Tim and I are Christian parents who have been raising kids for several years. Church? Yes. Bible stuff for school? Yes. Random discussions related to our faith? Yes. Family Bible study? Never.
I absolutely, positively, most definitely do not think Christian families need to have a structured, formal Bible study at a regular scheduled time. However, I also know there are benefits to doing so and wanted to give it a try.
We were given an opportunity almost two years ago to go through Firm Foundations, a chronological Bible study that teaches who God is, who we are, and what God has done for us. It's a 48 lesson course, so we planned on starting in the fall when we kicked off the 2015-16 school year and doing one lesson per week, which would have had us ending right around the time the next school year started. Given that Tim's work situation fluctuates and we didn't know if we could count on him participating, I was going to lead the study for the sake of consistency. However, I hadn't paid attention to the fact there was a study guide the leader needs to read before diving into the studies. Oops. I didn't get through the study guide as quickly as I wanted to, then we had trouble figuring out a good time to schedule our study.
Finally, in the spring of 2016, we did lesson one. Somewhere along the line Tim, who ended up participating all but a few times, started leading us in singing a few songs before the study, then all of us took turns reading verses and answering questions as I lead the lesson. We continued for several weeks until summer hit and various little Ws were always off participating in or helping with church camps, on dads & sons or dads & daughters trips, and so on. Family Bible study came to a screeching halt. We picked it up again at the start of this 2016-17 school year and finished four weeks ago. It took longer than we planned, but that's our own fault and life goes on.
There are two versions of Firm Foundations, one geared toward
older kids and adults (12 and up) and another for
younger kids (11 and down). We chose to use the adult version with the thought that littles soak up a lot of what they hear, even if it's technically above their level. We figured that using the adult version would allow us to repeat the study every few years, both as a refresher for older Ws and for younger Ws to grasp concepts that may have been above their heads the previous times.
The study guide for the leader is more about why the study is done the way it is than about how to teach the lessons. Although it's best to go over the lessons in advance, they're very easy to open and teach with no preparation. I'm thankful for that because there were a few weeks where I simply didn't have time to prepare, yet we were still able to have our weekly study and learn from it.
Each lesson starts with a review of what was learned in the previous lesson, then moves on to the focus of the new lesson. There are concepts for the leader to share, verses for participants to read, questions to answer and others to just think about, posters to illustrate the lesson, maps, and a timeline to follow. There's also a DVD with illustrations and key points, which we never used, but would be useful in many group settings. All those things - study guide, lesson books, visual aids, and DVD - come in the red box on the right in the following picture.
The binder on the left is one we already owned and used for a set of pictures that illustrate many Bible stories. We chose
8 1/2 x 11 non-laminated pictures, but there also 12 x 18 pictures, and both sizes come in laminated or non-laminated versions. Unlike the visual aids that come with the chronological study set, which the lesson plans tell you when to show, these pictures aren't directly tied to the lesson study set and you have to be intentional about finding the relevant pictures before you start the lesson. Sometimes we remembered, other times we forgot. They're great pictures, though, and could be used for the Firm Foundations chronological study or any other sort of Bible lessons.
Firm Foundations would be great for a group of people who know nothing about the gospel or are just babies in their faith, but it's also good for people who have been in church their whole life ... or those who fall somewhere in the middle of the time frame between enthusiastic and fairly ignorant rookie to educated and possibly apathetic veteran. It's
always good to hear about God's power, righteousness, love, grace, and mercy, regardless of where you are in terms of spiritual maturity and experience.
We ended Firm Foundations the first week of May, then took the rest of the month off. As much as I valued that study time and am glad we did it, I've also appreciated having a break from the ongoing commitment. We've had some discussions over the last few weeks about whether or not to continue having family Bible studies and, if we kept them up, what we wanted them to be like from here on out. Starting this month, we're back to having a weekly family Bible study, but it's not going to be any particular program. We're just going to take turns leading our family in some sort of study, with each person teaching whatever and however they choose. We'll reevaluate as time goes by, changing things up when it's time, taking breaks when we need to, and eventually doing another round of Firm Foundations, but with Tim as the leader.
