Discovery Bible Study

The Power of the Simple Story . . .

Oct 14, 2018 | Stories

The gospel is unstoppable and uncontainable: like a river, it flows despite obstacles and barriers. It penetrates the hard-to-reach places, seeping in because the spreading of the gospel has nothing to do with man and EVERYTHING to do with God. In this story from the field, our team in South Asia give us a glimpse of how the gospel continues to spread despite persecution and resistance.

Soma sent us a couple of voice messages last week. One was a recording he took of a conversation he had had with a leader who has been with us almost since the beginning. This man was part of the second group we ever trained. Only two men from that group applied, but–oh, what fruit they have borne! So many generations!

At some point this year, this brother was forced to leave his home. The Hindu radicals in his village simply ran him out. Here’s a brief summary of that conversation between Soma and the leader: Radical Hindu groups are forcing their way into Christian homes, searching for Bibles. They threaten the people when they find something. They also bring cameras with them and take photos of the Christians in the homes. Discovery Bible Study is proving to be really powerful because it is so simple. But, we must continue to keep it simple. People must just learn the Stories, then the method gets passed along. People must memorize the Stories, instead of carrying a Bible. [In other words, the whole thing must be done orally or with speakers, not with actual Bibles.] When these radical groups find no Bibles, they treat the people better. How great it is to simply discuss a Story, even without a Bible!

I did not hear defeat in their voices. They were just stating the facts while declaring that the Work is continuing/will continue. Hallelujah! It’s a precious thing to realize illiterate followers of Jesus know more Scripture than we do. They’re memorizing the Stories because they have to! We are also praying about how to get more audio speakers (hand held devices with select scriptures and story sets) distributed. Historically, we’ve paid for Bibles and audio speakers from the same fund. Right now, that fund has dropped to the lowest it’s ever been. We’re not sure what that means. Are we to stop buying Bibles because owning one causes trouble for people? Having a speaker in their homes seems to be more innocuous. So, is it time for us to raise more funds to purchase as many speakers as we can? We invite you to pray with us for this.

Join us in prayer for these innovative and resourceful leaders. Pray that we will be able to raise funds to buy more speakers and pray that like a mighty, unstoppable river, the Good News of the gospel will continue to flow despite the opposition and persecution.

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Why Discovery Groups Work

Aug 1, 2018 | Stories

A Beyond team worker writes: “A few weeks ago, I did some training in East Asia. The 16 trainees were leaders of various discovery bible groups started over the past year. They trained leaders and co-leaders, and helped these groups become stable. But found that the groups were not reaching out into their communities. They still weren’t reaching non-believers. They called us and asked for help. We trained their leaders in a simple process which we’ve found, helps ordinary believers, to start and multiply new discovery groups.

Traditional methods often focus on evangelism. We focus on inviting people into a process in which they can gradually learn about God, as they study through the scriptures, including stories from Creation, all the way to Christ. Each story asks them to repeat the story several times, to put it into their own words, then to answer what the story teaches them about God, Man, and what they should change in their lives, as a result of the story. In the midst of learning about God, people make the decision to follow Christ. It’s not forced, it’s organic.

We took three days to train the group how to share their daily testimonies of how God has been at work in their lives during the previous days and weeks, and to engage non-believers in discussion.

For instance, a Discovery Group member may tell a story of how God helped them at work, then ask a question, “Do you ever think that there’s a God that cares for us in such a way?” If people seem interested, we start new discovery group with them. It turns evangelism into a non-forced, natural, organic conversation.

As a part of the training, we provide time for the trainees to train each other, in each lesson. We’ve found this gives members the confidence to go out and train others as well. We’ve found that discipleship movements grow faster, as we train more believers to be involved. To help them out, we produce a bookmark, with images that show them the basics of the training. They can copy the bookmark and give it to anyone to do the same.

We gave the trainees a challenge, each night, to prayer walk their neighborhoods, and to share stories of God’s grace in their lives, with at least three people, and to follow up with a question. As trainers, despite the language difficulties, we committed to the homework as well. Surprisingly, most of the trainees shared three times, and many found the process so enjoyable, they shared with as many as five!

Less than a week later, we’ve found that many of the trainees have already trained someone else, to do the same! Many are continuing to share daily, and there’s already the beginning of a new discovery group as a result!”

Join us in praying that these groups multiply into movements.

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STUDY IT FOR YOURSELF
“I can’t be your leader. But I can teach you how to study the Bible yourselves using the Discovery Bible Study (DBS) method. read more …

THE PARABLE OF GOOD SOILS
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WE CAN PLANT SEEDS BUT …
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I Can’t Ever Go Back to a Smaller Vision!

Jul 14, 2018 | Stories

This is a testimony from one of the couples who attended a Phase 1 Training:

“My wife and I were talking to some friends about the Sunday School class we were all a part of. We agreed that there were times of great teaching, some good responses to questions posed, and everyone seemed to enjoy the group. However, I took the opportunity to share about how my wife and I had just finished Phase 1 training through BEYOND.

During this training, we met regularly with a group of disciples, all focused on the same thing: to make reproducing disciples that would result in amazing movements of God’s Spirit throughout our communities and the world. Wow! What a mission! After we were no longer meeting together for the training, I began to miss being a part of a group with a God-sized mission. We attended several traditional Sunday School classes and small groups, but had not found a group driven by the kind of exciting vision to which we had grown accustomed during Phase 1.

In those Sunday school classes, we were acquiring more knowledge, but I yearned for a group to keep me accountable to obedience. My failure to obey what I was learning was no one’s fault but my own, but it helped when others on the same journey were asking me questions about how God was speaking to me, how I intended to obey His word, and then following up with me the next week! I understood more and more that my real fruit-bearing potential was directly tied to my obedience. Our friends showed some interest as we talked about our participation in Phase 1 and some of the perspective shifts we had experienced with regard to being a true disciple of Christ and making other disciples. We are now talking about starting a new Phase 1 group together, with the vision of not only growing as disciples, but making more disciples, who make more disciples, who make more disciples. I can’t ever go back to a smaller vision!”

RELATED STORIES AND MORE

REVITALIZED VISION
Bahar and his paternal uncle, Navi, traveled to a faraway province in their South Asian country in search of work. read more …

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Have you caught the vision of how God is multiplying his church around the world? Do you have the excitement and hope that it brings? Watch…then pray and ask God how YOU can be part of this audacious task.

His Hand is in the Details

Jun 15, 2018 | Stories

Sam’s wife and children had already gone to sleep in the primitive dwelling when he felt being reminded by the Lord, “to search for a worthy person.” The next morning, his family and the team paused to pray and listen after loading up their vehicle. They asked God to show them exactly where He wanted them to settle in the rural province. While they listened, one person said that they had had a vision of a village with snow covered mountains, trees and water. (They had been driving through barren desert for days). They read Jesus’ words regarding the parable of the lost sheep and Matthew 10. And then continued on their journey.

On the way, up the mountain, they were deliberating about which way to go when Sam noticed a wounded sheep that appeared to be lost. They picked up the sheep, tended to its wounds and continued on their way. At dusk, they arrived at a village where there appeared to be no Christians. Sam felt led by the Holy Spirit to pause for a few minutes to pray. The village had a river, a small lake, and was surrounded by trees and mountains which were covered by snow. However, there appeared to be no hotels or guest houses.

When they had stopped to pray, they had prayed about meeting a person of peace and a place to stay. While praying, someone had had a vision of a red building so in faith they kept driving further into the village.

They had driven some distance when they stopped. A man came up to greet Sam and his crew. The man led them directly to the government building where he worked and was even willing to let the travel weary crew sleep in his office. When that didn’t work out due to other visitors already being in the building, the man and his wife took them to a relative’s empty house.

It became clear to Sam that this man and his wife were the persons of peace that they had prayed about finding. They helped clean the house, started a fire, and even made tea for everyone. The village electrician arrived at 11pm that night, to turn on the electricity.

Sam set the wounded sheep loose in the safe, gated yard of the house and after a few days the sheep began to show signs of recovery. A few weeks later Sam gave the now healthy sheep to the couple who had helped them find the empty house, since they were unable to find the rightful owner of the sheep.

The goodhearted couple introduced Sam and the team to many people in the village including the director of the local hospital, who offered Sam’s wife (who is a trained nurse) a job on the spot. They told Sam that he, his family and the team would receive medical treatment like the locals did after they registered with the city. The wife of the couple was a well-recognized school teacher who offered to teach Sam’s children the native language of the village.

Some weeks later Sam and the team were introduced to the former mayor of the village, who told them that she had tried, without success, for 10 years to bring people like them to their village. Sam, his family, and his team were all welcomed warmly by the whole village. They learned about an empty home that they could live in and even land on which they could build another home. And without Sam having to voice his intention, the persons of peace they had first found let Sam know that they were willing to participate in a Bible study with Sam and his family.

Join us in prayer for Sam’s family and team, that they continue to meet many persons of peace that are as open to the Gospel as the people they first encountered in this little village. Pray also that this village will see many movements in the days to come.

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