Establishing Neighborhood Bible Studies: the Vision, Goal, Cost

Q: What does the Bible say about evangelism?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of evangelism as an overflow of the believer's relationship with Christ, particularly in Acts 1:8. The Bible underscores the significance of evangelism, rooted in the command of Christ found in Acts 1:8, which states that believers will be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This passage highlights that evangelism is not only a task but also a privilege, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Believers are called to communicate the truths of the gospel as a natural outflow of their relationship with the risen Christ. Additionally, Jesus’ ministry and teachings set a precedent for all Christians to engage actively in evangelistic efforts to spread the message of salvation to those who are lost.

Q: How do we know the importance of Bible studies in evangelism?

Bible studies are essential for evangelism as they aim to communicate core gospel truths to unsaved individuals, providing an environment for spiritual growth and community. The importance of Bible studies in evangelism lies in their focused purpose of reaching the unsaved with the gospel. In the context of evangelistic Bible studies, the primary aim is not merely to educate church members but to introduce individuals who do not know Christ to the transformative truths of Scripture. This method provides a framework for a relational approach, where participants can engage with the Bible while witnessing authentic Christian community. Such settings are instrumental in cultivating an inviting atmosphere where lives impacted by the gospel can be showcased, ultimately leading to conversions and incorporation into the church body.

Q: Why is self-denial necessary for sharing the gospel?

Self-denial is essential for sharing the gospel as it demonstrates a commitment to prioritize the needs of others over personal convenience. The call to self-denial is a foundational principle in the life of a believer, particularly when it comes to evangelism. Jesus articulates this in Luke 9:23, where He stresses that anyone wishing to follow Him must deny themselves and take up their cross daily. This self-denial is crucial in the context of evangelism because effective outreach often requires sacrificing personal comfort and time for the sake of others. The Apostle Paul serves as a prime example, willingly relinquishing his rights and comforts to reach various people groups with the gospel. By prioritizing the needs and salvation of others, believers model the love of Christ and demonstrate genuine investment in their neighbors' spiritual well-being.

Q: How can Christians effectively reach their communities?

Christians can effectively reach their communities through intentional relationships and evangelistic Bible studies that present the gospel in relatable contexts. To effectively reach their communities, Christians should focus on building genuine relationships that allow for natural conversations about faith and the gospel. A sincere interest in the lives of neighbors fosters openness and trust, which are conducive for sharing the gospel. Additionally, organizing evangelistic Bible studies in various communities creates structured opportunities for outreach. These studies not only educate participants about core Christian beliefs but also invite them into a caring community reflective of the gospel’s transformative power. By making these efforts grounded in prayer and engagement, Christians can become agents of change within their communities, ultimately leading others to Christ.

Now, I do welcome any who may
be visiting with us today. Ordinarily, in this class, we
would be in our study in the shorter catechism, the Baptist
version, led by Pastor Carlson. However, for this one class today,
I have been asked by my fellow elders to lead you in considering
a matter related to our life as a church. Those of you who
are members of this Church and regular attenders for any period
of time have no doubt heard the phrase, reaching our own Jerusalem
or penetrating our own Jerusalem with the gospel. This phrase
has been repeated in prayer meetings, in the prayers as brethren have
led us to the throne of grace. It has been used in comments. and challenges from various of
your pastors. And the basis for this phrase,
reaching our own Jerusalem or penetrating our own Jerusalem,
is based upon Acts chapter 1 in verse 8. And I would invite you
to turn to that passage in the Word of God with me. In the Upper
Room Discourse in John 14 to 16, which is the most dense section
of instruction from the lips of our Lord concerning the coming
of the Holy Spirit, the primary emphasis is upon the Spirit's
ministry establishing communion with the absent, risen, exalted
Christ, a communion with Him and with the Father, established
and maintained by the indwelling Spirit whom the risen Lord would
send to His people. Furthermore, the emphasis in
those chapters falls upon the ministry of the Spirit as the
Spirit of truth who will testify of Christ, who will reveal the
things of Christ. But here in Acts chapter 1, as
at the end of the Gospel of Luke, and remember Luke is the human
author of both that Gospel and the book of Acts, the emphasis
on the coming of the Spirit falls rather upon endowment with power
for witness and for service. And so, as the Lord is about
to be received back into heaven, he says in Acts 1.8, But you
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you,
and you shall be my witnesses, or witnesses of me. Now notice
the little particle, both. not first in Jerusalem, then
in Judea, then in Samaria, then to the othermost part of the
earth, as though there is a sequential witness alone, but both. In other words, there will be
simultaneous witness of Christ beginning at Jerusalem, continuing
in Jerusalem, but then extending to Judea and Samaria, and while
continuing in Judea and Samaria, as well as in Jerusalem, then
extending to the uttermost part of the earth. And we have sought
as a church to be sensitive to this text throughout our life
together, and our privilege and responsibility in the power of
the Spirit to bear simultaneous witness to Christ in these, we
might regard them as concentric circles of ever-widening influence. And we are thankful to God for
the many ways in which right now there is a witnessing to
Jerusalem. I am amazed as more and more
in pastoral interaction, as I have been able to increase the level
of my pastoral interaction since the death of my wife, and how
many of the Lord's people in this place are carrying on sustained,
prayerful, wise, friendship-based evangelistic endeavors in their
own Jerusalem. Neighbors, people that have come
into their lives in the providence of God. several Bible studies
in various workplaces. And we might then regard our
Samaria and Judea as our ongoing witness in our various nursing
homes, and the uttermost part of the earth, of course, the
planting of churches as far away as Pakistan and the Philippines. However, in our pastoral interaction,
we have also sensed what we called in our elders meeting two weeks
ago a back pressure from some of you desiring to do more, particularly
in the area of evangelistic home-based Bible studies as a concentrated
effort to be more effective in reaching our Jerusalem. Some of you would not know this,
but we have attempted such home-based Bible studies in the past with
little success, but now we are purposing to launch a new, more
extensive, more organized effort in this area of home-based evangelistic
Bible studies as an attempt, with God's blessing, to be more
effective in reaching our Jerusalem. Speaking this morning in this
class as the mouthpiece of the entire eldership, I want to set
before you a specific proposal for such a church-wide endeavor
in the days to come. And I will attempt to do so,
speaking as the mouthpiece for the entire eldership, under four
headings. First of all, heading number
one, the vision of this endeavor. Now, when I say the vision, I
don't mean that one or more of the elders in the middle of his
sleep had the Lord come to us and reveal something by direct
revelation. You know the sense in which I
use the term vision, the vision of this endeavor. Simply stated,
it is this. To establish evangelistic Bible
studies in all the communities in which there are clusters of
Trinity Baptist Church members. Perhaps I can give you a visual
conceptualization of this to establish evangelistic Bible
studies in all of the communities in which there are clusters of
Trinity Baptist Church members. If we think of our identity here
this morning and throughout the day as a gathered assembly of
God's people, It is a fact that sitting here this morning, and
we're still getting enough, Harry, to come into that? Okay, I'll
keep the street-preaching voice up, that there are clusters of
members in various communities. In other words, sitting here
this morning, if I were to ask a raise of hands for those who
are in Pequonic, we would have a number of hands raised. That's
a cluster. of our members who in the providence
of God reside in the community of Pequim. If I were to ask how
many of you reside in Monville, we would have a cluster of our
members who in the providence of God have their domiciles in
Monville. If we were to ask how many of
you are in Boonton, we have a cluster of the members. So the vision
is this. that with the blessing of God
and with the self-denying cooperation and vision and involvement of
you, the Lord's people, there would be established in each
of these areas where we have such a cluster of members of
this church an evangelistic Bible study that would be conducted
along the lines that I will articulate later on. So that's the vision
of this endeavor, establishing evangelistic Bible studies in
all the communities in which there are clusters of Trinity
Baptist Church members. Now let me break down into some
specifics what we mean by the various terms, the various phrases
and words. Evangelistic Bible studies, that
is, Bible studies that are calculated not primarily to feed the church
members who are found in a cluster in these various communities.
The primary purpose is not the feeding of the sheep, but rather
the effort to gather those other sheep whom Christ says he must
bring to himself. In other words, these Bible studies
would be aimed at communicating central, basic gospel truths
to unsaved men and women. Now, obviously, in the course
of doing that, the people of God will be edified, who are
sitting in those Bible studies. They will be instructed, but
the primary goal is not the instruction, another teaching framework for
the people of God, such as the adult class, such as our services,
Lord's Day morning and evening, but rather this focused, laser-point
passion to communicate the gospel to those who are strangers to
the grace of God. And then I've used the term communities
in which there are clusters of our members. I've already sought
to demonstrate on the whiteboard what I mean by that. Now, if
there is a community in which we have only two of our members,
obviously it would not be practical to try to start a Bible study
in that smaller group, and what we will seek to do then is to
see what community is closest to what community is this smaller
group of members, most adjacent, and encourage them to be incorporated
into that community so that there will be, with God's blessing,
at least a half a dozen of our members gathered so that if unconverted
people are brought in, they don't feel nervous that they are just
one of three, but in that larger group setting would have a greater
sense of feeling at ease and comfortable. So this is what
I mean on behalf of your elders, sharing the vision of what is
upon our hearts by evangelistic Bible studies in communities
where there are clusters of Trinity Baptist Church members. And furthermore,
it would be our desire that all of the members in that area would
be urged to invite and accompany friends and neighbors from that
particular area. Now the exception would be if
in your place of work you begin to invite someone to a Bible
study and they live in Montville and you live in Pequonic, well
obviously you would want to see them incorporated into the Bible
study that is there in Montville. so that they would get acquainted
with those various people from the Montville area. So until
they would get integrated into that Bible study, though you
live in Pequonic, you would go to the Bible study there in Montville. But otherwise, no switching around
that the Montville people are going to the Pequonic Bible study
and the Pequonic people going to the Boonton Bible study. The
whole purpose of this vision is that there would be this concentrated
effort to exert an influence for the gospel in the community
in which God has providentially placed us. And those Bible studies
would have some non-negotiable guidelines. The Bible study meetings
that we are proposing would be held twice a month on Friday
evenings, twice a month, and for this reason. If you tried
to have it every single Friday, that could really cut into what
is quality family time for many of you, Friday nights when the
kids have no school the next day. If we have it just monthly,
you lose a sense of continuity. So as we wrestled with this matter,
we felt that every other Friday night struck a good balance between
sustaining some measure of continuity without placing an undue burden
upon the stability of family life. The leader of that study
will be determined by the elders. The time of instruction would
be approximately no longer than 45 minutes, not including opening
with a hymn and opportunity for social interaction afterwards. The studies would be guided by
a book. At this juncture, we think what
we will use is Sinclair Ferguson's Let's Study Mark. There are excellent
guide questions at the back for each of the chapters so that
the person leading the Bible study would not feel that he
was out to sea without a chart and a compass in guiding the
direction of the Bible study. And then the time frame to discern
the effectiveness of each Bible study would be our initial pilot
project beginning in March, the middle of March or the end of
March, and going through to the first of July. And then we would
make an assessment. If we find that, well, the Mockville
Bible study is just not floating, then we would not try to perpetuate
it just for the sake of perpetuating it. If we sense, okay, something
adjacent to buponic, though there were enough people wasn't floating,
then we might perpetuate this one. So in other words, we don't
know how this thing will float. And we want to be sensitive to
what the spirit of God may do in one place that he may not
be doing in another. That way we won't be just beating
a dead horse, but seeking to feed a live one. All right? So
that's something of the vision that we have with respect to
this matter that I am laying before you, the vision of this
endeavor. Now, secondly, what is the goal
of this vision? What's the goal of this vision?
What do we desire to see accomplished with the blessing of God? Well,
obviously, we want to see sinners converted. We want to see unconverted
people who are ignorant of the gospel or perhaps acquainted
with a very deficient gospel brought into contact with a full-orbed,
vigorous, biblical presentation of the gospel in the context
of people whose lives manifest the transforming power of the
gospel. The Bible does not envision evangelism
in isolation from the validation of the message in the lives of
the messengers. And so our goal would be that
sinners would be confronted with the content of the gospel in
these Bible studies and also with lives that manifest the
transforming power of the gospel, and perhaps right in the Bible
studies themselves be converted. But more likely, it is our goal
that in those Bible studies, if God creates a hunger and a
thirst, they will then begin to attend the ministries of Trinity
Baptist Church. So that in that context, they
come under preaching from God's proven servants And God has ordained
a peculiar place for the preaching of the Word with respect to the
calling out of His elect, and also that they would see the
community of God's people as the larger validation of the
Gospel, to come into a context of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic
context of redeemed people beholding our love for one another. exposed
to the care and the genuine, outgoing friendliness of the
people of God in all that we seek to be by the Lord's people,
that would be the goal, that some, as they begin to taste
something of the sweetness of the pure Word of God, would say,
look, how can I get some more of this? Well, come along with
us, and we taste it every Lord's Day. And then, of course, if
they are converted, whether in the Bible study or from the Bible
study as they become involved in the life of the Church, to
see saved sinners baptized and incorporated into the total life
and ministry of the Church. According to the New Testament,
successful God-owned evangelism issues in the growth of the Church
not independent entities that operate out here separate from
the church and not feeding anything back into the church. Any reading
of the book of Acts draws us inevitably to this conclusion.
When God owns the proclamation of the gospel, it is evident
in the growth of the church. That's the goal of this vision.
Well, then we come thirdly, and this is where the cruncher is,
the cost of pursuing this vision. And here I want you to turn with
me to several passages in the Word of God. Mark, chapter 1. Mark, chapter 1. What is the
cost of pursuing this vision? The cost to you. The cost to
me. In Mark chapter 1, we have the
record of our Lord calling to himself into a relationship of
intimate discipleship, Peter, Simon, Andrew, James and John. Verse 16, And passing along by
the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon,
casting a net in the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus
said unto them, Come after me. and I will make you to become
fishers of men. And straightway they left the
nets and followed him. In this context, though there
are things absolutely unique and peculiar to this call, for
these were to become not just ordinary disciples, ordinary
learners, ordinary followers of Christ, excuse me, but they
were to become apostles with unique authority and with unique
foundation building places in the church in its new covenant
configuration. Nonetheless, there is a great
principle here. Follow after me, and in that
relationship of intimate connection with me, I will make you to become
fishers of men. They were to be made fishers
of men in the context of attachment to the Lord Jesus. Come after
me. Not come to some place where
you get some principles and some gimmicks as to how to be a fisher
of men. But it will be in attachment
to me. Come after me. And out of that
attachment, I will make you to become fishers of men." Well,
when we ask what are the terms, the changeless terms of being
attached to Jesus, the answer of Scripture is clear. Luke 9
in verse 23, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me. Attachment to Christ
is always at the cost of self-denial and cross-bearing. And when we
think of the relationship of self-denial and cross-bearing
to this matter of being fishers of men, there is no better example
apart from our Lord than the Apostle Paul. and perhaps no
passage in which the self-denying dimension of being a fissure
of men is set forth more vividly than 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
And I'd like you to turn to that passage with me for a few moments.
Paul has been dealing with the subject of Christian liberty,
and having set forth some very vital principles, he now sets
forth himself as an example of a man who does not use his liberties
to the full, but that there are higher concerns than either on
the one hand the enjoyment of the full extent of his liberties
or manifesting to men those liberties, and that great passion is the
winning of men to Christ and seeking so to walk that he never
becomes a stumbling block to weak believers. And so in this
chapter, he talks about what his rights are. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not
seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
If to others I'm not an apostle, yet at least I am to you. Verse
four, have we no right to eat and drink? Have we no right to
lead about a wife? And then he goes on to say, yes,
I have all of these rights, however, however, I relinquish the use
of these rights for what purpose and for what reason? Well, he
makes that abundantly clear later on in the chapter, verse 19.
For though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage
to all that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became
as a Jew, that I might gain Jews. To them that are under the law
as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain
them that are under the law. To them that are without law
as without law, not being without law to God but under law to Christ,
that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak I became
weak, that I might gain the weak. I am become all things to all
men, that I may by all means save some." And the Apostle's
great passion was the winning of men to his Savior and then
seeing them established as stable believers. And if that meant
self-denial wherever he turned, he said, I am prepared, as he
says in another passage, to endure all things for the elect's sake. that they might obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And if this vision
is to be pursued and to eventuate in Bible studies in a number
of the communities in which God has providentially placed us,
you mark it down, it will be in the path of self-denial. If
you're not prepared to deny yourself, and each one of us will have
a different litany of the things that will enter into the specifics
of self-denial, forget it. Souls are not one to Christ in
the context of convenience. It just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. And so,
in all honesty, we feel as elders we must set before you not just
the vision, and what we mean by the words in that vision,
but the cost of pursuing that vision. Let me give you some
of the specifics. Number one, the cost of self-denying
earnest prayer. The cost of self-denying earnest
prayer. Setting apart specific time to
pray. for God's blessing upon this
endeavor in general, for wisdom for your elders as we seek to
give direction, for the Spirit of God to brood over the hearts
of those whom he would have take the lead. This thing is not going
to be generated by us standing behind you and pushing. And we
have never done that in our 43 years of ministry in this place.
If you have to push to get it done, it won't get done. But
the Spirit of God can draw and pull and constrain, and He does
that in answer to prayer. And so the cost will be self-denying
earnest prayer in general for this enterprise, but then more
specifically, prayer for your neighbors by name. Let me ask
you, and I'm going to ask you to raise your hands. How many
of you ever pray for your neighbors by name? That leads to another question.
Do you know their names? What efforts have you made to
establish genuine, open-faced relationships with your neighbors
that you can pray for them by name? For some of us, that's a searching
question, I'm sure. And it will be a self-denying
endeavor to determine, all right, if it's only Five minutes, I
am going to determine to start praying for my neighbors by name
that God would give the opportunity and bless that opportunity to
invite them to our area Bible study. The cost will be self-denying
earnest prayer. Then secondly, self-denying practical
involvement. Self-denying practical involvement. If we are going to have these
Bible studies in homes in these various areas, that means somebody
who has the kind of a home that would be suitable for such a
gathering is going to be willing to open his, her home with the
inconveniences that that will bring, self-denying. For others,
volunteers not only to use suitable homes, but to provide refreshments,
volunteers to help with setup and cleanup, conscious efforts
to connect with visitors with gospel grace and kindness, and
that's self-denying. Others of your brothers and sisters
will be there, and the temptation will be to make them your priority
rather than to cross over the barriers of awkwardness and perhaps
some social reticence and seek to get to know those who are
there that are not part of our church family. So there will
be a cost from beginning to end and all across the spectrum.
Well, having considered together the vision of this endeavor,
the goal of this endeavor, the cost of pursuing this vision,
forth heading is this. The steps in pursuing the vision. What steps do we as your elders
envision taking? Well, number one is attendance. If you're at all constrained
to be involved in this, here's step number one. You will be
present at the next two prayer meetings when this matter will
have a prominent place in our prayer time. We are going to
assign a prominent place this Wednesday and the following Wednesday
to this endeavor, pleading with God that if this is something
more than just a pipe dream of your elders. And I have to say,
as the old man on the block, I was thrilled when a week ago
Thursday, this was not on the agenda as I made up the agenda.
We had gone through the agenda as I had made it up. Then one
of the other elders said, Pastor, the three of us, Pastor Jay,
Pastor Carlson and Pastor Smith, they had gotten together and
they had come up with this proposal. And they put in my hands this
three page thing with a rather small font called Operation Gone
Fishing. And that's the first time I heard
of it or saw it. And as I looked down through
it, I was thrilled, standing here talking to you right now,
I've got the goosebumps, that these younger brethren would
have taken the bull by the horns, as it were, and having sensed
in their pastoral interaction this back pressure of desire
on the part of not a few of you to do something in this way.
and that this thing was laid out and then we worked around
it and over it and through it. And then at our elders meeting
this past Thursday, we did more work on it. And when it was clear
that I was going to be assigned to bring this presentation, I
asked them, and what is it that you want me to say? And took
profuse notes. And then yesterday, I ran my
basic outline and the bones of it by each of the elders so that
I could be confident that I was speaking their mind. So steps
in pursuing this will begin with laying hold of God as a church
family at the next two prayer meetings, giving, as I have said,
a prominent place to this matter, pleading with God, the Lord,
if this is of you, then you make it float. If it's not, blow upon
it, sink it. We just don't want to waste time
for the sake of doing something or feeling that we'll have a
better conscience if people ask us, what are you doing in evangelism?
And we can say, oh, we're having home Bibles. My friends, life
is too short for that kind of nonsense. If God is in the thing,
and we're persuaded He is, and God makes it float and God fills
the sails and God blows it so that it moves, then that's what
we want. If not, we don't want it. So
this will be the first step in pursuing the vision that there
will be a good attendance at the next two prayer meetings
when this matter will be given a prominent place in our prayers.
Then secondly, attendance at the initial assessment meeting
scheduled for February 25. We have scheduled our initial
assessment meeting for February 25. And what do we mean by assessment? Well, to see how many are interested. So, if you are one who's sitting
here this morning, or for those who are teaching Sunday school
and hopefully will listen to the tape, and if you've listened
to the tape, I'm talking to you Sunday school teachers right
now. You see? I can't see you, but I'm talking
to you. All right. They've been talked to. Then
you will come to that February 25 meeting. Now you say, why
February 25? Why not this Friday? Well, next
weekend is the long weekend with school off, and we felt there
might be families who are doing things over that long weekend,
and we might not get as accurate a readout. So we've scheduled
the first assessment meeting for February 25, and if you are
interested, that doesn't mean that you're volunteering to lead
the Bible study, but you're saying, I want to be in any such Bible
study that may get floated in my community. All right? So that's
what that is. Well, let's see, what are we
dealing with? Ten people, or 50, or 60, or 80? We don't know. That meeting will be one that
will give us some sense of what we're dealing with in terms of
the personnel in the church family. If for some reason you would
like to be there and cannot be, we're going to have Anne make
up some kind of a little form that will say, I so and so with
my wife, whatever you have, am unable to be there, but I am
definitely interested in being involved in any such Bible study
that gets started in my area. All right? So that's February
25. Mark that down. That's the second
step. We're going to cry to God over
the next two prayer meetings and then urge you to attend the
initial assessment meeting for February 25. And then in the
next place, if this thing is going to float, then we would
like your attendance at the initial organizational meeting on March
the 4th. growing out of what we get in
that initial assessment meeting, we as elders then will seek to
determine whether we have enough people for a home Bible study
here, a home Bible study there, and in that setting, who most
likely would be competent to lead the Bible study, et cetera.
And then at that second meeting, that will be our initial organizational
meeting at which time we hope to identify the homes, the leaders,
backup leaders, volunteers for preparing refreshments, et cetera. And then the fourth step will
be the prayerful distribution of the advertising cards that
we will have printed and made available after we've established
how many studies and where. Similar to this little card,
Trinity Baptist Church invites you to join us in worshiping
the one true God. This is a card that some have
used in house-to-house invitations to invite people to the church.
It's a similar size and format to the card that was made up
when some of the men and women went to the theaters to invite
people to hear me preach on the passion of Christ, what the movie
doesn't tell you. So we will put a tool in your
hands that will say, you are cordially invited to join me
in a home Bible study to be held, such and such. And we hope to
have some catchy things. Peter Jennings wants to tell
you who Jesus Christ is on a PBS series. The Da Vinci Code wants
to tell you what the Gospels really should say. What do the
Scriptures teach? Come and study the Gospel. Something like that, that hopefully
will be a bridge to contemporary thinking and give you a tool
that when you invite people, you can put this card in their
hands. Well, I think I have done what
I was charged to do by my fellow elders. Pastor Jay, any PS's? One would be that we would really
like to see the college and career group, you know, we have the
college and career group. We would, at that time, this
has good turnout. We would really like to expand
that college and career group. and have that diversity, everything,
let's say, from Sarah Khan, to a Vince Grimlock, to Nettie Grayhaired
Man, and a very young lady, all together with that particular
community, so that we have a real good spread of people when somebody
comes in. They can easily see, you know,
the crates of scraps, all ages, all kinds. And then in the various,
like, quantum and quantum ways, there may be enough values to
have two or maybe even three final studies in that particular
community. And you don't think that, well,
there's a lot of people here. I don't really, I'm not really
needed. No, you could actually be an instrument in the sense
of separating the community in three different groups. There's
a lot of people in some communities, fewer in others. get what Pastor
Jay was saying, that we would like for this period of time
to disband the special gathering of the college and career so
that there would be that age element included. And if in a
given community we have more people than it would be expedient
to have in the more intimate home Bible study, then we can
have two. And that we won't know until we have our organizational
meeting and find out how many are interested and willing to
make a commitment. And it's going to be a serious
commitment. We don't want to have enough people to establish
a Bible study, and after the second week, half the people,
well, I had this, I had that. It's going to mean self-denial.
It's going to mean making commitments for the sake of the gospel and
sticking to those commitments. And that's never easy. There
are always things to do, good things. But this is what we believe
is a very vital thing to be done at this time. And whether God
will bless it, we don't know. When we say this is a vision,
this is not something that we're saying that we believe this is
the answer and we're going to see revival. On the other hand,
God may be pleased to use this to draw out people to himself
and become then a more permanent means by which we could continue
to impact our own Jerusalem. All right, other questions? Any
other elder here? Yes, Pastor Smith is with his
class and Pastor Carlson's away ministering elsewhere today.
All right, we had a question over here. Yes, Barb? Volunteering the use of your
home is not assignment to leadership. The leadership will be assigned
by the elders. We will try to make a judgment
as to those men that we feel have both the spiritual maturity
and the social grace. to lead that kind of a Bible
study, because though it's not going to be what's typically
called an inductive Bible study, most inductive Bible studies,
people sit around and tell you what the passage says to them.
No, this will be a Bible study where Dr. Sinclair Ferguson will
be the teacher, a recognized, ordained, competent servant of
God who can open up the Word of God And his teaching is embalmed
in printers ink and the questions to lead you into the text of
scripture and into the understanding of that text that he has set
forth. So there's going to be a very definite direction to
the Bible study. And so, as I said, we as elders
will have to make a judgment. And if we find in a given area
that we don't judge that there's a man in that area competent
to do this. We talked about this the other
day. We may have to import someone from another area. But we will
know. So much of this is up in the
air. And with regard to you college
students, obviously you may have people that would come to a Bible
study who are not in any of these areas. So you bring them to what
would be your area and integrate that person into the people from
your particular area. In other words, we're not saying
unless someone lives in Montville or Pequonic, they can't come
to the Bible study. Again, we don't know how God
may use this to go beyond our immediate geographical 10-mile
radius, Jerusalem. There are just so many variables
that we're only going to find out as we get into the matter.
Yes, we have another. Yes, Pastor Jay. I just want
to say again, two things, Pastor. First of all, please know, President,
that we're not teaching Bible studies. As your elders, we don't
want to. This is your baby. This is an
attempt to let you reach out to your communities. And we would
like to have the liberty to be able to float around with the
Bible studies and get to know the people more, not as teachers,
but as pastors, as your pastors. And just to get to know them
at a personal level, not at a necessary church level. Alright, and that's a vital point
because as Pastor Jay has said, and this was something that came
up in our discussion as elders, we would like to circulate among
the Bible studies for several reasons. To be able to meet people
that may be there in this informal way, so that should they come
out to church, we're not just this official cleric who stands
up here and preaches and leads. And then secondly, it'll give
us an opportunity to assess how the leader is doing. This will
be, in that sense, a training situation and take the leader
aside after we've been there and say, look, Henry, this was
great. You did this great, but over
here, we think you could do better. Those that accept the responsibility
of leading a Bible study have got to be mature enough that
they're not going to go off and cry in a blanket if they get
some constructive criticism that's going to make them better leaders
of the Bible study. I hope we're beyond that kind
of infantile response to constructive criticism that will make us better.
Did you think of the second thing, Pastor Jay? It's gone. All right. Other questions? Yes, Mr. Davies. Yeah. Yes, I think here again, being able naturally to invite
someone is often predicated upon a previous relationship of some
degree of established friendship. And for some of us, that may
be a call to do that. And if I understand your question
correctly, Chuck, it's how do we do that? Well, I don't know
that there's any formula, as I have sought to establish relationships
with my neighbors and with the medical community. It's just
being me in showing an interest in them. And I think that's the
bottom line, showing an interest in them, looking for those things
that would be a bridge of natural interest and concern. You know,
you see your neighbors show up with a new car, you go out and
just make a point to be there when he drives up and, hey, John,
I see you got a new car. Any reason why you bought a Mercury
and not a Chevy, you know? And just work at seeking to find
little touchstones of ordinary conversation that then often
go in all kinds of different directions that establish some
level of friendship. And this is what people mean
in the books that they've written on the subject of friendship
evangelism. It's establishing those things
that show you have a genuine interest in these people as people. You're not looking at them as
a potential attendee at the Bible study. You're looking at them
as image bearers, fallen in Adam, but potentially redeemed in Christ,
and that you want to show yourself genuinely interested in them
as people. Am I giving anything, Chuck,
that is more than just fluff? Yeah, yeah. And then you never
know. You see, I think back a couple
of years ago, and there's a knock on my door, and my neighbor comes
in in tears and tells me, your husband just died on the table
where he was supposed to have some radiation. And I ended up
right up in the living room with all the relatives, all devout
Roman Catholics, and praying with them. Well, that's because When that neighbor was digging
shrubs, it was evident he didn't have a clue how to put his shrubs
in, so Saturday is quality time for me. But I blocked out time
for the next Saturday to help him put his shrubs in. Well,
putting in shrubs is not part of a method of evangelism. I
mean, yet it is. You see, it was showing genuine
interest where he was. And that, to me, is the key. And this is where, again, the
matter of praying for them by name. It's amazing if you start
praying for someone by name, how it's much more natural to
look for that bridge that might get you into a relationship that
would then lead to being able to invite them to a Bible study. Yes, Pastor Jay. Perhaps a lot
of these specifics, if you have specific questions, know that
on most of those Fridays of the organizational Friday, and that
a lot of those things, if you have questions, specifics, how
to meet people, what kind of time, great conversation, a lot
of those questions can be answered on these two Fridays. So write
them down, bring them to us, maybe I'll have every answer,
Yeah. And sometimes. If I may carry on from that,
there are sometimes when, much to our shock, there are people
with whom we may not have much of a relationship in whom God
has preveniently worked that just saying, John, I know we
don't know one another too well, but this is a shot in the dark.
We're having a Bible study in our home. And we're actually
going to study the Gospel of Mark to see who Jesus is and
why he came. And it would be a delight for
me to come. We might be shocked at someone saying, you know,
I've just longed to find somewhere where people would help me understand
the Bible. And we might be shocked. So that
it may not be necessary to feel that, you know, we've got to
wait for six months in building up this or that relationship. And in all of those things, you
take risks. And to this day, as much as I'm
a people person, I find myself having to say, OK, it's time
to take a risk. It's time to take a risk in this
relationship. And so we all need one another.
And this is where, again, if this thing begins to float, then
more and more, when we are together as the Lord's people, we'll find
ourselves spontaneously sharing our experiences and sharing what
we've learned and helping one another in these matters. All
right, we've got two more minutes. Yes, Mr. Gergelis. Yeah. Yeah. But if you're at your meeting
with your friends, and there is that continuity of contact,
and you say, we're meeting again, and then you give the date, you
call Curtis, and if there were some absent, they can be told.
I personally don't see why it couldn't work, even though there's
so little interaction. But it would free up, I think
some people, as you've already indicated, time-wise, schedule-wise, Well, in answer to your question,
George, we really didn't. We were working with a one-week
or one-month model, and we felt neither of those was acceptable,
so our compromise was a two-week And we hadn't thought of the
other compromise, and it may be something to be brought into
consideration. And so in all honesty, it didn't
even enter into our discussion. Our discussion was focusing on
the advantages of weekly in terms of continuity, but then the pressure
that that puts upon families for whom Friday is a very key
time. Well, then we said, well, what
about once a month? And we said, well, That could
really lose continuity, and we'd only get about halfway through
Sinclair's book in this time frame that is our pilot project. So we were working with the pilot
project from mid-March to July and seeking to see how much we
could cover in there. So in all of that, we just worked
with the one-week or the four-week model, George. Yes? Well, again, pray that God will
guide us in all of these particulars because we're going down the
road we haven't been before. Well, it's half past. It's time to bring the class
to a close. Our Father, we thank you for
the privilege of meeting in this way and opening our hearts to
one another in the prospect of seeking to be more effective
and structured in reaching our own Jerusalem. And our Father,
if these plans are of you, we pray that you would lay constraint
upon your people in this place, that none would feel they are
being driven and pushed, but drawn by the Holy Spirit into
a shared vision and a shared commitment. So we just lovingly
commend ourselves and your people and this proposed endeavor to
you, asking for the blessing of your Holy Spirit upon it.
If it is indeed your will, if not, blow upon it and bring it
to naught. We thank you for one another.
We thank you for our shared desire to see sinners brought to the
knowledge of Christ. And we pray that in that shared
vision and shared desire we may yet see a mighty working of your
spirit in many, turning from darkness to light. Hear our prayer
and receive our thanks, we pray, in Jesus' name.

Establishing Neighborhood Bible Studies: the Vision, Goal, Cost

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about evangelism?

How do we know the importance of Bible studies in evangelism?

Why is self-denial necessary for sharing the gospel?

How can Christians effectively reach their communities?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Establishing Neighborhood Bible Studies: the Vision, Goal, Cost

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about evangelism?

How do we know the importance of Bible studies in evangelism?

Why is self-denial necessary for sharing the gospel?

How can Christians effectively reach their communities?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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