For the last several months I’ve really felt, for the first time in my pastorate here, that Central Baptist really needed a Bible study.  Not a new small group or fellowship, an honest-to-goodness sit down with the text Bible study.  After all, if we’re going to have a Church that is literate reading Scripture together than we need be reading it together.  It makes sense.

The problem is that I’ve been burn by Bible studies so often in the past.  I’ve been in Bible studies that are led by people who don’t want to think, and are populated with people who don’t want to learn.  I’ve been in Bible studies where people’s personal agendas wrap every subject to their pet beliefs (usually it’s “end times” but I’ve been cornered by predestinarians in the past as well). The worst, however, is when people sit in a circle to sleep read a passage from the Bible – and then ask, “Well, what does this mean?”  Usually people just stare dumbly at that moment, but the agenda people just love to jump all over that question (3..2..1, and cue the anti-christ predictions…).

Needless to say, I’ve been kinda timid at the prospect of jumping into that well again.  I’ve written some studies for Central and led groups that follow those materials, but those were time-limited groups with built-in focus.  I’m not sure I could write those kinds of studies all the time (in fact, I’m currently stalled in the 4th of those studies while I dig out from the swamp of projects).  So if I do a Bible study I need to have some fun with it.  I also want people to be able to talk about something for several days, rather than get blind-sided during a study group and left flailing. So here’s my try at something slightly different – our Pilot of the Central Baptist “Study Moment.”