Using SOAP to read the Bible with your young people
Like many youth workers, I have found myself in the strange place of leading a youth small group over Zoom.
To be honest it’s taken a while for the girls I’m leading to get used to it and to be able to really open up. But last week I knew we were making progress when one of the girls said, ‘Helen, can I ask a random question? How do you actually read the Bible? Like, what does a quiet time really mean?’ At which point all the other girls started saying things like, ‘Yeah, I was wondering that too!’
While it means that all my previous encouragements to open up their Bibles have obviously not worked, it was pretty encouraging to hear that they want some tools to know how to read the Bible! Here’s the plan I’m using during our 30-minute break out room this week to start giving them some tools to engage with the Bible for themselves.
BEFOREHAND
Choose a chapter or book you want to read through as a group and let your group know ahead of time. You might want to send them the Bible Project summary of the book to give them some context.
INTRO (5 MINS)
Explain that we’re going to read the Bible together and that we can expect God to speak to us in this session!
You could say something like this:
‘The Bible is a collection of loads of different books and there is so much in it. In fact, it is going to take a lifetime to fully get to know it, so there is no need read it all in one go. Anyone can access it, whether we’ve never picked it up or if we’ve already read it a hundred times over, God still wants to use it to speak to us.
‘There are loads of different ways to read the Bible but today we’re just going to use one!
‘This method of reading the Bible is called SOAP. It’s really simple and easy to use. You can use it with any passage as a way of reading and applying the Bible.’
Explain the four steps of the SOAP method:
S – Scripture
Choose a piece of scripture and read it over a few times. Pick one or two verses that are really sticking out to you and write them down.
O - Observation
What are you observing from these verses you’ve chosen? It might be helpful to ask yourself, ‘What does this say about God and his character?’ or ‘What does this say about me?’
A – Application
What can I apply from this? How does this change the way I see God or myself? How will this change the way I look at God, myself or others? What action might I want to take?
P – Prayer
What is my prayerful response to this? What do I want to say to God about this?
Share the passage you’re going to be looking at for the day and ask someone to read it aloud for everyone. (I’m going to use John 5:1–15).
Pray before you begin, perhaps ask everyone to close their eyes and put out their hands as a sign that we want to receive whatever God has for us today.
PUT ON SOME MUSIC AS EVERYONE STARTS TO READ (10 MINS)
After 10 minutes, ask everyone to stop reading.
DISCUSS (10 MINS)
Ask a few people to share what they wrote down and how they found it. Was it what they expected?
PRAY TO CLOSE (5 MINS)
The most precious gifts we can give our young people are a passion for Jesus that will last them a lifetime and tools they can use to encounter his presence and to keep their passion burning.