Preparation starts before the Workshop…
What to Expect and How to Prepare
When you register for the Workshop, you will be assigned to a Study Group based on the track you selected – Teacher Track or Personal Study Track. Approximately 2 weeks before the Workshop, you will receive a Scripture passage assignment, preparation materials to help you work through your assignment, and your Study Group placement. Using the materials provided, you will explore your assigned text and be prepared to present a 5-minute lesson or a 5-minute explanation of your central idea, and how you got there. This is a key part of the Study Group learning and building process. Your preparation counts!
Your Study Group Leader will help you with any questions you may have. Once at the Workshop, you will share your work with the other women in your group.
Your preparation before the Workshop is specific to your Study Group and is essential to its effectiveness. Each woman brings her preparation and participation as an offering to the Lord and a gift to others!
Study Group Leaders are Here to Help You!
Your Study Group Leader (SGL) will be available to help you during your two weeks of preparation before the Workshop. Study Group Leaders spend countless hours prayerfully training for this Workshop weekend. You will receive a note from your SGL at the same time you receive your assignment with information on how to contact her. Your SGL will be available to you for personal mentoring the two weeks prior to the Workshop while you are studying your assigned Bible passage.
Study Group Leaders are women who love God’s Word and who willingly invest time in mentoring others in the joy and challenges of Scripture study – “LEARNING, NOT FOR THE LOVE OF LEARNING, BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.”
Once you are at the Workshop, your Study Group will engage in multi-session discussions, guided and encouraged by your Study Group Leader. Group members work with their Central Ideas and develop better skills for “rightly handling the word of truth.” [2Tim. 2:15] The effort you put into identifying the CI in your passage before the Workshop is essential to the effectiveness of the Study Group.
God’s revelation of Himself to us and for us is worth digging into and hearing it speak. The Workshop provides tools to do that digging, and it helps refine the study tools you may already have and gives you some new ones. You try out these tools as you work through your assigned passages in preparation for the Workshop. At the Workshop, you see and hear those tools modeled in large group sessions. Then you practice and refine them during the six hours spent with the Bible in small Study Groups.
Workshop Schedule
FRIDAY
| 12:30 PM | Study Group Sign-in |
| 12:45 PM | Study Group Session 1 |
| 2:00 PM | General Session 1 |
| 2:45 PM | Break |
| 3:00 PM | General Session 2 |
| 4:15 PM | Break |
| 4:30 PM | Study Group Session 2 |
| 6:15 PM | Dinner (included) |
| 7:15 PM | General Session 3 |
| 8:45 PM | Close for evening |
SATURDAY
| 8:30 AM | Coffee, Tea |
| 9:00 AM | Study Group Session 3 |
| 10:30 AM | Break |
| 10:45 AM | General Session 4 |
| 12:00 PM | Lunch (included) |
| 1:00 PM | Study Group Session 4 |
| 2:30 PM | Break |
| 2:45 PM | Study Group Session 5 |
| 3:50 PM | Pulling It All Together |
| 4:30 PM | End of Workshop |
The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New. ~ Augustine, A.D. 354-430
One of the most important gifts we hope Workshop participants will take away is the sense that the Bible tells a coherent, interconnected story about God’s intention to save a people for Himself through Christ. Each book and passage fits somewhere on the timeline of this story, and our understanding of this “Big Picture” will affect our ability to carefully interpret each smaller part.
The learning that takes place in the two parts of the Workshop – the Study Group sessions and the large group teaching sessions – are connected because all of Scripture is one big story, all pointing to the work of the One and Only Son. From Genesis to Revelation each book is an irreplaceable part of that one great story. So, what you learn in each part of the Workshop will bring you to a deeper understanding of the God who reveals Himself in and through His Word. The Word is worth the Work and the Author is worthy of worship!
