Please note the following guidelines for the facilitator of the Catechized Bible Study (CBS):

 

·    The current document provides the instructions for facilitating a CBS.

 

·    The facilitator should keep the following in mind while facilitating a CBS:

o   The facilitator is to encourage participation from all participants, stimulate discussion and ensure that no one monopolizes the conversation including himself/herself.

o   The facilitator needs to go through all the questions on the pages of the study.  This keeps the discussion from going off in a tangent.

o   The facilitator should not read off the answers from the pages of the study.  It is only when the participants have not fully discussed the meaning of a verse that the facilitator supplements what has been discussed with information from the pages of the study.

o   Interpretation of a bible passage is based on information found in the passage except when citing information elsewhere in the bible or outside of the bible is crucial for improving understanding.

o   Because the reading out loud of the questions creates a halting experience like that of driving through many traffic lights, it is recommended that each participant takes turns doing it rather than having the facilitator bear the blame alone.

o   CBS by way of questions and answers enables the participants to more readily retain the materials learned.

o   The nature of CBS requires small group size to ensure ample opportunity for participation by all participants.

o   CBS has been designed to be readily facilitated by anyone who follows information on the pages of the study.

 

·    The facilitator facilitates a CBS by doing the following:

o   Open the CBS in prayer.

o   Have a volunteer participant read the current bible passage out loud while the rest follow along in the text.

o   Facilitate discussion of the bible passage by doing the following:

§  Have each participant take turn reading out loud the current question of the bible passage including the question number.

§  Facilitate discussion of the question among the whole group.

§  Repeat the process until all the questions of the bible passage have been completed.

o   Repeat the process for another bible passage until all the bible passages at hand have been completed.

o   Close the CBS in payer.