Saturday, April 19, 2014

Discovery Bible Study vs. Preaching

  1. When we hear the word “preach” (e.g. 2 Tim. 4:2) do we immediately think of the Western cultural form of an expository monologue behind a “pulpit?”
  2. It seems the early church was commended for the participatory nature of their meetings (1 Cor. 14:26). DBS encourages participation in a way that the Western church model generally does not.
  3. Surely DBS does not preclude the need for teachers and preaching and proclamation. It just doesn’t need to take the form of a 30 minute sermon.
  4. I would imagine Paul would think that Bible learning is more important that Bible preaching.
  5. DBS and preaching don’t need to be thought of as mutually exclusive.

2 comments:

PaulLion said...

I have often thought of this so I wanted to comment. I was able to sit in to observe a house church in China and the leader preached forever. The crazy part was everyone was so hungry for the Bible that they listened forever. Then you see other places where God is really using DBS. I like how you said they don't need to be mutually exclusive, because it just seems like God uses different ways to communicate the Bible.

BarabbasFreed said...

I would add that DBS and teaching aren't mutually exclusive. Each has its place and the I find those that advocate sola DBS are just reducing the number of tools available, rather than adding an extra one.