What You Need to Know About Bible Studies for Life

During my first week as a college music major, I attended an awards ceremony for a distinguished alumni named Will, who had made a name for himself playing drums for a prominent Christian performing artist. One night, Will told us, his boss invited him to meet two men: Steve Saint and Mincaye, a member of the native Huaorani tribe of Ecuador. It was an odd pair, he thought, until he understood their relationship.

Many Christians are familiar with the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot. When Jim and a team of missionaries were murdered by the tribe they were visiting, Elisabeth felt God call her to face a similar fate and bring the gospel to the tribe. She met the people who violently deprived her of a husband with the relentless love of God, and many came to faith in Jesus Christ as a result.

Which leads me back to Steve Saint and Mincaye. Steve’s father, Nate, was one of the missionaries killed alongside Jim Elliot. And Mincaye was one of the men who killed them. Together, Saint and Mincaye celebrated the extraordinary love of Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel to right any wrong and redeem any circumstance. This story was chronicled in a song called “No Greater Love”, and as I tearfully sat and listened to Will perform the song for us, I had my first true glimpse of just how powerful faithful obedience could truly be.

Maybe you’re like me in moments like this. When I hear or read a story like the one I heard that night as a freshman in college—and I’ve encountered several since—the first thought I usually have is, "I don't have faith like that." This is usually followed by the question, "How does someone get from where I am to where Elisabeth was?"

The answer is discipleship.

Though you might encounter various definitions of the word, discipleship more or less is the act of following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, attempting to imitate His thoughts and actions with increasing skill and fidelity. Sounds great, right? Only, being like Jesus isn't very easy. In fact, it's quite a hard thing to do—and not just in the big, scary stuff. Getting your kids ready for school, sitting in traffic, navigating conflict with peers and family, and the countless other little stressors we encounter every day. These difficulties require deliberate practice, one day at a time, year after year. Discipleship is a process, or to quote Eugene Peterson's book of the same name, "a long obedience in the same direction."

A disciple must be guided down an intentional path of discipleship. This means that every Christian, from babies to adults, needs to study God's Word, be engaged in Christian community, and live out what they learn in their daily lives. If a person applies this recipe day after day, a gradual shift will take place, something deep and personal and life-altering. This glacial pivot in the direction of Jesus Christ is the work of discipleship.

This is why Bible Studies for Life exists: to intentionally guide every person in a church—from babies to senior adults—down a lifelong path of discipleship. And a team of nearly forty people works every day to ensure that the kids, students, and adults in your church interact with a Bible study that is:

• Balanced in its approach

• Relatable to everyday life

• Age-appropriate for every disciple

At the heart of Bible Studies for Life is a simple, and easily overlooked, truth. Jesus doesn't just call us to be faithful in the big things, like Elisabeth Elliot, but also in the small, ordinary things—day after day after day. After all, don't you think that's how Elisabeth and Jim Elliot and the other heroes of our faith got to where they were, one day at a time?

Here's how Bible Studies for Life helps you do it:

Balanced Discipleship

Bible Studies for Life is built on a balanced discipleship plan for kids, students, and adults. Bible Studies for Life: Kids and Students is supported by the Levels of Biblical Learning®, a research-based philosophy that articulates which biblical concepts are appropriate for a given age, and how those concepts build on each other over time. Just as you wouldn't give a two-year-old an instruction manual for how to assemble a garbage disposal, there is a specific way biblical concepts should be presented in order to make sure they are internalized. This is what the Levels of Biblical Learning do: they make sure that kids and students are discipled wisely.

Similarly, Bible Studies for Life guides adults through a biblical- and research-based discipleship framework. In the largest research study ever conducted into how disciples grow, Lifeway Research discovered that eight factors were present in the lives of believers who are progressing in their spiritual maturity. These eight attributes provide the framework for each year of Bible Studies for Life: Adults. A growing disciple should be challenged and growing in these key areas, and each year of Bible Studies for Life provides a study series based on each of these eight attributes.

Relatable to Daily Life

Discipleship can easily veer into one of two ditches: either it is purely educational, or it is purely life response. Neither approach is healthy. Bible Studies for Life marries the two, bringing together the learning of biblical concepts in a way that engages real-life situations. Bible Studies for Life: Kids includes media elements like Bible story and life application videos, music, apps, and a lot more. For Kids and Students, we also provide resources to connect with families, including a free app and parent connection moments with each session. Students and Adults offer the Daily Discipleship Guide, which provides five daily devotions that integrate each week’s group study into everyday life.

In this way, Bible Studies for Life helps discipleship be seen as a matter of both understanding and obedience. Bible Studies for Life is immediately relevant, and yet provides the flexibility for a group to begin at any time.

Age-Appropriate Bible Study

Bible Studies for Life is the only closely-graded Bible study curriculum in the world. Take Kids, for example, which is available in seven age groups, plus broadly-graded options for ministries that have several age levels in the same study group. It also contains suggestions for including children with special needs, plus a separate Leader Guide and Activity Pages for Special Needs classes. Bible Studies for Life: Students contains a middle school option with illustrations, activities, and discussion questions tailored for younger teenagers. From babies to senior adults, every group member will find the Bible engaging their lives with issues appropriate to their stage of life and their educational ability.

This is imperative in order not only to reinforce that true discipleship happens in the context of real life, but also that the real-life issues and biblical principles presented are age appropriate.

Through Bible Studies for Life, a church or group can trust that their discipleship strategy will hit the mark for every age level in the church. Group leaders can know they are teaching core concepts that are appropriate to the age and educational level of every demographic in the church. And most importantly, every kid, student, and adult in your church will learn to put one intentional foot in front of the other on the lifelong journey of discipleship. Bible Studies for Life is committed to supporting the development of extraordinarily faithful disciples, one ordinary day at a time.