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10 Things to do With Old Bible Study Notes

Can I talk Bible Studies for one moment? Or at least Bible Study notes? It feels like a product of another time, but our Church went through a time when we were all given bible study booklets for each new study we did in homegroups.

We have built a little collection of Bible study notes over the years, and have had a conversation about what to do with them.

Here’s the list of ideas that we’ve not agreed on.

  1. Build a fort
  2. Create a sheltered passage way to church*.
  3. Build an army of paper plans.
  4. Write down your answers, go back and look at them in a years time. Get hung up on how you got to that answer.
  5. Cut them up and use them as wrapping paper this Christmas.
  6. Use them as conversation starters with your church leader.
  7. Give them as gifts to your neighbours.**
  8. Keep them long enough for your Church to use them again. Use previous notes to appear really clever and that you know what you’re talking about.
  9. Do you host the bible study at home? (You know… when Coronavirus isn’t a thing). Do you need to do some decorating? Are you after some wrapping paper? You know what to do…
  10. Roll them all up, and tape them together. Creating some sort of scriptural flavoured social distancing enforcer bat. 

Any other ideas I should add?

*For when it’s safe and sensible to go back obviously…

** I didn’t say these would make you popular.

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The Church Sofa Question of The Week

Do you need answers?

Here’s the thing.

Picture you’ve just arrived at Housegroup, and someone there refers to you briefly by your sons name / daughters name / some name that isn’t actually your name. The person in question moves on quickly, and you don’t a chance to comment…

Then… During the Bible Study you are again referred to by the same name / the name that really isn’t you.

At what point is it socially acceptable to correct that person?

During the prayers? Possibly a prayer for forgiveness? If not, when?

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10 Tips to keep a Tidy Christian House

They say that “cleanliness is next to godliness”, I’m not sure who “they” are, and I’m not sure if “they” are right.   But  one time, while cleaning up for Housegroup, I did wonder. Are there “Christian ways to keep a house clean”? (Its the way my mind seems to work)

After consulting some particularly godly people, I gathered the following tops to keep a tidy Christian house.

  1. Invite housegroup to meet at your place… EVERY WEEK!!
  2. Preach on servanthood at Church. Encourage people to put that into action by cleaning up your place.
  3. Do not store up ANY treasures. Live a minimal life. Throw out EVERYTHING apart from your bible.
  4. Dont drink things like Tea that needs things like Tea Bags, as that creates needless waste… drink red wine… just like Jesus.
  5. Dont buy any Christian books. Convince your church to get it for the church book lending library, and borrow it from there instead.
  6. Only have one Bible. (Possibly the King James Version)
  7. Throw out your DVDs / Blurays… Sign up to Pureflix.com instead.
  8. Avoid beer bottles being built up. Drink only red wine. (Better if you buy red wine in those big boxes)
  9. You pray for the spirit of peace to come over your house everyday. Just hope that no one looks in the garden.
  10. Treat your house like Holy Ground… TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!!!

How do you keep your house tidy?

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Things NOT to think about when being prayed for.

Things NOT to think about when being prayed for.

So you’re there.

You’re either at church, homegroup, or some other christian gathering, and you’re being prayed for. You may be surrounded by a group of people, or you may be in a corner of a room, either way you are the focus of the spiritual attention. Whatever you do. Don’t think about the following when you’re being prayed for:

  1. How attractive that woman / man praying for you might be – and why are they holding your hand anyway?
  2. Has the oven timer started ok? You dont want the dinner to be burnt / cold.
  3. Why is that persons hand so warm and clammy?
  4. Why does that person push down on your shoulder so hard?
  5. Rating peoples prayers out of 10. Don’t do this. Its not cool.
  6. Who’s that smell?
  7. “What on earth did they mean by that?”
  8. Mentally correct their grammar in your head.
  9. Whats the most prayerful way to be standing? Are you in the most holy position? Does God smile more with my arms up or my arms down?
  10. The feeling of regret that comes with having that hot curry 45 minutes before the meeting began.

Any more that you can suggest?

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Emergency Housegroup Leaders Kit Of Ideas

Imagine the situation: You’re hosting your church home group, and the person leading the Bible study doesn’t turn up. What do you do? You could ditch the bible study, have a quick chat and get on with your lives? (But no one ever seems to want to do that)

Lots Of BiblesOr you could lead a bible study anyway? But what is your bible study going to be about? To help get you started here are our Emergency Housegroup Leaders Kit Of Ideas!

  1. You’re going to need an energy kick to get through this. All the cool kids seem to drink Monster…
  2. Bibles. Have lots and lots of Bibles! Hand them out. Get people to read a verse or twenty at random. Ask people what they think about said random verses.
  3. An impressive Bible book. Unlocking The Bible is one…
  4. Buy and bring a local business a present. Explain that you wanted to bring them a present to encourage them.
  5. Bible Through Lego! Use Lego characters to tell Biblical truths. Or something…
  6. Ask everyone to give an encouraging Bible verse to the person on the left. Give them all a chalk pen to take home with them to write the Bible verse on a mirror at home. (You can use the Encouraging Bible Verse Picker for help)
  7. Ask deep searching questions about these unfortunate Bible verses. (Examples of questions you can ask include “How do these verses speak into your life?”)
  8. Got some cushions? Get everyone to lay down, and “wait on God” / Pray / meditate / sleep / whatever…
  9. A video clip of someone talking about God. Saves you from having to do it…
  10. Just drag everyone down to the pub, and buy them all a pint.

Any other ideas you’d like to add?

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Challenges for Homegroup Leaders

Church Housegroup Challenges

Welcome to September! All around the country, Churches have homegroups starting up for a new term. All ready for a new Bible study series. But how can homegroup leaders make the bible studies more interesting?

Here are 10 challenges for Homegroup leaders in your church.

  1. Spend the entire evening speaking in a bad Russian accent.
  2. Serve mug loads of espresso, accidentally make people think it’s decaf.
  3. (If you’re hosting) Don’t tidy up before housegroup. Act like everyone is making a huge mess of your lovely place.
  4. This requires some planning in advance, but ensure any and all toys are arranged ready for a bible study.
  5. When planning, crowdsource questions for your bible study.
  6. Plan the bible study while using the The Message version of the Bible.
  7. Illustrate every question with a Simpsons video clip.
  8. Doing a session on Baptism? Throw water balloons at each other.
  9. Leading a session on Hebrews chapter 4? Lead the Bible Study naked.
  10. Lead a session on “Waiting on God”. Encourage everyone to lay down on the floor / relax on the sofa, while you play a relaxing CD. DO NOTHING ELSE IN THE EVENING!

Any more ideas?

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Hosting A Church Homegroup. What Do You Need?

As the more eagle eyed Sofa readers may have spotted, 2014 featured the Sofa family moving from Church Sofa towers to The Sofa Castle. (Mrs Sofa has asked me to clarify this means moving from a smallish flat to a house). One thing we decided we wanted to do once we were settled was to host our homegroup. We’ve been warned we need the following in order to host our church homegroup.

Coffee. Lots of Coffee.

Coffee

The exact amount depends on who’s leading.

Decaf Coffee.

Just in case someone asks for it. But remember, there are dangers involved with drinking decaf…

Decaf_Coffee

Bibles.

Lots Of Bibles

Lots of Bibles.

lots-of-bibles

And Maybe A Really Big Bible…

Possibly A Historic Scroll.

scroll

 

As a special treat for ‘that’ person who can read Hebrew, and Greek…

 

Bible Toys.

bible_toys

 

Because Bible Studies can be fun. Right?

Massive Multi Media Set Up

Your Church Homegroup?

 

You can really take in Bible maps if they’re on a really big screen… and if nothing else, you’ll probably need to watch a video clip at somepoint.

Beer.

Because someone normally secretly wishes they could be relaxing with a beer.

Relax with a Beer at your Church Homegroup?

If you have all of this. I’m sure you’re ready to host a Bible Study.

Just dont forget the biscuits.

Anything we’ve left out?

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Being a cartoonist

Long term readers of The Sofa should not be surprised that we are fans of church / cycling cartoonist Dave Walker. He’s the guy who created “The Peace”, that we may have posted once or twice before…

He’s released a cool video about how he got started being a cartoonist.

 

Possibly the best thing about this video is that it gives me an excuse to post a cartoon:

This CartoonChurch.com cartoon by Dave Walker originally appeared in the Church Times.
This CartoonChurch.com cartoon by Dave Walker originally appeared in the Church Times.

For those going to a home group / housegroup this week. Heres something to ponder.

Do any of the above characters remind you of your homegroup?

More cartoons found at www.cartoonchurch.com

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How to liven up a Housegroup.

Welcome to October.

We’re now well into Autumn, and many churches have started their program for the new term. Many housegroups have started back, and there maybe some changes, you may be going to a new housegroup… which might be great… but sometimes… it might need to be livened up.

Here’s some thing for you. Here is the Church Sofa list of ten ways to liven up your housegroup:

  1. Discuss the idea of wives submitting to husbands. With a male : female ratio of 2:7.
  2. For a guy to quote Mark Driscoll in the above conversation.
  3. Bring an active baby, with a healthy set of lungs.
  4. Everyone go to housegroup in a dog collar.
  5. Does your housegroup have a couple of sci-fi fans? Go along in a Dalek costume.
  6. Bring along an argumentative atheist who likes arguing, hate Christians, and hates being around other people…
  7. Make a bet with yourself, and see if you can guess how many times “that person”, turns a topic back to themselves, and their own stories. (feel free to provide prompts for that person)
  8. During the prayer time, try playing catch with someone sat on the other side of the room.
  9. Are you a football fan? Is your housegroup leader a football fan? Both missing that match? Come up with a secret system of telling him the football scores mid meeting. (This well depend on you flipping between the sport app, and the Bible on your phone).
  10. Dramatic reconstruction of bible readings… Be careful it doesn’t include anything like circumcision…

Any that we’ve missed?