Intimidated and Confused - Starting a Bible Study

  • Thread starter Thread starter Madzamboni
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Madzamboni

Guest
I hope I am under the right category - if not, I hope the mod relocates me. I had just posted to the “Ask an Apologist” forum, but wanted to ask this to those who may have simliar experiences.

Here is the question I submitted.

# # #​

A few years ago, I was part of a weekly Bible Study that I attended about 8-12 months before we “took a break” (and never came back). I grew more spiritually in those months then I could have ever hoped for.

I miss it and I crave it. I feel called to be in one. However the long commute into the city, and young ones at home make it difficult to attend those already formed. My schedule just does not sync up. I’m frustrated.

However my new job, deep in downtown Atlanta, is only 2 blocks from a Catholic Church (Sacred Heart). I was thinking about approaching the Pastor and asking permission to form a small faith group or bible study. Something that commuters could attend before or after work, or maybe at lunch.

Here is the problem, and my question…

My previous group had a VERY strong leader - who was well versed in theology. We read, he spoke and taught, we contributed.

Allthough I have leadership qualities, I am no theologan - so how do I “lead” a group. What do we do? Are there books to follow or maybe course guidelines? Some sort of “canned” approach to get us started?

I don’t mind coordinating, or even leading - but I need some real guidance. Can you help?
 
Little Rock Scripture Study (Liturgical Press: 1-800-858-5434) has an excellent program. It includes video on specific books as well as questions on the books within the Bible. You would have to choose where you wanted to start (ie. the Gospel of Mark in the current year — or Luke for next year). I have seen this used in many parishes and with great success. May God be with you in this venture. … then you know it will be beneficial to all … :thumbsup:Mike
 
Get in touch with Sacred Heart parish and run your idea by the pastor. There might be other like minded people who would love to attend such a class, and maybe someone out there who could help you plan and run it. Sounds like a fabulous idea, Good Luck!!! 🙂
 
You could take some theology classes b/c I think to lead an effective Bible study, you need to have a solid knowledge of the Bible and theology…Good luck…🙂
 
Another point of view: I didn’t like Little 'Rock scripture study.

In the early nineties, two recommendations were made about scripture study.
  1. In the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the editors took the point of view that a scripture study should be led by someone with at least a master’s degree in Bible studies.
  2. the Pontifical Biblical Commission, in their long essay, Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (available on the EWTN website, in the document library), they took the point of view that an individual Catholic should read the Bible alongside a Bible commentary.
So, there’s two different recommendations.

Now, just last week on EWTN Journey Home program, Dr. Mary (?) Healy, a scholar at Scott Hahn’s St Paul Center for Biblical Studies (www.salvationhistory.com) said that there were few good commentaries for Catholics to use. Guess what? She said HER recent book on the Gospel of Mark was a good commentary to use. It’s fairly cheap at about $14 from Amazon. I started into it a bit I think it looks like a fairly good commentary, line by line, and employing cross references to related scriptures and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It also has a very interesting introduction, pointing out things that I never knew before.

There’s also a ‘gospel of Mark’ commentary by Dr. Scott Hahn, and I’m “into” that just a bit, too .

(I’m the kind of person that is reading 10 books at the same time)

In the LIttle Rock Scripture, you don’t really read the scripture in your study group – there’s just not enough time. I think that’s wrong. I think you should always be reading the scripture in a scripture study group. One thing that does is makes a level playing field for people who haven’t had enough time to prepare for that weeks discussion. (my opinion: scripture study groups should be friendly and helpful, not embarass people for not preparing.)

LRSS requires a lot of outside reading, and you cover maybe a couple chapters of scripture in a very short time, it’s not my cup of tea. I don’t think the commentary in it is that good, either. The accompanying videos are almost irrelevant to the scripture that you read for that evening’s session. They’re not a “wrap up” of that evening’s lesson.

Personally, I have abandoned parish-level group Bible study, although I wanted it to “work” for more than 20 years. I’m much more satisfied with individual study on my own.

At a higher price tag, I bought the five volume Jewish commentary on the books of the Torah. The Pontifical Biblical Institute (and Benedict XVI) endorse looking at quality Jewish commentaries, which this is. www.jps.org. if I’m not mistaken. These list at $375, but I caught a sale at 40% off.
 
I think starting a bible study is a great idea. Your pastor may be concerned that the study be fully catholic, and so will probably want to know what bible study materials you plan on using and your own background.

I don’t think that it is necessary to be a bible expert. In fact, bible studies led by “experts” can avoid the hard work of trying to understand what the scripture means, deferring instead to the opinion of the “expert.” A leader who keeps the discussion on track and who is himself a seeker after a deeper understanding of God’s Word is the perfect leader, in my opinion.

I think that the Little Rock bible studies are a great idea. Another excellent option is the Great Adventure adult bible studies, which our parish has used. The Great Adventure Bible Timeline has 8-week and 24-week versions – we used the more in-depth 24 week studies – which cover the narrative portions of the Old and New Testaments. A great first study that lays a good foundation for studies of individual books of the bible. There are follow-on studies of other books of the bible too. We had six home-based groups with over one hundred participants in total and none of the leaders had deep bible knowledge. A nice feature of the Great Adventure studies was a video lecture each week, which was very well done. The study questions came with suggested answers, so that people had confidence that they were on the right track, and there were numerous references to the Catechism. The response to the study was enthusiastic.
 
Jonnette Benkovic of the “Abundant Life” television show on EWTN has a marvelous ministry in this area . . . if you click on the link below . . . right on the home page . . . is the “Facilitators Corner” . . . which is essentially what you would be if you were to start a Bible study group . . . below is an overview of all the wonderful helps she has organized and provided for persons like you who would like to start up a Bible study group . . .

Facilitator Corner**
  1. Study Group and Facilitator Overview
  2. On-line Study Aids**
  3. Tips From Facilitators
  4. Success Stories From Facilitators
  5. How to Partner with Your Parish
  6. How to Jumpstart Your Group
  7. Free certificates for completing study
  8. Chapter 1 & 2 of the Study Guide
  9. Bulletin Flyer for your Church
  10. Registration Card for Your Group
    Link: lhla.org/
I’d highly recommend you contact her also . . . she loves Sacred Scripture . . . and firmly believes in memorization of Bible verses as well as verse by verse . . . chapter by chapter . . . book by book . . . Bible Study . . .

One of the things to stay away from is chatting about “ideas” about the Bible . . . you need to dive right in and study Sacred Scripture . . . verse by verse . . . chapter by chapter . . . book by book . . . to come into contact with the true . . . “thoughts of God” . . . and not someone’s . . . ideas only . . . of same . . . and . . . personally . . . the ONLY translation I recommend to beginners and intermediate students . . . is the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) . . . it is based on a verse by verse translation . . . I’ve seen marvelous results from study of this translation . . . there are many . . . so-called-translations . . . out that are merely paraphrases (other peoples ideas of what they think the Scriptures mean) . . . Use The Holy Bible (Douay Rheims Version, Revised by Bishop Richard Challoner) as your base translation reference . . . it harmonizes beautifully with the RSVCE version . . .

The **Douay Rheims **was first translated . . . word for word . . . from the Latin in 1609 . . . *and then revised in 1752 *. . . to make it more readable in English . . . it was the only English Catholic Bible for over 300 years and has been greatly **blessed of God **as such . . . and insofar as I know it is still the official English Catholic Bible of the Church . . . the original Latin translation was accomplished by the Holy Spirit’s Inspiration through the Blessed St. Jerome . . . the Old Testament from the Hebrew . . . the New Testament from the Greek . . . Pope Pius XII stated that the **Douay Rheims **was ***“free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals.” ***With the Blessed St. Jerome and the Holy Father’s blessings . . . you can’t miss . . .
And be sure to include a study of The Catechism of the Catholic Church section . . .
Click to expand...
ARTICLE 3 - Sacred Scripture
Click to expand...
104
In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as human word, “but as what it really is, the Word of God.” In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."
Click to expand...
**"How precious also are
  • thy thoughts +**
    unto me,
    O God! how great is the sum of them!"
    Psalms 139:17
    :bible1:
*God bless . . . *
. . . all for Jesus+​
 
Madzamboni said:
I hope I am under the right category - if not, I hope the mod relocates me. I had just posted to the “Ask an Apologist” forum, but wanted to ask this to those who may have simliar experiences.

Here is the question I submitted.

# # #​

A few years ago, I was part of a weekly Bible Study that I attended about 8-12 months before we “took a break” (and never came back). I grew more spiritually in those months then I could have ever hoped for.

I miss it and I crave it. I feel called to be in one. However the long commute into the city, and young ones at home make it difficult to attend those already formed. My schedule just does not sync up. I’m frustrated.

However my new job, deep in downtown Atlanta, is only 2 blocks from a Catholic Church (Sacred Heart). I was thinking about approaching the Pastor and asking permission to form a small faith group or bible study. Something that commuters could attend before or after work, or maybe at lunch.

Here is the problem, and my question…

My previous group had a VERY strong leader - who was well versed in theology. We read, he spoke and taught, we contributed.

Allthough I have leadership qualities, I am no theologan - so how do I “lead” a group. What do we do? Are there books to follow or maybe course guidelines? Some sort of “canned” approach to get us started?

I don’t mind coordinating, or even leading - but I need some real guidance. Can you help?
Click to expand...
I would recomend CSS - Catholic Scripture Study because even a leader who is not strong in Church teaching can run it, because of the great material. Unlike the Little Rock Scripture Study which can be mis-interpreted if one is not careful.

You could also obtain the Navre Bible it’s sold by the book, Matthew, Mark, Luke, etc. (Some are conbined) It has the Scripture with an execelent commentary included.
 
Thank you everyone for your responses, I ended up taking 15 minutes worth of notes this morning.

My parish uses Little Rock also, which I was leaning too. So I knew there were course studies that could guide someone who may not be as strong in Theology, safely. My fear, as mentioned a few time here, is without someone well versed in Catholicism - a lot of “feelings” and “mis-interpretations” could become a problem.

If anyone else has 2 cents, please chime in - but today and tomorrow I think I will be reading up on:
  • Little Rock Scripture Study
  • Great Adventure Adult Bible Study
  • Jonnette Benkovic
  • Catholic Scripture Study
Thanks everyone.
 
Dear Madz.

great that you’re forging ahead.

Perhaps I seem wierd, because I tried to get a Bible study going in three different parishes and always met with brick-wall type resistance. The last time, the priest just grimaced at me, lied, and said “nobody wants scripture study!”

That was a lie, because the DRE told me that was a lie. She said that she, too, had problems with this priest.

More than that, the diocese had a program (and was spending money) on getting adult formation into the parishes, including Bible study. The priest was not MERELY lying to me, he was collecting CSA money under false pretenses, because he was collecting money for the very project that he was stonewalling in our parish.

In fact, I stopped going to Mass altogether for five years, for this duplicity. I went back to Mass a year ago, with very low expectations.

Truth is, I was in some very successful Bible study programs elsewhere. But the rule is, the success depends on the enthusiasm of the participants.

In one group I was in, the group leaders took the scriptural admonition to “greet each other with a holy kiss” very seriously, and we all had a group hug at the beginning, even guy on guy and girl on girl. (I was not impressed.)
 
Many of the early Fathers, and later saints, too, wrote commentaries on various pieces of Scripture. Perhaps you could find some of those and get ideas, or even base the study, on those.
 
agapebiblestudy.com/

Please check this one out.
I love the lessons I found there, and there is plenty of material for a bible study group to really learn and pray a lot.
 
I would also recommend incorporating the series What Catholics Really Believe (Dr. Ray Guarendi and Fr. Kevin Fete) as well. Its very scripture heavy and breaks down scripture bit by bit. Its one of the shows I make a regular habit of actually watching on EWTN.

I also (I mean my daughter) like watching The Friar, but that has nothing to do with this thread:rolleyes: . C’mon I know some of you all actually like The Friar too, the songs are catchy!
 
(A followup from my original post)

Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting…

I visited Sacred Heart during lunch for Adoration (it’s a block from work). Afterwards I started chatting to the nice lady that showed me around when I arrived. In conversation I asked if they happen to have a Bible study during the day for Businessmen that commute in.

She explained there was not but a definate need for one. By the way, she was the outreach director of the church, and the education director was at lunch…

Fast forward through more conversations, heading back to work, and a phone call from the church.

Somehow, in a whirlwind, I volunteered to lead a group, the church is EXTREMELY open to me doing this, and I have a meeting with the Education director on Friday at lunch to discuss the symantics.

Anyone mind explaining what just happened, I walked in for Adoration and left with a Bible study? It’s one big blur.

A lot still has to fall into place - finding a time/location, blessing from the Pastor, and my bigger concern is cost of materials and where the funding is coming from. (I’m going to approach my Knights of Columbus council to see if they can help).

But one interesting thing that was relayed via the Education director - he was very open to whatever study material I thought appropriate, but he strongly discouraged “The Great Adventure” materials. He covered a lot of theology in one 10 minute session (like a drink from a firehose) about why this is probably not a good idea. Specifcally that it draws a lot of parallells to the Fundamentalist ideas, that allthough all sources are Catholic how they were interpreted were a little misinterpreted, etc.

Other than that, it sounds like I have free reign.

So now why am I scared to death?!
 
There’s lots of good stuff to choose from, depending upon what approach you want to take. You don’t need a Masters in Theology to lead a parish Bible study. I’m all for avoiding heresy, but I think sometimes we can be prohibitively cautious about these things to the point that we are paralyzed into inaction. Give the Holy Spirit some credit! The Spirit will help us, and the priest is available when questions arise.

The [Great Adventure Bible Study (http://www.greatadventureonline.com/) series is excellent. It’s a DVD based approach, though each study comes with a participant study set. In the bigger studies, each session on the DVD is about an hour, and in the smaller studies, each session is about a half an hour. Ideally, the group will also have time to discuss amongst themselves in addition to watching the DVD. Here’s a list of the studies:
Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology has also produced several free online Bible studies. Each study is divided into 6 lessons (which seems to be the norm for many of these types of things). Here is a list of the studies:
The first study Genesis to Jesus, is also available in book form.

Another great resource is Emmaus Road Publishing. They have all sorts of ready-made Bible studies. I’d list them all out, but I’m afraid I’m short on time at the moment, so that will have to wait. :o
 
Madzamboni said:
If anyone else has 2 cents, please chime in - but today and tomorrow I think I will be reading up on:
  • Little Rock Scripture Study
  • Great Adventure Adult Bible Study
  • Jonnette Benkovic
  • Catholic Scripture Study
Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
NO to Little Rock, yes to all the others or to the Scott Hahn studies.
 
I think that there are two considerations with respect to the Great Adventure series. First, it is extremely careful to adhere to authoritative Catholic teaching on the relevant passages of the bible. (2) It turns out that the Catholic church has not authoritatively interpreted most of the bible. The interpretation by the folks at The Great Adventure can be criticized as not always adhering to (but not conflicting with either) the best modern critical scholarship. Jeff Cavins was formerly an evangelical pastor, but Tim Gray, another one of their leaders, is a bible scholar with a Ph.D. from a respectable institution and head of the Denver Bible School.

Those who have used the Great Adventure love it. It has a great format and is easy for those with little or no background in the bible to use. People learn a great deal about the bible from it. But…politically, you can’t use it and get along with your head of religious education. So… try one of the alternatives.

Congratulations on getting the green light! May the Holy Spirit guide and bless you as you take the next steps.
 
adowcday said:
But…politically, you can’t use it and get along with your head of religious education.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Perhaps that is true in some parishes and some dioceses, but certainly not all of them. We encourage people to use the study in my diocese.

Cavins does not have a PhD, but he does have a MA. Most of the stuff from The Great Adventure is simply the fruit of Cavins’ collaboration with Dr. Hahn in the Our Father’s Plan Bible study. Cavins simply packaged it in a catechetically engaging way. So it’s not as though Cavins is some random layperson who threw this study together without any sort of research (not that you are saying otherwise, but I just wanted to clarify).

Simply because the study doesn’t adhere to “modern critical scholarship” point-for-point is not a bad thing. I think too many Bible studies (not to mention High School textbooks on Scripture) spend more time on this scholarship than on the actual text of the Bible. IMHO, this only serves to confuse most people (at least, it confused me when I was in high school). The purpose of a parish Bible study is to become more familiar with the Bible, not to become mini-Scripture scholars.

Okay, I think I’m ranting too much now. Sorry about that. :o Don’t take it personally. 🙂
 
Looking at Emmaus Road’s website, I see that the actually have some free guides on How to Start a Bible Study and How to Lead a Bible Study. You might try asking for those to find some good advice.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I disagree. Perhaps that is true in some parishes and some dioceses, but certainly not all of them. We encourage people to use the study in my diocese.

Cavins does not have a PhD, but he does have a MA. Most of the stuff from The Great Adventure is simply the fruit of Cavins’ collaboration with Dr. Hahn in the Our Father’s Plan Bible study. Cavins simply packaged it in a catechetically engaging way. So it’s not as though Cavins is some random layperson who threw this study together without any sort of research (not that you are saying otherwise, but I just wanted to clarify).

Simply because the study doesn’t adhere to “modern critical scholarship” point-for-point is not a bad thing. I think too many Bible studies (not to mention High School textbooks on Scripture) spend more time on this scholarship than on the actual text of the Bible. IMHO, this only serves to confuse most people (at least, it confused me when I was in high school). The purpose of a parish Bible study is to become more familiar with the Bible, not to become mini-Scripture scholars.

Okay, I think I’m ranting too much now. Sorry about that. :o Don’t take it personally. 🙂
Click to expand...
Not a problem. I think the content of the course was great and the overall package was terrific. The fact is, most lay people won’t learn or remember all of the nuances and caveats proffered by the experts. They will remember that the stories and persons of the bible were interesting and meaningful and that – to their great surprise – the Bible began to made sense to them. That’s huge.

For my personal study, I use standard commentaries by the big name scholars. I still thought the Great Adventure studies were great. I’m a fan.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top