Ok boys and girls, for this edition of Monday on the Links we are looking into Bible Study. What a broad topic! Ok so we are looking at 3 facets of bible study: 1) how to study the bible /  helpful resources for bible study and 2) what materials to take your small group through.  *Some of these links are going to take you to sites where you can buy resources. Sorry, not everything is free today but I realized that you are probably quite willing to spend a little cash on great stuff.

1. How To Study the Bible
   1. Article: “Studying the Scriptures” (an article by Kenneth Boa): This is a pretty long article but rich with insight into the why and how of studying the bible.
   2. website: www.biblestudytools.net
   3. Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods (book by Rick Warren): Very Accessible and helpful resource, but it does cost money.
   4. Living by the Book (book by Howard Hendricks): What I consider one of the best works on the “observation, interpretation, application” method.
   5. SummitLIFE Leader Training Session 1. Just a shameless plug! If you want to learn to study the bible, come lead a small group at the Summit Church!
2. Materials for your small group
   1. Life Change Series (series of book-based studies by NavPress): A great resource for a small group to use. The link I’ve provided is for the Ephesians book study.
   2. MaCarthur Bible Studies (series by John MaCarthur): Written by one of “the guys” in popular bible study, a few of our groups here at the Summit have found these to be quite helpful.
   3. BestCommentaries.com (website…of course): Nothing beats speaking with your pastor to get good guidance on a particular passage you are working through. With that said, whenever I’m confronted with the question “what would be a great commentary on (insert book of the bible)?” I now turn to this site in my search. It’s new, but good.
   4. Redeemer Presbyterian Small Group Studies: Written largely by Tim Keller these studies are deep, good, and very well priced.

I grew up in church…bla bla bla…insert a bunch of stuff pastors say about how religious and rule-based their lives were in the pews of yesteryear. One thing churches who are “relevant” today have a danger of tossing aside with the rest of suit & tie Sundays is the habit of studying the scriptures. Dont get me wrong, we have done great strides to contextualize the gospel message to a 21st century context and I am very grateful to be at a church seeking to do just that without watering it (the gospel) down one ounce.

What I am talking about is the noticeable increase in materials (most noticeable to me in the form of small group studies) that deal with life circumstance topics such as marriage and kids, as well as spiritual topics. What concerns me is that at the same time I am noticing a huge derth in the publication of expositional materials. That is, materials or studies that walk a small group through a book of the bible. Im not saying that these two are directly connected though I do suspect if good authors are writing about one thing they are not at the same time writing about another.

I think there is a good place for some of the material being printed and I dont want to get off on a “publisher” rant. Instead, Im going to use my remaining words to exhort our generation to continue studying the scriptures above all else. The scriptures are the only “materials” in the Christian world that we believe have truly life-changing power because they are the only materials “breathed out by God” (2 Tim 3:16). They are fully sufficient for sustaining and growing a christian towards spiritual maturity.

So to you who may be a small group leader I challenge you in your “curriculum” search to start with the scriptures and when you get tired of the studying the bible, talk to your pastor. I look forward to reading in the years to come the insight God is giving the “relevant” pastor-theologians of our day in their study of the scriptures. Here is my plea: Take us through the Psalms! Through the Prophets! Through Paul’s Letters! THROUGH THE GOSPELS!

The greatest small group study ever is recorded in Luke 24. Jesus reveals himself to his disciples and tells them how all of the OT scriptures are written about HIM. He explains the scriptures to them.

So from one small group pastor: Thank you to the many authors writing studies outside the box that are finally tackling issues from a biblical perspective. Your work has been long overdue. Let us now call those same great minds to the challenge of creating book-based bible studies with the same excellence they have displayed so far!

A Caveat: we have a good supply of academics who are writing bible commentaries. We do not need more of these. What we need are teaching materials that help people learn to study the bible for themselves. I am afraid this is a task specific to the pastor-theologian who God has gifted to “teach” the scriptures.

I live in a suburb. I mean the real deal where kids play in the street, houses are like 20 yards from one another, families have cookouts in their backyards, everybody has a dog and walks that dog sometime between 5 – 7pm each day, and oh yes…there is a homeowners association. You should see it, its straight out of “lower – middle class America” magazine. We even have the appropriate amount of racial and cultural diversity (no discernible majority, its pretty cool.) to make us the poster-child for 21st century suburbia. But i gotta tell you the move I made from Seminaria to Suburbia this past winter has opened my eyes to alot of things.

One thing I have started making connections between is how a lot of times we treat church like our own lil suburbia neighborhood. If we are honest with ourselves, all we often really want to do when we come home is park the car, go inside, and be with our family. We hope the neighbor isnt pulling in at the same time because then we will have to exchange that awkward pleasantry with them we’ve been doing for 4 years now. (My neighbor says “Hey Scott”, I’ve stopped trying to correct him. If you come over & he is out there, just go with it.) We like the neighborhood, certainly don’t want it to change, and would prefer to be left alone for the most part. And the homeowner’s association? Well, its just one of those necessary evils you have to deal with. You pay your dues and hope that buys you enough clout to plant a shrub without causing a community meltdown. As long as they dont raise the dues too much, or come up with any new ideas, we can peacefully co-exist.

I gotta tell you, this sounds alot like how I used to view being a part of a church. I wanted to go on Sunday, sit where I normally sat with the people I came with & HOPE the greeters and people around me didnt notice me because I really didnt want to do the handshake + greeting thing. I liked the music and preaching so I would come back each week. And yes, I even put money in when they collected the offering, you know, paying my dues to keep the church going so the pastors (re: HOA) would be happy. That way we could peacefully co-exist and ultimately God would be happy because I was in church. Pretty good investment if you asked me.

Does this sound in any way familiar to you? So many churches are filled with people who bring this suburbian mindset into the church. So what happens? WE, not everybody else, YOU AND ME help foster an attitude and atmosphere of fake friendship, obligatory tithing, and an isolationist “dont go changing anything” mentality. Check that against what the church originally looked like:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers…all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” Acts 2:42-47

The original church had no concept of isolation or fake friendship, they had genuine fellowship that came from sharing life together. They didnt pay their dues, they looked for any way they could find to give everything they had to help out one another. And they grew in number and were ok with it. They probably had to change to accomodate that growth, but they were so pumped about seeing people come to love Jesus, they didnt really care about the change. Friendship, radical generosity, and a communally entrenched passion for people characterized the early church.

This passage re-shaped me drastically in how I view church. Where do you sit right now? Is church another HOA for you? Are you honestly willing to share life with others the way the original church did? What is keeping you from taking the next step to connecting to a church community maybe in a way you never have before?

If you are at the Summit, an easy step for you could be starting point this Sunday. If you are already a part of the Summit family, maybe its time to step into a SummitLIFE small group where this fellowship im talking about can take place.

I’m almost 26 now. I’ve officially been out of college longer than I was in it (yes I made it all 4 years). I find myself occasionally longing for the schedule and routine I had at 21 where I could go work out for a couple of hours, play basketball with the guys for two more, and then eat anything I wanted because my metabolism was at its peak. Recently however I am in a stage in life where words like “portion,” “bottled water,” and “diet Dr. Pepper” are regulars in my vocabulary. Probably the biggest change from then to now, is that life is simply busier. In college my Wednesday consisted of class, call my girlfriend, and hangout with friends. Maybe study depending on the month. It was easy! There were no real time demands most of the time. So as a believer, I could pretty much pick whenever to sit down and study my bible and pray. But, those days are over. Today I have a wife I love spending time with, a job as a pastor that I love pouring into, an emotionally needy and mentally lacking chocolate lab, a washing machine that needs repairing, and a 2 month deadline to get my first son’s bedroom ready before his arrival in august. I get up at 6 am, go to bed at 11pm and could rattle you off another 20 things each night that I wanted to get done that day but just didn’t have the time.

The point is, I have to be disciplined now to carve out time in my life to meet with God. I cant just wait until that moment in my day when I have nothing to do. That moment is called college and it is only a memory to me. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells me that all of the scriptures are the very words of God and are useful in all aspects of my life. They are like food to my soul that I should hunger for. And the truth is that I do hunger for them. But If im not careful to make time to feed myself, the barking of the dog and the clanging of the washing machine will suffocate that hunger. And remember, my child isn’t even here yet!

So, after recognizing the pattern of immediate needs killing my spiritual growth, I decided to go on the offensive and re-schedule a daily time to meet with God. I looked for a time in my day that was calmest, and started there. For me, that was the morning. I wake up at 6am everyday. (If you don’t like keeping a schedule this part will frustrate you. But you need to grow up and realize somebody else will decide your schedule for you if you don’t.) By 6:20 I am out the door with my dog for a walk around the neighborhood. Its only about a 20 minute walk, but has turned from an obligatory part of my schedule into a 20 minute daily prayer walk. That is, as I walk by the homes of the neighbors I see regularly, I pray for them, for their marriages and ultimately for their salvation. I pray for opportunities to share the gospel with them. Its awesome! That is also my time to just praise God for his creation or pray for things really weighing on my mind. Warning: Im not saying this is the only time I pray. I find the most growth in my prayer life when I am in solitude, speaking to and listening to God with the scriptures sitting open in front of me. What I AM saying is that I reclaimed a time in my day as an opportunity to meet with God instead of letting it be another task on my honey-do list.

At 6:40 I start reading my bible and usually eat a pop-tart (with Cold Skim Milk. Mmmm). Sometimes that bible reading lasts 40 or 50 minutes, sometimes it lasts 15. Sometimes I read 3 verses, sometimes I read 3 chapters. Today I read chapter 2 of Galatians. I read it over about 4 times and just meditated on what the author was saying. I think I sat there at the island in my kitchen for about 30 minutes or so really trying to think on v.20 that says “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now life in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This is the gospel message. So I tried honestly evaluating where I want to see Christ’s love lived out in my life more than it is right now. Nothing earth shattering hit me at that moment, but things I’ve been praying for like my marriage and my relationship with my co-pastors came to mind. That is how God often speaks to us though. He gives us (via the holy spirit) recall of his word (meaning we’ve been reading it) into our life situations that we are coming before him in prayer about. Its pretty awesome. Sometimes he will use the recall of his word in a fellow believer to speak into our life situation / prayer request. That is even awesomer and it’s why we always have to be in relationships (re: small groups) where that can happen.

So my question to you is really twofold:
1. Are the immediate needs of your life killing your walk with Christ?
2. What is the calmest part of your day & how could you start there in reclaiming a regular time to meet with God? Commute in your car? Your workout hour? Grey’s Anatomy hour?

I would love to hear suggestions that have worked for you to this end. Also, if you are struggling through this battle as I did recently and want a hand in figuring it out, feel free to contact me: sshelton@summitchurch.cc .

We are in the midst of our SummitLIFE Leader Gatherings right now where we are encouraging one another and praying for one another. These gatherings are taking place in 4 locations, on 4 nights, throughout the triangle. Our first one was last night and it was awesome. We prayed for our church, & for one another as group leaders. At first glance, that sounds more like a prayer meeting than a training session. And that is exactly what I was hoping for. You see, real learning comes almost always from doing. To get a real grasp on how to do something you practice it right? Leading a small group is no different. So we are, through practice, training one another on how to pray using the scriptures. We are doing that because we are recognizing the simple truth that unless prayer meeting happens in our small groups, it wont happen at the Summit Church. Please let that sink in if you are a SummitLIFE group leader. Ok, Let me show you what praying through the scriptures looks like using Ephesians 3:14-20.

For the Church:

• Pray that our church would be a place where people, every family in our reach (15) would come to know and love Jesus (17). Pray that for easter especially.
• Pray that the Christians who make up the Summit Church would begin to grasp the greatness of God’s love (19) because that is when true life change starts to happen (19).
• Recognize that God is capable of answering these prayers in bigger and better ways than you can fathom (20) and praise him for it.
• Recognize that the end game of your prayers is not you, but the glory of God. And Pray that our church would be a place that sees generations of people live lives that glorify God.

For your SummitLIFE Group:

• Have each person (or family) pray specifically for another person (or family) the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-20.
  • That the Father who created all men (15) would strengthen them in their faith through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives (16)
  • That they would be firmly rooted and established in the love of Christ in such a way that through each avenue of their lives they begin to see the height, depth, length, and width of the grace given to them.
  • That they would worship God as they come to understand more completely his love for them (19).
  • Believe on their behalf that God is SO much bigger than their prayers or circumstances. He can do greater things than they could possibly ask.
  • Pray their lives are conformed to the purposes of God in Christ in such a way that the glory of God is made known through them.
• I look forward to praying this with you who lead small groups at the Summit Church during our upcoming leader gatherings together. If you do not know which one you are supposed to be at, please call me ASAP at 919.383.7100!