Do you have a desire to share God’s Word in a meaningful and practical way? Learning how to write a Bible study is a great way to share your thoughts and revelations from any book, topic, or character in the Bible.
We live in a culture that lives and operates in the online space. Every single day people turn to the internet with their questions about the Bible or to find their resources for Bible study. That’s why this calling to write Bible studies (especially in the online world) is so important.
Maybe you just want to write a Bible study to share with your local church and community. Or perhaps you are thinking of publishing and sharing it on an online platform. Whatever your goals are, I’m confident that the following strategy will better equip you to accomplish your goal!
Below are some simple, yet proven, steps you can implement to take your Bible study writing skills to the next level.
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How to Write A Bible Study Lesson
Whether you are wanting to writing your own Bible studies to for personal use, to share with your Bible study group, or to start your own Bible ministry, it is important to have a blueprint for how to write them.
Use the following techniques to plan, outline, write, and deliver your Bible study. I would also recommend that you progress through each step in the order that’s listed.
1. Decide the Type of Bible Study You Will Write
The first step is to decide on what kind of study you will write. Typically Bible studies are written based off a specific book, chapter, topic or character in the Bible.
This will build the foundation of your study. Before you do anything else, make sure you know what type of Bible study you want to write.
2. Study the Scriptures for Yourself
Before you can effectively write a Bible study, you need to have a through understanding of the scriptures you will be using. This step is crucial for rightly dividing God’s Word and teaching it to your readers.
Be diligent and committed in your efforts to gain a comprehensive understanding of the passages you plan to incorporate in your study.
3. Establish the Big Idea
After you have decided on the type of Bible study you will write and you have studied the scriptures for yourself, the next step is to plan out the big idea of the study as a whole.
Here are some questions you want to consider. Write them out:
- What are the key themes in your main passage?
- Consider your reader. What are some pain points he/she may be experiencing related to the key themes of your passage?
- What conclusions and applications are you hoping your reader will gain from this study?
Once you have given thoughtful consideration to the questions above, write out a few sentences that define the purpose of your study.
4. Plan the Sections of Your Bible Study
One you have mapped out the big idea, the next step is to plan out each individual section for your study. At this point, it would be good for you to consider how you want to divide your study into sections.
How may days will it take? How many weeks? How many days per week? This is a good time to consider and plan out these specific details.
Each section of your Bible study should focus on a specific passage or Biblical principle that relates to one of the main themes that you identified in your “big idea” step.
For each of these different sections, consider including the following componets:
- Other scriptures related to the main passage for the section
- Notes or commentaries that help explain the main idea of the section
- Questions that help your reader apply it to their lives (consider your reader pain points and/or the conclusions you want to lead them towards).
5. Write Your Bible Study
Here comes the fun part! Once you have the different sections of your study planned out you are now ready to start writing.
When I’m writing a study I like to start by writing out each section. Each section represents one day of study. You may rather plan your sections to cover a week. Thats totally up to you!
Move through each section you had planned out in step 4, and use good Bible study questions that help your reader engage with the scriptures and main concepts of each section.
After you have completed writing out the details for each section, go to the beginning and write out a welcome/intro paragraph. Also, make sure to add a section for acknowledgements where you can list any credits and resources you used in making the study.
If you would like to take a deeper dive into writing your own Bible studies, be sure to enroll in our free course below!
6. Prepare Your Bible Study for Delivery
You may think that completing the writing of your study is where this process ends.
Not quite.
Now that you have finished writing your study, it’s time to get it ready to deliver to the masses. Here are some more things to consider:
- The Design How does it look? What else can you do to make your Bible study more visually appealing? Place some graphics in the margins of the pages? Add a pretty cover or title page? Include some additional coloring pages or worksheets?
- The Promotion How are you going to let people know about your new study? You will definitely want to make some graphics and mockups that showcase the details and purpose of your study. You can share these on social media, pinterest, your website, and your email list.
- The Platform Once word gets out about your new, amazing study how are you going to deliver it? I keep all my files in Google Drive. It makes it really easy to create sharable links to deliver a pdf printable version of my studies.
Do you want to sell it? If you do, make sure you decide and set up your selling platform before you begin the promotion.
Additionally, delivering your Bible studies via different social media platforms as well as YouTube will enable to reach even more people than just with a print or printable version.
If you feel a deep calling to more than just writing your own studies, but to being a Bible study influence on social media, YouTube, and beyond, consider joining us in class! (See below:)
Writing a Bible study is something that many people feel called to do but just aren’t quite sure how to get started.
Anytime we move into a position of teaching God’s Word its good and right for us to go forward in reverence. We must approach this calling with humility and complete dependence on the Holy Spirit.
However, as the saying goes “He equips those He calls”. If God has called you to write a Bible study you can move forward with confident assurance that He will guide you through the process.
I hope and pray that these steps will help and encourage you to take a step out in obedience towards your calling.
