Equipping disciples of Jesus from Reforming Church, to be equipped with to continue to grow wherever they go.

16 July 2024

We love the Bible because the Bible is God’s word, with all 66 books of God speaking to us. We love to hear God speak to us when we open the Bible and read it. So since we love to hear and believe God at his word, we think a great way do that in our small groups is by using discovery Bible study methods.

Session is excited to see Reforming Church study the Scriptures through discovery Bible studies this year.

The discovery method is different to having a guide of pre-prepared questions before a group, in that it simply involves opening to the next passage of a Bible book and discovering from the text what the passage is saying. We have used this method before in our groups, and will do so for our series in 2nd Corinthians during this second-half of 2024. It’s a method that we have engaged with the Bible at our Men’s Breakfasts with, and it has been fruitful in seeing men be equipped to read the Bible and to do so with others in making disciples or in one to one Bible reading for evangelism.

There are many benefits to the discovery method of studying the Scriptures. It helps people in groups to read the Bible as a “first importance” exercise. It means we become practiced in reading through the text and seeing how it points to Jesus, so that we then can apply the Scripture to our own lives. It’s a method that fosters discussion, and encourages us in our sharing of the gospel with others - for we become so used to sharing the gospel in our small groups.

Of course the discovery method has its challenges, most of all it requires leaders to help guide groups by being able to rightly handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Yet, that challenge becomes for us an opportunity to see more Group Leaders raised up to lead others in opening the word of God together in this way of discovery.

So practically, what will this look like for our groups for the rest of 2024? It will mean that each Group Leader will help their group discover gospel meaning and application from each passage in 2 Corinthians, using methods the group finds helpful. There are a few options that are useful.

One is the Swedish method, we already use at Men’s Breakfast. It looks like this:

Then there is the COMA method, which works by looking at:

Context ~ What has gone before this section of text? How does this text or book fit into the whole Bible?

Observation ~ What does the text say? What do we observe stands out?

Meaning ~ What does this mean? What is the big idea, the threaded theme that all the supporting points show us?

Application ~ What needs to change for us? What ought we do now? What has Christ done that enables us do this?

There is also the 5R questions, which you can see here, used by AFES.

Whatever method a group uses, what matters most is that we teach people for a lifetime of loving God at his word.

You may know the old “teach a person to fish” proverb? Well, we love to equip disciples of Jesus to continue to grow wherever they go. We see Jesus give the church our mission: “to make disciple-makers of Jesus Christ”, and the key to that mission is often missing in disciple’s lives, teaching. Jesus tells us to teach disciples: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).

Jesus taught us God’s word, to teach others God’s word, so that they will be able to teach others God’s word. We haven’t made a disciple properly until we have taught someone how to teach someone else. This is what discovery Bible studies (whatever the method) help us to do. 

We use discovery Bible studies so that we hear God and pray that we will be those who handle his word rightly (2 Timothy 2:15).

We use discovery Bible studies so that we would be like the Bereans, “who received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily” (Acts 17:11).

We use discovery Bible studies so that we would hear the gospel word of God, so that we are reforming by the gospel of Jesus Christ.