Today I want to share a few more thoughts on why we do what we do at BVBC by focusing on our approach to teaching. Because that is the topic, this blog entry will be a little more explanatory than inspirational. But my hope is that it will help you understand why we approach the Sunday morning bible study experience like we do.

Each Sunday our bulletin provides information on what to expect when you visit BVBC on a Sunday. It says this regarding our philosophy of teaching:

We believe that BVBC doesn’t truly begin to feel like a church home until a person is a part of a Sunday morning bible study class. So, we provide bible study classes for all ages. Our adult classes are typically no larger than 15 and focus on both building relationships and deepening our understanding of God’s Word.

What is apparent is that the primary purpose of our bible study classes is connection. That connection will occur on two levels. The first level is relational connection. Johnson County is somewhat known for the constant transfer of church members from one congregation to the next. Why is this? In part, it has to do with a failure of people to connect relationally with a church body. While there may be some initial appeal to anonymously attending a worship service with hundreds or even thousands of other people, the anonymity begins to wear thin after a time. We are relational human beings and the Christian faith is a relational faith. So churches need to create an environment where people can move from the large worship environment to a smaller group of believers with whom they can forge lasting and supportive relationships. And that’s what we attempt to do at Blue Valley.

Our classes are kept intentionally smaller because we want to foster this relational connection. It would be easier to build our entire Sunday morning bible study structure around a handful of gifted teachers with class sizes of dozens or even hundreds. But it is our belief that classes of that size generally don’t provide the relational connection necessary to make people feel like they truly belong. It is also our belief that classes of that size tend to produce “sitters” and “soakers” rather than “doers” and “servers.” So a class size of 15 or 16, with seven or eight regularly attending couples is our ideal target, with the members both giving and receiving the encouragement they need to persevere in their Christian faith.

Another way that this relational connection takes place is by organizing our bible study classes by “stage of life” and this is how our classes are named. For instance, we have a “Nearly and Newly Married Class,” a “Parents of Middle Schoolers Class,” a “Nearly Retired and Retired Class,” and every stage of life imaginable in between. That means that people are setting in a bible study class talking with others about God’s Word who are going through the same kinds of joys and trials. We have found this kind of structure really draws people together.

The other connection point we strive to create in our Sunday morning bible study experience is with the Word of God. Our lessons are not based on the latest “hot topic.” Our only text is the Word of God. Our adult and student lessons are always drawn from a book of the Bible whose content complements the content of the Sunday morning messages in worship. They mostly take the approach of going verse by verse and chapter by chapter through a biblical book. Each and every Sunday School class teaches the same lesson, so people of all ages have a similar experience that they can share with one another.

When I came to Blue Valley three years ago, I was told by people in our state that building Sunday morning bible study like this wouldn’t work in Kansas. I was told people would just come to worship and not participate in smaller bible study group. After three years, I can happily say that those people were wrong. BVBC has a productive and vibrant Sunday morning bible study ministry that reaches more and more every year and whose growth has mirrored the growth we have experienced in worship.

So if you are part of the BVBC family, I hope you are engaging in a Sunday morning Bible study class. Even if you are not yet a part of the family, I hope you’ll try one out. It’s in these small Sunday morning groups that BVBC becomes a person’s permanent church home. Once you are part of one, my guess is that you won’t be able to imagine yourself anywhere else.