I find that the church can be a lot like a popular gym. If you were to walk into a gym on any given day, you would find several people running on a treadmill at a decent pace. If you leave and come back several months later, you will see those same people still running on the treadmill but they look no different compared to the last time you saw them. Not only have they not improved, but by definition of running on a treadmill, they have gotten nowhere.
What is sadder is that many people repeat this same behavior with their religion. They jog on the treadmill of study but never actually improve themselves. If you find yourself in a similar boat, try these tips to increase the effectiveness of your study sessions.
I – Have a Specific Goal for The Study
You are not doing yourself any favors by having vague goals that are somewhere out there in the clouds. You need to clarify your goals and set up parameters for success and failure. Without a specific goal, you are like a sailor without a harbor to sail towards. So you simply float on the ocean, tossed wherever the winds will take you.
So decide exactly what it is you want. Do you want more general Bible knowledge? Do you want to understand more of the Historical context of what you are reading? Maybe you want actionable steps or strategies for your life. whatever it is, if you do not have a goal to find something, you will find nothing.
II – Do not just Cover Ground (The Treadmill Trick)
The main problem with the treadmill people is that their only goal is to cover ground. That is fine and dandy, but it does not provide a clear “finish line” for you. People who get on a treadmill start and stop at exactly the same place. You must have a finish line to run towards, some destination in your mind, otherwise, you are just grinding your gears.
Many people make the January mistake of saying, “This year I will read my entire Bible“. While that is a noble goal, the purpose of it is to cover ground. When the goal becomes to put miles under your feet, the quality of your effort will be decreased. Instead of being focused and present in the study session, your mind may wander and your focus will be lost. This is because the goal is not to learn, but simply to read. While you may gain some knowledge passively by reading, your gains will not make you happy. You will forever make mediocre gains in your biblical knowledge with passive study methods.
Instead of just trying to cover ground, give yourself some kind of evaluation to test your knowledge. Which is the next tip!
III – Evaluate Yourself with Tests
While I tend to be a fierce critic of the school system and of standardized tests, the idea of testing is an excellent learning tool. Though not always a metric of a person’s IQ or comprehensive understanding of a subject, it is a good measurement of how much stuff they have managed to remember.
Before you start a study, do a broad overview of the section of reading, write down a few questions from the next and test yourself on them in 3-7 days. Or you can go online and find test questions about the part of the Bible you want to study. Then you can do your own study, take the online test, and see how your knowledge stacks up to the questions someone else has presented.
By testing yourself, you are forcing your brain to recall information. It is this difficult task of recalling info that forcing your mind into greater growth and knowledge gain. Self-quizzing allows you to gain knowledge much more rapidly than you have before. We will talk about recall next.
IV – Actively Recall the Previous Day’s Work
Once you finish your reading for the day, close your text, shut your eyes and actively remember everything you can about whatever you just read. You can also do this by taking a blank piece of paper and writing down everything you can remember from the text. By pulling these facts out of your mind you engrain them deeper into your knowledge base and increase the likelihood that they will be stored in your long-term memory.
This is even more potent if you repeat it the next day. Take another blank paper and try to recreate the previous day’s notes and reading from memory. These exercises are difficult but provide a much higher return on investment for the effort.
V – Shorten Your Study Volume
Many people take on far too much reading volume, especially if they are starting one of those “Read your Bible in a Year” programs. By volume I mean the amount of reading they try to get done in a day. Most of those yearly programs require people to read 4 chapters of the Bible per day. While that is not an insane amount of volume, it is very heavy for a person who was previously reading zero verses. Especially considering those programs have you start in the Old Testament where chapters can be 60+ verses long on occasion.
It would be better to reduce the volume of reading and incorporate the active reading techniques outlined above. You will have much better results from studying one chapter, performing the active recall and self-testing exercises than you will from straining to read a massive volume of the Bible in one sitting.
VI – Increase Your Study Intensity
Just because you are reducing your training volume does not mean you are off the hook! You do not get to frolic around the daisies like a progressive and expect to make gains. You still have to give some form of an intense effort if you want to see any results. Just like training the physical body in the gym, if you want results, there must be a degree of intensity that is sufficient enough to overload your body systems. It is not enough to do a small amount of volume if you are not being intense with your focus and active recall.
Instead of passively and mindlessly reading Psalms for the 80th time, muster as much focus as you can and aim it at your reading for the day. Make your intensity like that of a laser beam. Focus on reading short passages and then asking yourself questions about them:
- What does this mean?
- Exactly what is the context?
- What is the historical significance of this?
- What are the cultural norms at this time?
- How does this story fit into the big picture?
- How would I explain this concept to a 5-year-old?
By asking yourself questions and focusing, you keep the studying intensity high which will result in more knowledge gains.
VII – Incorporate Memory Work
No training plan is complete without some level of memory work. For this, I always recommend the old-fashioned method of writing verses on index cards. The most noticeable gains in Bible knowledge will likely come as a result of your memory work. By memorizing large portions of scripture you make yourself more dangerous in an argument. The man whose sword is shaper is more dangerous in battle. You now place yourself in a position of strength to strike your foes.
Start with the Aggressive Verse Study
Memorization is best done by starting with a few repetitions of the verse, and then seeing how much you can remember without looking at the index card. Try to repeat the whole verse without looking.
Try to create a mental picture of what is going on in the passage you are memorizing. This mental movie should be as realistic and memorable as possible so you can recall the verse later.
VIII – Long-Term Goals
While the “Read the Bible in a year” plans are noble, they are very common and do not really inspire people because they are not personal enough. I know this because the majority of new Bible readers will quit this plan as soon as they get to Leviticus. Instead of taking on the same goal as everyone else, create your own long-term goal for Bible reading.
Maybe your goal is to become an expert in the book of James in one month. That is a very reasonable goal that would allow you to be very intense and focused without mindlessly following the crowd. By making your own goals you will have a greater connection to them, they will mean more to you and you can stay focused and motivated for longer.
IX – Day-To-Day Goals
It’s not enough to just be the person who reads a certain amount of Bible in a year, you need to have some kind of day-to-day goals. You need to be the type of person who studies the Bible each day. When your long-term goals seem lofty and far off, just focus on the short-term goals that you can accomplish today.
Did you read the amount of Bible that you decided on personally? Did you engage your mind in active learning with recall and self-testing? Can you look at what you accomplished for the day and check it off as a solid day’s work? It does not have to be a massive amount of work, just a small amount of discipline that is done every day.
Final Thoughts
These tactics should help you greatly in gaining more knowledge than you have gained before. 95% of people study passively 95% of the time. By simply becoming active in the study process, you set yourself apart from the masses and will make massive knowledge gains. Active learning is the key to success.
Do you have any tactics you like to use in your study? Leave them in a comment below!
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