Mind Mapping and Drawing the Bible

After reading my Dad’s blog on Mind Mapping I thought I would give it a try. His example involved planning for a website that he was setting up for Mt Lehman Credit Union. What I found is that you can also use it for bible study or sermon prep. I took all four texts and attached three headings: Images, Concepts and Theology. From there I went through the texts and added pieces that fit into those categories. The best part about this is that you can connect images or concepts by linking them via relationships. They look like orange dotted lines arrows on the end. By doing this you can see the relationships between each text. It is like a visual map of how each passage connects. Wow. You can download a free 21 day trial at Mindjet MindManager and give it a try for yourself. It is easy to use and a great way to lay out any bible texts that you are reading and studying.

Below is a example of the Gospel reading and Psalm:

 

Before I started fooling around with the mind mapping I did a similar thing with pictures. Instead of using words to map out the biblical texts or pericopes I drew pictures. I put the name of the biblical book along with chapter and verse in the corner. There are four each Sunday so one for each corner. I try and switch which corner I put the readings in each time. For example one week I will put the gospel in the top right and the next week I will put the Old Testament reading there. This is because we read from top right down so it changes the focus. You don’t need to be an artist to do this. I get away with stick men and women. But what it does do is at the end I have an actual picture of how each passage looks and how they might compare and contrast to each other. It gives a real good way to visualize what you are reading at a glance and is a fun way to do biblical studies.