Don't Sleep Through Bible Study

Sometimes we rely too much on group study aids when we need to bring the electricity to the wire and make it personal. Wednesday Evenings can always be a blessing whether many or few. However as a Church family we do well to spend some personal time together and really get to know one another's struggles, etc.
Here are some scattered ideas about what to do Wednesday Evening and other Bible study sessions.


1. Have everyone bring their own question or topic on a Bible verse. So in a class you can go down the line once a topic has been discussed.


2. Study a Bible character or a certain Bible story and how it relates with us today in our setting. Just announce it in Church and leave it up to the people to read the story and bring their questions or thoughts.


3.Have a flannel graph story for the younger children classes. It is a flannel board set up that you can arrange Bible stories and characters on. Children really enjoy this!


4. Have a Prayer Meeting. In a extended revival? Have special needs in your congregation? Be open to having a prayer meeting. The meeting is open for anyone to have a prayer request or testimony. It is a open meeting. Brethren randomly get up and share a testimony and then a prayer request. They then lead the congregation in a prayer as everyone kneels. It is a spontaneous meeting. Brings everyone together as people share concerns about their own needs, needs in the community, the congregation, health issues. Often  15-20 prayers are offered.


5. Some thoughts on Bible Study Outreach at Rehabs, Detention Centers, etc
In California (drug rehab and homeless shelter) and now Alabama (youth detention center) were I have attended services--- we have devotional settings that foster way more participation than our regular organized Bible study (with Bible Doctrine Study Booklets).  

For starters you do not start putting people through doctrine class. That said --I am not trying to water down Bible doctrine. Not everybody is ready to jump from elementary school to college. Bible illiteracy is fairly high despite all of the surface religious debates that people and politics like to throw around. 

Rather read a Bible story and ask questions---keep it simple. Make it a devotional.

 Keep that part down to a third of the time at most. 

Open it up to if anybody has a testimony or questions on the Bible or more questions on the story just read. Make it family time. Show the people love by be willing to listen to them. Then apply Bible trues and personal experiences. Once everybody gets warmed up--people will start asking questions on the Bible and what does it say about this and this.

 "Will you pray for my family?" " My Church is full of hyprocites that's why I don't go to church any more" Be careful to follow the spirit in these meetings. Many times they take an evangelical note and you get down on choices, destinations ---heaven or hell.

We are sometimes so focused on an over structured Bible study agenda---that we squeeze out the life. Just be broken and be honest. We went one time and admitted that we felt we had nothing to bring and would have to rely on the Lord for inspiration----in that end of that meeting we seen people crying , requesting prayer, sharing reoccurring dreams that pointed to warnings, etc, and nobody was over 19. At the start of the meeting there was  some snickering and it looked like problems, but by the end we were all on the line. No question that it was not us but God was speaking to all of us.

Just please don't start those people and rely totally on Bible study books. Again I am not promoting entertainment or emotional based study--rather just making Bible study personal to day to day life. The Bible is the Living Word.

 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb. 4:12

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not asthe word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe 1 Thess. 2:13