Exploring God's Colossal Promises
How do Discovery Bible Study groups spread like wildfire and become Disciple Making Movements in which thousands and even millions follow Jesus? In the West, Bible study groups don’t proliferate like that. So, what are DBS groups doing differently?
An ocean liner can’t change course quickly. Neither can churches. For Discovery Bible Study to transform your church, start slowly and incrementally. Bit by bit, God will steer your ocean liner on a new course to make disciples who make disciples.
How does one start making disciples who make disciples? Jesus said to find a person of peace. Here’s how.
Because each generation is responsible to pass on the Gospel to their children, Christianity always stands just one generation from extinction. Over the last half century, Satan has attacked the family on many fronts. Could Discovery Bible Study bring victory in the battleground of your home? Yes, it could. Let’s take a brief tour of the features that distinguish DBS from typical family devotion methods.
This video, “The Mystery of IN,” explores a significant biblical word. Yet we often treat it as flyover country. Jesus’ promises in John 14 are not parables or poetry. The actual relationship God offers us is Intimacy with Him.
In pursuit of excellence, paramedics endure 1800 hours of training, so they can save lives hanging by a thread. Jesus, the ultimate Life Saver, call us to: “Love one another as I had loved you.” Before an unbelieving world, Christ’s excellent love is to be our trademark, our Nike swoosh, saving lives that hang by a thread.
Since the 1990s Discovery Bible Study (DBS) has led millions of people to trust in Christ. Why? Because DBS resembles how Jesus led His disciples to discover truth. When a group listens to Jesus, wrestles with His surprising teachings, seeks to practice them, and shares them with others, what happens? Gradually they discover who Jesus is, and they cannot help but follow Him! It happened with the 1st-century Discovery Group that Jesus led, and it is still happening today.
In a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) people who know nothing about the Bible become disciples of Jesus Christ. How does this happen? A key factor is the set of questions that help them focus on God’s Word and apply it to their lives. Let’s take a brief tour of the essential questions that distinguish Discovery Bible Study from other home Bible study practices.
1 Corinthians 13 waxes eloquent about love, but John 13 waxes practical about love. Jesus washes feet and calls us to imitate Him, but we would much rather wash our hands of some people than wash their feet. How can we overcome our distaste for foot-washing?
If friends who know nothing about the Bible decide to read it together, what are the chances they will become followers of Christ? Without a Bible expert present, won’t the result be the blind leading the blind? However, since the early 1990s, millions of know-nothings have read the Bible together and found new life in Jesus Christ. The impossible occurs due to two factors.
John 12:27-33 reports a personal conversation between Jesus and God the Father. When has God guided, encouraged, or warned you in a personal way? How highly did you value what He told you?
What if there were a way to witness about Jesus that did not require you to be an expert with all the answers? In fact, you wouldn’t be the Leader at all. Let’s compare two ways to witness to a group of people seeking God. The first way is based on common sense and is pretty effective. The second way seems nonsensical, but it’s a thousand times more effective.