are spending most of your time, and what points need to be strengthened. You will not find yourself groping for words, forgetting your points or sub-points, or faltering to make transitions between sections. If you find that some portion of your lesson has taken longer than you planned and you are running short on time, a written lesson will help you evaluate faster what to eliminate and still achieve your goals for the session since you can literally scan the remainder of your content in a few seconds.
3. Discussion
Written lessons help you determine where to intersperse discussion to keep people involved and engaged. By writing your lessons out, you are also able to guide discussion more effectively. Instead of asking “What do you think? Does anyone have any input?” – which can open the door to absolutely anything – you can ask targeted, well-crafted questions that lead the discussion in order to support the focus and goal of your class. When you develop a written lesson, you are more likely to realize ahead of time where people might have questions – and prepare for them. A written lesson will also help you recognize and derail tangents as soon as they happen – whether it’s you who are tempted to go off on a rabbit trail, or whether someone else is veering off during a discussion time.
When you consider the benefits, the time and effort it takes to write out a lesson becomes an investment that you can’t afford to be without. Rather than squelching the Spirit of God, God is able to move more powerfully in the hearts, minds, and lives of others because of your thorough preparation. And rather than make the lesson mechanical, your preparation sets you free to be at ease during the class – to lead and teach with confidence.
© 2008 Paula Marolewski
You have my permission to reprint and distribute this article as long as it is distributed in its entirety, including all links and copyright information. This article is not to be sold or included with anything that is sold.
By: Paula Marolewski
Posts Tagged ‘15 Minutes’
Study Habits For Writing
February 9th, 2010
It’s human nature to want to do everything the easy way. Unfortunately, anything that comes easily is usually not worth having. Good writing habits begin with learning from past experiences. If you are a quarter horse and you slow down or choke in the long stretch, there is a way to improve your performance. You can learn good study habits by beginning with short-term goals. If you don’t see how you have time to take a writing course for eight weeks, sign up anyway. Shorten your goal, and don’t look at the package deal. Approach it one week at a time.
He who aims at nothing hits same. Staying focused is imperative above all else. Taking one writing course will require about 90 minutes of homework a week. Some students can get by with just an hour. Where can you work 60 – 90 minutes a week into your schedule? Perhaps you could get up 15 minutes early every day. (That’s out, huh?) Okay. You could use your lunchtime. I know of a lady who wrote a book by writing only 15 minutes a day. But if that won’t work for you, perhaps you could set time aside in the evening. Could you stay up 15 minutes later each night? Do whatever works for you, but make yourself do it.
To make the most of your study time, don’t study with earphones, music or television on. Learning to study in the quiet is an art of its own. Some authors go to a cabin or up in the attic to be alone. Learn to cherish the quiet. Listen to it. That is how you will hear the words that come to you.
When the words come so fast that you barely have time to write them down, that is called the muse. Above all, do not stop and edit when you’re in that mode. Keep writing as long as you can. If you really want the muse (and every writer should), study at the same time every day for a week. By the second week, you will find that the muse will begin to come at the time you have set.
Setting good habits is hard, and sometimes the only way you can break a bad habit is to punish yourself for it. For example, if you don’t write one day, make yourself clean the toilet as punishment (whether it needs it or not). Pick whatever chore you hate most. Don’t be discouraged if you miss writing now and then. Begin each new day with the confidence that you can break old habits, and the time to start is now – over and over again.
Last, but not least, whether you’re writing a story, article, or doing homework, don’t begin new projects until you finish the old one. Remember, shorten your goals so you don’t burn out before the finish. If you can’t see how you’ll work the time in for one week of studies, set your goal for three days of study. Make yourself write at least 15 minutes a day, four days a week. Disconnected writing times may make it a little harder to “get into the groove”, but you will acclimate to it. Best wishes.
By: Deborah Owen
