Are you qualified to start a Bible study?
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Summary
In this episode, Pastor Ken answers the question, Should I start a Bible study? and how should you start one if you don't know how to read the Bible? Pastor Ken gives practical advice on how to start a bible study if you aren't a trained Bible teacher.
Transcript
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This question is becoming more and more popular since the COVID-19 pandemic and I think more
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Christians are missing their Sunday church gatherings and they're looking for ways to
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meet their need for fellowship and the small group Bible study is this the first idea that
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comes to mind. And while Bible studies have proven to be fruitful for many folks, they've
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actually turned out to be quite dangerous for others. Not because Bible studies are wrong.
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They're a great thing. They're dangerous because many of them are made up of spiritually immature
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and theologically untrained Christians who teach other spiritually immature and theologically
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untrained Christians about doctrine and biblical interpretation. Basically, we're having thousands
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of Bible studies started each year, and again, typically by young people who don't even know
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how to study their own Bible. And this doesn't mean that the average Christian can't properly
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read their Bible. They can. But we have to realize that while the gospel is simple,
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the Bible isn't. In fact, I'd argue that the Bible is the most complex book on earth.
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But more than complexity, the Bible is a serious book, and if it's taught incorrectly,
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it can hurt people. And if there's one resounding warning in scripture to the people of God, it would
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be watch out for false teachers. And we always think of false teachers as malicious wolves in
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sheep's clothing, but the reality is, is anyone who sets out to teach the Bible and does it
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incorrectly is technically a false teacher. And this is something that we should be very careful
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with. Remember, the Bible cautions Christians against being quick to teach others. James 3.1
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says, not many of you should become teachers, for you know that we who teach will incur a stricter
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judgment. And so I would answer this question this way. If you're young in the faith and you
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haven't been theologically trained and you don't understand disciplines like hermeneutics and
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exegesis and biblical narrative, I would be very slow to lead a Bible study. The last thing that
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you want to do is spend eight weeks teaching false doctrine to a group of people that you love.
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Now, what I would do is I would find a local church with sound expository preaching. That
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could be a house church, like the ones our ministry plants, or a traditional church. And I would
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Simply ask an elder or a trained teacher if they'd be willing to help you start a Bible study.
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And this would give you the opportunity to not only fulfill the desire to study with other Christians,
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but to learn how a trained Bible teacher studies and teaches as well.