Our first 2 weeks of outreach were extremely successful (see previous blog) with many people's lives changing for the better as we spent time speaking to them and praying for them. One of the best and most enjoyable tools I (Tim) have been blessed to teach and leave people with, is something we learned in the lecture phase of our DTS called Discovery Bible Study (or DBS for short - not to be confused with the Disclosure and Barring Service which many of you will know has caused us much less joy as a family!!).
The beauty of teaching people this method is that it doesn't actually require anyone to 'teach' the Bible but relies on a group simple following 5 steps to learning or discovering together. Let me briefly tell you the 5 steps...
1. Read a selected Bible passage. I started with The Woman at the Well (John 4) and then the next week read The Feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6). I was doing this with a group of Zambian guardians of orphans who don't know much English and can struggle with reading, so I simply read the passage to them from my Bible while they listened carefully.
2. Repeat / retell the story. This is quite a challenge but works so well in groups. In pairs the guardians simply had to try and retell the story to their partner with as much detail as possible. Then one person would be brave and try to repeat it to the group. My role was simply to ask if anyone could add to what had been shared. They weren't to jump to applying the story to their lives or telling us what they thought it meant, but just limit themselves to what the Bible actually said. It's amazing to see how much people remember and how together they could recall almost everything.
3. Having got the story into their heads, we then ask a simple question - What do we learn about God / Jesus in this passage? (Ie: what is He like?)
Again there answers come from the group and specific things they've noticed or remembered from the story. And I don't teach (no matter how tempting!) but just check that what's been shared is coming from the Bible story and not just our own ideas.
4. We ask 'What do we learn about people from the passage?' Whether it's the disciples or crowds or whoever is mentioned, there's lots to pick up and share.
5. The last step, having learned about God and people, is to ask 'How does this apply to us? / How should we live? / What should we do as a result of what we've learned together? The aim here is to be specific so that the group goes away and actually lives differently.
One thing people can always do of course is to share the story with other people, and that was certainly the case after studying 'The woman at the well' together - with new people joining us the second week having heard from those that discovered more about Jesus together.
Such a simple tool, and so effective! Why not give it a try with a group of your own friends!?
Click here👇🏻to see the spontaneous song that broke out at the end of our second session as I went to take a group selfie!
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