How to Start & Host a Bible Study
Do you feel called to start a Bible study? Gathering with other believers to study God’s Word is one of the most meaningful ways to grow in faith and build community. The Bible encourages you to walk alongside others, encourage others, and grow with others as followers of Christ. Starting a Bible study might feel intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to have all the answers or be a Bible expert to begin. All it takes is a willing heart and a desire to bring people together around God’s Word. Use the steps below as a simple guide to help you start a Bible study and create a space where people can learn, share, pray, and grow together in their faith.
Steps to Start a Bible Study Group:
Pray: Thank God for your desire to gather with other believers and study God’s Word. Ask Him to lead and guide you.
Invite people: Ask God who you should invite to participate in the Bible study with you. You could have the group be all women. Or you could have it be a couples Bible study. Or you could have a mix. Ask God who He wants you to reach out to and include.
Pick a day/time: Once you have the group of people gathered, think about the best day of the week and time for the Bible study to happen. Having it with some regularity is a good idea. My husband and I helped start a young couples Bible study. Since everyone has different work schedules during the week, we picked Sundays instead. Also, everyone gets up super early for work, so we moved the time to 4 pm to be early enough for there to not be a dinner needed and people can leave early enough to get to bed on time.
Pick a location: I highly recommend meeting in homes/apartments. There is something so cozy and nice about opening your home and gathering in homes. In college we gathered in my tiny apartment. You could also gather at your local church. There are several Bible study groups at my church that use the actual church building to meet. Either on Sundays or even during the week. You could also meet somewhere else like a coffee shop or a park.
Pick what you’re going to study: I love reading through specific books of the Bible. You could also pick a theme to study instead, but I really love diving into a particular book. The book of John or Matthew are two great places to start. I have read through both of those with the youth group I used to lead. The couples Bible study Juan and I are in right now decided they wanted to start from the beginning, so we are reading through Genesis.
Steps to Leading the Bible Study time:
I have led many Bible study times throughout my life. I used to lead youth Bible study. I have also led children’s ministry Bible times. I also studied to be a teacher in college. Here’s how I love to structure Bible study times. This structure makes it super easy and approachable for everyone to host.
Question of the day: I love opening Bible study time with some sort of intro activity. It can be connected to what you are going to read that day, or it can be connected to the season, or a generic question.
Connected to you Bible study theme/story: For example, if you’re going to read about Noah and the ark, you could ask people what their favorite animal is. If you’re reading about King David on the run from Saul, you could ask people if they played hide and seek when they were a child and if they had any memories of that. If you’re reading about Ruth & Naomi, you could ask if people have any stories about moving to a new place. If you’re reading about Jesus feeding the 5000 you could ask if anyone has made bread before, or what people’s favorite type of bread is.
Connected to the season: During Christmas you could ask people their favorite Christmas gift they have ever given or received. During January you could ask what their favorite thing God did in the previous year was. During February you could ask about things people love to do or people they love or activities they love to connect with Valentine’s Day.
Generic question of the day: This could be as simple as what was a high and a low from your week. Or what was your favorite dinner you ate. Or what was a hard moment from the week, or something God taught you during church that Sunday.
2. Pray: Always start with time in God’s Word with prayer. Don’t be afraid to pray out loud in front of others. Even something simple like this is great: “Heavenly Father, please be with us today as we open Your Word. Lead and guide us in what You want us to learn. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
3. Read Scripture: It’s a great idea to read at least one chapter of the Bible out loud together. You can also have the YouVersion Bible app read the chapter out loud to you, too. You could have the group take turns reading out loud. Be sure to be sensitive to any learning disabilities people have like dyslexia. Make sure people feel comfortable reading out loud before calling on someone to ask them to read out loud.
Discuss: Someone I know told me a story about when they went to a Bible study once. They were “called on” to answer a question, and they got it “wrong.” For YEARS that person did not go back to another Bible study out of shame and embarrassment. I encourage you to ask open ended questions where there is no right or wrong answer. Instead of calling on people, give space for people to feel comfortable enough to answer on their own. Here are my favorite discussion questions.
What were your favorite Bible verses from this passage? What Bible verses jumped out at you?
What did this passage teach you about God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit? Finish the sentence, “God is…”
How will you apply this passage to your life? Finish the sentence, “I will…” based off what you read.
Where do you see Jesus in this passage?
5. Additional resources - Commentaries: I love reading the Enduring Word commentary. You could find a few quotes from this online resource to read. I also highly encourage you to use a study Bible. I LOVE the NLT Illustrated Study Bible. It has great maps and visuals and articles that are great to read as you study the Bible. I also love the ESV Journaling Study Bible. That resource also has great study notes and book introductions.
6. Additional resources - Videos: The Bible Project has great videos on YouTube that go along with each book of the Bible. These are great to watch as you are starting a new book of the Bible. I also discovered The Spoken Gospel. They have short videos on many books of the Bible. Timothy Keller also has some great videos on books of the Bible. His YouTube channel is called “Gospel in Life.”
7. Prayer requests: It’s a great idea to ask for prayer requests from group members as the time ends. Write them down and then pray over them. You could hand the list to someone to pray over. You could also go in a circle and have everyone say something out loud in prayer, even if it is just one short sentence to get people comfortable with praying out loud.
Additional notes:
Don’t wait for perfection. It can be easy to think “my apartment is too small.” Or “my house is too dirty.” The devil wants to stop you from gathering with other believers. Push away the excuses and just say yes!
It’s nice to have something for people to snack on or drink. In college I always made a roll of premade cookie dough for girls in my sorority. This was something so simple, but it was a way to gather and share food. It was something they all looked forward to as we read the Bible together. Now, I often grab water bottles from Costco and chips and salsa. Or cheese sticks. Even the break apart sugar cookie dough makes for an easy snack. It does not have to be Pinterest perfect. It is about gathering and sharing.
