Home Bible Study Insights
Compiled by Deena Davis
They Hope and Pray
Does your faith falter when it comes to your family’s salvation? Does the apparent futility make it hard to pray?
I struggled with this, as did four other friends with unsaved family members. We decided to do something about it.
Two years ago we began meeting every other week for two hours solely to pray for our unsaved families. I found early on that I could more easily believe Monica’s mother will get saved than Monica could. Likewise, Monica has greater faith for my family’s salvation. This teaming up has increased my faith while giving me a proactive involvement in my family’s eternal future.
Each meeting begins with a brief update of our families’ lives. We created a booklet with color photocopies of the five families and a section entitled “Seed Planting,” where we record progress, pitfalls, or glimpses into a family member’s spiritual journey. Then we pray over new entries to the book and ask God to draw our loved ones to Him. Our book also has a section called “The Harvest,” where we one day will write in the names of those family members who accept Christ. At the top of the page we scribed, “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:25). Since we began meeting, births and marriages have enlarged our family circles, fueling our need to persevere as we “hope and quietly wait” for our families’ salvation.
-Anne Meskey Elhajoui
Open Home, Open Hearts
God has given many Christians the gift of hospitality. By providing a comfortable atmosphere where Christianity is lived out and where non-Christians feel at ease, homes can be great tools for bringing people to Christ. Try some of these “inreach” ideas in your home.
Dinners for Eight
Dinners for Eight are popular among one church’s membership. Eight people gather for dinner, fellowship, and fun. By including a few non-Christians, new relationships often emerge, leading to invitations to Sunday school classes, worship services, and special church events where the gospel is presented.
Fondue Party
Who can resist chocolate? Invite a group over with the explicit invitation for “Fondue and Discussion of the Christian Faith.” Enjoy socializing and dessert. Then have a spiritually mature person make a ten-minute presentation of the relevancy of a relationship with Christ. Open a discussion time for guests to ask questions.
A group of twenty people is best, half non-Christians. Variations on this theme could include evangelistic barbecues, coffee tasting parties, or burrito bars.
Literary Society
Reading groups have gained popularity over the past few years. Begin your own literary society that includes seekers. Gather monthly in a living room to discuss, debate, and dissect a selected reading. Choose Christian and secular authors. Whatever book is chosen, believers can contribute a Christian perspective to the discussion. Encourage an atmosphere of intellectual honesty where believers and nonbelievers alike stretch their thinking.
Youth House
Teenagers love to just hang out. They appreciate homes where they are welcomed, where a wholesome atmosphere provides a place for friendships, and where parents are involved and listen. Maybe your home can be such a place. Not only will you minister to kids, but you will model Christian hospitality for the next generation.
Evangelistic entertaining does not need to be highly formal. Simply ask the Holy Spirit to bless your efforts, enabling non-believers to experience the reality of the Christian faith in your home.
-Keith D. Wright
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
This article “Home Bible Study Insights” compiled by Deena Davis, was excerpted from the book Best Small-Group Ideas. It may be used for study & research purposes only.
