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What Does Pentecost Mean for the Church Today?

June 14, 2022

What Is the Resurrected Life and How Do I Live it?

April 19, 2022

Living the Resurrected Life as a Family: How to Teach Your Children About Easter

April 12, 2022

Why Should I Do an Easter Study?

April 05, 2022 1 Comment

Does Jesus Understand Your Distress?

March 22, 2022

What Does It Mean to Observe A Holy Lent? Consider These Spiritual Disciplines

February 22, 2022

Many of us have heard the phrase, “If the shoe fits, wear it.” The same goes for Bible studies. What is the best Bible Study “fit” for you? What is the best Bible study for your small group? I have always looked for specific, concrete answers to these questions.

Online Bible Studies to Bring Resurrection Hope to Your Congregation

Online Bible Studies | Bring Resurrection Hope to Your Congregation | Bible Study Media

April 02, 2020

In this season of fear of illness, quarantine, and shelter-in-place orders, we find ourselves facing a long period of isolation. We are anticipating weeks, or even months, of being unable to go to church or meeting with our regular study groups. Yet our hearts and souls need inspiration and encouragement now more than ever! As a pastor or group leader, you need new tools to help lead your people during this uncertain time.

Our team at Bible Study Media has been working over the last two weeks to convert our studies into an online format to meet the new requirements of today’s circumstances. We have created an online community forum, which will serve as our online home for community and courses. We want to offer this online forum to your ministries and congregations as an Easter resource for virtual small groups. We have two courses to offer for Easter: The Resurrected Life: Making All Things New (Fr. Charlie Holt, author) and our brand-new forthcoming study, A Living Hope: A Study of 1 Peter (Sarah Viggiano Wright, author). Many more online courses will be available soon.

Our Platform Offers:

A Dedicated and Unique Group and Course for only your ministry or congregation. You can invite your members and their friends and family into a private online forum customized with your name and brand. As the host, you are in control of your group and course.
Customization: You can use the platform to organize virtual small groups, Sunday School classes, Wednesday night classes, etc. As the host, you have the ability to customize the site for your specific group. You can add your own articles and posts, set up your own live teaching, or host discussion events. You can make it as personal as you want for your congregation.
Events: Through the events feature, you can organize the events that are unique to your ministry group and course. If you have a group of virtual small group hosts organized, you can schedule out their meeting times for others to join.
Articles and Posts: Because this is a dedicated and unique group, you can use the platform to create your own devotional reflections, post announcements, provide encouragements, and ask questions that are private to your group.
Low Maintenance: You do not have to distribute books or handle payments (the platform and Bible Study Media team takes care of all of that). That way, you can focus on your members and building community.

Each study has:

Daily Devotions with Scripture reading assignments and reflection questions.
Weekly teaching videos with deeper study questions for engagement of the lesson and personal application.
A Study Guide to accompany the weekly videos and help guide group discussion.
Physical copies of the books are available but optional for each week. There is a link provided if people want to order copies of the physical books. Amazon will handle distribution.

Here is how it works:

Step One: You will be invited into a clergy host group. From there, we will organize and set up your private congregation group. The fee to join is $79.99; this fee covers the cost of setting up your private branded group and course. NOTE: It takes one full week to process a new group and course.

Step Two: Each congregation will be given a unique invitation to a private group and a private version of the course so that you can uniquely minister to your flock. Within your private group, you can customize your site, set up your events, and schedule church-wide notices of your teachings related to the course.

Step Three: You will use your private link to invite the members of your congregation into the study. They will be prompted to set up their profile and log in. They will be then automatically placed in your private group and course. Anyone that you invite can join. You can share it on your website, email, and social media. Each individual will be charged $9.99 upon registration for the cost of the course.

Our team is available every step of the way as you are getting familiar with this new tool for ministry. We also have the Clergy Host Group where we can all share ideas and figure out this new way of doing life together online—the Body of Christ helping the Body of Christ.

We would love to have the opportunity to serve your ministry. The first step is to join the Clergy Host Group. Let our team begin setting up your unique and dedicated ministry group and course so you can start inviting your members into a meaningful Easter Season.

To help you better understand our offering, we will host six Zoom Webinars over the next week. Please plan to join us at one of these times. Click the link to register:

Friday, 4/3 at 2:00 pm CST

Monday 4/6 at 1:00 pm CST

Tuesday 4/7 at 3:00 pm CST

Wednesday, 4/8 at 9:00 am CST

Thursday 4/9 at 2:00 pm CST

Friday 4/10 at 10:00 am CST

We hope to see you there!

Resurrection and Life

November 10, 2019

John 11

In John 11, we read about the death of Jesus’ good friend, Lazarus. By the time Jesus gets to Lazarus’ hometown, the man has been in the grave for 4 days. Grief is the reality experienced by the family and friends.

Jesus arrives at the tomb and speaks the unexpected command: “Remove the stone.” Martha reminds Jesus that Lazarus has been dead for four days so there will be a stench. Jesus is undaunted by her words or that reality. After praying to his Father, he shouts these powerful words: “Lazarus, come out!’

Lazarus Rises

Lazarus walks out of the tomb, wrapped in his grave clothes. The man who has been in the grave for 4 days has now been set free. In fact, Jesus commands the people watching to unbind Lazarus from those grave clothes.

Prior to working this miracle, Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would be raised from the grave. Martha believed Lazarus would be raised at the end of time. Jesus explains that he is the Resurrection and the Life and that Martha did not have to wait until the end of time.

Nothing Too Difficult for God

This is where this story applies powerfully to us. We may hope that Jesus can resurrect all things at the end of time, but are we missing what he wants to do in us today? Just as Jesus was not afraid of the stench of death, he is not afraid of the mess he finds in our lives. Where we see death and defeat, Jesus sees the opportunity to work a miracle. Calling a dead man out of the grave exemplifies the truth that there is nothing too difficult for God. 

The question is will we come out of our graves? As Beth Moore describes in her book Get Out of Your Pit, we often choose to stay in our grave, wrapped in our grave clothes. Though our graves are miserable, they are also comfortable. We know them, feel in control of them, have a sense of safety there.  

Walking out of our graves is risky. There is so much unknown out there. Light shines brighter than darkness. Light brings vulnerability. Light also brings life. And we were made for life, abundant life (John 10:10).

Reflection

Listen to Jesus’s words to us today: “Come out!” Will we come? Will we allow Jesus to carefully unwrap us of those grave clothes that hold us? Can we lay those things at his feet? Scary? Oh yes, but also liberating, exciting, and life giving.

Jesus speaks these words to us today: “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live” (John 11:25-26, The Message).