Inductive Bible Study Sets

After (and a result of) our team leader training in Prague in February, God inspired the idea of using Bible Study sets in Ohrid. As a team, we have a lot of friends, but they did not want to seem to commit to a Bible Study. The idea of a set of Bible Studies was a perfect solution on both ends. When I say set, I mean a course that meets once a week for 8 weeks, 10 weeks, or 12 weeks. On their end this works because they do not need to commit to anything longer than the course. On our end if someone is not really serious at this moment in time we have an excuse to move on temporarily. We of course never close the door on anyone, we just focus our time on better soil. Currently we are working on a 12 week Chronological Bible Study that covers 12 key Bible Stories. When we asked our friends if they wanted to do a 12 week course, many of them said yes. Until now they were skeptical in some ways, but this offers both of us a chance to discuss the Bible.

Not only are we doing sets, but we are doing them inductively. The model of church we have in America is built off a tradition of mainstream Christianity. We preach the way we preach in churches on Sunday morning because we think most people in the congregation have a Biblical understanding on which they can understand the material ... well until the last couple of years. In America, this is changing because the younger generations are not being raised in a Bible teaching church and many of them can not tell you the difference between the Old and New Testament. In Macedonia, people have very little Biblical knowledge so before we can even preach, we need them to read and understand basic principles of the Bible. An inductive approach is the best way for THEM to learn. It is the easiest for ME to tell them (preach), but it is best for THEM to interact with the text and see it for themselves. What we do is read a text of Scripture as a group (for example Genesis 1 - Creation) and I (the facilitator) ask a set of questions that gets the group to read the text and process it. In the end, the points that I would preach on end up coming out in the form of questions.

There are many different types of inductive approaches, and I am using an approach of Observation, Interpretation, and Application that I learned from Kyle. (We may not be Baptists here yet, but we can teach them early about 3 points that all end the same ... golf analogies come later :) ). Actually, we have to get a golf course in Macedonia first!

Observation: Observation questions are questions where the answers come from only the text. For example, what did God create on the 5th day? or What did God ask Abraham to do? The answers to these questions are non-debatable because we are only getting our answers from the text. If you are good facilitator you know what points you want to bring out and then you ask the appropriate questions. It is also good because I cannot bring out a point that is not found in the text so it keeps me honest as well.

Interpretation: Interpretation questions are usually always the same, and we only have three. "What does the text teach us about God?"; "What does the text teach us about man?"; and "What is the main point of the text?." The questions are obviously less grounded in the text but they come from the things we learned in Observation. For example, since we saw that God created X on day X, Y on day Y ... in Observation, we learn that God is the Creator of all things. Or from Observation with Abraham and Isaac, we learn that God wants us to be obedient to what he asks of us not matter what it looks like will happen.

Application: What does this text mean for me in my life? or How does it apply to me? Please note that we did NOT say "What do I think the text says?" The truth of the text is not debatable, but the application of it can vary from person to person and situation to situation. For example, from Abraham and Isaac we learned that God wants us to be obedient in all areas of our life and I know that he hates a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:16-19) so I will be honest in all my conversations at work no matter what I THINK might be the result.

So in a nut shell we are using this inductive approach throughout the whole Bible in order to lay a solid Biblical foundation. This way people are reading what the text says instead of me telling them. People who have been in our earlier Bible Studies like this approach much better. One guy, Igor, who I have been friends with since the beginning told me he is glad we are using this approach because "we get to see for ourselves what God is trying to say." One day I hope that we will be able to have more in depth preaching, but we have to have a foundation before that can take place.

I want to close with a comment that this approach might be used effectively in America. There are many people who sit in the pews and really do not know basic principles of the Bible nor do some of them know how to read and interact with it. We are assuming that people are on the 3rd and 4th floors when they might be on the ground level or 1st floor. A lot of our material that we use for Sunday School and small groups makes the same assumptions. It might be the best thing for some Sunday School classes to put the material in the closet for a while and open up the Word and start interacting with it and see what God has to say for Himself. Once that foundation is laid, bring the material back out and go deeper!

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I just uploaded the inductive Bible Study for creation (translated into English :)) here for you to look at. Creation is pretty straight forward, but if want to see another example from a harder text, please let me know.

Back in the Day... at the Village

We recently spent the day at the village home of our friend L. He no longer lives there, but he goes back with his family regularly to visit. We had a blast walking through the village and grilling out with their family. Here are some pictures of our day (they are in no particular order).
This is the whole village from a distance. Beautiful.

The abundance of meat. We had everything from chicken wrapped in bacon, to hamburger meat stuffed with cheese to good ol' fashion sausage.

This is what Kate thinks of the village. Stay tuned to her blog for more pictures of her day at the village.

The men preparing for the BBQ.

These are some OLD shoes, but what they would have worn back in the day.

Just some of the houses we saw on our walk around the village.

We stopped and talked to this lady. She was stoking the fire in her stove to make bread.

She invited us to come back later to have some of the bread, but sadly we never returned that way.

Check out his hat--Charlotte Hornets. We asked him about it, and he had no clue what the Charlotte Hornets were--although who really does nowadays. Ah, Mugsy...



This is the house L grew up in. Cool, uh?!

Poor donkey. That looks heavy.

L and Brian--buddies.

Kate found a feeding trough. I guess she was hungry.

Bittersweet Times

We are getting pretty excited about our new teammates getting here. Charlie, Jennifer and their boys, Josiah and Judah will be arriving in the next few weeks (we hope). They are going to be career m's here just like Brian and I, which means they are in for the long haul. We are so excited to have some more help and are thrilled that it is coming soon.

Our time with M and K, our journeymen, is quickly winding down.

M plans to leave August 6th to return to the states and pursue a masters and K is planning on staying here until October 16th. Please pray for these girls. They have been so wonderful to work with and have become a part of our family here. We are going to miss them greatly! Pray for them as they finish up their time. Pray that it will be fruitful and that they will work diligently. And pray that they will know where to go next. There are many questions from, "Where will I work?" to "Where should I go to seminary?" to "Should I continue to pursue a life of foreign missions?"

With the girls leaving we are hoping to have two more girls or guys come and fill their spot! That is a huge prayer request. Pray that someone will answer the call to work for two years in Macedonia teaching English and working at the coffee house, among other wonderful things. If you know anyone who might be interested in filling this spot. Please let them know we are looking and would love to talk with them.