Can We Use the Bible?

When I arrived here at Grace in September 2008, I had a month to organize and launch a Small Groups ministry. That wasn’t a lot of time, even if I had been in this culture for my entire life. As you can imagine, I had to learn about the culture and the church very quickly. And, the church had been warned by Pastor Scott for about 2 months that I was coming from Saddleback Church. Now, nearly everyone has heard of Saddleback or Rick Warren. And everyone seems to have a strong opinion regarding Rick. Some absolutely love him while some loath him. There doesn’t seem to be too many in the middle! As you can imagine, most of the people I would work with at Grace had ideas about me before I arrived.

I have to tell you about one gal in particular. She and her husband had agreed to lead one of our beta groups in October. I was explaining to her the options available to their group for study materials. I had a nice selection of study guides to choose from. As I explained, she was very quiet. I thought she was considering which one to select. When I was finished, she looked me squarely in the eyes and said, “Do you have any problem with us using the Bible?”

OK. Before I get on with the point of this post, let me tell you that I now have a great relationship with this gal and her husband. We just had to spend a little time together, sharing our hearts for God and His church, to realize we are likeminded. Now, back to the point…

The Bible should be at the core of what we do in group and in life. Does that mean that we can only study the Bible? No. Does it mean that we should study the Bible? Absolutely! Here are some of the things I would want you to know about Bible study in CONNECT group:

• Don’t do consecutive Bible studies. We want you to mix things up a bit in your group time. After you work through a passage or book of the Bible, do something different. You might decide to do a topical survey of the Bible, like parenting or stewardship or anxiety. Maybe you want to use a study guide or DVD. Perhaps it’s time for a service project or party or movie. Maybe you want to take a couple sessions and just discuss life and what God is asking of each of you. Mix it up or else your group will become too scholastic and one dimensional and ineffective.


• Use a good Bible. CONNECT Ministry has offered every continuing group leader the Serendipity Small Groups Study Bible. This is a very helpful tool for groups wanting to spend more time in the Word together. For each section of Scripture, it provides sample ice breaker, study, and application questions. You can either use it as provided or as a guide for developing your own questions. The key is that it helps you structure a transformational group interaction while also keeping you honest to the intended purpose of the passage.


• Ask the question, “So what?” While I touched on this above, I can’t over-emphasize the importance of this point. You have to bring the Bible “home” in your study. You can’t leave your group in Babylonian captivity. There has to be a takeaway. And be cautious of intangible applications. The sovereignty of God is a wonderful point to a passage, but how does His sovereignty impact your daily life? How does that information help you deal with a wayward son or diagnosis of cancer? The application portion of your time together is the part where you acknowledge receiving God’s truth and commit to a plan of implementation.

Do I have any problems with groups using the Bible? If they do it rightly, of course not! I encourage it! Let me leave you with James’ description of your how you should implement Bible study:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-- he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25