The impact of 8 weeks of scripture study together as disciples

By the Rev. Whitney DeWare, Yellowknife

If we look around each of our churches and communities of faith, it doesn’t take much digging to see that Biblical Literacy is a problem among disciples. Many of us simply don’t know our Scriptures. It’s a terrible problem across the country; numerous people, even faithful people, have incorrectly come to believe that the Old Testament of Scripture is irrelevant, outdated, or has little-to-no significance in God’s story of redemption from the beginning of time until our hope of the resurrection. And if in your church, where perhaps pastors have obtained their MDivs; roles of Deacons, Priests and Laity are filled; and Sunday School, Bible Studies or Small Groups are part of the heartbeat of what it is to be a part of a local church – if in these places Biblical Literacy is a known issue – imagine how much moreso it is in those remote places where those roles are vacant.

In the fall of 2024 I was asked to teach The Bible Course (published by the Canadian Bible Society) on a Diocesan scale. The Diocese the Arctic covers the entirety of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Nunavik. I agreed, but I remember thinking, ‘this is going to be hard.’ The reality is that, in some parishes that have gone decades without regular visits from clergy, even the term “Bible Study” had to be explained! I’ve completed a few courses of my own via Zoom, and as a result I am acutely aware of the struggles that come with connecting online for discussion based learning. How was I going to wrangle a group of people representing numerous cultural and geographical areas, all at varying stages of faith and understanding of Scripture, into meaningful discussion and learning? On top, its video-based and requires – at least in today’s expectations – a rather high commitment to reading scripture at home on each of the 6 days between meetings. Would my students be willing to engage? As I prayerfully prepared for these meetings, I came up with a plan. I would ask each person to keep a notebook with them as they were doing their daily readings, and to write down something each day that surprised them, that they hadn’t noticed before, that seemed to take on a new meaning, or that they had questions about. And then at the beginning of each session, I would call upon each student to share something, beginning with myself, and hope for some variety in responses.

What I didn’t expect was that this opening discussion time among 8-12 people would take 30 minutes or more, that each person would have something entirely different to share, and that by the time we got to the discussion in the middle of the 35 minutes video, I would have to do real work to craft how I would end the discussions so that it didn’t end feeling incomplete, but so that we could end the meeting at the 2 hour mark.

I’ve run the eight week course two times, now. Each week, someone’s mind would be blown about how the whole story of scripture actually is relevant today. Someone would tell me that the provided readings weren’t enough, that they had to make time to read around the assigned passages, or that they had to do a word study because they suspected something they read meant something other than what they thought. Some had no idea Hosea was in the Scriptures and would report that they had to read it a few times, and really pray on it and reflect on it, to begin to grasp its meaning. And without fail, as we came to the end of our 8 weeks together, there was much protest that our time together would end. Being in the Word daily and having the opportunities to discuss God’s story together, while seeking to understand what it means for our own lives today, has that effect on the every day disciple of Jesus. Watching people open up, being beside them as they discover something incredible about God’s heart and His will for their own lives, and learning from them as we share in the Word of the Lord together, that is the heartbeat of mission and ministry.