Archive for Bible Study

Reaching Young Adults

I regularly hear church leaders say, “We need to reach young adults,” usually in a church that is struggling to reach and keep young adults. If this is your church, there is hope! Here are three suggestions for reaching young adults.

1. Listen

Listen to God. Why does he want to reach young adults? How has he led you to desire to reach them? How would he have you proceed?

Listen to church members. To whom else in your church might God be speaking about reaching young adults? What wisdom do others have on the subject? (Someone has probably “tried that before,” right?)

Listen to young adults. Build friendships and hear what they are saying about faith and church participation. Avoid the urge to tell them what they should be doing differently. Make sure you are not approaching young adults with a target mentality. Young adults are not a project or a goal to achieve, but individuals to be valued, heard, and loved.

2. Evaluate

What are the possibilities for your church? There certainly nothing wrong with dreaming big, but if there are few young adults in your community or few in your church today, then starting one group or hosting a meal with young adults may be a great start! Your local Baptist association or state convention may be able to provide a demographic study that will help you understand the possibilities, or you can look for yourself at the US Census data for county population characteristics here.

Evaluate the desire of your church’s leaders and members to (1) give up some comfort and control (favorite pew, decision-making, programming, finances, traditions), and (2) mentor and bless new young leaders. These two areas may reveal the biggest barriers to reaching young adults. If you reach young adults but are not ready to invite them into significant ministry and leadership roles, they are likely to go elsewhere.

3. Get to work

Based on 1 and 2 above, recognize that simply starting a young adult class/group or adapting worship style will not reach young adults. Spiritual, relational, and organizational effort is needed.

Spiritual – Invite existing adult groups to pray regularly for young adults as well as you or others who are leading your church’s efforts to reach them. Pray for opportunities to meet needs and share the gospel.

Relational – Weddings, births, kids’ sports, Vacation Bible School, fall festivals, and other events provide natural points of connection with young adults. Be intentional in using these opportunities to begin new friendships. Invite two or three young adults to meet you for breakfast to discuss plans for starting a young adult Bible study. Ask other church members to make a point of getting to know young adult neighbors.

Organizational – Start a new Sunday School class or small group when a core group of young adults are ready to begin. In the meantime, develop one to four young adults through a personal discipleship group or less formal get-togethers. As you reach young adults, invite them to serve in the church. Young adult guests who see young adult greeters, ushers, committee members, and ministry leaders are more likely to believe your church has a place for them, too.

David Adams

Director of Discipleship

Texas Baptists

Reading Your Bible in 2022

2022 is upon us, and just like previous years, there’s likely a flurry of activity for church leaders to look for resources to encourage their church to read the Bible in the new year. And while there’s plenty of resources out there, there are some useful guiding principles to keep in mind in order to provide the readers with a rich devotional experience as they dig into the Word.

What are the principles? Here are five to look for:

  1. The resource should be simple to understand. Take your pick: will you read the whole Bible in 2022, a book or a few books, or either the New or Old Testaments? Whatever you choose, make sure that the concept is easy to grasp. For example, a church leader may recommend reading through the New Testament in a year by focusing on one chapter a day on weekdays only. Another idea is to having members read through the Bible using a chronological Bible plan to see the Bible in its historical setting. Whatever the experience is, make sure that the scope of the reading is explained and easy to grasp from the start.
  2. The resource should be simple to navigate. While there are many, many reading plans out there, not all plans are alike. Some require a lot of page turns and navigations through books of the Bible that can get confusing, especially for those who are not familiar with the Bible. Instead, find a resource that is simple to use so that following the plan is as intuitive as possible.
  3. The resource should be simple to reengage. Sometimes, despite the greatest of intentions, life gets in the way. Readers miss a day or two and fall behind. People get tired and stop. It happens. A good resource should allow a reader to reengage at whatever point they are at. If, for example, a reader stops reading in March, but in June wants to join again, they can just start anywhere. They can then finish the plan with a sense of freedom to finish well.
  4. The resource should allow for reflection. Some reading plans are wonderful, but don’t always allow enough freedom for the reader to reflect on the passages being read. For example, the HEAR method gives the reader a chance to reflect what they have read through a simple to use journaling format. The point here is not that the reader is to fulfill a legalistic checkbox to read the Bible as fast as possible, but instead to find a way to connect with the Lord in a meaningful, faith growing journey.  
  5. The resource should be simply convenient. Since leaders are looking to help readers connect with the Lord devotionally, it is a good idea to make sure that the resource is convenient to access. For example, the YouVersion app (or at the Bible.com website) has a healthy supply of devotional resources. Personally, I used it in 2021 to read through the Bible chronologically with a group of readers, and I used the HEAR method to journal a passage that the Lord spoke to me about. Having access to that app on my phone or tablet made it very convenient for me, and was especially helpful if I happened to be traveling that day.

I hope that these are helpful, useful principles to help guide your recommendations to believers and nonbelievers alike as they engage with the Word of God. Again, there are many resources out there, both for free and for purchase, but following these principles will help you to provide a rich experience for readers who want to connect with God’s Word.

Dr. Fran Trascritti is a husband, father, and grandfather to 13 beautiful children. He is the Growth Team Leader for the Illinois Baptist State Association. He and his wife, Teresa, live in Springfield, IL.

Developing Apprentice Teachers

“How could I be so stupid?”  Maybe you’ve never asked yourself this question.  But I have—lots of times.  I’ll never forget the day that my perspective on Sunday School teaching changed forever.  I had always been a good Sunday School teacher.  I had shepherded my students.  I had tried to ground them in the key doctrines of Scripture.  I had tried to encourage them to live for Jesus, in church and out of church.  But I had failed to develop apprentice teachers.  I had sought to gather students in my classroom, rather than equip students to minister in other classrooms. 

I was attending a LifeWay Sunday School training, when 2 Timothy 2:2 gripped my soul.  “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  The verse became my life verse.  I determined that I would no longer evaluate myself based on the size of my class.  I would evaluate myself based on the Christian leaders, especially the Christian teachers, who came out of my class. 

We tend to grieve over the loss of students, even the students who leave our class to teach other classes.  In some ways, that’s understandable.  The world judges us by the number of students who sit in our classroom.  But Christ judges us based on our impact on his kingdom.  We should always be looking for that student who has the potential to teach.  We should be seeking to multiply our ministry, as the Apostle Paul did, through the lives of others.

Prepared by Dr. Fred Creason

Leadership Strategist, Wyoming Southern Baptists   

Connect through others: Share with your one

Is your church eating itself?

Author and management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

As a pastor, you experience it when you step on the platform and attempt to motivate your congregation. You see heads nod in agreement and even hear a few say “Amen!” But then enthusiasm fizzles out in a short time.

“Who’s your One?” may be the most significant initiative Southern Baptists have ever undertaken. What would it look like if you utilized a strategy that got your groups on and off campus involved in “Who’s your One?” as a group strategy?

Mark Clifton of the North American Mission Board says, “If you want your church to become a congregation that makes disciples that make disciples, you have to get your people into discipling relationships with one another.”

It’s more efficient and effective to teach evangelistic tools like the “3 Circles” in a group setting. It’s even more important to teach not only what the gospel is but what the gospel does. The gospel restores our relationship with God, our relationships with others and our relationship to ourselves. Relationships are important — not only to those inside the church but to those outside as well.

Groups decentralize your church. In group life people are more focused on “being” the church in everyday life rather than “doing” church. People outside of the church are not looking for religion. They are looking for relationships.

In an article for Lifeway’s Facts & Trends, Alex Himaya wrote:

“Starting with love and relationship rather than religion doesn’t change my beliefs; it changes how I communicate my beliefs. Everyday I’m trying to mimic the same manner that Jesus used when he talked to people. When he encountered the woman at the well (John 4) he didn’t start with her multiple marriages and adulterous lifestyle. He started with a simple request that began a relationship, ‘Can I have a drink of water?’

Why is this important? The Bible says so.

Scripture teaches us to be disciples and to live and share the gospel. A new strategy is to use your groups to create action for “Who’s Your One?” initiative in your church. Here are a few ideas:

  • Train your group leaders and teachers in the “3 Circles.” Teach them what the gospel is and what it does.
  • Have every member of your group identify one person they know. Encourage them to love and build an authentic relationship with that person.
  • Invite those individuals to the group and group functions so they can experience relationships instead of religion.
  • Have gospel conversations with the new people you have established trust with.
  • Fight for them and not against them.

John O’Brien, co-author of The Power of Purpose offers an additional insight into Drucker’s famous quote about culture eating strategy for breakfast. O’Brien writes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, but culture gets its appetite from purpose.”

Going beyond an understanding of what the gospel is to what the gospel does will significantly impact your congregation and those with whom they share the gospel.

Connect through Groups 1

Your ONE is now saved and baptized.  You better get them in a group for their spiritual growth will be become stalled.  Do all you can to get the new believer involved in your class/group.  Let them ride with you or greet them at a centralized location.  Sit with them and spend time together after class/group time.

For generations we’ve witnessed the value of being connected to a group.  Thom Rainer found that those led to the Lord, baptized, joined the church and attended worship that around 15% of them were active in the church five years following their salvation.  Compared to those that did all the above but were involved in a group, over 80% of them were still involved in church five years following their salvation.

What are some of the benefits of being involved in a group?

  • Intercession: The person can be prayed for regularly whether they attend weekly or are struggling spiritually.
  • Invitation: The person can be regularly invited to participate in fellowship opportunities where meaningful relationships can be developed.
  • Involvement: The person is encouraged to engage in Bible Study that strengthens their relationship to God, to family, and to Kingdom service.
  • Inclination: The person is challenged and more likely to engage in evangelism and outreach than a person not enrolled in a small group.

Dr. Smith is the lead state missionary with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and serves the Sunday School, Small Groups, Discipleship and Faith Development Specialist.  Visit their website at gabaptist.org/groups/ for more information and other resources to aid your Sunday School or Small Group.  Dr. Smith is available for conferences or other speaking opportunities and can be contacted at tsmith@gabaptist.org.