An exercise I’ve long advocated for leaders and teachers is “exegeting your experiences.”  When a person exegetes a Bible passage, he or she takes out what is inherently there, as intended by the Holy Spirit, using the principles of hermeneutics.

Whether you implemented a retreat, led a missions conference, or taught an interactive Bible study group, debrief within yourself and glean as much as you can so the next event or Bible lesson is even better.   These eleven questions spur my thinking in an effort to make my teaching ministry more effective.

 
1.  What words describe how I feel about the Bible study time?  Why?
 
2. By God’s grace, what did I do especially well?
 
3. If I were starting the lesson all over again, what would I do differently?  Why?
 
4. Based on verbal and nonverbal learner feedback, how would I rate their perception of the lesson?
 
5. What evidence do I have that the Bible truths were understood?
 
6. How did I manage the time I had for the Bible study?
 
7. What question that I asked garnered the most incisive responses?  Why?
 
8. Which question did not work as well as I had hoped?  Why?
 
9. Did my lesson achieve an appropriate balance among observation, interpretation, and application of the Bible passage?
 
10. Did I sense a need or burden in a learner that I should follow-up on through personal contact?
 
11. When I think of the group Bible study I led, I thank you, Lord, because…..
 

I am not advocating browbeating yourself if a few things went wrong.  What teacher hasn’t second-guessed something said or done during a Bible lesson?  But I am calling for excellence, which doesn’t happen by accident or just because God has grace-gifted us.

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In a self-assessment of a teaching time, what question would you add?