BEMA Study Groups Resume

The groups are back in full swing and the students are back with a vengeance.  As somebody who finds himself serving in his wheelhouse when he's teaching, I couldn't me more thrilled at having been given the opportunity to return to these encouraging gatherings every day, every week.

(For anybody who may not know much about the BEMA experiment, I invite you to check out the BEMA website and read more about what we're trying to accomplish.)

There were questions I had about how things would go when the classes resumed:

Would the students come back?  They did!  We lost quite a considerable number of students to graduation last year and another chunk of students who didn't return to school, but of all the students who DID return, we seem to have had a 100% return involvement.  This was very encouraging, as a campus minister holds his breath to see who will make it over the "summer hump".  Not only did they come back, but we also have seen a number of new students jump into the study midstream.  So far, the newbies have said it's a little overwhelming, but they feel like they're getting the hang of it.

If they did come back, would they be excited or would this whole study be 'old news' to many?  It appears to be that the studies maintain all their old energy -- with even the addition of a summer's worth of questions, thoughts and experiences.  One of the greatest joys in the first few weeks of study has been the insurgence of new voices in the conversations.  There are some students who were always somewhat reserved and quiet last year.  This year, they have come out of the woodwork, in the absence of last year's seniors to take charge of the discussion and dive into the tough stuff.  This is a great joy to see the treasure that was buried last year (also a great challenge to try and unearth more of that treasure that still might be hiding).

How much would they remember?  Last year, we did a book-by-book study of the Old Testament and started every class with a 15 minute review of EVERYTHING we had studied previously.  The goal was to make this information stick in long-term memory banks.  That is a lot of material that isn't easy to digest at times.  On the first day of class this year, with minimal assistance, the students recited back thousands of years worth of biblical history.  Awesome.

Of course, having said all of that, I will be the first to admit that such a feat is certainly not discipleship.  Nor is it even transformational in and of itself.  We can learn mountains of information each and every day and still far short of experiencing freedom, renewal or partnering with God to redeem all of creation.  But as cliche as it is to point that out, I do believe that part of the problem with evangelical faith is that we have lost the passion for the story -- for the Text.  We need to recapture the wonder of what God has done through His word that never returns void and always accomplishes its purpose.  Could it be that one of the first steps of recapturing this wonder is making God's story -- correctly told -- a priority in our walks?

This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."  ~Jeremiah 6:16

How will we walk in the good way, if we don't know where it is?  When somebody asks for the ancient path, who will have the answer?  Who will know what the good way looks like if we don't know his story?  We have a lot of experts these days in doctrine.  We need some experts in the good way.

One last challenge I'm sensing as I listen to these students recite back tons of information and spend summers wrestling with the implications of the theology we've deconstructed and reconstructed, I'm sensing the need for them to be able to wrestle with and own their own conclusions about their own faith.  In my passionate pursuit of framing the story correctly, I've noticed how dangerously close I am to just creating people that know how to repeat the catch phrases.  I'm wanting to see the students EXPERIENCE the catch phrases, even if they can't recite them.  This is one of my largest goals this year.  Can we have multiple moments where the lights come on and students experience the Sabbath rest of God?  Will we have anybody lay their life down in service to another because they trust that they have everything they need and don't need to worry about security, love, or acceptance?

These will be the true tests of our studies.  We've proven our ability to teach large quantities of information.  But now the test of whether or not there is LIFE in our words lies in front of us.  May God use the work we've done to do much bigger, much more important things in the hearts of these students.