Saturday, October 14th, 2017.
Small group Bible studies are a great way to introduce your family and friends to the Bible rightly divided.
If your friends or family consider themselves Christian, knowledge of the Bible is something they value. (Polls show Christians value the Bible, but don’t read it.)
Being small means they can be personal, comfortable (if cozy makes you comortable), informal, and conversational.
That is is a group study provides a common purpose and reason for a conversation. “We’re here to study the Bible to see what it says about _____”.
That it is not a church will allow people to attend without making any committment to a mission, ministry, or doctrine.
Here are some tips:
2. Set an end time/date. Between 1 hr per meeting for 2-3 months is good. Reach the goal. (This is important for a small group Bible study! Don’t let it go on indefinitely or taper off. Finishing the goal is an accomplishment. People are more apt to participate in the short term if they know there is an opportunity to get off the train. At the end of the study, you can start over with another schedule and topic so that new people can attend or old people can leave.)
4. Do things orderly. Start with snacks and prayer, then cover the topic/passage/questions. End the same way in reverse.
5. Stay on topic. Don’t let the conversation devolve into spending the whole time on campfire stories, gossip, and family talk.
Small group Bible studies work best if you participate in a local grace church, so that when the question arises, “where is this taught?”, you can recommend or invite them to your church.
If you don’t have a grace church, then this is a good way to start one. If any become persuaded from your small group studies you can start a different meeting for those who desire to dig deeper and do the maturing work and ministry of a church.
Churches are started this way. They start small. Friends and family learn this way: it starts in houses.
For making all men see,
Justin “start small” Johnson