Women's Bible Studies
Design for Discipleship
Tuesdays, beginning September 14, 9:30-11:00 a.m., the Dining Room, Debbie Birkey, facilitator/teacher , childcare provided
Wednesdays, beginning September 15, 7-8:30 p.m., the Dining Room, Donna Baer, facilitator/teacher , childcare provided
Dear Friends,
Please join us for Women's Bible study on Tuesday morning or Wednesday evening. Whether you are just exploring Christianity, or have been reading the Bible for decades, this year's study is for you! Both Tuesday's and Wednesday's groups will be going through the Design for Discipleship series produced by the Navigators. We are delighted to present this unified Bible study. It's a bit of a change for us, and here's some of the reasoning that went into it:
We’ve been very concerned that in the church (not just Calvary, but the church at large) when a woman comes to faith as an adult, there are very few places she can turn to be taught the basics of Christianity. She often winds up in a study or Sunday School class where it is assumed she understands all of the foundational doctrines of the faith. This can lead to frustration, confusion, or a superficial study of the Word. It’s like joining a symphony before you’ve learned to read music. Often women without a good foundational understanding of the Scriptures wander in and out of Bible studies for a while, then give up. Since they were never fed milk, they can’t seem to digest the steak that’s offered at a typical adult study, so they check out entirely, and never grow in their faith.
Our other concern is that there are women in the church who have been faithful students of the Word for a number of years, but they have never discipled another woman. Their own walk with the Lord is not as vibrant as it could be, because they are not mentoring a new believer. They are depriving themselves of the intoxicating joy that comes from being involved in the spiritual birth process. We believe the primary reason that most believing women don’t “reproduce” more is that they don’t know where to start— they just don’t have the proper tools.
So our Bible study series for the upcoming year addresses both those concerns: women not knowing the basics of the faith, and women not being equipped to disciple other women. We will be using the Navigators’ classic: Design for Discipleship (DFD). It has been around for decades, and millions of Christians credit their spiritual maturity to the Holy Spirit’s using this series in their life. The series has been recently redesigned and updated, so it doesn’t “feel” like an old-fashioned study.
DFD consists of six booklets that begin with God’s love for us, and continue on through all the basic doctrines and practices of the Christian faith. There are chapters like: The Person of Christ, The Spirit within You, The Obedient Follower of Christ, Conversing with God, Faith and the Promises of God, Witnessing, and so on. Each weekly study takes less than an hour to prepare, and the discussion is designed to last 60-90 minutes for groups of 6-10.
Our study schedule permits about 29 meetings this year, give or take a power outage. That would give us just enough time to complete the six booklets. There is an optional seventh booklet that teaches a person how to study a book of the Bible on her own.
The wonderful bonus is that, once a woman has gone through the DFD series, she is fully equipped to disciple another woman or teen, using the same booklets! Can you imagine how many solid, rooted Christian women there would be at Calvary after a few years if each of the women in our studies discipled another woman each year? We would rock.
For more information, or to reserve your books, contact
We hope to see you in September. There's a place at the table for you!
With love,
Debbie and Donna
