Why Small Group Bible Studies? Part II

Small groups are also the place where people grow in their faith through Bible study and prayer. Most proponents of small groups from Wesley on have made this their primary emphasis. Our groups are, after all, Bible studies. As we gather together around the Word of God we can share our insights and understanding and challenge each other to live out the things that we study--and to hold them accountable for doing so. We receive insights and ideas from our fellow group members that we might never come to on our own. The Lord has made a special promise to his followers that "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them." It is the Holy Spirit who opens the Scriptures to explain them to us, who opens our minds to understand the Word of God and our hearts to receive its life changing message. The Lord uses the working of the Holy Spirit working in one person to bless and challenge another. While it is important to have our own personal Bible study time daily, we are especially challenged to expand our understanding and interpretation of Scripture when we hear how our brothers and sisters in Christ have understood a given passage.

Small group Bible study is also an excellent means of evangelism. It is very threatening for people who don't go to church to attend a worship service. It is much less threatening to come into someone's living room to meet with a small group of friends and neighbors to study the Bible. Since the goal of small group Bible study is to interact with the Bible together, everyone in attendance is learning from the Bible and from one another. People can read and discuss the message of Scripture and come to terms with, "Thus saith the Lord..." Small groups are the milieu where unbelievers can see how Christians actually understand and apply the Word of God and how they share their burdens with one another, uphold one another in prayer and generally are real with one another. In short, here they see the gospel lived out in flesh and blood. In my years as a missionary working among students, au pair girls, resident artists and others in Florence, Italy, the focal point of this ministry was a weekly Bible study. The fellowship was warm and rich and the studies of Scripture challenging. Years after people left Florence, they would tell me things like, "Where can I find the same depth of fellowship that we had in our Bible study group?" or "I had never been to a Bible study until I came to the one at your place, and now I'm leading one in my own home." The people in that group who came to faith in Christ came through the study of Scripture, of the claims of Jesus Christ written down in the passages that we studied. "So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17)