This one will be unpopular. Hold on.
The opening line in any Church of Christ evangelistic move is always the same: "Would you like to have a Bible study?" Throughout my life I have acquired dozens, if not hundreds, of pamphlets that all center on a study of the Scriptures in order to bring somebody to the point of baptism. Though they all have their quirks, all jump from Scripture to Scripture along this journey. This was how I was trained to do 'personal work', to bring people to Christ.
As I have gotten older, however, I am finding that this is not the best method for today. Quite simply, in my opinion beginning with Bible sutdy focuses far more on the head, about finding out about Christ and about the church than it does on the heart, in which somebody follows Jesus.
It's not that I think Bible study is bad...far from it. But I do wonder whether or not we should rather focus upon Bible study more after somebody is baptized rather than when somebody is simply learning God's will for the first time. Because my experience is that learning to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ is not so much about knowing all the right things to know, but rather a heart that loves Jesus and sees his impact in the lives of other believers. Isn't this what Hebrews 1:1-2 is saying about how God speaks to people today, or how John 1:1-5 speaks of Jesus as being the 'word' of God? Most of the people I have had the honor to baptize in my life chose to be baptized not because of a perfect kind of head knowledge, but rather because they had seen in me (and in others) the power of a changed, sanctified life. Later on they would study Scripture and want to know more detail of what that life looks like...but I wonder whether or not we have baptized a lot of heads and not so much their hearts.
Here's an example: many of the pamphlets I have looked at will have a long section about the need for the church. And that's absolutely right...the church is the body of Christ, and a new (or any) Christian cannot hope to thrive or grow without the church. But most pamphlets will speak about the church: the 'qualifications' of elders, what makes God happy in worship (prayer, the Lord's Supper, giving, Bible study, and especially non-instrumental music), and perhaps, in some of the more modern ones, the need for love. Yet again, while these things might be right in their teaching, often they do little to really draw somebody into the church. If a preacher or a church member has a private Bible study with somebody and that person is then baptized, most often to this point there has been little or no real contact with the church. No chance to see it as a place of love, fellowship, and good works. It's no wonder, then, that many new Christians quickly fall away from the church, because they never had a chance to know it!
Another problem with these kinds of studies is that many people today are not so willing to follow along the proof-text path. One might bring up a subject like the inspiration of Scripture...and usually most studies will jump straight towards 2 Timothy 3:16-17 or 2 Peter 1:20-21. Fair enough, this is how I was taught and I believe these truths. But then there are questions...reading the context, these Scriptures are speaking of the Old Testament, not the New, what then? Or should we immediately accept the statements from Scripture itself about its inspiration? Don't all religious texts (the Quran, the Book of Mormon, etc.) do this to some extent? Quickly this leads us down a path of subjects that many even faithful Christians do not know about. Simply following along the old paths that many were trained with are no longer enough.
I am more convinced than ever that evangelism, in this day and age, is not easy, but it is possible if we will allow time for people to see the life of Jesus within us. But we're not usually ready for that...we'd rather have them buy our understanding of things, and shake the dust off of our feet when they are not so ready to accept it.
We are Bible-believing Christians, but first and foremost we ought to be Jesus-following disciples. If we really live like this, people will be able to see him in us and that will make all the difference.
