One of the exciting things about Bible storying is seeing the quick result of participative Bible study. Every time we meet with a family, everyone learns to tell the passage of scripture by heart. This is what we mean by Bible study. We are not teaching precepts, but scripture itself. Once everyone has got the passage by heart, we are able to have a deep and lively discussion on that passage, pulling out treasures and making personal applications.
The nature of the study is participatory, so everyone gets involved. We do only about 10 percent of the talking anymore. Mostly we just ask questions and point them back to the scripture when the discussion looks like it might stray.
I wish I could tell you the miracles that God has done in the last couple of families we have worked with. Salvations and baptisms for sure, but so much more in life change and rescue. I won’t post here because I don’t want to take away from the dignity of any person or family. What I can say is that I have never seen people discipled so far so fast any other way.
Salvation, opposition, struggle, and testing of faith seem to happen in just three months. Right around the testing of faith point the group either starts to reproduce, fall away, or move into a passive form of church membership (This seems to parallel the four soils, doesn’t it.)