(This is a repost of a post we did 2 years ago. It generated so much discussion, we decided to post it again!)
Church Leaders: How Much Should a Bible Study Facilitator Know About the Bible?
“Facilitating” a Bible study video series or book has been a staple in the evangelical church for about the past 50 years. More and more, churches have relied on these materials for Bible studies and small groups. These studies are put out by any number of pastors, teachers and Christian leaders, of all different theological convictions (and some with no certain ones at all). Walk into any Christian bookstore, or look online, and you’re inundated with fancy covers and sweet or catchy titles. While there are many good studies of this type to be had, there are also a slew of bad choices out there.
Here’s an example of what’s at stake: A recent study has several liberal theology scholars’ thoughts strewn throughout the first lesson. These scholars’ thoughts (and those scholars themselves) are part of the movement that questions the historicity, authors, inerrancy, and dating of the Bible. A facilitator who knows the Bible well would pick up on these statements and see a problem. A facilitator who doesn’t will present the study as is. Is this what we want for our churches?
Church leaders need to teach their sheep! They need to feed their sheep! They need to equip them well for teaching and leading others in the truth before they let them teach! It’s important. While teaching and feeding is their main job, it goes along with the job of protecting the flock from errancy and heresy!
This begs the question “Should churches have certain requirements for those who lead facilitator-style studies, or should they rely totally on the merits and authority of the person who wrote the study?” The overwhelming answer from the publishers and bookstores is not a good one. In general, these studies are looked at as a tool that the church only needs ‘a warm and willing body’ to put into use! Here’s a list of the qualifications for facilitating that I pulled off a popular Christian bookstore website:
“Most Bible studies have one leader, usually called a
facilitator. You will need to enlist a leader for every
eight to 12 people. The facilitator is responsible for:
convening the group,
conducting the session (video-driven or not),
taking prayer requests,
leading a prayer time, and
guiding participants to discuss each week’s
study material or homework
The large-group Bible study leader is not a teacher but
an organizer, coordinator, and facilitator. If you’re using
a video driven study, the large-group leader shows the
video. Participants complete the corresponding video
response sheet at the end of each week’s material in
their member books as they view the video.”
Without a Biblically-literate facilitator, this type of study leaves the participants with three things: 1) what the author taught, 2) the leader/facilitator’s understanding about the text, 3) their own ideas about the text, and 4) other participants‘ ideas and beliefs about the text, all of which may or may not be correct, and which may or may not get corrected if they are wrong.
This begs a few questions church leaders should consider:
Do I know what is being taught in my church?
Does it align theologically with our church?
Is there any heresy or false teaching in the study?
Would the leader/facilitator recognize it if there was?
Will the leader know an unbiblical answer if someone in
class offers one?
How does a church leader make use of this type of resource, some of which are very good, and still protect the flock from conflicting or bad doctrinal/theological ideas; or worse yet, what might be heresy or false teaching?
Start by asking “Who picked out the study?” Many of these studies, especially those aimed at Christian women, are based on emotions and making women feel better about themselves. Many are nothing more than Christian self-help books….the same thing you could find in a secular book, but with Bible verses strewn throughout, many times using verses pulled out of context! These studies rarely help anyone with the problem they’re seeking an answer to, let alone with knowing the Bible (and God) better! We can’t pick out a study by walking through the doors of one of these book stores, and seeing what jumps out at us, with no research ahead of time about the author’s beliefs, the study, or the Biblical accuracy! And don’t relax, men! Judging (I’ll admit) only by the titles of men’s studies, you could be headed down the same path as the women!
Next, have someone in your church who has sound theological and biblical knowledge review the study. And don’t make assumptions about who can do this. “Bible studies” of the nature we are talking about have been around so long, and they’ve been the steady diet of so many churches, that a recent study has found that people know their Bible less now than at any time in history.
The bottom line is, the leader, facilitator, or teacher must know Biblical truth to be able to discern truth in the study and lead others to knowing it. As we’ve said, there are a lot of good studies out there; however, there are also a lot of bad ones. That’s the problem. Even after years of leading studies, many leaders and facilitators don’t know the Bible. We don’t want to be more committed to having a warm body lead a study, than we are committed to making sure those being led are definitely learning the Bible.
Is it ever acceptable to have a facilitator who is inexperienced, or not completely Biblically literate? The answer is maybe, if the following parameters are in place: they are committed to learning the Bible, someone has examined the study, and has found no Biblical error in it; if there is someone with sound Biblical knowledge committed to being in the class to assist, if needed.
When Biblical truth is studied and explained, it develops a hunger in a person to delve deeper into God’s Word; and when that happens, we see individual transformation, and amazing things happening in our churches!
