Global Theological Education Network (GTEN)

Course Handbook

LEARNING THE BIBLE (PART 1)

The Big Story

BACHELOR OF MINISTRY IN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

(BMin in Christian Ministry)
Year 1, Course no. 2

Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story 1

LEARNING THE BIBLE, PART 1: THE BIG STORY

PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO “LEARNING THE

BIBLE, PART 1: THE BIG STORY” COURSE
“Learning the Bible” is the Bible Study segment of the BMin in Christian Ministry. Over
three years, students will have the opportunity to study God’s word over six courses:

Learning the Bible — Part 1: The Big Story

Learning the Bible — Part 2: Bible Stories for Discipleship Formation
Learning the Bible — Part 3: Old Testament Passages
Learning the Bible — Part 4: New Testament Passages
Learning the Bible — Part 5: Book Study (Acts)
Learning the Bible — Part 6: Book Study (Pastoral Letters)

This Handbook is the first of the Learning the Bible series: “The Big Story.” This course
looks at the Bible as one big story that has several elements that work together. In the Old
Testament, especially the story of how God deals with the people of Israel leads us to Jesus.
Then in the New Testament we see how the early disciples of Jesus reflected upon and
applied who Jesus was and what Jesus taught, through the Holy Spirit for the Church.
Through it all we see how the Bible has a gospel structure that binds the entire story together,
from creation to new creation. In this gospel structure, we see how God is holy (good), just,
love, and helper.

The first part of this Handbook offers an overview of the course, including course description
and outline.

The second part of this Handbook are the teaching tools, that offer classroom and out-of-
classroom notes for all six units of the course. This will include class activities, teaching
notes, discussion questions, mentoring suggestions, and ministry application suggestions.

The third part of this Handbook is a Study and Teaching Guide for teachers, to help them to
prepare to using appropriate reading and teaching suggestions. The Study Guide helps
teachers understand why this specific content is included, before they start teaching.

COURSE OVERVIEW
Course Title: Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story
Course Number: 1-02 (Year #1, Course #02)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to the big story of the Bible, especially within a Gospel
structure. We will see how the story of the Bible begins with God’s plan for the world, the
consequences of human sin, an initial focus on the people of Israel, the coming of salvation

Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story 2

through Jesus, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the formation and growth of the Church, and
finally the promise of Jesus’ return.

COURSE OUTCOMES
Like all the courses of this programme, our intention is to see three kinds of outcomes
through this course.

Teacher’s note: You have already seen this integrated intention in the Shikshak manual,
clarifying our biblical basis of head, heart and hands.

Head/Understanding (In Hindi: soch vichar, samhaj): We want students to learn the big
story of the Bible. This means that we want students to have a sense of the entire God’s word,
not just some parts. Also, it means that students get a sense of God’s purpose of the whole
scripture, not just the meanings of some verses or ideas. We find that with this big picture, the
Bible will start making more sense to old and new followers of Jesus.

Heart/Experience (In Hindi: ehsaas, pavitr jeevan): We also want students to draw closer
to God through His word, so that they will be able to have a deeper appreciation of God’s
special plan and purpose in their life. We also want our students to fall more deeply in love
with God and His word. We want the students to spend more time reading and listening to the
scriptures.

Hands/Practice (In Hindi: seva karya, abhyaas): Finally, we want students to gain ministry
skills so that they can help apply the big story in the lives of other disciples. In particular, we
want our students to communicate God’s word in terms of its story, rather than as an abstract
idea, so that others can know who God is and relate to God’s plan.

The particular course skills include:

- To become more skilled in the way we accurately read and communicate the Bible.
- Be able to identify what is important in the Bible, especially to understand and
communicate the Gospel.
- Be able to tell the whole story of the Bible, including from creation to new creation.
- Be able to tell the full story of Jesus, and highlight his importance for all.
- Be able people relate the story of the Bible to their personal lives.

COURSE STRUCTURE
There are six units in this course. The first four units are the classroom teaching units. Unit 5
is for course influenced ministry and mentoring that will go on through the teaching of the
course. Unit 6 is for review, assignment presentations, assessments, and the viva. The
following is the course structure, in a chart format.

INDIVIDUAL COURSE STRUCTURE (Required total 60 learning hours)

Ministry Mentoring Time for Review and
Teaching (in class) 16-20 hours
(in field) (in field) assignments assessment (in class)
Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6
4-5 hrs 4-5 hrs 4-5 hrs 4-5 hrs 25-30 hrs 2-4 hrs 10-15 hrs 4-5 hrs

While the Ministry and Mentoring can occur while the teaching is going on, the final Unit 6,
for review and assessment, must occur after the ministry and mentoring component.

Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story 3

COURSE CONTENT OUTLINE
The following is the outline for the course.

COURSE OUTLINE

Unit 1: What is the Bible, why and how to read it

Unit 1 / Session 1: Introduction to the Bible

Unit 1 / Session 2: Introducing the Big Story and Gospel Structure of the Bible

Unit 2: The Big Story of the Bible Within a Gospel Structure

Unit 2 / Session 1: The Big Story of the Bible, Old and New Testament
Unit 2 / Session 2: The Big Story of the Bible, through the Gospel Structure

Unit 3: The Story of Jesus

Unit 3 / Session 1: The life of Jesus

Unit 3 / Session 2: The significance of Jesus

Unit 4: Coming of the Holy Spirit, Church and our Story

Unit 4 / Session 1: Formation and Growth of the Church in the Spirit

Unit 4 / Session 2: Our story in line with the big story, Review and Discussion

Unit 5: Ministry, Mentoring, and assignments

Unit 6: Review, Assessment and Viva

Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story 4

PART 2: COURSE TEACHING PLAN
This is the teaching plan for the course, with six Units in total. Each in-class teaching unit has
2 sessions, that should go on for around 2 hours each. Also, each session has A. Opening
Activity, B. Lesson Content, and C. Session Discussion Questions.

Then the out-of-classroom learning component in Unit 5, includes Ministry, Mentoring and
Assignment expectations.

Finally, the in-class review and assessment component Unit 6, explains the viva
requirements.

UNIT 1: INTRODUCING THE BIBLE AND ITS

GOSPEL STRUCTURE (4 HRS TOTAL)
Purpose of Unit 1: The purpose of Unit 1 is to introduce the students to the big story of the
Bible within the Gospel Structure.

UNIT 1 / SESSION 1: WHAT IS THE BIBLE AND WHY READ IT? (2

HRS)

Purpose of Unit 1/Session 1: The purpose of Unit 1/Session 1 is to introduce young disciples
to the basic structure of the Bible We will be looking at points concerning the Bible; what is
it, and why read and study it.

A. OPENING ACTIVITY (UNIT 1/SESSION 1) (30 MINUTES)

Distribute actual copies (at least one) of a printed Bible to show to the class. When talking to
the students, refer to the printed Bible and show examples from what is visible.

Using the Bible, help the class find the books of the book.
For example,
- Let’s say I am trying to find the Old Testament, where would it be?
- Where is the New Testament?
- The first book of the Bible is Genesis: Can you find it?
- The last book of the Bible is Revelation: Let’s find it.
- One of the most popular books of the Bible are called the Psalms, which have prayers
and songs to God. It is usually in the middle of the Bible. Let’s try to find it.

Teacher’s note: Instead of this activity, you could also explore whether the Bible Project
video “What is the Bible” is worthwhile to play for the class at this point. Check the video for
your language translation, for content, and whether it will help the students.

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B. CLASSROOM TEACHING NOTES (UNIT 1/SESSION 1) – (1 HR 15 MINUTES)

In this class (session) we will focus on four ideas:

i. Where does the Bible come from? Where we will talk about how God is the
author, who also uses human authors.
ii. What does the Bible look like? Where we will see the basic structure of the
Bible.
iii. What is the Bible about? Where we will see that the Bible is the good news, as
it as a gospel structure.
iv. Why read and study the Bible? Where we will see that because God is still
speaking to people today through the Bible, we must read and listen to it.

Teacher’s note: Read (or adapt) the following text, and explain if necessary. But keep in
mind the limited time that you have.

1. Where does the Bible come from?

The Bible has come to us in a unique way. We must remember two things about the origin of
the Bible: it comes from God, and it comes from human authors.

1.1 The Bible is a holy book

The Bible is “God-breathed” which means that the original of the message of scripture is
from God. That is why we call the Bible God’s word.

Why is this important to know? We must always remember that the Bible is God’s word
because we must treat the message with respect. We must also understand that God speaks to
us today using the Bible. We will see more about why we must read the Bible in the next
part. But this way of reading the Bible is called reading of the Bible as scripture.

1.2 The Bible is also a human book

This means that the Bible has been written by various human authors who were filled with
God’s spirit and wrote what God intended. These human authors were shepherds, warriors,
priests, kings, teachers, a doctor, and even a servant.

Why is this important to know? While the Bible is God’s word, we must also remember that
spirit-filled human beings wrote the Bible because various human authors have their own
way of writing, their own style of writing. These human authors were also speaking to
particular people in time, so it is good to also try to understand what the Bible meant to the
people for whom it was first written. This way of reading the Bible is called reading
according to the context.

2. What does the Bible look like?

Many of us may already have Bibles or have seen a Bible. Here are some of the points about
what the Bible looks like.

- Bible is a Holy book: The Bible looks like one book, and so it is called the Holy
Book. This is important for us to see, because we remember that the Bible is God’s

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 word. The entire book tells one story, and the entire book is God’s message to us
today.

- Bible is a collection of many books: The Bible is also a collection of 66 smaller

books, written by over 40 authors, written over a period of 1400 years. These 66
books of the Bible have different styles. Some of the books are written as history,
some books are written like poems and songs, and some are written as prophecy (that
talk about the future).

- There are two main parts of the Bible: These 66 books are divided into Old Testament
and New Testament. The Old Testament contains 39 books while the New Testament
contains 27 books.

- There are many parts in each book: Each book of the Bible may have several
chapters, and each chapter has several verses. The chapter numbers and verse
numbers help us identify which part of the Bible we are talking about.

- While there are many parts, there is also one big story: It is important to remember
that there are many books in the Bible, because each book tells a unique part of the
Big Story, also there are different ways to read different books of the Bible. We will
be looking at how to read the books of the Bible in the third year of the course.

3. What is the Bible about?

Now that we have seen what the Bible looks like, we must be able to understand simply what
the Bible is about.

- The Bible has various stories about God’s interaction with His people, and also
teachings that the people of God must obey.

- The Old Testament is mainly about how God dealt with a special chosen group of
people called the Israelites (the Jews).

- The New Testament is mainly about how Jesus Christ, the son of God, came into the
world, to save not just the Jews, but everyone.

- Despite all this diversity, the Bible is also one big story, and all the 66 books also
have a common message. The main message of the Bible centres around Jesus Christ,
the son of God who is the saviour of the world. This is what we call the gospel
structure of the Bible.

Mid-session activity

Teacher’s note: The class could have a mid-session activity at this point to help the students
familiarise themselves with the look and feel of scripture. Ask them to find Bible verses,
mainly to see what is the ability of students when it comes to reading the Bible.

Trying to find various verses in the Bible to test familiarity with the Bible: Let us see if
we can find verses to read or listen to.

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 - Let us try to find John 3:16.
- Let us try to find Genesis 1:27
- Let us try to find John 14:6

Alternative mid-session activity (in case the students do not know how to read): For
those who do not know how to read the Bible, you can also listen to the Bible. If you have a
phone, let us log into vachanonline, to see if we can listen to portions of the Bible. (Help the
class access vachanonline on their phones).

Teacher’s note: These activities are important especially for people who do not know the
Bible, or have not seen/read a Bible before. While there may be some people in the class who
may know all this, try to focus on the students for whom this is entirely new. Also, do not
assume that everyone knows this, some may think they know, but may be unfamiliar about
finding passages of scripture in the Bible. Take the time to help everyone.

Back to classroom teaching content

4. Why read and study the Bible

Now, having seen a little bit about the Bible, and also learned to look at its chapters and
verses, let us see why we need to read the Bible.

As we see, the Bible is the word of God. Which means, what is written is from God. Because
it is God’s word, it is relevant to the people for who it was written, both in the past and today.
If we want to know God, and do what He says, we need to listen to and follow the word of
God.

There are three reasons why we should read and study the Bible: 1) To learn about God’s
expectations for people, 2. To learn about the works of God in history, and 3) to learn from
other followers of God.

4.1 We learn about God and God’s expectations (learning about the commands of God)

- Through the Bible we learn about God’s nature. This means that through the Bible we
learn about who God is, what he is like, and what makes God unique.

- Through the Bible we also learn about God’s holy expectations. This means that we
understand that God has a message for human beings, God wants his people to behave
in a certain way. The Bible tells us what those expectations are.

- Through the Bible we learn about God’s judgement. This means that through the
Bible we see the godly consequences of our actions. We see that God hates sin, and
allows human beings to face the consequence of their sin. Sometimes God even
intentionally judges sinful people.

- Through the Bible we learn about God’s salvation. This means that apart from
judgement, God also provides a way of salvation. In the stories we see that God
provides people to help, rescue, save. But in the whole story, it is God himself, Jesus,

Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story 8

 who is the ultimate saviour of the world, through whom we can be forgiven of all our
sins.

- And through the Bible we learn of God’s promises. We not only learn about who God
is, we not only learn about God’s judgement and salvation, but we also find that God
promises to be with his people, and to help them to live lives that will please God.

- Through the Bible we gain wisdom to know how to live and how not to live. This
means that the Bible teaches us God’s expectations, but also shows us how to live
lives to please God.

4.2 We also see God in action in the world, as we see the people of God in relation to God
(learning about the works of God in history)

- In the Bible we see God’s interaction with the people. We see how God interacts with
people, chooses some people, helps them, saves, them, guides them, even judges
them.

- Similarly in the Bible we see examples of how the people of God trying to follow
God, and so we can also learn from their mistakes. This means that in the Bible we
have human beings like us, who try to follow God. Sometimes they fail God, and we
can learn from their failure. Sometimes they succeed in following God faithfully, and
we learn from their faithfulness.

4.3 We learn from the people of God, on how they worship the Lord, and also from their
strengths and weaknesses (this is also learning wisdom from God)

- The Bible gives the Church words to pray and worship, through the Psalms and other
such writings. It teaches us how we can worship God, and what is acceptable to say or
not say.

- The Bible also allows us to explore the life of the followers of God, through poetry
and wisdom, seen in Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, and so forth.

- Through the Bible we find guidance in our daily lives. This means that the Bible also
shows us what we must do. We can receive guidance for making decisions and also
knowing what to do in difficult situations. This is not automatic, and we must be
careful in knowing how to read the Bible for guidance, but God does use the Bible to
guide his people.

C. SESSION DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (UNIT 1/SESSION 1) – (15 MINUTES)

Every session ends with a discussion activity that can be done as a whole class, or in smaller
groups. The aim is to think about three things, what the student learned (head), what impacted
them in their life (heart), and what they can take from here for their ministry (hands).

Head: Content reflection questions:

How will you summarise what you have learned today?

Learning the Bible, Part 1: The Big Story 9

 Hint: You can use the number headings to help the students remember.
• What is the Bible: God is the author of scripture and to know Him and know
what He wants, we need to read God’s word.
• Why read the Bible: To know God and his expectations, to see God’s
interaction with people, and to see how human beings worship God.

You can also ask a more reflective HEAD question: From your experience, or of
those around you, do people read their own religious scriptures to learn about God
like this? What is different about them reading their scriptures and how the Bible must
be read?

Heart: Personal reflection questions:

From what you learned today, what are one or two things that really challenged you as a
disciple of Jesus?

You can also ask a more reflection HEART question: Have you ever read anything
that teaches you? Would it be difficult for you to use the Bible like this?

Hands: Ministry reflection questions:

What are a few things that you can teach to your Church, or small group fellowships. What
skills did you learn that you can pass on to others?

UNIT 1 / SESSION 2: THE BIBLE HAS A GOSPEL STRUCTURE (2 HRS)

Purpose of Unit 1 / Session 2: The purpose of this session is to teach the students about
different ways of reading the Bible, and how the Story of the Bible is one good way to read
the Bible, and that the Gospel structure is a good summary story of the Bible.

A. OPENING ACTIVITY (UNIT 1/SESSION 2): INTRODUCING THE BIG STORY

AND THE GOSPEL STRUCTURE (45 MINUTES)

Review Activity:
We saw in the previous session that the Bible is a big book, but also a collection of books. It
can be hard to read and understand. As a result, we said that we can summarise key points of
the point to remember, also see the Bible as one story. Can some of you tell what you
remember from the previous class.

Teacher’s note: Try to check who understands the previous class, and who does not. If most
of the students understand, then you can work with the weaker students after class. If most of
the students do not understand, you may have to slow down your teaching and increase more
classes.

(Sample ends here)

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