Blog

Written by Lisa Mason
on 7th December 2021

All the adults in the room were quiet. An eight-year-old girl was confidently reading from the bible in front of her, telling a story about Jesus welcoming even the smallest child into his presence. I caught the eye of her Mum and Dad across the room and we shared in each other’s joy at the simple wonder of this moment. Welcome to Discovery Bible Study.

When we gather together as a whole team, we read a story from the bible together. The story is read out two, three, sometimes even four times, especially if we have a few different versions of the bible or perhaps just a lot of enthusiastic volunteers.

Without fail, each time the story is read aloud, details will jump out to those listening that we may have never noticed before. We retell the story as a group, marvelling at the discoveries we have made, corrected by the children when we miss their favourite moments. And then we ask four simple questions.

What does this story tell us about God?

What does this story tell us about people?

If this is the Word of God, what am I going to do this week in response?

Who am I going to share this story with?

We write down our answers to the last two questions so that we will remember to pray and obey in the week ahead. Then when we next gather together, we ask one another - how did it go? What did you do? Who did you share with?

Why do we do this? I decided to ask my children to answer this one. They told me:

You get to discover things. You can learn all together. You learn things about God. You can help each other to learn about God. You learn things about each other. We get to share each other's stories. It helps us understand the bible better.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.