Getting Ready to Share from Scripture — Verlon Miller — Ep. 164

So today I'll be talking with, uh, a longtime pastor from my church about tips and thought processes for effective Bible study and teaching.

Verlin, um, you've obviously done most of your teaching as a pastor, um, but maybe first, uh, let's just think about a young person who's assigned to teach a Sunday school class or write a Bible school paper, just personal Bible study.

Um, what would be kind of your first line of advice for just approaching that well? Well, there are several things, I guess, that I think of. One of the things that just kind of as a, a baseline for any of that kind of study and presentation goes back to something an older pastor told me when I was first ordained, and he, I think at that point, he had been a pastor for about 40 years. And he said, "Verlin, keep your nose in the book." Can't replace just, just being there. Yeah. And, and so what that did for me, it was just remembering that, you know, in all of our study, you know, that really is our source.

That's, that's kind of the bedrock of where we come back to. And so we're gonna talk about other tools and thought processes, but remembering that is real important. And for me, the other thing that adds weight to that is just the whole thing of whenever I'm teaching or preaching, and this could go to anybody, even writing a paper, if we're, we are setting ourselves up to present truth, to represent the Lord and His word. And for me, that gets very weighty in that I recognize humanly I am capable of misleading, misinterpreting, misunderstanding things. And so I wanna be very careful in what I write or say because it, it does need to be consistent with scripture and reflective of what the Lord wants.

So I would just say those couple things without making it too heavy for people is, you know, let's keep our nose in the book and remember that's our bedrock and people's great stories and great ideas and, uh, they have their place, but they all come secondary to that foundation. Pull it back to the text, let the stories support that. Yep.

I take it you don't like illustrations in search of a passage. I have made that mistake. Yeah. I, uh, one sermon early on, I, and after I was ordained, I remember it was a, a really neat, catchy phrase that didn't come from scripture. And I built my sermon on that and it was a total flop. And it just, it, I don't think it fed the people well and I don't think it did service to, to what that time should have been. Yeah. Well, I mean, speaking of sermons, you know, so you've been a pastor for what, 20 plus years? Correct. And a lot of that time had a fairly heavy preaching load two or three times a month.

What'd you find most helpful, um, for, you know, getting started and sticking with it for the long haul as well? So are you thinking about resources in particular? Resources and then, you know, how do you approach it? Sure. I mean, you're preparing three sermons a month on with another full-time job. So. Yeah.

Well, first of all, that's just hard work and I don't know that's necessarily recommended in that format, but that is what happened for a time. Yeah. So just for me, you can't replace just time spent. And so that's kind of a, a foundational thing. If I, if I don't put the time into it in the study, it's just, it's not gonna go as well. The, the end result will not be as good. And one of the things I've found is that after years of studying, there are times when things come together much more quickly, but it's based on time previously invested.

And, and so I think that there's, and even in that, I think there's a caution of being careful to not shortcut. It still needs to be fresh. It still needs to be, uh, a current study and, and what's in my heart and mind and hearing from the Lord. So as, as far as tools early on, as this would've been a few years after personal computers were becoming more commonplace, but fairly on in early on that process, my wife gave a gift to me, which was a Bible study software. It was Logos.

And that's fairly simple. That version was quite simple compared to what they offer now, but I have maintained that and upgraded. Uh, I certainly don't have their largest library, but I have a, do have a base package. And that tool is excellent for a digital library and it integrates nicely. So I have enjoyed that. But one thing I found interesting, so that's kind of the complex one, uh, but another tool, a digital tool is Power Bible CD, very inexpensive and really intuitive to use. And I actually open it. I usually have it open before I have Logos open, uh, because a lot of my study, I wanna focus on text. I wanna, I wanna know that well.

Uh, in fact, one of the things I found is as I focus on text, uh, some of the, those passages almost become memorized. They're, I couldn't retain it long-term in memory, but in preparation for that presentation. Right. It's just sensitive. It's just there. And, and I know those, that wording that's there. So going back to the tool then, the reason I like Power Bible CD is 'cause it's so simple. And so a lot of what I will do initially for my notes is just copying and pasting text and examining what it says and rearranging it in my word processor. And so it, it's very easy to do it. You can do that from Logos. It's just, that's a little bigger program and this other one's just fast.

It's right there. Yeah. I do like that tool. One other tool I have found really helpful is the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. And that is not only in one software. It's broadly available and I think even available in print, although I've never had a print copy. Okay. Yeah. I've seen it, but I'm never figured out exactly what it is. It's one of the, describe it a bit. Well, it's one of the most comprehensive cross-references that I've seen. Okay. And so it, that's the reason that I like it is 'cause if I wanna see a, a broader scale of cross-references, that's where I'll go. The, a lot of what's in our Bibles, uh, it's, they're more limited and some of them are pretty good.

It's, I'm not faulting them. I'm just saying this is a more comprehensive one that I have really liked. As far as, uh, it, you know, in the realm of commentaries or other Bible study helps, those actually come on down the list a little further for me. And so first it would be straight scripture text, and then it would be cross-references, which take you to more text. And from there I branch out to some other things. Yeah. You mentioned digital tools to be able to copy and paste. So what do you, what do you do with it once it's on your clipboard? It goes to my, I use Microsoft Word, but any, any, uh, functional text creating document would work.

Uh, so what I do there is I, I frequently will have the text at the top and I will begin breaking it down, making an outline out of the text. That will probably include some word definitions or phrase understanding or contextual things that are helpful. And, and to get that, of course, you have to study in other places. Uh, but you begin pulling that in, but, but I really start with an outline and I wanna end up with what are the primary, looking at what are the primary things this text is saying. So I have done topical studies as well, and that's a little different. Mm-hmm. But it, I think you can do the same thing if you do it well.

Uh, if we go to the text of scripture, looking to justify a particular topic or an end notion, it's really the wrong approach. We, we need to let scripture inform us. And so even if it's topical, we look for the scripture text and then ask the question, what does the text have to say about this topic? Rather than just building it a strictly topical thing, uh, we have topics we teach here at the church regularly, but that's what I try to do within those is I try to not minimize the textual portion of that. That, that has to be once again, kind of the core of what we come back to in informing how we think and, and how we live.

Yeah. And what strikes me is the, the better base you have of having studied as a passage to teach a passage, the more you have to draw from when you come to a topical. Oh, absolutely. Certainly. Yeah. At least have the ability to find. Yes. Have the right passage in mind and hopefully have studied it before. Yeah.

Yeah. Very true. Yeah. So you already mentioned the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, some of these technical tools. Um, do you have any other favorite resources or places you'd go to? You said commentaries are further down the list, but you use a few of them as you mentioned. Oh, I used, they're not real far down the list, but as far as, you know, what I would, as far as resources, they would be probably about third or fourth. When I look at a commentary, one of the things that I, I view them, if a commentary is well done, it's probably done by someone who has studied much more than me and has a, a broader perspective of, of knowledge, uh, and just scripture based than what I do.

And so I value that input, uh, because it's coming from their, uh, wealth of time and, and knowledge that, or study time that they've put in. So I think that's helpful, but then I have to remember, but they were men. Mm-hmm. They didn't write scripture. They're telling us their best understanding. And so even when a commentary says it, I take it with a grain of salt. I don't discount it. I just take it with a grain of salt, knowing that it is not scripture. It is an understanding of scripture. So when you look for commentaries like that, do you try to find stuff from a, you know, some more theological framework, find an Anabaptist author or find somebody that's Arminian rather than Calvinist or something like that?

Or do you just look for good scholars and sort the, sort the doctrine out afterwards? Probably more of the latter there, looking for good scholars, reputable commentaries rather than it having to match a particular frame of reference. Somebody said something one time, uh, it was another advisor or a mentor to me as a pastor. And he just said, you know, on any given topic where there's varied perspectives, the closer you stick to scripture, the nearer those two perspectives come together. And what happens when we go to these sometimes polar opposite is we are pulling things in that go beyond just the text of scripture. I'm sure this is not always true, but, uh, I'll just, you know, you mentioned the Calvinism, Arminianism thing.

There are elements of what John Calvin said that are very true that Arminians would not, they would not disagree with portions of that. But taken to, uh, further places, that, that becomes problematic. And I think the same could be said on the Arminian side as well. The further that would go and extrapolated further out, that would become problematic for many of us. So I think once again, that approach of the scripture is the core and we come back to that. So I observe that truth can be represented by, uh, people of ill character. It doesn't change the truth. It may make it harder to receive, but not just poor character, but maybe someone who thinks wrongly, believes wrongly.

If there's something that they say that's true, it's just true. The truth is not dependent on the messenger. So in other words, I can't just find the right commentary and get a shortcut. Uh, not in my opinion. No, I don't think we can. Uh, I have, uh, actually set out to write a commentary on a small scale on one small epistle. In fact, I did it just for me. Mm-hmm. But the process was very helpful in having to dive deep into study. And when I think about that, I, I really don't want that published. That's, that was not my intention of doing it. And maybe these other commentators did want theirs published. They were studying with that in mind.

I don't even know that. But when I think about it, that they were men doing the same kind of thing I was doing, they were digging, they were trying to figure out what is it saying and what does it mean? For me, that's just helpful in understanding that, yeah, there's no cookie cutter that's just gonna fit right in here.

It's all served up for you. Everything's explained. For the person who's studying and writing, yeah, I, I really wanna bless them in that, in, in that work. We need that. And you'd ask the question about commentaries, would you go to, can you just find one that fits the right theological mold and we just use that? And, and what I would just say is that we need people who write and teach biblically accurate content. And so for anybody who's out there that's engaged in that, whether it's on a Sunday school level, doing a topic for your church, teaching Bible school or preaching or whatever it is, wherever we encounter that opportunity, that is a very worthwhile work.

And it is work, but it's very worthwhile and it should, we should give time to that. Don't have the idea that you can wait till the last minute and throw something together, get something together and then get up and let your gift of gab take you through it. You know, that's, that's not fair to scripture. It's not fair to the Lord when he's given us his word to study. We should be diligent in that. Yeah. So maybe one last topic here. Various times I remember you bringing in quotes, uh, from early Christian writers, you know, the first few hundred years of the church, or maybe some places a little bit of a summary of their views or whatever.

Um, you talk about that a little bit. Where do you go to find that, um, information? On the other hand, do you have like, you know, maybe either tips or kind of cautions or warnings about how not to misuse that? So David Bursot, who's probably a lot of our audience is familiar with them in his book, Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. That's very helpful because it's a topical index of many, many things that are in the Antonicene writings. So that's a very easy place to go rather than trying to page through however many volumes and trying to find, uh, topics. So I think it's helpful. I use that. And the reason I use it is because those were the people closest to the early days of Christianity.

And while certainly they were imperfect, and if you think about even from the early scripture, New Testament scripture writings being in, you know, within the 20, 30 years of Jesus living, going on through the end of the first century, and then we go into some of the extra biblical writings that happened after that. You know, if you think about the amount of change that can happen in two or three hundred years, it, it is significant. And that's the timespan those writings cover. So I view them as being descriptive of at least what that author believed, what his little part of the world believed, and how they were practicing. It may or may not represent a larger picture.

If you take it as a whole and you compare what different ones were saying from a particular era, you probably get a more solid picture of, of here's how they were practicing. So for me, that's helpful because for us, nearly 2000 years later, you know, we've had so much more opportunity for change and other influence and just the, the loss of continuity. So I think it's helpful from that perspective, seeing how the early church or the earlier churches practiced and thought. Uh, and having said that, you know, it's not scripture, but when I read some of the things that they did and said and the way they thought, it's like, uh, we have much to learn, uh, in, in the kind of zeal and just our approach to what Christianity, what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus.

So I think that informs our teaching because teaching is not only telling you what scripture says or writing is not only saying what scripture says, it should affect life and heart and the way we live that out. Partly you're saying it's almost an example of Christian living as much as it is theology or doctrine for you. Well, it, it is that, but it also explains theology and doctrine. I mean, it, it, it does both. Yeah. I, I was focusing there on the, the application side, but it has to be both. Yeah. And I really like your point too about, you know, okay, this is one author writing. You can compare and find other authors, um, make a difference between what, you know, everybody in the early church says and what one author says.

The one really to me humorous example is sometimes you'll see quotes, um, floating around, you know, this is what the early church had to say about beards or whatever. Well, I went digging a little bit. It's not the early church saying this. It's Clement of Alexandria, one figure.

He says all these things. Yeah. Doesn't make them less interesting, but obviously makes them less weighty. Yeah. Well, hey, this has been fun, good conversation. So, and hopefully some of our audience members will find tips here and inspiration to make the scripture, uh, their own. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you for joining us for this episode. And thanks to our donors and partners for making this possible. For more episodes, please subscribe or visit our website at anabaptistperspectives.org. You can also leave a comment or review to help more people find our content.