Pray Like Crazy
A common mistake is to think that planning, expertise and cooperation are enough to make a really solid Bible study. Remember that the power of God is at the heart of all valuable and permanent spiritual growth. Prayer establishes and makes explicit our conscious dependence on God rather than ourselves. Waiting in prayerful silence can allow God to bring new ideas or warnings to mind that can fundamentally mold your Bible study into a more successful pursuit. All the following steps depend on prayer to be really effective. Don’t think of prayer as the foundation of your Bible study – think of it as the rebar. It should be buried into every part, start to finish, bottom to top, to hold it together and keep it strong.
Understand Your Purpose
The next step in starting a new Bible study is to clearly define what you hope to accomplish. Is this mainly about building friendships, training people in particular study methods, directly experiencing God together, or perhaps pursuing a certain skill or good cause? Many groups that are loosely called a “Bible study” are actually centered on another activity – evangelism, social justice, or praying together. That’s fine as long as people understand what they’ll be getting into. A clearly defined group will improve communication and effectiveness and cut down chances of disappointment when the group isn’t what people expected or fails to focus on anything important.
Know Your Audience
Pray and think about who you’d like your Bible study group to attract and serve. A Bible study designed for seminary students will look very different from a Bible study intended to cater to skeptics or new and inexperienced Christians. Think through who you’ll be starting the group with, who lives in your area and how you’ll let them know about the Bible study, and who is likely to respond. All of this will affect how you publicize and run your meetings. If you want to engage in dialogue with non-Christians, for example, don’t just put up a flyer at church.
Establish A Core Group
You can’t have a Bible study without other people. The best way to start is usually by gathering a few friends or like-minded people to help define the culture and feel of the group before opening it up to newcomers. This helps give definition and consistency to the group. If you simply invite a bunch of people and see how things go, be ready for the group to end up nothing like what you originally envisioned. If you’re ok with that, you can skip this step, but in general the end result of that sort of approach is poor leadership leading to a lack of direction, confusion, and eventually a loss of participation.
On the other hand, starting as a group of friends with a common goal, values, and an attitude of humble cooperation will set a clear tone and purpose and help ensure the longevity and effectiveness of your Bible study. Once you’ve met together a few times and the group has settled down into a clear and effective routine, start inviting people according to the plan, and you’re on your way!
