One of my favorite seminars at BSF was on Homiletics. I love the process of studying the bible through Homiletics. Recently my friend Natalie taught our Sunday School class how to do homiletics, and again I found I really enjoyed the process, and I decided I wanted to use it more frequently.
There is a great "Crash Course In Homiletics" here - http://www.christinakline.com/homiletics-crash-course/
Earlier this summer our Pastors wife suggested, in our Womens Sunday School Class, that we choose one epistle and read it every day, for a month. I love this bible reading plan. I have used many plans over the years, and have read the bible cover to cover a few times now, so the idea of really learning one epistle at a time felt like a good next step for me.
For the month of August, I am reading Colossians every day. It is only 4 chapters, a quick, easy read every morning. I decided the 4 chapters made it perfect to use homiletics for my weekly study, doing one chapter each week of August, as well.
All of that lead to the creation of this worksheet. I am very digitally minded - I like to be paperless as much as possible. I do keep a notebook by my bed for some studies, but often I am not in the same place each day, and carrying one more thing around just does not work for me. The more I can do on my phone, the better. This worksheet, created in Google Drive, I can type right into from wherever I am - in bed, on the front porch, on the recliner in my living room.. in the parking lot of the school waiting to pick up children from sports. It's always with me. Some day I will most likely have a serene, set schedule where I can do my bible study in the same spot, at the same time, every day.. but that will most likely be in my empty nest years, not in my "4 teenagers with insane schedules" stage. Then again, with the farm, I probably shouldn't count on my empty nest years being completely serene either.
To see the worksheet, go here:
When I am using this worksheet, I choose file/make a copy and then I rename the copy. I do not always work from this digital copy - sometimes i use this just as my outline to follow, and I write in my notebook - it truly depends on the week. I prefer to use a notebook, it's just not always convenient to do so, I do not always have one with me. Sometimes I work on scrap paper, then add the scrap paper to my notebook.. it all depends. The worksheet just gives me the format - how I use it varies.
One of the things Natalie taught me was that this does not have to be done all at once! There are 5 steps, and 5 week days. Breaking it down to one step a day really works for me.
When I finish up Colossians Chapter One I will post my work here, so you can see an example. There is no right or wrong - I could do homiletics on the same chapter 5 times in one year, and end up with 5 different aims, learning something different each time!
