How to Study the Bible

Last year we signed up for Community Bible Study (CBS). It’s a nation-wide bible study group. Before I give my opinion, please note this is my opinion and it’s not a blanket statement over the entire organization – I cannot account for that.

Here is how the day was laid out, on Thursday’s we would get up do all the morning things and set out to CBS, to arrive at 10:30am. I would drop my daughter off at a class with some of her peers that overlap in other school activities. This part was one of main reasons I wanted to plug into this. The moms would then break up into small groups, with a leader and do a bible study. We purchased books that had weekly studies with questions to go along with it.

So, let’s get into the nitty gritty on why I quicky found this was not for us. It took about three weeks for me to decide we would no longer be part of this group; it was a hard decision! I do not like quitting things, especially midway!

The Study Work Book – We would read the lesson during the week, if I remember correctly, it had daily readings and a bunch of questions at the end of each lesson. Both parents and kiddos have their own books with their own lessons. Please keep in mind these were long seemingly drawn-out lessons; not exactly what I expected.

Then we would arrive at CBS after doing the week study, break off into groups, to talk about the questions. This part was so odd to me, the leader would make sure we would stay right on track and answer “all” the book lesson questions, leaving no room for real discussion. Every time a person would have real thought or a real thought-provoking question about the study, we would be prompted back to the next question. So, the entire time in the small group we were just going over to the questions and answers.

I mean if I wanted to learn dry facts, I could do that on my own. It felt like public high school all over again.

After reading and answering the questions we would go into the sanctuary, to then, listen to a teaching about the same questions we did at home and just repeated small group! So, three times we would go over these questions.

Just thinking about it makes me cringe.

My daughter had a similar set up, however her teacher thought the work book had too many questions and valued free play, so the kiddos might have had a better experience. I hope so! Anyways, my point it that the entire thing felt disingenuous. It felt scripted, the sermons felt too polished.

I wanted to like it and be part of it, but I listened to that prompting, the Holy Spirit. I chatted with my husband about it and decided not to continue with the group. What a relief! The irony is that many of the other mommas at the end of the year felt the same way and did not sign up the following year.

It’s important not to do things just for the sake of, and not to ignore what we feel and see.

Here is how we Study the Bible:

We read it. It’s our first subject of the day. As Charlotte Mason says let your kiddos know it’s the most important by putting it first.
We pray before we start reading. By praying we allow the Holy Spirt to guide, to reveal the truth, and to change us.
We discuss what we read. Immediately after we have read, we discuss. This helps us to work out anything we may not understand. I have a commentary bible; I use if I need help unpacking what we read. There are no study questions, nothing leading us in that way, nothing doing the thinking for us. I have done some good study’s that come with a book but I have learned that many times they are leading. They also cost money, ultimately not necessary.
We read from both the King James version and NIV. Charlotte Mason mentions our kiddos should get comfortable reading the King James version so they can gain skill to later read more difficult classic books.
Keep it simple. There is no need to complicate things, the Word is enough! What God wants to revel, He will. If we can’t understand something it might be revealed to us later. Nothing is more powerful than reading the bible with your children, this is not something that should be out sourced. It should come from the parent first. The rest should be an extra layer of teaching.

I will leave you with this; you do not have to be a believer to study the bible. Historically it is unarguably the most important writings. Everyone should be familiar with its content.

The bible is a collection of legal, literary, historical, and analytic writings of one nation.

– Charlotte Mason