In this five part blog series, I’m looking at different ways to disciple a non-christian. Often a natural thing to do with someone is to read the Bible but it’s helpful to step back and ask the question - why? What are you trying to achieve?
I think there are a few ways of answering that question which might help you focus your time when you meet up with someone to read the Bible.
Introducing someone to Jesus is a great reason to read the Bible! One of the best ways to help someone meet Jesus is to read through the stories of Jesus together. Any of the Gospels will be great to go through - it’s also good to know Mark is the shortest one. Another tip is that John's gospel has seven big miracles performed by Jesus and seven ‘I am’ statements said by Jesus, so that can be a simple way of engaging with the Bible. Don’t feel like you need to know all the answers either, the Discovery Bible Study model is a great way of opening up conversation with three questions: What does this passage say about humans? What does it say about God? What are you going to do/who are you going to share this with?
Learn the big story. The Bible is a big book and contains all of Jewish ancient history and the story of the early church plus a lot more. It will take a long time to go through everything but you can help someone get the bigger picture of how everything links together. The Bible Project videos are a great resource for this.
Lastly, the Bible is more than just a story, it is the story of how God has interacted with creation throughout history. The words on the pages of the Bible are living because the Spirit of God brings them to life. God can speak through the Bible even today when we read it. Reading the Bible regularly is a rhythm that we want to keep active in our lives when we follow Jesus and so you can help your friend build this rhythm into their life. BibleforLife can be really helpful for this.
In Part 3 I’ll look at the role of the Spirit and how important that is for discipling a non-christian.
