This video-based course is a way to share the idea of One-to-One Bible Reading with a group, and to encourage others to get started with it. The course consists of four lessons that may be enjoyed by groups of any age or size. It's for adult Sunday school classes, home groups, youth groups, or just a few friends who want to give themselves to reading the Bible. It can be used by churches to promote the idea at a half-day seminar. Or it can be used by Christians anywhere to simply share the idea informally. We are thankful to David Helm and the team at Holy Trinity Church, Chicago for making these seminars available on GoThereFor.com. More information can be found at reading121.org.
There are four main lessons:
Each lesson consists of three parts: Watch, Discuss, and Interact. You can use all the parts or only one or two. However you want to make use of the materials, each lesson is designed to be used in a 45-60 minute time slot. But, with discussion, it can certainly be expanded.
Each lesson begins with a video of Dave Helm (author of the book) sharing one or two aspects of One-to-One Bible Reading. Whether you want your group to watch the video in advance or you want to watch the video together is completely up to you.
Each video is accompanied by some suggested discussion questions, downloadable as a PDF or listed on the lesson web page. Again, whether you simply lead the discussion or print the PDF and distribute them to the group is entirely up to you. You may want to focus on only a few of the questions or get written answers from your group. The goal here is to begin processing the concepts together, anticipating the challenges, and enjoying the collective enthusiasm.
Each lesson includes an activity, also downloadable as a PDF. This is a way for you and your group to really begin thinking practically about how to make use of One-to-One Bible Reading. The goal is not a program, but a movement. Movements really require people to be involved and to take ownership. And these activities are designed precisely to encourage this kind of involvement and ownership. In any case, we hope you enjoy the course and are able to make use of it in your church and Christian community. If you have questions, you might check out the Q&A page. If you have additions or innovations that you find really work as you make use of these materials, please feel free to contact us. We are always excited to keep improving these materials and finding whatever ways we can to encourage Christians everywhere to pick up their Bibles and read together.
Note: The videos were filmed as part of a large seminar on One-to-One Bible Reading at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and lead by Dave Helm. The event was filmed on March 3, 2012. We have intentionally kept some of the live aspects of the event in the video so that your experience is much like that of the people who participated in the seminar that day.