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What Should Happen When Church Members Engage in More In-Depth Bible Study

I attend a very large church in the Midwest where our senior pastor spends a significant amount of time each week in sermon preparation. The result of his Bible study efforts, in combination with his skilled ability to preach, attracts a very large number of attendees to our church. But I have wondered, what would happen if most of the people attending our church would take on the challenge to further their own on-going and in-depth Bible study to an extent approaching even half the effort our pastor himself does?

First of all, I think that the pace of our own individual spiritual growth and maturity would improve. As a result, I think that our pastor's weekly messages to our church could then begin to take on a new and even more exciting direction - not having to be quite so hampered with basic, elementary teachings from the Bible. I can imagine what the enthusiasm would be of our elders and pastoral staff if they saw the day when most of us took ownership of the effort to learn and understand the Bible further on our own, through Bible study, without depending almost entirely upon the work of the senior pastor to prepare and deliver his weekly message (I am concerned that for many church attendees the only in-depth Bible study they do all week may amount to nothing more than simply listening to the pastor’s weekly message).

If more people in the church did their own regular Bible study, perhaps even the workload upon the pastor himself for sermon preparation would not have to be quite so extensive, (maybe even easing the burden upon the senior pastor just a bit), if people were simply more knowledgeable about the Bible via their own personal Bible study. It is very interesting to think how different our church would be – and many other churches as well -- if many more church attendees would make the effort to study the Word of God in a more in-depth and systematic manner. With such excellent computer tools now at our disposal, such as Logos Bible software for example, there is really no excuse not to spend more time in Bible study. I always tell people who say they are too busy to spend enough time as they should in Bible study, “if you have time to use the computer to read your personal e-mail everyday, why don’t you consider making equal time to read the Bible on your computer, too?” Bible software makes things so easy for Bible study – from building easy to use Bible reading plans to providing a wide variety of Bible translations and excellent commentaries that easily explain difficult passages.

My Bible study software not only has made my Bible study time very enjoyable, but I know I have learned a great deal in just the last few years using Bible study software than what I learned in my Bible study time the 10 years previous to using Bible study software. I will continue to recommend Bible study software -- such as Logos Bible software -- to everyone I know that I think would benefit from having better Bible study in their lives.

Submitted by Tim Lord