Last post, I shared a long quote from an article about the church in Ethiopia. I suggested that the problems there were similar to what we face in the US. I also suggested that the solution to their problem set was not translation of Bible study materials.
I am not against Bible study materials, per se. I have used them. I have written some. What I am against is continual use of Bible study materials. The problem with continued use of these is that they are secondary sources. Like commentaries or books about the Bible or about a Bible topic, they are the result of one or more individual’s work on a topic or a passage.
When you are using a study guide you are being led through the author’s study. By the questions you are answering and the passages you with which you are asked to interact, he or she is walking you through the work that they did moving you toward the conclusions, positions, and applications which they discovered during their time in the Word.
That can be and is helpful. We can learn how to study using those types of studies. We can begin to see the joy and benefit of studying our Bibles. However, those types of studies limit us. They make us dependent on another’s work. As good as some of those are, unless we have develop the tools and confidence to question or expand what they have done, we are forever dependent on other’s work to engage with the Bible.
That does not seem to be the intent of the Lord when He gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 – 20 (here @ Bible Gateway); or when Paul essentially repeated the Great Commission in 2 Timothy 2:1 – 3 (here @ Bible Gateway); or his exhortation, which again aligns with the Great Commission, in Ephesians 4:11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway). As leaders we are to equip disciples, followers of Christ, with all that we have been taught. That would include, at a fundamental level, the ability to independently study the Word of God.
So rather than coming up with questions for small groups to use in going deeper in the Sunday message; rather than translating Bible study materials from English into whatever; perhaps it would be better to equip believer to come up with their own questions, to study the Bible with nothing more than a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.
Otherwise we continue to make those disciples dependent on our study. Further, we rob ourselves of the benefit of benefiting from their insight as they engage with the Lord in His Word. It is sure based on Ephesians 4:16 (here @ Bible Gateway) that those whom we equip with see things that will build us up and encourage us in the Lord.
When you are using a study guide you are being led through the author’s study. By the questions you are answering and the passages you with which you are asked to interact, he or she is walking you through the work that they did moving you toward the conclusions, positions, and applications which they discovered during their time in the Word.
That can be and is helpful. We can learn how to study using those types of studies. We can begin to see the joy and benefit of studying our Bibles. However, those types of studies limit us. They make us dependent on another’s work. As good as some of those are, unless we have develop the tools and confidence to question or expand what they have done, we are forever dependent on other’s work to engage with the Bible.
That does not seem to be the intent of the Lord when He gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 – 20 (here @ Bible Gateway); or when Paul essentially repeated the Great Commission in 2 Timothy 2:1 – 3 (here @ Bible Gateway); or his exhortation, which again aligns with the Great Commission, in Ephesians 4:11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway). As leaders we are to equip disciples, followers of Christ, with all that we have been taught. That would include, at a fundamental level, the ability to independently study the Word of God.
So rather than coming up with questions for small groups to use in going deeper in the Sunday message; rather than translating Bible study materials from English into whatever; perhaps it would be better to equip believer to come up with their own questions, to study the Bible with nothing more than a blank sheet of paper and a pencil.
Otherwise we continue to make those disciples dependent on our study. Further, we rob ourselves of the benefit of benefiting from their insight as they engage with the Lord in His Word. It is sure based on Ephesians 4:16 (here @ Bible Gateway) that those whom we equip with see things that will build us up and encourage us in the Lord.
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