UNTIL THEY FIND THEIR FOOTING

There are many reasons to teach a Bible study. We teach because people need truth. We teach because Jesus commanded us to make disciples. We teach because someone taught us. We teach because there are people all around us who desperately need to know the gospel. But there is another reason that has become increasingly important to me: sometimes, before a person learns how to stand firmly upon Christ for themselves, they need someone who will stand beside them. I know because I needed that. When I first came into the church, my life was anything but stable. I was coming out of approximately eleven years of addiction to drugs and alcohol. I knew something had to change, and when I came to God, I began making drastic changes. I separated myself from people I had spent years around. I walked away from environments that had become normal to me. I stopped participating in hobbies and activities that revolved around drinking. Many of those decisions were necessary, but they created an unexpected problem: I had removed much of my old life before I had built much of a new one. I had found God, but I was still learning how to live for God. That distinction matters. When Everything Is Moving People sometimes imagine conversion as though every problem immediately disappears. A person repents, is baptized, receives the Holy Ghost, and suddenly everything becomes stable. That was not my experience. My emotions were still up and down. My thoughts could be sporadic. Relationships were changing. Habits were changing. My environment was changing. I was learning how to live an entirely different life while simultaneously trying not to return to the old one. But there were a few things I knew were solid. Church was going to be there, and every week, Bible study at the Simpsons’ house was going to be there. Looking back now, I do not think I understood how important that was. I knew they were not going to cancel because they were tired. I knew their home would be welcoming. I knew there would be peace there. I knew someone was expecting me. I knew that for those few hours, everything would be okay. In a period when almost everything in my life felt uncertain, there was somewhere I could go that felt certain. The Simpsons were not replacing Jesus Christ as my foundation. Scripture is clear that, “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). But while I was learning to build my life upon that foundation, God used people to give me something to hold onto. In a very real sense, they provided temporary stability while I was learning to stand upon something eternal. I think we underestimate how often that happens in discipleship. People Need More Than Information Bible study teachers can easily begin measuring success by how much information they communicated. Did I explain repentance correctly? Did we cover baptism? Did they understand receiving the Holy Ghost? Did I answer their questions? Those things matter tremendously. Truth matters. Doctrine matters. Scripture matters. But discipleship has never been the transfer of information alone. Paul told the Thessalonians, “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). They received the gospel, but they also received Paul. They received truth through relationship. There was doctrine being taught, but there was also life being shared. There was instruction, but there was also affection, consistency, sacrifice, and relationship. Modern research increasingly recognizes something Scripture has demonstrated for generations: human beings need meaningful connection. The U.S. Surgeon General has identified social connection as an important contributor to health and well-being and reports that social isolation is associated with a 29 percent increased risk of premature mortality. The same body of research notes that greater social connection can improve people's responses to stress and lessen some of the negative effects stress has upon health. That does not prove that Bible study itself produces those outcomes, and we should not misuse research by claiming that it does. But it does demonstrate something important: consistent human connection matters. The Surgeon General's recommendations specifically encourage “consistent, frequent, and high-quality engagement with others” and the development of supportive relationships and communities. Think about what a weekly home Bible study can provide. The same people are there. The same home is open. There is a familiar place at the table. There may be a meal, conversation, prayer, Scripture, and laughter. Someone asks, “How was your week?” Someone notices when something is wrong. Someone remembers what you were struggling with last Tuesday. Someone expects you to come back next week. For a person whose entire life is in upheaval, that can mean far more than the teacher realizes. Your Consistency May Be Part of Their Survival Almost a decade has passed since those early Bible studies for me, and now I find myself sitting on the other side of the table. I have taught people whose lives remind me of mine. They are fighting things. Their relationships are unstable. Their emotions are unstable. Their families may be unstable. Their finances may be unstable. Some are trying to leave addictions behind. Some are trying to separate from unhealthy relationships. Some have never experienced a healthy home. Some do not know what peaceful Christianity looks like because they have never been around it long enough to see it lived. So when they come to our home, I want them to find something different. I want them to know Brother and Sister Thrash are going to be there. I want the house to be peaceful. I want it to be calm. I want them to feel welcomed. I want there to be food and conversation. I want them to know that somebody cares whether they showed up. And then I want to open the Bible and show them where the real stability comes from. That is hospitality becoming discipleship. The goal is never to make people dependent upon us. The goal is to walk beside them until they have learned dependence upon Him. We are not trying to become someone's permanent foundation. We are introducing them to the One who can be. But sometimes God uses the consistency of His people to demonstrate the consistency of His character. The Opportunity Before Us The need for this kind of personal discipleship is substantial. Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study found that only 25 percent of American adults report attending religious services in person at least weekly. Nearly half say they seldom or never attend religious services in person. When we invite someone into our home for a weekly Bible study, then, we may be introducing them to something they have rarely experienced: consistent Christian community. They may initially think they are coming to learn a Bible lesson, but God may be doing considerably more. He may be teaching them what a Christian marriage looks like. He may be showing them what peace in a home feels like. He may be introducing them to healthy relationships. He may be teaching them that Christians keep their word. He may be showing them that disagreement does not require screaming, that dinner can happen without drunkenness, that people can laugh without being vulgar, and that a home can have boundaries without being harsh. Before they understand everything we teach, they are watching everything we live. That makes the Bible study table sacred ground. The lesson matters, but so does the environment in which the lesson is being taught. The doctrine matters, but so does the life demonstrating that doctrine. The Scripture we read to them matters, but so does the Christianity they see operating in front of them. Just Keep Showing Up Maybe you teach Bible studies and occasionally wonder whether you are accomplishing anything. The person across from you still struggles. They still ask questions you thought you answered three weeks ago. They missed church Sunday. They made another bad decision. They seem distracted during the lesson. You prepared, opened your home, taught the Word, prayed with them, and yet their progress seems painfully slow. It is easy to wonder whether another Tuesday night Bible study really matters. It does. Keep opening your home. Keep preparing the food. Keep opening your Bible. Keep answering the questions. Keep sending the text that says, “We will see you tonight.” Keep being dependable. Galatians 6:2 tells us, “Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” There are seasons when people cannot carry everything they are carrying by themselves, and sometimes discipleship means helping shoulder some of that weight while they grow stronger. You cannot become their Savior. You cannot become their Holy Ghost. You cannot become their foundation. But you can help steady them while they learn where to plant their feet. That is what someone did for me. I did not realize at the time how much those weekly Bible studies were helping hold my changing life together. I can see it now. In the middle of an incredibly unstable season, God gave me people who were stable. Their home became a place of peace while God was rebuilding mine. Today, I want to offer that same gift to somebody else. Because sometimes teaching a Bible study is about more than getting someone through another lesson. Sometimes there is a person sitting across your kitchen table whose entire world is shaking, and for a few hours every week, God may be using your home, your consistency, your hospitality, your love, and your open Bible to give them somewhere solid to stand until they discover for themselves that the Rock underneath it all has always been Jesus Christ.