The SOAP Bible Study Method, Done the Way It Was Built

You found it on a church handout, or a printable with four colored boxes: Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. So you tried it. Pick a verse, copy it out, write a thought, write what to do, write a prayer. By day six the verses felt random. Your observation said the verse again in other words. Your application could have come out of a fortune cookie.

That is not a sign you are doing it wrong, or that SOAP is shallow. It usually means one step went missing on the way from the original method to the printable: the reading that comes before the S. Here is the SOAP Bible study method the way it was built, with prompts, a worked example and one small fix.

What SOAP stands for, and where it came from

SOAP is a four-step way to journal through a Bible passage. You write out a verse (Scripture), note what it says (Observation), name what it asks of you (Application), and answer God about it (Prayer). Four letters, one page, one pen.

The method comes from Wayne Cordeiro, the founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii. His book The Divine Mentor: Growing Your Faith as You Sit at the Feet of the Savior includes a chapter titled simply “SOAP,” according to the publisher's listing on Verbum. Cordeiro also edited the LifeConnect Study Bible, which is full of SOAP studies. Olive Tree's blog reprints one of his, on Exodus 17:1: Israel camps where God led them and finds no water. His observation sits inside that scene. His application is that scarce resources do not mean God has left. His prayer asks for patience to wait. Every part stays close to the passage.

SOAP is one of several study methods, and if you are still choosing between them, our comparison of five Bible study methods lays them side by side. This page goes deep on SOAP alone.

The step most guides leave out: read first, then choose

Almost every SOAP guide begins the same way: choose a verse. That is where the trouble starts. A verse picked on its own has nothing around it, so the observation has nothing to work with except the verse itself.

In Cordeiro's own setting, the S came second. Capt. Ashley Bungay, writing for The Salvation Army in Canada in 2009, describes using the method from The Divine Mentor and lists only a few requirements: a Bible, a Bible reading plan, paper, a pen and about 30 minutes. Each day starts by reading the set passages. Then, in her words, “as the Holy Spirit highlights a verse,” you stop and consider it. That is one practitioner's account of the book, not the book itself, but it matches how SOAP appears in Cordeiro's own study Bible: one verse, drawn from a passage.

So the plan supplies the verse, and the chapter around it keeps your observation honest. You are not hunting for something inspiring; you are noticing which line caught you.

There is a wider reason to start from a chapter. Lifeway Research, summarizing the American Bible Society's State of the Bible, reports that less Scripture-engaged Americans more often read a few verses at a time or pick passages by mood, while Scripture-engaged Americans more often read one or more chapters or a complete story and follow a plan. That is an association across U.S. adults, not proof that chapters cause engagement. But it points the same way as Cordeiro's order. If you need a plan to read from, here is how to choose a Bible reading plan that fits your mornings.

What to write at each step

Keep each step to a line or two. The table gives a prompt for each letter, the most common mistake there, and a sample line from the worked example below.

On the P step, the prayer can be as short as the observation. If writing prayers down becomes a habit of its own, our guide on how to start a prayer journal picks up from there.

SOAP's one weak spot, and a one-question fix

SOAP folds interpretation into observation. It moves from what the text says to what it asks of you without stopping on what it meant. On a familiar passage that costs little. On an unfamiliar one, it can send your application somewhere the writer never meant.

The fix does not need a fifth letter. Inside the O step, add one question: what was this saying to the people who first heard it? Answer it from two things only: the chapter you just read, and a one-paragraph introduction to the book. Most study Bibles have one. You do not need a shelf of commentaries.

This is also where tradition matters. SOAP grew up in Protestant evangelical churches, and nothing in its four steps conflicts with Catholic or Orthodox reading. But what a passage means is a question your own church has thought about for a long time, so let it help. If you are between churches, the church finder lists congregations by city.

A worked example: James 1:22

Read first. James 1 is short, about 550 words in the NIV by our count. Read all 27 verses before choosing anything.

S. The line that stops you is James 1:22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (NIV). Copy it out by hand.

O, part one: what does it say? Listening alone can fool you. The next two verses give a picture: someone looks at his face in a mirror, walks away, and forgets what he looks like. Verse 25 sets against him the person who looks intently and keeps doing what they heard.

O, part two: what did it mean then? Enter the Bible's summary of James, from Luther Seminary, says the letter reads more like a sermon than a letter, packs 108 verses, and needs to be read as wisdom literature. Its call is for Christians to be not merely hearers but doers. Tradition links it to James the brother of Jesus, though some scholars read it as written under his name, and dates differ. The same site's outline of James places our verse in a section called “Hearing and Doing” (1:19–27), followed by “The Royal Law of Mercy” and “Faith Without Works Is Dead” in chapter 2. So verse 22 is not a stray proverb. It opens a theme the whole letter builds on, and the doing it has in mind is concrete: care for people in need.

A. Something I have heard and agreed with, but not done. I told my sister I would call her back. I will call at lunch today.

P. Lord, I hear a lot and do little. Thank You for showing me my own face. Help me make this one call today.

That is our example, not Cordeiro's. Notice what the chapter-first read changed: alone, the verse sounds like general advice; inside James 1, it opens an argument about mercy in action. An old line in Joshua 1:8 pairs the same two moves, meditating on the Book of the Law day and night “so that you may be careful to do everything written in it” (NIV). SOAP's O and A steps echo that pairing.

How long SOAP takes

The Salvationist account budgets about 30 minutes, reading included. A shorter version works too. By our estimate:

• The chapter: at 220 words a minute, James 1 takes under three minutes. A typical day on a one-year plan runs about nine minutes; see how long it takes to read the Bible in a year for the full arithmetic.
• SOAP itself: 10 to 15 minutes for one verse, one observation, one action and one prayer.

So plan on roughly 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the day's portion. If the O step's “what did it mean” question stalls you, a short study note helps. BlessUp's study lessons run about 3.8 minutes each, with a one-line key insight, four commentaries written for Non-Denominational, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox readers, and one comprehension question.

Common SOAP mistakes

• Choosing the verse first. Read the passage, then choose. The verse should come to you, not the other way round.
• An observation that only repeats the verse. Ask what is happening around it: who is speaking, to whom, and what comes next.
• Skipping “what did it mean then.” One sentence is enough, from the chapter and a book introduction.
• Applications too big to do. “Love people more” is a hope. “Call my sister at lunch” is an application.

When to use something other than SOAP

SOAP is best when you want to hear one thing clearly and act on it. It is less suited to working through a hard passage in depth, or to slow, prayerful rereading of a few lines. For depth, inductive study gives interpretation its own step; for slow rereading, see how to meditate on Scripture. The five-method comparison sets out which method answers which question, and how long each takes.

Frequently asked questions

What does SOAP stand for in Bible study?

SOAP stands for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. You write out one verse, note what it says, name one thing it asks of you, and pray about it.

Who created the SOAP Bible study method?

Wayne Cordeiro, founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii. He set it out in his book The Divine Mentor, which has a chapter titled SOAP.

How do you choose a verse for SOAP?

Read the day's passage on a reading plan first, then write out the one verse that stood out to you. The surrounding chapter gives your observation something to work with.

How long should a SOAP Bible study take?

By our estimate, 15 to 25 minutes: a few minutes to read a short chapter, then 10 to 15 minutes of writing. One account of the method allows about 30 minutes.

Can you use SOAP on a whole chapter?

Yes, and that is how it was designed. Read the whole chapter, then SOAP one verse from it. The chapter is the context; the verse is the focus.

What is the difference between SOAP and inductive Bible study?

Inductive study has separate steps for observation, interpretation and application. SOAP folds interpretation into observation and adds prayer at the end.