How to prepare a passage for teaching
{in just 10 steps}
I spent 10 months in the teaching program of my Chicago church: One fairly intense afternoon a week we’d take it in turns to prepare a passage and then have it critiqued by the pastors and other students. Here I’ve compiled all the helpful hints and questions you can ask yourself to get to know a passage well enough to teach.
If you’d like a more in depth version of this check out David Helm’s Expositional Preaching: it’s the text our course used as a framework.
10 Steps to Prepare a Passage
Let’s be honest – I’m disorganised: rarely do I leave myself enough time to do this as thoroughly as I’d like. Fortunately our limited understanding and preparation never stop God’s Spirit from working through us. Here are my ten steps for preparation and the questions to ask myself or things to think about for each one.
1. Pray
Because there is no way you can do all of this well in your own strength.
2. Read
Definitely the passage; and, if you can, the whole book.*
3. Look for Context
Literary context: What has just happened? What happens right after?
Historical context: Who would have read this first, what was their situation? Who wrote it and why?
Biblical context: Where does this fit into the unified storyline of the Bible?
– What effect does the context have on the text?
– What is unigue about this text?
4. Look at the Structure
Is it narrative? Discourse? Poetry?
Highlight the people; places; conjuctions; repeated phrases/words – what pops? what groupings show up?
What is the tone? What is the climax?
Are there any time/age references?
What is the plot?
5. If you haven’t got the point of the passage yet then wait, pray, let it marinade, read or listen to what others have said.*
6. Author’s Aim
Use specific words/ideas identified in the structure to describe this.
What is the effect on the original audience? How should they respond?
Why did the author record this section/story/detail in the Bible? What is the emotional weight for the first readers?
7. Connect it to the Gospel
What is the strongest way to Jesus?
– Find a theme
– How does it fit into the Bible’s storyline?
– Where else does this happen? (Is there a proto-Jesus or a foil to Jesus?)
– Who references this?
– How does knowing about Jesus shed a light on this text?
What was used in teaching the last section? What’s a good fit for the next passage?
You don’t have to jump straight to Jesus: is there an OT stepping stone?
8. Apply it to your lives
Relate this to the Author’s Aim
Simplify: What is the 1 thing you want them to go away with?
Who is my audience?
9. Work out how to teach it
The structure of the text informs the structure of your teaching
Include the application where it is clearest
– Imperative: “We should…”
– Question: to make them think
– Aim at audience subgroups
– Answer an objection
Illustrations can be…
… Kitchen sink (home and family)
… Cultural (entertaiment/news)
… Intellectual (art/history/science)
10. Pray
Because there is no way you can do all of this well in your own strength.
*You have time for this because you’re definitely not doing this the morning of with no time to spare!