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Went to a women's Bible study this morning sponsored by Bible Study Fellowship International.

Anyone have an experience with this group, or any thoughts and cautions to share? I'm withholding comment till I hear other people's opinions.

I would be interested as well.

Since most self-respecting (or was that self-protecting... ) mennos would be cautious about admitting going to a "worldly" biblestudy, I'll share a couple thoughts. First off, no matter what anybody says, we all bring our bias and background when we come together to study. Secondly, BSF claims to stick strictly to the Scriptures, and as far as the material goes, they seem to do pretty well at it. Third, point number two gets a bit sketchy for a couple reasons: first, the emphasis on staying with the scriptures there means that A. there's not a lot of room for minority views such as anabaptists might hold, and B. the obvious majority discussion reflects Protestant/Evangelical theology. If you can separate yourself from that and actually work through the material in your own mind, BSF can honestly be a valuable resource for being accountable to studying the Scriptures. And granted, some of that bias is dependent on the area of the country in which you live, and on the personality of the group leaders as well.... It wasn't really my cup of tea (or perhaps I wasn't there), as I tend to be a bit more frank and perhaps a wee bit confrontational in my studying.

Personally, if you are just wanting a community Biblestudy, I would recommend looking for a "Community Bible Study" group in your area (it's an organization like BSF, not just a reference to look for local biblestudies, fyi). It's similar, but more flexible and open to personal views (so long as they are confrontational or simply trying to proselytize).

Question, what are you personally wanting to accomplish with BSF or a large group biblestudy like it? And do you currently have a home church that has a regular Biblestudy there?

Heirbyadoption wrote:Since most self-respecting (or was that self-protecting... ) mennos would be cautious about admitting going to a "worldly" biblestudy, I'll share a couple thoughts. First off, no matter what anybody says, we all bring our bias and background when we come together to study. Secondly, BSF claims to stick strictly to the Scriptures, and as far as the material goes, they seem to do pretty well at it. Third, point number two gets a bit sketchy for a couple reasons: first, the emphasis on staying with the scriptures there means that A. there's not a lot of room for minority views such as anabaptists might hold, and B. the obvious majority discussion reflects Protestant/Evangelical theology. If you can separate yourself from that and actually work through the material in your own mind, BSF can honestly be a valuable resource for being accountable to studying the Scriptures. And granted, some of that bias is dependent on the area of the country in which you live, and on the personality of the group leaders as well.... It wasn't really my cup of tea (or perhaps I wasn't there), as I tend to be a bit more frank and perhaps a wee bit confrontational in my studying.

Personally, if you are just wanting a community Biblestudy, I would recommend looking for a "Community Bible Study" group in your area (it's an organization like BSF, not just a reference to look for local biblestudies, fyi). It's similar, but more flexible and open to personal views (so long as they are confrontational or simply trying to proselytize).

Question, what are you personally wanting to accomplish with BSF or a large group biblestudy like it? And do you currently have a home church that has a regular Biblestudy there?

I went with my mother in law, at her suggestion, because she's concerned about my lack of socialization. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it at least once.

That being said, I was frankly rather dismayed at the Protestant Evangelism being pushed on me through the study questions and discussions. I can see where the curriculum and studying methods would be very good, but the religious language and obvious bias was rather off-putting. When the group lecture started and the speaker introduced herself as "Not a Methodist or a Baptist or any other -ist, but a Bibleist who believes and follows the Bible!", my initial reaction was "...wait I thought we followed Christ...."

Not sure if I'd go back again. Part of the issue I'd that I live in a very rural area, and there are few conservative churches around. I currently home church with my husband's family and some friends. My husband and I have been trying to start a study and faith discussion group with our siblings and friends, with mixed results.

I knew prior to attending what it was likely going to be, but was very interested by the promise of non-theological and non-denominational study.

So yeah, not really a self respecting menno here, just someone hungry for some fellowship and teaching outside the family circle.

sad. was looking forward to reading about your experiences.
i do not know anything about this group.

It seems to me that a worthy Anabaptist-focused Bible study needs to become widely available. Perhaps on a teleconference format? The "plainer" groups without technology usually live in communities. However the more isolated adherents to Anabaptist theology need some means of getting that fellowship. Wouldn't it be nice if some kind of cyber teleconferencing format could be set up?

Anabaptism isn't generally something that can be "teleconferenced" into, instead having a 24/7 discipleship model.

With that said, some Anabaptists groups are very eager to publish sermons online and distribute Bible study literature, and still more Anabaptist groups have dial-in conference lines where you can listen to their sermons live. I regularly use the one for my home church (and will indeed be dialling in about an hour and a half); I feel like I miss out on about 80% of what makes church attendance valuable when I only dial in, though.