Bible Study

Schedule
Our weekly Men's Bible Study meets every Monday night except for major holidays. We will let people know ahead of time if it is cancelled and the Church bulletin/schedule can be referred to as well. We start at 6:00 and go until 8:00. It is okay to come late if you cannot make it at 6:00 - better late than never. The night follows this general format:

• Opening prayer. A short prayer offered by someone so that we start the night with the proper attitude and mindset.
• Worship. Ten to fifteen minutes of time worshipping God (usually 3 or 4 songs). Ideally these songs will be related to the passage being studied.
• Reading. Someone reads the passage out loud (we skip this for book overviews).
• Study. Starting with the leader, and then going counterclockwise, each person shares their study.
• Sharing. Each person, in turn, shares their praises and prayer requests. The idea is that each person will pray for others through the week.
• Closing prayer. A short prayer to close the night's meeting.

The study is "led" by a different person each week (determined the previous week). The leader is responsible for being the first person to share their study that night and also to choose the songs for the worship time. Ideally they will also help to keep things moving along through the night - though this is the responsibility of everyone. It is important to not get distracted so that we finish by 8:00 pm. Catching up with people can be done after the meeting ends.

The study itself is done by each person prior to the meeting. Personally, I read the passage each day through the week, and then spend a day reading commentaries, digging into original language words, and writing it all down. Obviously, the passage to study must be known to everyone ahead of time. This is done by choosing a book of the Bible to study and then, starting with chapter 1, proceeding through the book, with each subsequent chapter each week until we reach the end of the book. At the end of the book, the next week we cover the entire book (Psalms excepted) and choose the next book to study. Thus, everyone knows which passage will be covered at the upcoming meeting.

The study
We follow an Inductive Bible Study (IBS) approach which differs from other forms of Bible study. There are many IBS approaches, but they all share the following aspects: study is done by the person (rather than being taught by someone else), considering both the objective meaning of scripture, plus how it can be applied to one's life. The goal is to apply the scripture to our lives so that we become more like Jesus, but it must be based on a foundation of objective analysis of the scripture. Unlike some studies (such as BSF) there are not a set of questions crafted for each passage. Rather, there are a set of questions that apply to any passage one can read. Note: we study books of the Bible - not books about the Bible. The following are the questions we use. You may find it useful to print out the following paragraph and have it with you while you write down your study.

1. Outline. Write a brief outline of the passage.
2. Context. What is the sociopolitical, cultural, historical, and even geographical context of the passage. Who wrote it and who is it directed to? Note that some passages contain directions to different groups or people and this should be noted. Often, the same context applies to multiple chapters, and one need not copy this from the first chapter to all subsequent chapters.
3. Objective Analysis. Restate what the chapter says in your own words. This tends to be the section that takes the most work. Avoid subjective interpretation.
4. Key verse(s). Choose a verse (or passage for book overviews) that you think summarizes the point of the passage.
5. What does this passage say about God? Write down what the passage says about God.
6. What does this passage say about Man? Write down what the passage says about mankind, and/or believers.
7. Favorite verse(s). Choose a verse (or passage for book overviews) that you especially liked, or jumped out at you.
8. How does this apply to my life? This is the section for your subjective interpretation of the passage. In general terms, how does this passage apply to you, your life, your prayers, and your relationships?
9. Application. Choose a specific lesson from the passage - something that you feel the Holy Spirit was saying to you. This is often related to the verse(s) that seemed to jump out as you studied the passage. This is something you will apply to your life every day through the following week, and beyond. It could be a new perspective on things which you need to meditate on. Or it could be an encouragement you needed to hear. Or it could be a correction of an incorrect understanding of the scripture that you previously held. Or it could be a conviction of an area of your life that has not been surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, which you will make an effort to change. Each week, you will be asked how you did on your application from the previous week. This is the goal of the study: to conform our thoughts, atttitudes, and actions to the Lordship of Jesus more and more.

What makes IBS unique is that it is you, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, who decides how to apply the scripture to your life. It is possible that you simply got nothing out of the passage that week (it ocasionally happens to all of us). The benefit of meeting together to share what we've learned is that the Spirit may speak to you while you listen to others. If you application comes to you during the meeting, that is fine! The goal here isn't to have the most in-depth study or polished presentation or to show off our knowledge. Rather, it is to humbly submit to the Spirit's leading so that we grow to spiritual maturity. We may all have different issues we are dealing with, but it all comes down to how conformed we are to the example of Jesus. This applies to the youngest new believer and the oldest experienced saint. None of us has "arrived" this side of heaven. Incidentally, if you do this study for each chapter of a book, plus the overview, you have essentially created your own commentary on that book of the Bible. You may want to keep it for future reference. I use a spiral-bound notebook to write down my studies. When I finish one, I begin another. Then I keep these around for future reference.

In conjunction with Pastor Bud, we have come up with a set of things to consider when we study books which are essentially Hebrew literature (basically anything not written by Luke or Paul). You can view these considerations here.

What do we study?
Of first importance, we study the Bible, not books about the Bible. As helpful as supplemental materials may be, we go directly to the source. The book of the Bible that we study is voted on by the members of the group. This is done by each person choosing their top three books, in preference order. These are submitted to a person who will tally the results and announce the choice. The details of the process are that for each person, each top vote for a book counts as 3, the second choice counts as 2, and the third vote counts as 1. The counts are added for each book, and the one with the highest count is the winner. In the case of a tie, I make the choice (I don't otherwise vote), although we could do a "runoff", but thus far there hasn't been a tie. Note: in the case of the choice of a single-chapter book, the following book will be the one with the second-highest count.

Why do we cover the entire book after doing each chapter? This is especially important for the epistles, since they were intended to be read in one sitting by the people who received them. Chapters and verses were added after they written and serve a useful purpose in breaking them down into "bite-size" pieces, but the original letters were not partitioned. The idea with chapter study is to dig into the details. The idea with the book overview is to get the "30,000 foot view" of the whole work. The chapters are the trees, the book overview is the forest. Both are important. In the case of a single-chapter book (like Philemon), there is no separate overview.

Worship time
Those choosing songs should aim for songs which are focused on God rather than ourselves, have decent theological content, are singable by average people, don't have extended periods of instrumental music, and ideally have some relevance to the passage being studied that night. For a list of songs (as examples, not as a limitation), you can view the following playlist.

Snacks
There are no official snacks, and you shouldn't expect there to be any. However, some people sometimes bring snacks to share. This is not expected or required, but if you want to be particularly generous, feel free to bring something. Realize, however, that there are no utensils, dishes, or cups - so please only bring finger foods.

Final notes
A couple other notes. Our study is limited to men and we keep each other's confidence. This allow us to be painfully open and honest. The sin in our lives isn't pretty, but it needs to be dealt with head-on. Being honest allows us to keep each other accountable and pray for one another in informed ways. What is shared should be kept within the group. Secondly, those who are distruptive will be politely asked not to come back. The goal here is for everyone to share - not so one individual can monopolize all of the time or conversation. Rebukes may occasionally be necessary, but everything should be done in humility and love. Although anyone is welcome to attend (given the foregoing limits), the study is intended for people who are serious about following hard after Jesus. If you aren't interested in doing the work and changing in accordance to what the Spirit reveals to you, there really is no point for you to come. If you are aware of a need, announcing it to the group so there can be prayer is good, but be careful that we do not take part in gossip.