Same Old, Same Old...New Old

   I’m embarrassed to admit this as a Bible study leader, but it’s hard for me to get excited about a teaching study that I have taught a million times. This is probably not the right way to start an article designed to get you excited about curriculum, but it’s true. I don’t mind that my prep work for a familiar study is relatively low, but there is a selfish weariness and maybe even laziness, in preparing and teaching a study that I am overly familiar with.

   That said, as the women’s ministry director at our church, every year I run the tried-and-true study You, Me, and the Bible. This year, the 10th iteration, I had a slight uptick in attitude because of a young woman I had invited who was in the process of coming out of the Mormon church. As easy as it is for me to be complacent with this study, it is tailor-made for this exact situation. So I felt this round of study would be different. I was going in excited and energized! I was ready to set the world on fire! Until, one week before we started, the young woman opted out and left me ‘stuck’ with a whole bunch of already-believers. Sigh.

   As I grudgingly pulled out my well-worn notes, instead of it being a quick overview, God corrected my course in two ways. First, I realized that I had lost track of time and it had in fact been two years since we had used the study. (We took a year off to do the excellent Learn the Gospel.) It had been longer than I remembered and my recall of the material was not coming as easily as expected. Secondly, I saw that my notes, which I thought were bullet-proof and ready to go, were actually a big fat mess. Perhaps I didn’t have a handle on the material the way I thought I did. Perhaps I had some work to do. Perhaps I had changed in the intervening years. Ah, the fertile ground of pride, where God graciously humbles.  

   So I went back to the drawing board. I worked through the lessons again. I reviewed the Two Ways to Live tract. I studied each verse and how it connects to the overarching story of Jesus. And as even the most incompetent detective could have predicted from the beginning, God delivered. He gave me new insight to the verses and a new appreciation for what he was doing through this familiar study. I wanted this ‘old’ study to end in a dramatic Mormon conversion for my friend. But what happened instead was 6 weeks of sitting in a room with faithful sisters in Christ, being reminded again of our need for a Savior. It was very ordinary everyday Christian maturation at its finest. It reminded us why we want that Mormon friend to know Jesus in the first place.  

   So when you feel a pang of drudgery when faced with teaching or attending that Bible study you have already been through, don’t underestimate the outcome. God’s word is simple enough to be grasped by all, yet insanely profound in what it is promising. And I praise a very good God that He continues to mightily use familiar studies in spite of their flawed leaders.

Beth Harrell

Women's Ministry Director, Old North Church