Bible Study help

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I am looking to start a Bible study course. I would love to take one at my local church but due to my job, pilot, I am out of town a lot and getting together with a group regularly is not an option. So I figured one that I could read on the road would be a good alternative. Although done alone it still could benificial. Has anyone done “The Great Adventure” course? I was curious if I bought the study workbooks, not the audio portions or DVDs, if that would be a good study course? I also am open to other suggestions.
 
I’m sure there would be value in the Great Adventure series but it is really intended to be done as a class, with the DVDs-not sure how much you would miss because I haven’t done it.

The Agape Bible Study appears to be a good choice for an independent study - and it’s free!
 
“Great Adventure” is an excellent start. In our Parish one of the Deacons started an adult Bibile study at the same time CCD is going on. We started with the “Great Adventure” which was phenominal. We have also done Jeff Cavins series on Revelation and are now doing the Gospel of Matthew. The Deacon or presenter for the week (usually a Masters in Theology- either teacher at the local Catholic school or someone from the Parish{ I think they thought about the Priesthood} presents a brief introduction to the video ) summerizes the past week and gives an introduction to the week at hand.
 
You could try Catholic Scripture Study. I enjoy doing these studies!
 
I have done Revelations and Bible Timeline from the Great Adventure, and we are currently doing the Gospel of Matthew. I LOVE it! I find the study questions/workbook very helpful, but especially for Bible Timeline, the DVD’s would also be useful.

I have seen this entire series on EWTN, so if you’re having second thoughts about shelling out the $$, that might be an option. Or possibly, your parish or diocese might have the DVD’s available for check-out in some type of library or media center.
 
acadian said:
I have done Revelations and Bible Timeline from the Great Adventure, and we are currently doing the Gospel of Matthew. I LOVE it! I find the study questions/workbook very helpful, but especially for Bible Timeline, the DVD’s would also be useful.

I have seen this entire series on EWTN, so if you’re having second thoughts about shelling out the $$, that might be an option. Or possibly, your parish or diocese might have the DVD’s available for check-out in some type of library or media center.
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Do you remember if the program on EWTN was called “Our Fathers Plan”?
 
Based on the audio files from the EWTN site it seems that it follows really close to the “The Great Adventure” but for a fraction of the cost!
 
salvationhistory.com offers a free online bible course which would be really helpful in explaining what you are reading. Jeff Cavins studied under Scott Hahn at Stuebenville so I think you will find many of the stories and meanings explained the same way. It is St. Paul’s Center for Biblical Theology.
 
descout said:
I was curious if I bought the study workbooks, not the audio portions or DVDs, if that would be a good study course? I also am open to other suggestions.
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Hi, Descout:

I have taken the original Great Adventure Timeline course and several other of the additional courses. The workbooks by themselves, even with the answer sets, are not going to be much help to you by themselves. You will be missing TONS by not hearing the lectures. I do have two suggestions for you:

1.) Free suggestion: Besides some of the other suggestions (like the salvationhistory.com options), you can get Our Father’s Plan audio files free here: ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesID=-306548622&T1=

As mentioned above, I do believe they will be similar in content to the Great Adventure; however, I have not heard them myself.

2.) Relatively inexpensive suggestion: You can get “A Quick Journey Through the Bible” set of CDs with eight 30 minute talks for $40 here: greatadventureonline.com/information/content/123

If you read the relevant bible passages, and then listen to these CDs, you will get most of the pertinent material presented in the longer (10 week with 1 hour lectures) Great Adventure Series. These CDs are a great deal, and a great way to get started. I’ve attended both programs, and you really do get most of the material in the shorter set of lectures.

Hope these help,
rocketrob
 
GBA is the program Jeff Cavins developed for parish and group use and grew out of his earlier work in collaboration with Scott Hahn on Our Fathers Plan (which is still available on DVD, you may still be able to get workbooks from Ignatius Press). The introductory 8 week course with study guide and DVD is still pricey for an individual but a very good intro, still works best with a class, you have to be very committed to doing the study for either of these on your own. For OFP expect to spend at least 6 months if you do one lesson a week.

another alternative if you are taking your laptop is to go on catholicexchange.com and register for their on-line studies

personally I am a minimalist so I would suggest for a traveller any of the excellent studies from Emmaus Road - Word Among Us wau.org, all you need is the bible and the journal, each is about 6-8 sessions. they are more devotional in nature. If you want good books to take that are more of a “study” nature, the 6 weeks with the Bible series from Loyola would work well, although they are also intended for groups.
 
puzzleannie said:
personally I am a minimalist so I would suggest for a traveller any of the excellent studies from Emmaus Road - Word Among Us wau.org, all you need is the bible and the journal, each is about 6-8 sessions. they are more devotional in nature.
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I know the monthly publications of the Word Among Us are very popular, and I have seen a few of them. I also think they have the best calendar of daily Church readings that can be printed and put into the back of your bible. But I have been uneasy about fully embracing the site or its materials for two reasons:

1.) There are reservations listed about it at Catholic Culture: catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=803&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=595219

2.) The publisher’s (Joe Difato) involvement as a leader (albeit former leader) in the Mother of God Community.

This might better be the subject of a separate thread, but I would be interested in any info that could allay my concerns.

rocketrob
 
To do a Bible study on the road would be tough if you had to carry around a lot of CD’s and workbooks. I would try to find something smallish, like the small, one volume Bible studies offered by Emmaus Road publishers. They manage to be both highly informative, as well as practical and spiritually nourishing.

For more resources, you may want to visit my website at the link below.
 
thanks all guys…I am going to check out a few of the suggestions!
 
I am very happy to say that my girlfriend has decided to do the Bible study with me. I have decided on the Fathers Plan one that was on EWTN. Any suggestions on how to do this? Any good places to supplement this?

I should mention that my GF is not a Catholic and is very hesitant of the catholic Church. I am trying to show her the way to salvation.
 
super news, and I pray that you will both be blessed in your study.

What is your gf’s background? I would make a different recommendation for supplemental stuff if she is evangelical protestant than if she’s Jewish or Buddhist or not religious at all. . .
 
NHInsider said:
super news, and I pray that you will both be blessed in your study.

What is your gf’s background? I would make a different recommendation for supplemental stuff if she is evangelical protestant than if she’s Jewish or Buddhist or not religious at all. . .
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That is a very good question on her background. Currently she does not attend any services…She has said to me that she is searching.

She was raised as a non denominational. Very small church that follows a man they call a prophet, William Branham and his “Message” He has some very unusual doctrine.

She has said she does not want to follow her raised faith because of the hardship it caused when she was growing up, she does not want her children to go through that. Ex. Dressing very moderatly, long hair, minimal makeup etc.

It is very difficult to explain her religion. Some say it is a Pentecostal background.

I think the biggest thing I must show her is that you can not “search” for a church and that you must be “called” home. That you cant formulate a church to your liking because it is not ours to formulate…It is already formulated and set in the Bible.
 
Wow - I didn’t know of this group, and having read the wikipedia entry, I’m not sure what to suggest. This group is definitely outside the mainstream of Protestantism, maybe even of Pentecostalism.

Not knowing what kinds of issues she may raise, I think I’d recommend just moving slowly through the study you choose, talking honestly about whatever questions come up as you immerse yourselves in God’s written word. If she asks you something you’re not certain about, tell her you’d like to pose the question here and you’ll report back what you learn. Knowing how many non-Catholics hang out here, I think you can actually feel like you’ll get a broad cross-section of responses - obviously I’m hoping that the Catholic responses will be the most cogent and convincing, but you can tell her honestly that you’ll get (name removed by moderator)ut from all kinds of Christians.

I do like and almost always recommend a book called Catholic and Christian by Alan Schreck - I think he does a good job of responding to most of the common arguments that non-Catholic Christians make against the Church and reading that book would give you some confidence in your own understanding. But since her Church is not, strictly speaking, Christian (because they deny the Trinity), she may well come up with questions Schreck doesn’t consider.
 
NHInsider said:
But since her Church is not, strictly speaking, Christian (because they deny the Trinity), she may well come up with questions Schreck doesn’t consider.
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You bring up an excellent point here that I have mentioned to her before. But I have no evidence that Christians are to believe the Trinity. She has said that Christians are to believe in Jesus. Or followers of Christ. I can not argue cause that is true. Where can I find that Christians believe in the Trinity?
 
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