Our church has gone through numerous changes during my 12 years here. Looking back, I was almost always oppose to those changes, sometimes very strongly. Continue reading →

Since I have been in bible studies for a long time now (12 years in Australia + 2-3 years in Indonesia), so I thought perhaps I should start blogging on bible study related issues (we don’t seem to talk about bible study much?).

I am starting with this one, is finishing on time for a bible study important or not?

Talking from a bible study leader perspective, I want to argue that finishing on time is important (and the implication of that is, starting on time is important too). Why? I am pretty sure you can name a couple reasons. I can think of one reason: to give structure, stability and predictability to the group members.

I also want to suggest that, on the first bible study of the year, the group should decide what start and end time that will suit the members of the group. Once it’s decided, it’s then the responsibility of the bible study leader to honor the group decision in week to week bible studies.

Things that make bible study goes over time – not comprehensive list of course.

• Discussion deadlock – two or more people in the group are having different opinions on an issue. They are hotly debating the issue and the debate has been going too long. Depending on the issue being debated, you can: ask other people in the group to get involved and hopefully the group can resolve the discussion themselves, you can declare the which side that you think is right (maybe not preferable method), you can ask them to come back on the issue when the group has time later on etc. The important thing is, you need to know whether the discussion is worth making the bible study goes over time and even risking the study to deviate from the bible study goals (some might be worth it).
• The leader let too many (and/or too long) silences. Silence can mean that people are thinking (good), people are confused with your question (bad) or people just not engaged with the study (bad). From experience, I think 2 minutes silence is probably the more than enough for thinking – look around if you see people are looking at you, you know you need to take action :). Break the silence
• Sidetrack, too many joking around. Once in a while sidetracking and joking is good, it’s useful to keep people awake and make people relax a bit – but you need to know when it become too much and not beneficial to the group anymore.

Tips to make bible study running on time or close to being on time:

• Obviously prepare. Know what the passage is about and the study itself.
• Know roughly how much time you want to spend time on bible study questions. Having a watch is handy.
• Take control – it’s not because you are a control freak or because you love the authority but because you are thinking of and mindful for the members of your group. The best outcome from a bible study is when people understand the passage and it will impact on their life.

Having said this, I think it’s not wrong on few studies to go overtime as long as it doesn’t become a norm. I think it’s only proper if you ask the group if they are willing to go a little bit overtime, maybe also offer if some people want to leave on time and the others stay.

If your group is continually goes overtime – it’s worth asking the group whether they want to change the start and end time for the bible study, it might be because the group has set the bible study time too short.

We went to St Andrews Cathedral Christmas Eve service. Phillip Jensen talked about grace as the center of Christmas. In his talk he quoted (I think) William Wilberforce:

You are not being generous until your generosity damages your luxurious lifestyle.

I couldn’t find the exact quote or confirm that it is indeed Wilberforce’s from the net, so leave a comment if you know this.

It was a profound statement nonetheless.

This afternoon we came back from FOCUS Church Camp 2010. The topic this year was on Suffering and Glory.

We were looking at Romans 8 for our 4 bible studies during the camp. And there were also 4 talks on different topics regarding Suffering and Glory.

A few people have asked me how do I find church camp, being a person who doesn’t answer well for questions asked on the spot – I gave a generic answer, which was usually along the line of “it’s ok, it’s good” – it’s an honest answer, but I wish I could elaborate more.

My experience going there as a family – well it’s tough with two energetic boys (how can another family survived with 4 kids – it’s supernatural :)), but we sort of expecting it. We know that we’re coming not for the fun part (although we did have some fun).

It could’ve been SO much tougher for us as family, but God was kind enough to give us just enough so that we’re not overwhelmed by the children, especially Lina. One way that God answer our prayer was the creche. The creche was run during the bible studies, talks and elective times, it was run mainly by the pastors’ wives and pastor’s two daughters – there were some people helping out but it was the pastors’ family that’s most of the times.

And I just can’t thank them enough, what a godly example they have set. My only hope is that in the next year camp, they’d ask some more people to help out as well so they don’t have to bear the burden of serving themselves – I know Pelita grads would love to help out as indeed some of the girls have volunteered in some of the days.

Some people have also helped us with the kids outside the creche time and we would like to thank God for their kindness and generosity.

I’ve always regarded Church Camp as a good time to get to know new people (in my case Pelita students) and also having deeper conversations with people. This year I haven’t been able to do much, but at least I think I spoke to every Pelita PFN guys.

I’m also thankful that bible studies didn’t go as bad as I thought they would. To be honest, the bible study has caused a lot of stress on me. Mostly because I struggled on understanding the passage itself and partly because I couldn’t understand the studies well – why certain questions were asked and why they were answered in such a way – I should’ve gone to the bible study meeting – but I forgot to ask about it (being not in the leadership team anymore – I’m kind of out of the loop from these meetings).

Because I was quite burdened with the study, I have spent a lot of my time on the camp, preparing for them – which I don’t think was a wise thing to do, I skipped electives, I skipped fun night and challenge time – and by doing so I was actually being a stumbling block because I realized now that I have encouraged others to do the same. I need to repent and rethink how my action influences others. People might have legitimate reasons for skipping those, but for my case, I didn’t really.

On more positive note, as it turned out, I actually learned more from the group than by own preparation. Perhaps it’s a way of God humbles me, God through his word in the bible can speak for himself, He doesn’t need me (or the leaders for the fact) to get His point across to people in the group.

On personal level, talking and thinking about suffering for few days, kind of troubles (disturbs) me. The more days you have lived in this fallen world, the more chance that you experience suffering yourselves or meet people who suffer – and it just makes the whole suffering thing so real – it’s not just an intellectual discussion, people have suffered, are suffering and will suffer. As we learned from Romans 8 – it’s to be expected being part of Creation and much more for being a follower of Christ. But suffering is to be seen in the light of the glory ahead.

We, the follower of Christ, will be adopted as sons of God, will be conformed to the likeness of his Son, will be liberated from the bondage of decay. God is for us, nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ. This is the reminder that I got.

Well, now it’s three weeks into the break. Some people have been asking me how am I going so far. I would say so far so good. I am really happy being able to be around the house more and getting to know the other people in the house more (wife and boys). I am definitely less tense and way less angry.

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