My friend Joan was bragging about an actor she often worked with. “He’s so good, he doesn’t need a director.” Joan obviously meant well, but she clearly didn’t know much about directing. It’s far more than merely telling actors where to stand. Directors are mirrors, mentors, conductors, cheerleaders, translators, philosophers and creators.

In our last blog post, we explored what the craft of acting can teach us about Bible reading. But church leaders might be even more interested in how the art of stage directing can inform the way we direct others to engage with Scripture. Let’s consider three aspects of the director’s work.

A good director creates an environment of safety and exploration. An actor who’s afraid to get something wrong is not doing a good job. The same could be said about a Bible student. Good directors allow for experimentation, new ideas, or imaginative interpretation—at least early in the rehearsal process. Sure, they want the cast to learn their lines and find their places, but they also recognize that the creative process involves trial and error. And an actor’s creative “failure” may help the director or the rest of the cast discover an exciting new moment of truth.

In the same way, church leaders—and especially leaders of Bible study groups—will find new energy as they promote safety over correctness. We’re not talking about embracing heresy here, but about allowing for the free exploration of a fertile Bible text. Create a place of safety where people can ask tough questions and suggest new solutions. Abolish the fear of “wrong answers.”

Just as a good director guides a cast through the exploration and rehearsal process, focusing on the best discoveries and gathering their efforts into a high-quality performance, so a church leader can elicit and sift through various creative responses to facilitate a powerful expression of the Word. Yes, leaders can still lead, but part of effective leadership, in church or on stage, is to empower others in their own creative engagement with the text.

A good director gains and shares a thorough knowledge of the world of the play, and also of the modern world. Directors sometimes rely on researchers, but often they do their own digging. Still, it’s not just a matter of knowing the facts about, say, Moliere’s day. It’s also important to consider the audience of today. Will they laugh at the jokes of that old French comedian? How can you bring them into that humor? How will this antiquated work present a new and needed experience to modern viewers?

Of course that’s the challenge of every preacher, too. We want to take people back into the historical world of the Bible, but we also want to bring the Bible forward into the world of our congregation. How does the Bible relate to Twitter, food trucks, or the Kardashians?

Directors sometimes make goofy choices in their attempts to “update” classic plays (like setting Hamlet in a 25th-century starship), and Bible teachers can sometimes swing and miss in their efforts to modernize Scripture (was young David really like Elvis?). But the underlying premise is still valid: the ancient work needs to connect with the modern world, and we can make that happen.

A good director tells the big story and asks the little questions. Direction requires a keen sense of where the play is going, what it’s about, and how all the plot lines serve the main through-line. The “big story” of the play may be captured in a single line, a particular scene, or even a picture. The director shares this insight with the various designers, so the look and sound of the production help to tell that story. Then this vision needs to be communicated to the cast early and often. “Hey, Juliet, you might get a big laugh with that gesture, but this play is really about how much you love Romeo, and he’s lying there dead.” This emphasis then evokes a host of detailed questions along the lines of “How can you play this moment to fit in with the big story?”

As church leaders, we have a great story to share, the greatest ever. Keep telling this story, and let everything connect with it—every sermon, every Bible study, every board meeting, every church softball game.

But we also need to ask the little questions. How does this verse play out in your life? How did you exhibit the fruit of the Spirit today? How will you care for “the least of these” tomorrow? If people catch the vision of the big story, you won’t have to answer those detailed questions for them. They will be filling in the details themselves, but you still need to ask.