Bible Study Fellowship BSF

[MaryT777]

I’ve been invited to BSF and it’s for all religions. Does anyone have any experience with BSF and did you enjoy it or have issues with it being too ecumenical as a few people told me. It’s in a LCMS church I have visited often.

I’m really interested.

Peace in Christ,
Mary.

 

[MaryT777]

If this is in the wrong forum, Eric please move it. I was posting it here because the majority of the persons attending the Leader told me, were non Catholics.

 

[gatomas]

I go to a multy denomination Bible study, First I declare to them that I’m Catholic, some will see you strange, I declare to them that I enjoy being with brothers in Christ, you learn about the Bible some times it is a good study but if you have a good priest as in my church who knows a lot about the costumes and traditions of the time of Christ and explains it with the readings in Bible classes, that is better, in Mass they are limited in time and have to follow the Mass protocol, on the ideas exchange part they will challenge you a lot and if you are good at our church’s history, it shouldn’t be any problem, some times it amazes me that they didn’t know that the first Bible was put together by the fathers of the church in around 380AD by St Jerome ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Jerome ) If you are not very strong at the Catholic Church’s teaching just learn and discern and for questions that you have doubt, this forum as a good resource.

 

[SecretaryMonday]

Hello, I am not personally familiar with BSF, but I have a friend who was involved with them. She claims that, at the outset, they appeared to be accepting, but in order to work with them she was required to sign papers rejecting Catholicism.

 

[mskejj]

I’ve been invited to BSF and it’s for all religions. Does anyone have any experience with BSF and did you enjoy it or have issues with it being too ecumenical as a few people told me. It’s in a LCMS church I have visited often.

I’m really interested.

Peace in Christ,
Mary.

Try to find Jeff Cavin’s Great Adventure Bible Study at a Catholic Church near you instead…you will get so much out of it and it is presented from the Heart of the Church. It takes you through the historical books of the bible and you learn the story of salvation history. It will change the way you understand the readings at mass and make you hungry to learn more. This is the best way to start to study the bible…learn the big picture first!

 

[aidanbradypop]

I am a sucker for a good Scripture study but always seem to end up with a sour taste in my mouth for a non Catholic group. Clearly Catholics and non Catholics do not see eye to eye on parts of Scripture so this always creates an issue. Many that I have attended started off great. They were very friendly and welcomed me with open arms. Those arms soon closed as I would not accept their take on Scripture and defended the Church when they attacked her doctrines.

I advise against doing such studies because they rarely end well and just creates confusion for both parties. Studies have even ended friendships of mine.

 

[wmscott]

Hello, I am not personally familiar with BSF, but I have a friend who was involved with them. She claims that, at the outset, they appeared to be accepting, but in order to work with them she was required to sign papers rejecting Catholicism.

Just a soon as they sign a paper rejecting Christianity, how absurd.

 

[Adamski]

I’ve been invited to BSF and it’s for all religions. Does anyone have any experience with BSF and did you enjoy it or have issues with it being too ecumenical as a few people told me. It’s in a LCMS church I have visited often.

I’m really interested.

Peace in Christ,
Mary.

I went it has about every Christian prospective possible it’s like an arguing match where no one agrees in the small groups highly entertaining if you know your catholic faith.

 

[aidanbradypop]

I went it has about every Christian prospective possible it’s like an arguing match where no one agrees in the small groups highly entertaining if you know your catholic faith.

Also a great way to do some apologetics as well. The Catholic needs to be very prepared because many non Catholics are well educated on Scripture and will try to trip one up at every turn.

 

[steido01]

I’ve been invited to BSF and it’s for all religions. Does anyone have any experience with BSF and did you enjoy it or have issues with it being too ecumenical as a few people told me. It’s in a LCMS church I have visited often.

I’m really interested.

Peace in Christ,
Mary.

The LCMS has wonderful “introductory” Bible courses of its own; the fact that an LCMS church is hosting a non-denominational program like this is… unusual. Is this actually being provided by the church, or is the parish simply serving as temporary home for another religious group?

If the former, I would hope that the individual leading the group is doing so in close consultation with the pastor (if not the pastor himself), and is simply using the program as a starting block to share a sort of “Mere Christianity” with fallen away or non-Christians. BSF materials seem, to me, to be pushing a watered-down, free-church influenced, mainstream protestant Christianity… which may not be necessarily ‘wrong’ for the unchurched, but it doesn’t exactly share the fullness of confessional Lutheran doctrine.

 

[benjohnson]

BSF materials seem, to me, to be pushing a watered-down, free-church influenced, mainstream protestant Christianity… which may not be necessarily ‘wrong’ for the unchurched, but it doesn’t exactly share the fullness of confessional Lutheran doctrine.

If I remember correctly, MaryT777 has said that she’s been happy with this particular study group.

But when I check the Bible Study Fellowship website for locations here in Washington, by looking at the churches that have them, I would tend to agree that perhaps it may not universally be rigorous.

I would say that trepidation would be wise for those not quite strong in the faith.

 

[Adamski]

If I remember correctly, MaryT777 has said that she’s been happy with this particular study group.

But when I check the Bible Study Fellowship website for locations here in Washington, by looking at the churches that have them, I would tend to agree that perhaps it may not universally be rigorous.

I would say that trepidation would be wise for those not quite strong in the faith.

When I went to he one in Bellevue me and the Lutheran guy really got singled out as finge and “unbiblical” even though we have versus to back it up that baptism is generally needed for salvation and is sacramental in nature. The Lutheran was about 80 years old from Sweden and was currently going to a non denominational church to be with his kids and grand kids and was very concerned his new church rarely baptized and only after 13 years old.

Ben we should go together this fall it would be really fun to be in the same small group

 

[aidanbradypop]

When I went to he one in Bellevue me and the Lutheran guy really got singled out as finge and “unbiblical” even though we have versus to back it up that baptism is generally needed for salvation and is sacramental in nature. The Lutheran was about 80 years old from Sweden and was currently going to a non denominational church to be with his kids and grand kids and was very concerned his new church rarely baptized and only after 13 years old.

Ben we should go together this fall it would be really fun to be in the same small group

The Lutherans in Fargo are sheltered from the Fundamentalist world. Many believe the Fundamentalist Protestant will accept them. A friend (Luther pastor) and I went to an Evangelical small group and he was shocked at how they group Lutherans with Catholics in the same boat headed to hell. I have dealt with it all my life but the poor guy was shocked at how they wanted to “bring him to Christ” and “show him the truth of the Gospel.”

 

[MaryT777]

The Lutherans in Fargo are sheltered from the Fundamentalist world. Many believe the Fundamentalist Protestant will accept them. A friend (Luther pastor) and I went to an Evangelical small group and he was shocked at how they group Lutherans with Catholics in the same boat headed to hell. I have dealt with it all my life but the poor guy was shocked at how they wanted to “bring him to Christ” and “show him the truth of the Gospel.”

That might explain why the Lutherans in my town try to spend a lot of time differentiating themselves from Catholics.