Back in my single days, I taught a single adult Bible study class made up of men and women of all ages that enjoyed digging into and discussing Scripture with me every week. I learned a lot about leading a small group Bible study and shared some of what I learned via a blog I created dedicated to the subject. This post is a refresh of a post that appeared on that blog.
I’m not a witty person. I’m amazed by people that say the right thing at the right time, spur of the moment. And by people that have a quick comeback. Why can’t I be that person, instead of the person that sits with a dumb smile on her face when a quick comeback is deserved by the other party?
But let’s not get side-tracked by my lack of social skills. What I’m trying to convey here is that my lack of wit became a handicap as I tried to come up with clever titles for my Bible study lessons each week. I would wrack my brain to come up with something cute and funny that would grab the attention of the group members. I usually wasn’t successful.
One day I had an epiphany. I noticed that a popular speaker gave simple names to many of her messages. The names conveyed exactly the topic of the message. Nothing clever. Just on target.
That I can do! I decided to name my lessons with one word or a simple phrase that summarized the major points of the lesson.
Simple titles had three benefits:
- Simple lesson titles made me a better teacher. A simple lesson title taught me to focus on one main topic that I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to cover in that particular passage of Scripture. Lesson preparation became much more focused as this forced me to cover only major points that supported that topic.
- Class members had a topic to focus on. They left each class with one word or phrase ringing in their ears that summarized most of what we discussed. We won’t remember every word that was spoken during a lesson, but we can remember a simple phrase that helps us recall some of the major points.
- My angst over lesson titles disappeared. And I wasted less time.
A good example is worth a thousand words, so I’ll share with you five titles that I used as I taught through the gospel of Matthew:
- Fear, Doubt, & Courage (Matthew 14:22-36)
- How to Recognize a Good Christian Leader (Matthew 20:20-28)
- Devoting Time to God (Matthew 15:29-39)
- Learn How to Worship (Matthew 21:12-17)
- Fearless Devotion (Matthew 10:24-39)
How do you come up with lesson titles?
