Bsf Group Leader Manual
Bsf Group Leader Manual
Bsf Group Leader Manual Pdf

Most Monday evenings for the past two years, Naomi Ruth Jackson has ridden her 22-speed bike uphill or caught a bus after work to Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin, Texas. She meets there with around 450 women for a Bible Study Fellowship class. The 30-year-old is not the lay-focused ministry’s typical participant, having majored in Bible and theology in college. Her own church offers only unstructured Bible study, and her job as a medical records clerk grants her few occasions to re-engage her skills in scriptural interpretation.

The class lasts two hours. It starts with a time of worship at 6:40 p.m., rolls into discussion and fellowship in small breakout groups, and ends with a 40-minute lecture. But rather than deterrents, the breadth and commitment to the 30-week program are draws for Jackson.

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Each BSF group leader is free to use this “Three-Question Method” in a variety of ways. One group leader may choose to forgo discussion of the BSF lesson questions all together and instead use the “Three-Question Method” entirely to guide conversation about the passage. In this way, the group leader trains his group members in proper.

“I think about Scripture a lot, but there isn’t always an opportunity to have an audience or be around people who want to discuss that,” she said. “So for me, personally, it meets that need.”

After singing some hymns at a class on the Gospel of John earlier this year, Jackson and about 10 other women filtered into the church’s “cry room” and formed a cozy circle on rocking chairs and a stray pew. A group leader, in her mid-40s, encouraged everyone to share a few words based on questions relating to each chapter of the book.

Jackson had a lot on her mind. She was worried about her younger sister, who had been in a car accident.

“I was frustrated and angry and praying for her,” she said. “I thought to myself, I need to be an advocate for my sister,” as the group studied John 14 about the Holy Spirit’s role as advocate. “And just as that ..

For more than 60 years, Bible Study Fellowship has offered free, in-depth Bible study with trained group leaders for men, women, students and children of all denominations. We study Holy Scripture to know God and apply His Truth. Only then can we be fully alive, fully human and fully relational.

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Bsf Group Leader Manual

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BIBLE STUDY FELLOWSHIP

A CLOSER LOOK

by Virginia Donovan

BSF International, formerly known as Bible Study Fellowship is 'an interdenominational, not-for-profit, international, lay Christian organization [which] aims to acquaint people with the truth of the Bible through classes using personal study, discussion group participation, lecture, printed notes.'1 It sounds so good, but after participating in BSF for 4 years from Sept., 1991 - April, 1995, I recognized deviation from Scripture resulting in serious errors in BSF’s 1) organizational structure, 2) method of presenting the Bible study material, and 3) content of the Bible study material itself. Although BSF presents itself as a Biblically sound organization in both teaching and practice, the negative elements exposed in this article contaminate BSF and demonstrate that it simply is not faithful to the Word of God.

The curriculum consists of 7 studies: Genesis, Matthew, Life of Moses, Romans, John, History of Israel and the Minor Prophets, and The Acts of the Apostles. Each study is taught over an entire year. This article will focus only on the Life of Moses study and on a portion of the study on Matthew.

HISTORY OF BSF

BSF was founded by A. Wetherell Johnson, a former missionary with China Inland Mission. When forced to leave China, she came to the United States and lectured for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. After settling in San Bernardino, California, she agreed to teach the Bible to five women in 1952, yet refused to 'spoon-feed' the students but wrote questions designed to make them study the Bible for themselves. As the program grew, it moved to a church that could accommodate a separate program for the participants’ children which was held at the same time as the adult study. In 1958 Miss Johnson accepted an invitation to go to the San Francisco Bay area to conduct Bible classes for converts following a Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade. She then formed a Board of Directors and incorporated BSF. Prior to her retirement in 1979, Miss Johnson’s successor, Rosemary Jensen, was chosen to be the new Executive Director, a position which she currently retains.2

BSF has grown dramatically over the years and is now comprised of 913 separate Bible Study groups worldwide although the majority (about 850) are in the United States. Each group ranges in size from around 100 to 600 participants, and may be designated for women, or for men, or for mixed male/female young adults (ages 18-35), their pre-school children, and their grade school children depending on the location and time of day that the group meets. Thirty (30) paid staff work at the San Antonio, TX, campus and complex of buildings which comprise the international headquarters. Additionally, approximately 1,000 volunteers travel to the complex each year to donate their time working for BSF.3

STRUCTURE

The internal structure of BSF is as follows: The participants at any one location are divided into small groups which are led by Small Group Discussion Leaders. These Leaders are accountable to the Teaching Leader of that location. Teaching Leaders report to the Area Coordinators of that region. Area Coordinators ultimately report to the Board of Directors in San Antonio.

Scripture clearly teaches that women are not to usurp authority over the man (I Tim. 2:12), yet BSF’s organizational structure demonstrates this very usurpation of authority. Each Bible Study group, whether a men’s group or a women’s group is accountable to Area Coordinators for that region which are often women. Some men’s groups do report to female Area Coordinators. Even if a particular men’s group has a male Area Coordinator, all men’s groups ultimately report to the female Executive Director, Rosemary Jensen. Moreover, the Board of Directors is comprised of 8 men and 2 women.4 If Mrs. Jensen has authority over the Board, it would be a breach of Scripture.

Another indication of women having authority over men is in the writing of the Bible Studies themselves. Miss Johnson wrote all of the original Bible studies herself. She writes in her autobiography, Created for Commitment,

..I have always acknowledged God’s pattern of leadership in theology as given to men. At the same time, I have felt comfortable with writing lesson notes for study because always I have at least fourteen commentaries to corroborate the exegesis I felt God gave me, as well as the advice of Dr. Everett Harrison of Fuller Seminary who reads all my lesson notes.5