Behind the Curtain: The Heart and Soul of Sojo Academy's Bible Studies

Ever wondered how we write out Bible Studies?

Join us as we pull back the curtain and reveal the behind Sojo Academy's Bible studies. 

We promise you an exclusive look into our meticulous creation process. From the intricate steps and substantial effort required to ensure each study encourages deep engagement with Scripture, to our commitment to fostering a profound understanding without injecting personal opinions, you'll discover the depth and richness that sets our studies apart.

Get ready to be inspired by our thoughtful planning and writing process tailored for all levels of biblical engagement. Learn how we balance flexible study options with a rigorous approach to accuracy and divine guidance. We also take you inside our annual planning meetings, where we map out study topics for the year while remaining open to adjustments. Whether you're new or a long-time follower, this episode promises to enrich your understanding of our Bible study approach and enhance your appreciation for the hard work that goes into creating meaningful and transformative teachings.

Read the Show Notes: sojohub.com/biblestudy118

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the Sojo Show.
We are so glad to have you.
I always think there needs tobe music here.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I know there should be music here.
This is where we just need thedramatic.
I know we need the dramatic.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
We need the dramatics All right, Before we get in to
what we're going to talk abouttoday, which is a little juicy.
We have two things.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
First of all, a quick , quick, super quick
announcement Go ahead and makethat, and then I got a question
for you.
Okay, so I'm scared a littlebit about the question, but
before we dive in today, wewanted to let you know that we
are hosting a very super specialevent, and that is our ultimate
Bible study blowout sale,because we're wrapping up an era
in Sojo Academy, and so if youwant to grab a bundle of 50

(00:49):
Bible studies for less than adollar each, you definitely want
to go to sojoacademycom slashmega M E G A to check that out.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yes, so I wanted to get that over with because you
need to hear about it.
Now on to the question that Ihave.
So do you remember watching, ormaybe reading, probably reading
, the Wizard of Oz, when youwere young?
Obviously you did, I'm assuming.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I think I did.
Wouldn't that be terrible if Isaid I never watched it until I
had kids?
Oh no, everybody's seen Wizardof Oz, or they haven't read it,
um, I had to read it in middleschool or something.
So, yeah, I think I read it too.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
All right, so here's my question think go into your
way back machine.
Think way, way, way, way, wayback, way back back, and you
like all those way backs.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, I'm starting to get the point.
Yeah, that I'm old and need togo way, way back.
Think way back.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay.
So here's a really legitimatequestion.
At the end of Wizard of Oz, doyou remember your reaction to
the ending, to the wizard, tohow we discovered what, who the
wizard was?
I mean, do is that somethingthat stood out to you at all?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
so I think I was surprised, but I heard about it
from somebody else before oh,you got experience for myself.
So yes, spoiler alerts havebeen around a long time, like it
was.
It was like so, I mean, but yes, it is, it was surprising it

(02:34):
was surprising.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
So the I mean that's, that's crazy.
So spoiler alerts were waybefore the internet even came
out.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
So, yes, um, all right, somebody should have
given me one I just rememberthinking what I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
I had no idea what the wizard was, who the wizard
was, but I remember thinkingwhat is?
Just some little man behind thecurtain anyway.
So everybody that's listening,think back and think about your
reaction to that, because we'reabout to pull back the curtain.
This is the stretch, this isthe total stretch.

(03:09):
We're gonna pull back thecurtain and we're gonna look at
the wizard behind sojourn.
Yes, a little bit, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of feeling what we're doing
today.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
AJ, am I like way off base.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
No, no, yes, we're giving you a total, complete
behind the scenes.
Look at how we write a Biblestudy, which I think is pretty
fascinating, because there'sactually a lot that goes into it
and we didn't realize thisuntil we started like talking
about it a little bit.
So it it is interesting.
Now I will say that we don'tclaim to have like a big

(03:49):
production and like all thehoopla and all the excitement
that this little old man created, you know, behind the scenes,
but it is.
I think it's so exciting.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, yeah, well, and I think that that's where the
analogy ends.
That's it just behind thecurtain.
But the reason that we're evendoing this and talking about
this is because we actually getasked this a good amount, like
what goes into your process inwriting a study, because we have

(04:20):
written a lot of Bible studiesover the last few years and I
was actually talking okay, readyfor full disclosure and way too
much information ready for TMI.
I was boxing and talking to AJ.
This is going to be terrible.
Oh, no, okay, so we may have tocut this off but I was thinking

(04:41):
about this and so I was voxingher and talking to her voice app
, being just talking to her inthe shower, in the shower as I
was in the shower, she waslistening to my shower but about
how we've written so manystudies that it could be easy to
think that they are not veryrich and deep and and you know

(05:04):
maybe that they're kind ofsuperficial and I think the
things that set Sojo Academyapart and we're not treating our
own horns in this at all, it'sjust a separate, it's just
different.
It's what we chose to do.
We chose to make our studiesfull length, full size, fully,
full depth.
I mean really, really in depthand a lot of it, because we

(05:28):
chose not to do a lot ofteaching in our studies, like
our own opinions, I should sayas much as leading women to
learn how to read and study theBibles for themselves.
So all that to say it's beenquite a process and we get asked
about it a lot and we justwanted to kind of let you know

(05:48):
how we do it.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, and part of that is learning how to ask
questions and how to lead astudent to learn how to ask
questions about the text andreally allow God to speak
through just meditating on itand asking Lord.
You know what does this mean,or you know why is this little

(06:10):
addition significant?
So we're going to share how welike our process of how to write
these studies that that reallyare deep.
They really are.
They're not service level.
They're not like sheets to justprint off and go through in
five minutes a day.
They take significant time,both to write, as you will

(06:30):
discover, and to complete too.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, yeah, and that's not to say that you don't
get value from it if you're notable to complete the entire
study.
A lot of our studies are set upthat you get to kind of choose
how much you want, how deep youwant to go, but it's helpful for
those students who only havefive or ten minutes, and then

(06:54):
those who have a little bit moretime and are and you know,
because here's the cool thingabout the Word of God the more
you study it, the more desireyou have to study it.
And so we wanted to make surethat we kind of covered all of
our bases, from those who arebrand new to the Bible and then
those who have been students ofthe word for many, many years,

(07:18):
making sure that as many peopleas possible not everyone loves
our style, we completely admitthat and we know that but as
many people as possible are inthe word, which is our final
goal.
So yeah, so I don't know if wewant to start AJ with the
process of writing the study orthe process of deciding what to

(07:40):
write.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I don't know.
Yeah, I think we should startwith, like, our planning,
because it's not we do like,think through what it is.
How is God leading us?
What is what God is laying onour hearts?
And we look ahead a little bit,because these studies take us a
lot of time.
They really do.
They take weeks worth of timeand effort.

(08:03):
So we know that it's going totake an investment of our time
and our energy and and honestly,we hold ourselves so
responsible for what we say.
We feel like this is a hugeresponsibility and so we don't
want to just rush throughsomething and put something
together quickly.
We want to really hear from theLord.

(08:24):
We want every word that we sayto be as accurate as we possibly
can make it, and that is aburden.
I mean, guys, if you've done oneof our studies, you may not
realize like it we kind of standin fear and trembling putting
this stuff out because, we don'twant to mislead anyone and we
know we're not perfect peopleand so we really we put a lot

(08:48):
into the planning stage and somaybe we can just share a little
bit about that, jen, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
So typically AJ and I get together in person several
times a year and usually it's atthese meetings that we start
really vision casting andthinking ahead as far as what
we're going to be studying inSOJO and we plan ahead about a
year and meaning we plan out now.
Sometimes the plans change, butfor the most part we plan out

(09:19):
what studies we want to kind ofwalk women through over the
course of the next few months oryear.
And you know it's interesting,we have a whole idea of a
podcast about these differenteras that we've kind of been
through.