When I was invited to lead a women’s retreat, one of my greatest fears was realized: I was given free reign on my teaching topic. Making decisions has never been my strong suit. I labour over what to eat for breakfast. How would I ever choose one subject from all the Christian topics out there?
Thankfully, after sitting under years of preaching by my pastors at Holy Trinity Church in Chicago, I was already convinced that my talks had to come from the Bible. But with the entire Bible in front of me I still had to choose from the many authors, books, and literary genres. The more options, the more deliberation.
I have never been good at building suspense either, so I’ll just tell you that Haggai was the book I chose. Haggai is not the normal go-to book for a women’s retreat, or indeed for any women’s ministry event. Why would someone choose to teach from a minor prophet to a group of women? There were two reasons for my decision:
- I could teach the whole book in one weekend.
- It is a book that is taught infrequently.
Point one was my highest priority. I place superior value on teaching through a whole Biblical book from start to finish. This is also a legacy of my pastors. What better way to study the Bible than to absorb an entire book at a time? I have learned that every text has a context and you must teach in light of it. Taking one whole book allows you to hone in on the context of each passage as it relates to the context of the book. This is much easier when you stick to one book—rather than speaking on ‘purity’ from three different contexts in three different books.
Moreover, I prefer to teach through a passage in an expository way and let the text say what it says. I get my main points and their emphasis from the passage. I think every ministry should be marked by exposition, from children’s ministry to evangelism (note how David Helm takes unbelievers through the book of Mark in his book, One-to-One Bible Reading). The value is immense. I have learned more from expository Bible teaching than any topical study. It forces you to get the text right in light of the passages you teach before and after it. And there is no skirting around difficult issues. We cannot teach through Matthew and skip the bits on divorce. If God wrote it, we must teach it.
All that said, I still had limited choices, given that most women’s retreats only have two, three, or four talks (instead of a 30-week sermon series). I had to choose a short book that I could get through in one weekend and I saw three options: the book of Ruth, a short epistle, or a pithy minor prophet. This led me to my second motivation for choosing Haggai.
I give the second reason with clarification. Not many people jump at the chance to teach Haggai. But that doesn’t mean I chose this minor prophet to have liberty to say whatever I want because no-one would know the difference. I chose Haggai because it would stretch women, including me. I was tempted to choose a Biblical book
I know well—that I have taught before—at the very least, to stay within a comfortable literary genre (an epistle would have fit the bill). However, a young Bible teacher like me needs to be pushed out of her comfort zone. If I never teach any prophetic texts, then I am neglecting God’s whole Word. If my listeners never hear talks or do studies on prophetic texts, especially the minor prophets, then we are missing a large portion of Scripture. The Bible is one book with one over-arching storyline and, therefore, I must study all of it.
The book of Haggai is a little gem of two chapters, totalling just 38 verses. It may be small, but it has a lot of punch. I am confident that the women at the retreat were convicted by God’s Word as spoken through Haggai. They were challenged—as I was and those in Haggai’s day were—to consider their ways, remember their past, and put their hope in the unshakable promises of God.
I wholeheartedly encourage every woman Bible teacher and every women’s ministry team to consider teaching through whole books of the Bible—whether it is a weekly study, a monthly gathering or an annual retreat. You will have time limits on what you can teach, so use that to your advantage. Maybe even get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Try Haggai! You’ll be glad you did.
