What to do - Bible Study Group?

[Lexlee]

I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have been attending weekly bible study at my church but I am honestly not getting anything out of it. It is very structured with several small groups happening at once - all following the same lesson plan.


I find the substance of the lessons (right now going through Colossians) very shallow, as if designed for young teens or something. The discussions are worse with few people contributing. When I contribute the leader gets clearly insecure or annoyed because I go deeper into the text or into the Greek or I link things back to previous lessons. I sometimes get no acknowledgement and the leader says 'let's move on'. The look on other people is as if they just didn't understand what I said.


I have prayed over it, prayed for the leaders in the study group, prayed for a better attitude. I am not one given to strong emotion but every time I leave, I feel very heavy and drained.



The thing is I am new to the area and to the church and I am trying to establish myself and make friends so I have been enduring these studies for the last few months. I will admit I have made a friend or two, not from the study group itself but from another study group (all the groups meet for snacks afterwards). To be honest that is all I look forward to - the snacks afterwards when i get to socialise.


I am not sure what is the wisest thing to do - just grin and bear it, continue to pray, speak to someone about it, or forget the study and just attend on Sundays.

Thank
Lee

 

[MarcR]

I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have been attending weekly bible study at my church but I am honestly not getting anything out of it. It is very structured with several small groups happening at once - all following the same lesson plan.


I find the substance of the lessons (right now going through Colossians) very shallow, as if designed for young teens or something. The discussions are worse with few people contributing. When I contribute the leader gets clearly insecure or annoyed because I go deeper into the text or into the Greek or I link things back to previous lessons. I sometimes get no acknowledgement and the leader says 'let's move on'. The look on other people is as if they just didn't understand what I said.


I have prayed over it, prayed for the leaders in the study group, prayed for a better attitude. I am not one given to strong emotion but every time I leave, I feel very heavy and drained.



The thing is I am new to the area and to the church and I am trying to establish myself and make friends so I have been enduring these studies for the last few months. I will admit I have made a friend or two, not from the study group itself but from another study group (all the groups meet for snacks afterwards). To be honest that is all I look forward to - the snacks afterwards when i get to socialise.


I am not sure what is the wisest thing to do - just grin and bear it, continue to pray, speak to someone about it, or forget the study and just attend on Sundays.

Thank
Lee

I would suggest a fourth option. Look for a church that studies the Bible in a less structured and more in depth way.

Another possibility is to determine whether one of the other groups is more suited to your needs.

 

[Jeff_56]

I am in a bit of a dilemma. ......

talk to the boss. be ready for a surprise, or a long wait, either or. or , steady green pasture and still waters .....

.... like a 'good' sheep, listen to the shepherd... he knows and he guides and he will open or close the door.

sometimes the apostles started to go to another town, and were stopped, then went another direction and were permitted.... yahweh perfectly directs our steps, even when we aren't 'sure'...

shalom in yahshua.

 

[Ugly]

Not sure i see a dilemma at all. This group isn't fulfilling your needs and it's leaving you frustrated, so leave. Sounds rather simple to me.

 

[pwrnJC]

I can appreciate your honesty here. BIBLE study should be exciting, a spiritual experience and much more. I tend to be more of a 'black and white" minded person, with little or NO gray areas. There are 2 kinds of churches: the Happy/Clappy & the Frozen/Chosen. Guess which one you really need to be a part of....and I'm sure the BIBLE studies there will be much different.

 

[Kaycie]

I have had many instructors. Some taught in a way that I found more entertaining and easier to follow. And some were boring, and I didn't like their method. But none of that mattered to me because Gods Word itself was exciting to me, no matter what format it came in. I especially liked Colossians, and memorized all of it.

And I have been to many congregations of the same church, and in some of them I made a comment that others found so enlightening that I could see a positive reaction by the look on their face, and they even came up to me after class and thanked me because they never thought of it that way before. Then in other congregations I said the exact same thing and people strongly disagreed with me. So I wouldn't take that to heart.

It sounds like you get good fellowship out of it. If it were me I would still go, but you have to make that decision for yourself.

I also like to study in depth. If you want to pm me I would be more than happy to study with you, if you so choose.

 

[Lexlee]

There are 2 kinds of churches: the Happy/Clappy & the Frozen/Chosen. Guess which one you really need to be a part of....and I'm sure the BIBLE studies there will be much different.

I found your comment really funny. I have mostly been in Frozen/Chosen churches! It gets boring when everyone just nods their head in the study and never shares anything. I have tried Happy/Clappy but can't stand the inane repetitive music or having a 'band' and short shallow feel-good sermons. The Happy Clappy bible study was equally shallow and full of people's feelings about bible verses.

Perhaps it is just me - never quite fitting in!

 

[Jesus4ever]

I think you can keep going for a while in order to see if you have benefits from that.

 

[Eva1218]

Always go to GOD First. at reading this what came to me was this is a Great opportunityfor you to be used not to grow but to grow them. As for eating meat that may have to be in your alone time studying with GOD. Do not be discouraged those on milk sometimes tend to allow themselves to become full. Biblestudy is just that studying the Bible if youcanjust find one that is hungry feed them but keep in mind it takes time to digest meat when only given milk. be stretched not frustrated.

Blessings!!!!!!!

 

[iveseenworse]

well, at first i would say find a more exciting church/study. do you like the service, how will leaving affect others? second, maybe God put you in the study to help someone else, it's not all about you. i don't know the particulars. God i pray, make us good servants.

 

[MarcR]

I found your comment really funny. I have mostly been in Frozen/Chosen churches! It gets boring when everyone just nods their head in the study and never shares anything. I have tried Happy/Clappy but can't stand the inane repetitive music or having a 'band' and short shallow feel-good sermons. The Happy Clappy bible study was equally shallow and full of people's feelings about bible verses.

Perhaps it is just me - never quite fitting in!

Maybe it is time to discover NONE OF THE ABOVE. There are many churches that are Biblically sound without being legalistic; and who study the Bible in depth.

I don't know if these denominations are available in Britain or if they function the same there; but here they are neither happy clappy nor frozen chosen:

Baptist General Conference, Mission Covenant Church, Free Methodist, Christian Missionary Alliance, Mennonite, Evangelical Free, Calvary Chapel, the Christian Church. In addition many Baptist Churches, but not all are also in this group.


These are ones I am familiar with. I'm sure there are many others.