If you are not yet Born Again, you need to pray the prayer of Salvation. You need the Holy Spirit to help you and guide you in your desire to build the Kingdom of God. Read John 3 to understand Born Again as mentioned by Jesus. Read my exegesis of John Chapter 3.

If you are not yet Born Again, you need to pray the prayer of Salvation. You need the Holy Spirit to help you and guide you in your desire to build the Kingdom of God. Read John 3 to understand Born Again as mentioned by Jesus. Read my exegesis of John Chapter 3. 

Please read also Spiritual Warfare.

Thank you for going to this page. This page will tell you step by step on what to do to start your own Bible Study Group. Your teacher will be Jesus. Why? Because the Bible is the Word of God. The Word of God manifested into flesh is Jesus. Please read Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John. You will experience the power of the guidance of the Holy Spirit when you are bold enough to do His will which is to make disciples. Jesus said, ” … I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20b (KJV). One thing we can be sure about, Jesus will not lie, what He said, He will do. Not only that He will be with you, I emphasized always, even unto the end of the world.

Pray for patience and understanding that you finish reading this manual. Pray for strength that you may be able to implement it. This will guide you step by step from analyzing yourself on your purpose to the time that you are able to start your Bible Study.

1. Pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen you to do this work for the Lord. Your purpose for doing this is very important. There are at least twelve reasons why it is important to read the Bible. Any one of those is a good reason enough for you to do your own Bible Study. Doing it with a group where you take the leadership will require more talent and skill to keep you going. The very first requirement is the desire to learn from the Word and the desire to help people grow in the Word. You will grow together with the group that you establish. Your title will be the Facilitator.

2. Prepare a place in your house where you can sit ten people comfortably where everyone can see each other. There will be discussions and sharing and it is important that you can talk to each other with no physical barriers. Being in a circle is recommended. Sitting around a table is better. This is a home study group that you are establishing but if there’s no space at your house, other places where you can do the Bible Study conveniently and regularly is OK too. Your work place if it is allowed by the owner, a separate room in a restaurant segregated from the crowd are OK

3. Set a day and time that will be convenient for you. Set this schedule when you can do it for months without interruption. I set Friday night to do our Bible Study because I don’t work on Saturdays. We can stay late if necessary without the thought of the work the following day. Doing it after work with ten of your co-workers is OK too. There is no set rule that establishes the time and place where you can do your Bible Study. The goal is to do it regularly.

4. Call your friends, acquaintances, co workers, superiors, peers, neighbors,  or anybody who has a desire to know and learn from the Word of God, The Bible. Talk to at least 20 people. Don’t be pushy. There are only 3 answers you’ll get, yes, no, and later. Concentrate on the people who say yes. Don’t feel bad when people say no, they are not rejecting you. They may have a different priority as of this time. Take note of those who say later because they have the potential to attend later. You need to be in touch with them, being nice to them, and telling them the progress of you Bible Study.

5. The first day of your Bible Study.

a)  It is OK to start later than the time you set only on the first day of the Bible Study. If everybody are present, then you must start on time. Starting late gives three inappropriate signals to attendees; 1) It is OK to be late 2) The late comers are more important than those who are on time. 3) Starting late means that you will finish late. Those who have appointments after your Bible Study will have to be excused later thereby not finishing the study with the group.

b)  Do an opening prayer before you start your reading. Read to everybody the 12 reasons why we have to study the Bible. Pray the prayer of salvation together. Ask one by one to stand up and tell others about themselves. This is important if the group comes from different places and they do not know each other. Ask them to tell everybody their names, where they live, their job or their course of study if they are students. The last question is, what they expect to get from the Bible Study. If the group are all friends and they know each other, then they only need to share what they expect to get from this Bible Study.

c)  Read the Fundamentals of Bible Study to everybody.

d)  After that ask them to open their Bibles on the book that you want to study. For the purpose of this manual, we will study the book of Mark. The first chapter has 45 verses. Divide the number of verses by the number of people present, let us say ten people. Since the answer is not a whole number (4.5) you can assign either 4 or 5 verses to read for each one. After all the verses are read, you go back to verse one and ask for any observation. The three important question to ask are: S, O and T. What the Bible say to us. What lesson did we learn that we can obey, What the Bible wants us to tell others. Everybody contribute their answers to these three questions. The reason for these questions is to derive the following:

O = SOT is you observed.

I = What does the Bible Say

A = How do we apply the WORD into our life & others.

Please note

What happens when you did not have time to prepare your own questions and observation? It is still OK. Everybody share their thoughts and observation. The main job of the facilitator is to lead the group to the topic that the Bible is teaching on the verses or Words that you are reading. Make sure that the topic does not go out from what is read. If somebody wants to share another verse outside of the book that you are reading, to support his view, he needs to give the Book, chapter, and verse of what he is quoting. Here is the key to the success of this Bible Study, opinions contradicting the Word are not accepted unless backed up or supported by another verse of the Bible. Practical opinions although seemingly true but are not supported by the Word should be researched. The research is the responsibility of the one who gave the opinion.

The goal is to develop fellowship and finish one chapter a week. If the chapter is not finished, mark where you stop and continue from there the following week. Before you exceed the time allotted for the Bible Study, please ask the group if it is OK to extend your time. If one or two disagree, they can be excused to leave. More than two, everybody have to stop and continue next week.

6. The succeeding Bible Studies.

This must be started on time. The late comers can join in the discussion and observation. The reading will be divided by those people who are there on time.

If there’s a new member, a new member means that this is the first time the person is attending your Bible Study, that person needs to go through 5a) about starting on time, 5b) prayer of salvation if the new comer is not saved and 5c) give him a copy of the fundamentals of the Bible Study.  If the person is transferring from another Follow Him, LCC Bible Study then he does not have to go through the mentioned paragraphs. Transfer members must ask the permission of both Facilitators (the one he came from and the one he is joining in) before joining another group.

Proceed to the next chapter of the book that you are studying.

Continue where you left off last meeting. If there are few verses left from the chapter you were studying, include the next chapter in your reading. Again the goal is to finish the remaining verses and next whole chapter.

After you finish the book, go to the next book the group wants to study. I recommend that the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) be finished first before studying the Book of Acts and the Epistles or writings of the Apostles.

7.  Splitting the group

This is not an easy task because of the camaraderie (good and harmonious relationship established by the group). The goal of everyone attending the Bible Study is to establish their own Bible Study. The number in the group can only be from 10 to 15 members. Once the number reached 15, It is a must that the group split. It can split at any time if one member believes he or she can get 10 people and be a Facilitator.

The Facilitator encourages his members to form their own Bible Study group. A good Facilitator displaying leadership is still in touch with the other facilitators coming from his group. The people respect him because he continually supports them in their growth and in the knowledge of the Word. A good Facilitator studies and attends discipleship meetings preparing him to be a leader of many.

Thank you for going through the above. Some Pastors read them and they still have questions. Please e-mail me on anything you want clarified. The goal is for you to start as soon as possible.

Common Questions:

Can I start with just me and another individual? Yes, you can.

1. What if we have questions that nobody could answer? This will always happen. Make sure the question is relevant to the book you are studying. Note the question and e-mail them to us. If we can answer them, we will, if not we will research the answer. For the meantime, continue the Bible Study. Don’t be disappointed if nobody can answer the question. I have a question that I got the answer from a pamphlet 20 years after I asked the question. The pamphlet was done by a Pastor 50 years in his congregation. He had the same question I have.

2. Do we have to do the Bible Study all the time?, regularly? As much as possible, Yes. The group can agree to postpone the next Bible Study because of a common group activity but without the agreement and only two show up, the Bile Study must go on.  Don’t make the others feel guilty for not showing up, just move to the next Chapter next meeting. The goal is to enjoy the fellowship without any guilty trip.

3. What if we have a guest Pastor who wants to talk to the group about a certain topic that the group agreed? If this Pastor will talk about a topic that he researched on, his specialty sermon, then it is OK. The group will note all the Bible verses used and research them themselves. The final authority is not the Pastor but it is the Bible. Avoid inviting Pastors of a denomination as much as possible. Our teacher is Jesus. He will let you know through the Holy Spirit if the teaching is from Him.

Start your Bible Study now. Take the boldness that the Bible mentions in Hebrew that we may obtain mercy and grace. (Hebrew 14:16 NKJV) New King James Version; “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

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