Bible study…everybody’s doing it! In the most inventive contexts around the globe, this vital activity is taking place. Yet “Bible study” means different things to different people.
Kathleen Nielson, known to many through her conference speaking and as author of The Living Word Bible Study series, has brought her extensive expertise and literary gifts to present us with a clear perspective on the Bible and what it means to study it.Dr. Nielson asks the penetrating question: Just what is Bible study? Is it possible to pinpoint a flexible cluster of characteristics that must be present for “Bible study” to be identifiable and effective? The Church, Authority, and Word are identified as three perceptions that we follow throughout the book.
“It is God’s Word that teaches us how the church, the body of Christ, must be fully equipped for the mission of making disciples in these last days. That equipping happens through the Word. It is God’s Word that teaches his authoritative and loving rule, through his commands that must be obeyed. It is God’s Word that is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Hebrews 4:12).With this right starting point, Kathleen Nielson guides us in the next nine chapters, through a series of five truths about God and His Word that have huge implications for how we personally study, teach, and train others in faithful and true Bible study. As we follow the ways of the Word, the reader is shown that the Bible is: God speaking, powerful, understandable, a literary work, and one story.
In preparation for writing this kingdom tool, the author included friends in ministry throughout the world to have a voice in sharing valued perspectives, challenges, and clarification as we think through exactly what we are doing in Bible study.
Attention all laypeople and church leaders who delight in the Truth and power of God’s Word! This is a resource that has multiple applications within the church of Jesus Christ. Solid biblical truths that offer great challenges and promises of the place of Bible study in individual lives and in the corporate ministry of the church are fleshed out with clarity and passion. This equipping tool should be in the hands of men and women who hunger and thirst for the Word of God in their own lives and who desire to faithfully pass on its truths to succeeding generations.
In this unique and needed resource, Kathleen Nielson, with a prayer that “God will raise up in his church, huge, loving armies of men and women who are well armed with the sword of the Spirit…which is the Word of God”, offers the reader a clear approach for understanding and valuing what true Bible study is.