How to Start a Bible Study with the Unchurched

In this episode, I talk about how to start Bible Studies among the unchurched and that you can start them anywhere, if we simply make the decision to take Jesus to people. 

Transcript

In today’s episode we are going to talk about, how to start a Bible study with the unchurched.

In the previous episode, we talked about how to evangelize. Now, what do you do when you find that hungry person and they want to study the bible. We will talk about how this practically works. 

First off, when you’re starting a Bible study with the unchurched,  I want to emphasize that it could look different, depending on what culture you are working with. My advice is, be laid-back, keep it simple, and let Jesus work in their heart. Remember it’s not going to be dependent on you anyways. 

There are a lot of ministries out there with a lot of different methods of doing Bible Studies. One of the most common ways is called the Discovery Bible study. I definitely recommend it because it’s simple, it empowers people to learn for themselves, it is easy to apply to their lives, and it can easily be replicated which is really important. I will talk more about how to lead a  Discovery Bible Study in just a moment. 

As for which scripture to choose, there are numerous options on where to start. With other cultures I would start in the Old Testament starting with creation and lead up to Jesus. This way, they are gradually learning who God is, who Jesus is, and then they can make a decision about following Jesus. For Americans who grew up in the United States, I like to start with one of the four gospels. 

Let’s say you are taking them through the book of John. I have split up the book of John into 28 studies.  Every week or every two weeks you can go through one section together.  It is all scripture. These are not sermons. These are not Bible studies lessons. It is not me explaining scripture. The goal is to empower people to learn for themselves, so when they read the Bible on their own, they know how to understand and learn from it.  If I’m just preaching and teaching, I become the answer guy. I am seen as the expert and we don’t want that. We want Jesus and the Holy Spirit to be the teacher. With that said, I can still facilitate the Bible study without teaching, by asking questions. 

For the Discovery Bible Study, I will ask basically 3 questions. It is ok to ask them in different ways. Whatever fits your situation the best. I would just say, however you ask them, be consistent, so the people know how to replicate it or do a bible study on their own.  

I am asking them 3 questions: 

1. What does this passage mean?

2. How can we apply it to our life this week?

3. Is there anyone in our life, that you need to share this with?

Let me show you how this works by using a passage in Matthew 5 when Jesus is encouraging people to “love their enemies.” 

Matthew 5:43-48

43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[s] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Ask the first question; What does this passage mean? around the circle and ask people :

what does this passage means or what is it saying?

You can add a question;  do you have any enemies in your life? Believe me, you ask that question with any people group and you are going to get a lot of response!

After finishing, ask the second question; how can you apply this passage to your life this week or what are you going to do with this passage this week? You want to emphasize this week, so they will put it into practice immediately. If you just say how can you apply this to your life in general, often times people don’t apply it. Give them a goal or a “to do” for the week or even within the next 48 hours.

By asking these questions; God is going to be speaking directly to that person's heart. They are going to be thinking about their enemy and what they’re supposed to do with the passage. Imagine what can happen. We’ve had so many stories using this passage, whether their enemy is a friend or a family member and that week they go love that person and amazing things happen.  A lot of those “enemies” could end up showing up to the Bible study the next week!

The Bible is a powerful thing and these people get to see God work in their life by simply applying a passage of scripture. It sounds simple; but it can have a huge impact. 

The goal is to empower people to learn from God for themselves. Just have a discussion. Get people talking and then get people applying scripture. That’s when scripture really becomes alive. Try it out for yourself and see the power in it. Take a scripture today and ask yourself; how can I apply it this week and see what happens. 

The third question is, Is there anyone in your life, that you need to share this with? I love this question. Often times these are people who are not even believers yet. With this question, you are already teaching them how to share with others. You are preparing to share the gospel with others. It is humbling watching people who are not yet believers share stories of Jesus!

How would this practically work? A person just learned about loving their enemies. Now that person is loving the people he or she had hatred for. They have now probably even forgiven them. It is an incredible life change. Now that person starts telling others about what God did in their life. Or maybe they know a friend of family member who is struggling with hatred and they go and share it with them. They even share that scripture with them and ask them the 3 questions. They just replicated themselves.  Again, it's amazing to watch!

As far as the set up for a meeting for unchurched people.  Have food or have people bring food. Just hang out like normal people. Talk about fun things. Get to know each other. 

You don’t have to bring in a guitar or have worship music. You don’t even to pray. 

Of course it depends on where the person or group is in their life, but they are probably not ready for worship music or prayer. Especially with other cultures who are unbelievers, they don’t know what Christian prayer or worship is yet. With an unbelieving American, that might be different. They might want or be ready for worship and prayer. Just use your discernment. 

Do a Bible study and see where it goes.  The key is just keeping it simple. Again one of the main reasons you want to keep it simple is so that person new to the Bible study can lead their own group someday. They know exactly how to do it because it’s simple. 

You are going to hear me say this a hundred times. Church or learning about Jesus can happen anywhere! The good news is that when you go to the unchurched, people are extremely open. We can’t fall into the trap of thinking people are just not open to God. Believe me, when you go to the unchurched, love people, and build relationships; they are gonna be very open to God. 

We have started Bible studies in the most craziest places you can imagine in. In brothels. In strip clubs, in lower income communities among drug addicts, in drug houses. We have started them in the gay community and even HIV hospice homes. It is just about making the decision to go to the unreached. Do we not think God wants to reach all people? We have to believe this or we are simple not going to take church to people. 

Obviously not all  you are going to go into all those places. But you can be looking to do this with your neighbors or people from your workplace. Anyone can do it.  You can start them anywhere and that’s not because you are so skilled or gifted. It is because God wants to work in all places with all people. 

Now, are all these Bible studies that you started going to be successful? Has all the Bible studies that we have started been successful? Absolutely not. Often times it’s not going to work out. Often times some are going to be very messy. Often times you’re not gonna see fruit, but that’s OK . Your job is to give people the opportunity to learn about Jesus and let the Holy Spirit work through the lives of people. 

OK that’s all for today. 

If you have any questions, you can contact us through our website at lovingallpeoples.com. Thanks for the listen everyone. This is the Loving All Peoples Podcast.