Dear Partners in Ministry,
On Wednesday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s, we host four online Bible studies to Shanghai, Beijing, southeastern China, and Chicago. In addition to these global studies, there are two local evangelistic studies weekly. So there are four online studies and two in-person studies each week.
A lot goes into each evangelistic Bible study. Our evangelist study series include 15 lessons, starting with Genesis 1 and ending with Revelation. Many of these lessons take more than one week to complete.
Each lesson session is properly proceeded with a time of thinking through both the study and also the person with whom the lesson will engage. Also, after each lesson, notes should be recorded in-order to help remember important aspects of the lesson session. Below is a sample of these notes.
“We talked about Abraham and his relationship to the three major world religions. He learned a bit about the Koran: 1) It was much later than the Bible 2) the Koran used portions of the Old Testament 3) The Koran changed portions of the OT. He also learned about the position of Israel in the Middle East. I explained that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham but with God as his Father. He learned that the God of Islam is not the same God as the God of Abraham and of Christians, and that the Trinity is essential to our understanding of God because it was essential that the Son of God be able to die for our sins. He is learning at a deep level. Illus. Beginning to learn the differences of Islam and Christianity, especially why the Trinity is important to forgiveness.”
Each lesson is unique, just as the individuals with whom we study are unique. Each lesson must be uniquely applied to the individuals God provides.
The evangelistic study is just one step of making disciples with includes: 1) developing evangelistic relationships 2) the evangelistic study 3) baptism and church menbership studies 4) infant discipleship 5) biblical and theological entry level studies. 6) leadership and ministry training 7) Christian vocational, tent-maker, faithful Christian leader mentoring.
Helping individuals come to faith in Christ demands sustained, informed labor, and this is just one step in the discipleship process—Pray for us.
We love you,
Bill and Deb