Tag: changes to bsf

Input on Changes Bible Study Fellowship is Making…

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)

Hey all!

I know some of you were like me when you showed up to Bible Study Fellowship this year:  we’re doing what?

Changes made to my group:

No opening worship time.  We now go straight to our groups.

Flex Questions.  We are picking 6 questions to focus on instead of doing the whole lesson.  This is an effort to encourage those who don’t finish their lessons.

BSF is now only 1 1/2 hours instead of 2 hours long.

There are no hymns at all.

I would love to hear all of your initial impressions on these changes to the traditional BSF format.  These are the most changes BSF has ever done at once and they are major.  Please comment below with your thoughts.

“Personal Questions” and/or “Opinion Questions”

by atozmom, posted in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)

It seems to me when I first started with BSF in the study of Isaiah, all the personal questions were marked as personal and our BSF leader would not call on us to answer the personal questions.

Slowly, through the years, I started marking the questions I thought personal that were not marked personal in the questions as such:

“Personal Question.  My answer:”

because I believed them to be personal questions.

This year, in the study of the Life of Moses, it seems to me that hardly any questions are marked personal yet usually 20-25% of the questions asked are either an opinion question (what or why do you think) or a personal question by my assessment.

I think BSF has quit marking personal questions because there are too many on each lesson and if they are marked as personal, the leader can’t call on you.  Quite often, at least in my groups, the personal questions have a dead silence after they are read.  In the past, BSF would move on if no one answered.  Now, if they aren’t marked, my leaders will call on someone.

I’ve mentioned before when I’m in class I don’t answer the personal questions.  EVER.  One, my answers are here for all to see so if I repeated them you’d either know who I was or think I just copied the answer off the internet.  [Believe it or not, I’ve had women in my group say my personal answer in class so this does happen!].

Personal questions are a mixed bag for me.  Sometimes I think they are good; others, not so good. If there are too many on the lesson or some that don’t even apply to the passage, I can’t deal. Some questions speak to others more than me and that’s the point.  Plus, they get us thinking. That’s the point as well.

However, sometimes I want the personal questions to stay between me and God and not others. It’s no one else’s business how I obeyed or didn’t obey God or why I didn’t obey and the consequences thereof, etc, etc.

Has anyone else noticed a change in how BSF has handled the personal questions over the years? Has the number of personal questions increased or has it reminded steady or even decreased?  I’ve had a couple of you comment that the personal questions have always been there but would love to hear from more of you.