A Season of Providing Teaching Helps is Coming to an End this Week

After serving at Lifeway for 13 years, I moved back to serving on a local church staff in 2012.  During those 13 years I had made notes of things I would do differently as a minister if I were to make this transition. One of those changes focused on helping Sunday School/Group leaders learn how to customize their teaching plans. My goal was to demonstrate how I assimilate personal Bible study, the resources provided by Lifeway, the context of current events, and the needs of my group into a customized plan. Because I teach a group each week, I began sharing my finished teaching plans with my church group leaders every week via a blog post.

Over the years, other church leaders asked if I could share this finished plan with their leaders. Individual group leaders also asked to be added to a list so they could receive the helps as well. This had grown to the point that delivery via a public blog was the best approach to sharing this information.  Again, the goal was to help leaders learn the art of customizing their plans in their context.

After some discussions with Lifeway, I feel it is time to discontinue this practice via my website  and email effective this week.

It's my prayer, if you use Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum, that you will continue to customize your plans each week based on your study of God's Word, Lifeway's helps, and the context of your group. To those who have discovered the Explore the Bible curriculum through this regular post, I hope you will explore the use of that curriculum further. As always, I am available to train group leaders if you need that ministry in your church.

If you should have questions regarding Lifeway curriculum please contact Dwayne McCrary at dwayne.mccrary@lifeway.com.

Thanks again for all your words of encouragement, support, and other kind words over these past years. 

My prayer for you can't be stated any better than Paul's words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-17:

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

With that said, below are the downloadable teaching helps focused on Mark 15:21-39 where the gospel story finally reaches its climax as the perfect Son of God gives Himself as a final sacrifice to pay the penalty for man’s sins. He bridges the gap for those who willingly respond to His invitation to follow Him! Let’s rejoice for the gift Jesus gave as we observe the sacrifice Jesus made for us!

Downloadable Teaching Helps

These helps include additional ideas and my plan I use to teach my Bible study group.

Download PDF Version

Download Word Version

LifeWay Explore The Bible Resources

These teaching helps are intended to be used as a supplement to your study of Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum resources. Portions of this material are taken directly from content copyrighted to Lifeway Christian Resources Explore the Bible and is used with permission.  This material has not been reviewed by Lifeway Christian Resources. 

What are you doing to prepare for everything that takes place during the Christmas season? While we are busy preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ, we should not forget the actions Jesus willingly took to prepare for what He was about to face in the last days and hours prior to His death. Some of those actions are examined in Mark 14:3-42.

Jesus knows what lies ahead, but He still has to prepare for what He is about to face. Mark 14:3-42 reminds us that Jesus willingly and intentionally prepared to pay the price for our sin. In the days leading up to His sacrifice, He prepared by allowing others to “pour into His life” and He spent an agonizing time in prayer in order to gain strength for what He was about to face.

We should learn from His experience about the high price Jesus paid for our sins. We should also understand how important it is for us to willingly and intentionally prepare to live for Jesus daily.

Downloadable Teaching Helps

These helps include additional ideas and my plan I use to teach my Bible study group.

Download PDF Version

Download Word Version

LifeWay Explore The Bible Resources

These teaching helps are intended to be used as a supplement to your study of Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum resources. Portions of this material are taken directly from content copyrighted to Lifeway Christian Resources Explore the Bible and is used with permission.  This material has not been reviewed by Lifeway Christian Resources. 

Have the current world events caused you to be more patient or less patient regarding Jesus’s promise to come again to gather believers unto Himself? What kind of questions regarding Jesus’s return have the current world events caused you to ask? The Explore the Bible Study: Returning will examine the lessons Jesus teaches that will help you deal with these questions with hope and faith.

Throughout history, when moral depravity is rampant, disasters strike, persecution is prevalent, or world conflict seems imminent it should cause believers to pause and consider if this might be the time when Jesus would return as He promised. Our current world circumstances are certainly one of those times as we observe the events unfolding in the Middle East and around the world.

Jesus promised His disciples that He would return again to gather His believers unto Himself. For over 2000 years, believers have been waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. Sometimes believers have waited patiently and at times impatiently. Some have questioned whether Jesus was telling the truth or wonder if He has taken back that promise. No matter the case, our circumstances can impact our faith, mind, and emotions as we wait for Jesus’s promised return.

As you live your life this week, remember the promises throughout the Scripture regarding Jesus’ return. Hopefully this passage from 1 Thessalonians will be an encouragement as you become more alert and watch for Jesus’ return:

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18)

Downloadable Teaching Helps

Includes additional ideas and my plan I use to teach my Bible study group.

Download PDF Version

Download Word Version

LifeWay Explore The Bible Resources

These teaching helps are intended to be used as a supplement to your study of Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum resources. Portions of this material are taken directly from content copyrighted to Lifeway Christian Resources Explore the Bible and is used with permission.  This material has not been reviewed by Lifeway Christian Resources. 

Why do people pray? What do they expect when they pray? When people pray, do they consider the condition of their own hearts or only what they desire to get from God? These questions will be addressed in the Explore the Bible Study: Clears.

Prayer is the one event that takes us into the very presence of God. Yet, praying can become a routine or a ritual. People often say things like, “I’m praying for you” in order to comfort someone, yet forget to pray for that person. We might publicly say that someone facing a tragedy is “in our thoughts and prayers.” In light of world events, we see social media posts encouraging everyone to pray.

Yet prayer is more than asking God to change our circumstances or meet someone’s needs. Prayer should lead us examine our own lives as we approach God with our requests. It’s through our prayers that we should realize our own shortcomings and sins. It’s through prayer that we should seek to remove any obstacles that might cause us to approach prayer with Holy God in a manner that is careless, arrogant, or selfish. 

Prayer must be for the right reasons and for the right motives and with the desire to completely leave the answer in God’s hands. This is the kind of faith one must learn to have when praying to God. If prayer is used to exploit others, for selfish gain, or with arrogant motives or harbored anger, then prayers will not reach the throne room of God. When prayers are lifted as we knowingly harbor unconfessed resentment or other sin in our lives, then we should not expect God to respond.

To pray effectively, one needs faith in God, not faith in the object of one’s request or the goal one wishes to achieve.

Jesus gave us an example as He was facing that grueling day on the cross. While in the garden He prayed, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36). May this be our prayer.

Downloadable Teaching Helps

Includes additional ideas and my plan I use to teach my Bible study group.

Download PDF Version

Download Word Version

LifeWay Explore The Bible Resources

These teaching helps are intended to be used as a supplement to your study of Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum resources. Portions of this material are taken directly from content copyrighted to Lifeway Christian Resources Explore the Bible and is used with permission.  This material has not been reviewed by Lifeway Christian Resources. 

Do you see people trying to build their reputation with the boss, with hopes of getting a promotion or becoming one of his/her main leaders? How do others view the person who does this? When individuals act like this, do you feel that serving others, or the company is their primary motivation? We see two brothers who tried to "get ahead" in the Explore the Bible Study: Serves. Jesus is quick to teach a lesson they or we should never forget.

Mark reveals in chapter 10 the motives of two brothers regarding the position they desired in Jesus’s kingdom.  These brothers were among the twelve Jesus chose to be His apostles in Mark 3. Jesus described them as the “Sons of Thunder” in Mark 3:17. While we don’t know specifically why Jesus called them the Sons of Thunder, we see in them two powerful personalities who Jesus would disciple and who would become strong leaders in the early church. 

But at this moment in their lives, they had a lot to learn regarding what it means to be a leader in the kingdom of God. Serving Jesus and others is the position one should seek in the kingdom of God. There is no place for position or power seeking as one follows Jesus.

The lesson James and John are about to learn comes as they are making their way to Jerusalem for Jesus’s final days.

Mark 9:30 tells us that the disciples and Jesus “left that place and made their way through Galilee.” Upon arriving in Capernaum another debate arose among the disciples regarding who was the greatest (Mark 9:33). The lesson Jesus teaches the disciples on this occasion regarding greatness is a prelude to the lesson He will teach James and John in Mark 10.

The lessons in Capernaum continued as Jesus and the disciples journeyed through “the region of Judea and across the Jordan” (Mark 10:1). Throughout this journey that would eventually take them to Jerusalem for Jesus’s final days, the lessons continued as the disciples were taught various issues by Jesus including blessing the children, schooling the rich young ruler, and the lessons the disciples were to learn regarding the impossibility for anyone to enter the kingdom of God.

Mark 10:32-45 brings us to Jesus’s third prediction of His death and the lesson James and John were going to learn regarding position and power. Jesus begins the lesson with His own story of what will take place. Jesus, as servant, was going to be a suffering servant as Isaiah described in Isaiah 53.

Downloadable Teaching Helps

Includes additional ideas and my plan I use to teach my Bible study group.

Download PDF Version

Download Word Version

LifeWay Explore The Bible Resources

These teaching helps are intended to be used as a supplement to your study of Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum resources. Portions of this material are taken directly from content copyrighted to Lifeway Christian Resources Explore the Bible and is used with permission.  This material has not been reviewed by Lifeway Christian Resources.