At least once a year I like to reflect back on some of the Bible Studies we’ve done at our church and give some feedback in hopes that it might encourage you in some way. Staying in God’s word is the single most important thing we can do as Christ followers. It’s one of the main ways we hear from God and get to know him more.
As I’ve mentioned before I struggle with consistency in this area of my life and so accountability is important for me. Being a part of a Bible Study helps me a lot. But I’ve also found another tool that I’ll be sharing later this week that is a huge help to me outside of an actual Bible Study group. More on that later.
So here are a few studies we did this year as a group of women:
Stronger by Angela Thomas was a great Bible study both in teaching and the homework. We bought the dvd’s and used the workbook for our homework. The length of the study seemed to be about right. (6-7 weeks depending on how you do your introduction) In this study Angela teaches from Psalms and shares from her own life in a season of great pain. She poses areas of weakness that can be turned into great strength with the power of Christ infused. Angela is one of my favorite Bible teachers out there.
Job by Lisa Harper was a very in-depth and hard Bible Study. Hard for two reasons: 1) It’s just a difficult story to process and so heavy. 2) It was a lot of homework with some unrealistic assignments that nobody did. Sorry, but true. Would I do the study over again? Yes, but it’s a study you kind of plug your nose and wade through. That’s so terrible to say but it’s how I felt at the end. The priceless gem of building a biblical foundation for suffering was worth this hard and long study. Lisa’s teaching and the short interviews at the end of each session were really good.
Matthew – She Reads Truth I’ll be talking more about She Reads Truth later in the week. This was my favorite study! And it’s different than all the others in the fact that it’s not really a study. It’s straight scripture with a few questions for pondering and evaluating at the end. I know sounds like it might be hard to lead but I’ll tell you I loved this study so much and it gave us something the other studies didn’t. More on that later.
A few other studies that some of my Bible Study friends did this year and loved were…
Seamless by Angie Smith. I’ve never done a study by Angie but I heard her speak at an IF: Gathering and loved her so much. My friend said this was her favorite Bible Study so far.
Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer was another study that some of the women in our church did and they loved it. I did this study years ago when she first put it out and it was a great study. She revised it last year and so this is the current study. I love Priscilla Shirer’s heart for God and her desire to see women in the word. Her ability to teach and make scripture come alive is unlike anyone I know. I have grown as a result of studying under her teaching. I would love to do this study.
Psalm 23 – Jennifer Rothschild is another study I hear is so good. I have the book and have been reviewing it for a potential study at our church but I’ve not downloaded the videos. We have done several other studies by Jennifer Rothschild like Missing Pieces and Hosea. Love.her!!
I’ll be posting more about She Reads Truth so come back this week.
Leave a Reply