What is the Bible Study Challenge?

If you follow me on social media or subscribe to my weekly newsletter, you probably know that I host monthly Bible Study Challenges. But if you haven’t participated in one of these challenges yet, you may wonder what it’s about. Allow me to introduce the concept.

Defining the Concept

Each Bible Study Challenge picks a single topic or section of Scripture to engage deeply over the course of a month (e.g., Jonah, Colossians, the Festivals, etc.). There are two major components to each challenge.

(1) Bible Study Prompts Every Weekday

People who participate in the challenge receive a Bible study prompt every weekday during the challenge. This prompt is delivered via email. Each email contains the full prompt, and it links to a Google Doc worksheet you can download to your Drive or print. Most of the prompts are intended to take about 10 minutes to complete.

You don’t receive a Bible study prompt on Saturdays or Sundays. This weekly break gives participants the chance to catch up on any days they missed during the week. It also allows for some time for people to dig a little deeper if they want to do that.

Here’s what a Bible study prompt looks like: [INSERT PICTURE]

(2) Bible Study Notes Every Weekday

In addition to the daily Bible study prompt, I send participants my notes from each day’s challenge. My notes are included in each email, but they are about the previous day’s prompt. So, I send my notes on a one-day delay. For example, if I ask you to study John 3:16 in today’s prompt, I will share my thoughts on that verse in tomorrow’s email.

In addition to receiving my notes from the previous day, I always link to the relevant Google Doc worksheet. This step helps the reader ensure that we are talking about the same question. You can always download the worksheet and compare your notes with mine.

(3) Bonus Resources

Along with the daily Bible study prompt and my notes, I include links to relevant resources throughout the month. Everyone is also invited to ask any questions as they work through the material.

At the end of the month, I send out a PDF workbook for the whole challenge. It includes the daily prompts, my notes, and any extra resources. The purpose of the workbook is to let you go back through the challenge any time you want to do so.

Explaining the Heart

The Bible Study Challenge format is easy enough to understand, but why do I host these challenges?

I’ve spent most of my adult life studying the Bible academically and working in the local church. I love helping people understand God’s word. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered three persistent issues over the years.

First, too few people are actually studying the Bible.

I have found that most people either rarely engage with the Bible or they gravitate towards devotionals, podcasts, or sermons. While resources like devotionals, podcasts, and sermons are great, they seldom help people engage Scripture for themselves.

Second, many people think studying the Bible is hopelessly complicated.

They assume that you need an advanced degree to really know what’s going on with the Bible. Or they think that you need hours and hours to study a passage. Advanced degrees can help, and the Bible is an inexhaustible resource, so you can spend all the time you want. But you can also make a lot of progress with small, focused sessions of study. Ten to fifteen minutes spent studying the Bible regularly can pay huge dividends.

Third, and finally, many Bible Study Resources are either too shallow or way too deep.

You can find tons of surface-level engagement with Scripture. These resources typically tell you what to think and jump to quick conclusions about the meaning of a passage.

You can also find a lot of resources that go really deep. As an Old Testament scholar, I love academic studies on the Bible, but these resources often assume years of study or require a huge amount of time investment.

Few Bible study resources hit what I call the Goldilocks Zone: a resource that challenges you to go deeper but does so in an accessible and manageable way. That’s what I try to do with each daily prompt.

In the end, I hope that these Bible Study Challenges invite more people to study the Bible, equip people to feel like they can study the Bible well, and provide people with a resource that is challenging but accessible.

Inviting Participation

I host a new Bible Study Challenge every month. Each challenge usually begins on the first Monday of the month.

If you’ve ever wanted to dig deeper into the Bible but haven’t known where to start, I want to invite you to join the next challenge. Each challenge costs just $10 to participate.

You can use the link below to sign up.

I’ll talk to you in the next challenge.