Thinking about beginning a Bible Study

[nicksterbixter]

Hello. I am a Catholic high school student from Cincinnati, and I am involved in a non-denominational youth group at my school. While I admit the group is more of a evangelical and bible believin’ group, they are not anti-Catholic (although I have had to defend my faith a few times with some kids), and are open to all Christians. I became involved with this group because of some of my friends, and I really enjoy the Christian faith and spirit that we share. I try to stay involved with my parish’s youth group, and I am working on strengthening it, but the participation is very low and there is a very low spirit unfortunantly in my church’s youth group.
The non-denom youth group has a guy’s bible study each week, but I usually cannot attend on the night of the week it is scheduled, and honestly the group doesn’t really study the bible that much, but rather spends time time talking. I enjoy that, but I really wish we did some actual study of the scriptures. This is why I am considering asking the leader about beginning a bible study on a different night that I could lead. I would like to do a more intense critical study of the scriptures, one book at a time. I would like to offer a more Catholic view of the scriptures, however I must respect other’s faiths as it is a non-denom group. Hopefully, I could even lead some of the students to the true Church, as most teenagers don’t even consider joining such an “old and ritualistic church”, when there are such fun non-denom churches to go to. I would like to be a light to some of my friends in this group.
However, I would first like to ask some suggestions. Where in the Bible should I begin? I have considered Genesis, as I have done a pretty in depth study of it on my own, however I worry that I may run into some issues when it comes to reading the stories as literal, as most of the students interpret Genesis quite literally whereas Catholics present the stories as lessons of faith and morals. Where else may be a good place to start? Also, what resources would you suggest? While they might believe that personal interpretation would suffice in a bible study, I would like to have some resources to help me teach the Bible as the Church infallibly interprets scripture. Finally, how would you suggest that I plant the seed in their souls that the Catholic Church is the true Church established by Christ. I don’t want to go preaching that the Catholic Church is the only true Church and being a bigot about my faith, when the group is for Christians of all denominations, but at the same time I feel that God has given me this great opportunity to share my faith. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[Sister_G]

You may want to try the Teen Bible Time Line offered by Ascension Press - or one of their many other studies. They come with DVDs, charts, pneumonics (ways to memorize) the major time periods, etc. I am currently leading a Bible Study on First Corinthians with an adult group and they cannot get enough of it!
I have plans to start this weekend with the youth to do the Teen Time Line. If Ascension Press and the work of Jeff Cavins and the Augustine Institute does not excite you then you may wish to try items from Ignatius Press - mostly stuff from Dr. Scott Hahn. There are many authentic studies out there that lend themselves to enlightening those who waver or are interested in the faith.
Here is a link for Ascension Press:
ascensionpress.com/shop/Scripts/prodListView.asp?idCategory=19 and one for Ignatius Press is:
ignatius.com/Bible-C6.aspx?SID=1&
At Ignatius you will find more of the traditional style of study and many of them are book by book, where the Jeff Cavins stuff is more to tell the story within the story - there is a theme to salvation history!!! Anyway, for what it’s worth, you may find something useful. God bless and good luck!

 

[kage_ar]

I second the Jeff Cavins study above.

A couple other suggestions.

Ignatius Study Bible, these are done book by book and are a very good Bibe Study tool

search.getfed.com/search?w=ignatius+bible+study

I’d suggest to begin with the Gospel of John or Acts.

Our Sunday Visitor has some good studies, I was looking at the St. Paul study this week.

 

[nicksterbixter]

Thank you for your help! I don’t think I really want to use DVD’s to teach, as I want the study to be more personal and discussion based, with me guiding it. I will take a look at the Ignatius Study Bible. Any other suggestions for good Bible study programs? I am mainly looking for some sort of guide to help me focus the studies in discussions. Thanks!

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

I understand it’s non denominational and you don’t want to offend anyone and that’s good. It hasn’t been said much yet but I think it will soon. The bible is a catholic book. The NT was written by catholics and we would have no bible unless the catholic church gave it to us which it did in 2 councils in the 4th century. It’s about time the church took back it’s book. People are free to read the bible but they must come to the catholic church f they want to know what it means. Private interpretation is seriously flawed. You can’t have an infallible bible without an infallible source to interpret it - the church. Many people object to catholics claiming papal infallibilty but anyone who claims to have the right interpretation of the bible is claiming infallibilty themselves. They are making themselves mini popes. I know you can’t say this so bluntly to non catholics but this message needs to get out. The bible is a catholic book and you can only find it’s true meaning in the catholic church. There was an encyclical written about how to read the bible in the 19th century I think. It could be good reading. You should find it on papalencyclicals.net/%between% I’ll check if the sites still there ( It is ). Study the history of the bible and how we got it could be a good way to open the group.
The papal encyclical called - On the study of holy scripture is here papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13provi.htm and must reading for a bible study. Good luck with your apostolate. This is our book - be very charitable , but gradually tell people is what I suggest.

 

[jhash1]

Thank you for your help! I don’t think I really want to use DVD’s to teach, as I want the study to be more personal and discussion based, with me guiding it. I will take a look at the Ignatius Study Bible. Any other suggestions for good Bible study programs? I am mainly looking for some sort of guide to help me focus the studies in discussions. Thanks!

Hi nicksterbixster -

It is great that you want to get involved in studying God’s Word and I hope you follow through with this plan. It is the year of St. Paul and I might suggest you begin a bible study with St. Paul’s Letters. They are extraordinarily rich and beautiful and provide much direction for daily living that would make for good discussion in your group. I would second the idea of the Ignatius Bible study series as a good resource, and I would offer the Navarre Study Bible as another idea. In the group I am working with we use the Navarre Study Bibles for our resource and I use the questions from the Ignatius series to stimulate deeper consideration and thought provoking discussions for our group (we are a group of >30 year old adults). You could start out with St. Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians and then move on to Galatians and then to 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

Best wishes and prayers for your success with getting a group started. The main thing is to get started, make everyone feel welcome and part of the group, and be true to the scripture. You may want to get a priest to be a resource for any difficult questions that you could take away from each session and get answered by the priest and then present the answers at the next session to keep everyone focused on the true meaning of God’s Word. Many blessings to your endeavors!