Fieldwork News
Basic Bible Teaching in Joliet, Illinois
2005/01/31

Basic Bible Teaching—A ten-week Bible-study series on CD

As described in the following story by Norm Fadelle, this CD is being offered free of charge by WCF. Use the CD content to jump-start your own preaching and teaching effort, or simply as an information resource. You can download a copy at the WCF website or request it from the WCF Resource Center, PO Box 982, Bloomington, IL, 61702.

The Opportunity
Imagine being given the opportunity to present your understanding of key Bible teachings at the Bible class of another church. What teachings would you choose to focus on? What approach would you take? What handout material would you produce, if any? What media would you use, if any? How would you know that God had used you for good to get the message across? Well such an opportunity became a reality when a coworker invited me to address her Tuesday-night Pentecostal Bible-study group.

The Background
Mazola and I enjoy weekly Bible study during lunchtime, and she has attended several of our outreach seminars. After the one in Oct 2003, she challenged me to put all the core Bible teachings in a meaningful diagram (with supporting references) on a single sheet, so that she could see the connections and evidence at glance. So I did. Mazola had been consistently passing along material (as given out at our seminars and as developed out of our discussions at work) to her sister, who is a Bible-class teacher and married also to the pastor. When she and her husband saw the diagram, they were open to Mazola's proposal that I come to their church and explain the flow chart and Bible references at their weekly Bible study over a period of ten weeks. The subject? Basic Bible Teaching.

The Arrangement
Mazola and I developed a flyer which featured the overview diagram, and she distributed it at her church. I developed all the presentation and handout material that, on a per-week basis, was given to her sister to review and approve; Mazola would then make copies for distribution to the attendees. I had an hour to present the lesson (using Powerpoint slides), and then another 40 minutes for a question/answer open-Bible session. The Q/A points were captured on a flip chart, and transformed into 'recap' slides for the following week.

Attendees were given a binder into which they could put copies of each week's slide handouts and supplementary material such as first principle topics and relevant articles. They were also promised a color copy of the overview diagram and, if wanted, a CD that contained everything covered during the presentations and Q/A sessions.

The Content
The lesson sequence followed the diagram sequence, which was centered on the Resurrection of Jesus (1). To be raised from the dead presupposes a Dead Body (2) which presupposes the person was once an Alive Body (3), which necessitates coming into existence via Born of Woman (4). The risen Jesus was given a Spiritual Body (5) by which he Appeared (6) to his disciples and Empowered (7) them to carry out his teachings. Jesus Ascended (8) into heaven to serve as high priest on behalf of his brethren, with a promise To Return (9) as judge and king, to establish God's Kingdom in a New Earth (10) environment.

Discussion of the first five subjects as they apply to Jesus (as well as ourselves) leads into the nature of man and inevitably the topics of death, hell, the sacrifice of Jesus, the seed of the woman, the trinity, and immortality. Discussion of the last five subjects readily gets into compelling evidence for the fact of the resurrection, discipleship, baptism, Holy Spirit gifts, the high-priest role of Christ, judgment day, the promises made to Abraham & David, heaven-going, and Israel in prophecy. In short, a solid sampling of key Bible teaching was covered during the ten lessons.

The Outcome
The willingness for everyone to learn, including the presenter, was evident. The pastor repeatedly said that he realized that I was making a case from Scripture. Although he and those attending clearly did not agree with all my conclusions, they felt that the dialog was healthy and instructive. No one was shy in speaking up or firmly disagreeing.

Most of the regular class attendees continued to show up, and a few others came in and out over the course of time. Most notable was the husband of a woman who had been praying that he would come out to church, which he did do for the last two weeks. He made a most favorable comment on the thank-you card signed by the regular attendees who, besides their kind words, gave me some gifts of appreciation on the last night along with a celebration supper. I was moved by their thoughtfulness and generosity.

In the weeks that followed, Mazola would 'report' on how well things were going for their study group. She said that the diagram and study notes were frequently referenced by both herself and the others, and one of the men who specifically asked for the CD has appreciated its value as a resource. And now that same Pentecostal church has invited me back to lead their Friday Bible class discussion on Galatians.

For further information, or to order your CD, you can contact me at nfadelle@juno.com.

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Basic Bible Teaching in Joliet, Illinois

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