I was asked to lead the Sunday morning Bible Study at our church today. The pastor and his wife usually lead two seperate studies on Sunday mornings, but they are on vacation, so this past Thursday he asked if I would lead the discussion for both groups combined. I said, "Sure!"
It's not really that big of a deal because there are actually very few people who attend these studies in our church that ranges anywhere from 70-200 on a Sunday morning. The woman's study led by the pastors wife is usually just Jane, Carrie, and one or two other women. The 'open' study led by the pastor is usually me and from 1-3 others. It's sort of an awkward situation in this church because they just "killed" the long-running "Sunday School" class that was led by someone who probably shouldn't have been doing so. This person still participates, and is just a little "rough around the edges" so-to-speak. So studies, small groups, and classes of any kind are a real work in progress right now. Hopefully this will be something Jane and I can help with over time.
At any rate, on this morning, there were actually EIGHT people in the class (three couples besides us). Everyone was around our age or older, and I'm not sure how to say it other than... it was a little "difficut." Not that it didn't go well, but there were some WILD ideas tossed around as though they were fact, and they were far from it. This, of course, by the person who used to lead the Sunday School class. I did my best to keep us on topic, but it was pretty typical of the type of BS that I'm sure happens in most churches. Nonetheless, I was glad there was some good discussion as well, and really glad as many showed up as did. I am REALLY glad a young couple DID NOT show up who'd insinuated they might be there. They would likely have never returned.
As far as me - I felt pretty good as the discussion guide. I didn't do any real teaching. We are using the videos study guides from 'The Bible Project', and today was on "The Bible As Story" - part two of "How To Read the Bible." I'm not sure how I feel about these videos. It's not that I don't like them, but I'm not sure they're so good for these people, or these type of groups. But what do I know.
So, now I'm trying to think of ways to get some other people interested in doing these sorts of things. I would really like to have a 'young-adultish' group of 20-40 year-old types, but it's a really unorganized group in our church. There is also a large group of people more our age that have never been exposed to small groups or spiritual formation/discipleship of any kind. I am hoping I can meet with the pastor and maybe brainstorm some ways to see about bringing this to life. We will see.
It's interesting, but it just now occurred to me as I was typing that I used to think I would like to be more of a 'spiritual formation pastor' than a regular "senior" pastor (when I was pastoring). But we shall see. We are a long way from anything like this happening in our group.
All told, I was glad the pastor asked me to lead the class; and I feel pretty good about it now that it's done. I can sense I'm starting to break free of some of the resistance/imprisonment I've been dealing with the past four years. It's nice.
