I shared a few days ago that I was preparing a workshop presentation called "Beyond the Book... A New Approach to Bible Study" and a few of you were interested to know more... so while it's fresh on my mind... I want to do that. But really... when I stopped to think about it... it's not so much a new approach to Bible Study itself as it is a fresh approach to the small group format.
Mid-summer I was talking to God about my own women's Bible Study group and to be honest, I love my gals but I was tired and wanted out. I was telling the Lord I needed something new... something different. What I thought I wanted was to simply sit in on someone's else's group for a while instead of leading one but... as I sought the Lord... instead of a new group... I began to picture this new format... a way of giving us opportunity to put feet to our faith... to be doers of the Word and not hearers only! It was like a breath of fresh air.
The concept is not profound... it's really quite simple. Typically, we've all done Bible Study one day or evening a week every week. With this new format, we now get together to study the Bible the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month, the second week is for fellowship and fun, and the 4th week is for serving and outreach. It has infused our group with new life and the women love it. We have taken the commands to love one another... and serve those in need... off the pages and into real life!
(our group after an evening of painting a living room for a single mom)
One of the things that excited me most, was when I thought about the women in my existing group and their personalities, I realized that I have some very relational women, some zealous do-gooders, and some serious Bible studiers... myself included in the latter which I'm sure you would have never guessed! But what excited me was to see how this new format ministered to each woman's personality... affirming how God made her, meeting her needs in a new way, and stretching the others of us in the process.
I knew that it was going to be a stretch for me because even though I love my friends... I am by nature a loner, a mouse in the corner kind of girl... not naturally relational and being social has never come easy so I knew the intentional fellowship and fun night was going to be a challenge. And although I love outreach, I'm not highly administrative except when I have to be, so organizing any kind of outreach would not my strength.
As I prayed about it, I knew I couldn't do it by myself... it would have to be a team effort so I called up two gals in my group... one highly relational to head up the fellowship and fun and another who has a huge heart for outreach to head that up and they both said yes. But... what was awesome... was when we had our first group meeting... it became obvious that the "team" the Lord had in mind was the entire group! They all got so excited about the concept and format and each woman wanted ownership!!! I knew God had to be smiling... I sure was!
I love God! I wanted a new group and He gave me a new way of doing group!
His ways are so much higher than our ways!
I want to share more with you about how our group is working and offer some of the suggestions for fellowship and outreach that I shared at my workshop. I'll do that tomorrow.
Until then... Lord bless you and keep you...
In His love and for His glory... xoxoxo
Karla
Mid-summer I was talking to God about my own women's Bible Study group and to be honest, I love my gals but I was tired and wanted out. I was telling the Lord I needed something new... something different. What I thought I wanted was to simply sit in on someone's else's group for a while instead of leading one but... as I sought the Lord... instead of a new group... I began to picture this new format... a way of giving us opportunity to put feet to our faith... to be doers of the Word and not hearers only! It was like a breath of fresh air.
The concept is not profound... it's really quite simple. Typically, we've all done Bible Study one day or evening a week every week. With this new format, we now get together to study the Bible the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month, the second week is for fellowship and fun, and the 4th week is for serving and outreach. It has infused our group with new life and the women love it. We have taken the commands to love one another... and serve those in need... off the pages and into real life!
(our group after an evening of painting a living room for a single mom)
One of the things that excited me most, was when I thought about the women in my existing group and their personalities, I realized that I have some very relational women, some zealous do-gooders, and some serious Bible studiers... myself included in the latter which I'm sure you would have never guessed! But what excited me was to see how this new format ministered to each woman's personality... affirming how God made her, meeting her needs in a new way, and stretching the others of us in the process.
I knew that it was going to be a stretch for me because even though I love my friends... I am by nature a loner, a mouse in the corner kind of girl... not naturally relational and being social has never come easy so I knew the intentional fellowship and fun night was going to be a challenge. And although I love outreach, I'm not highly administrative except when I have to be, so organizing any kind of outreach would not my strength.
As I prayed about it, I knew I couldn't do it by myself... it would have to be a team effort so I called up two gals in my group... one highly relational to head up the fellowship and fun and another who has a huge heart for outreach to head that up and they both said yes. But... what was awesome... was when we had our first group meeting... it became obvious that the "team" the Lord had in mind was the entire group! They all got so excited about the concept and format and each woman wanted ownership!!! I knew God had to be smiling... I sure was!
I love God! I wanted a new group and He gave me a new way of doing group!
His ways are so much higher than our ways!
I want to share more with you about how our group is working and offer some of the suggestions for fellowship and outreach that I shared at my workshop. I'll do that tomorrow.
Until then... Lord bless you and keep you...
In His love and for His glory... xoxoxo
Karla
