Why Homiletics in Bible Study Fellowship Changed My Perspective

Bible Study Fellowship is a global Bible study ministry. My Grandma and aunties were members when I was growing up.  I heard about it often during Sunday gathering lunches when I was younger—and quickly grew bored.

I dismissed it as outdated and potentially redundant, mainly because I didn't find my Grandma all that cutting-edge growing up.

I'm now part of the Bible Study Fellowship.  I'm even a leader, attending twice weekly and giving ministry hours I don't have in a week. Throughout this year that I've served in administration and hospitality,  I've also been required to learn AV (Audio/Video) and Homiletics.

What is homiletics, you ask?   I was also quite confounded when I found out that I would have to do homiletics work weekly in addition to my weekly questions (three pages long).

Homiletics breaks down a specific passage of scripture and organizes it into categories: content, divisions, AIM, and questions. At least, that's how BSF teaches homiletics as an organization.  

There is an incredible woman in my group.  I'm absolutely fascinated by her. She's this whimsical, tiny, adorable woman with curly white hair and trendy glasses.  She hates homiletics.

I don't mean quietly. This sixty-some woman announces to the entire group weekly that homiletics has been and will be the worst experience of her life.  I can't say I entirely disagree with her.  The content portion is exhausting and feels redundant.

What is content, you ask?  I can't wait to tell you.  Content is where you write out every verse, but you're supposed to "shrink it." Our weekly homiletics is usually an entire chapter.

As an example, if the verse is Colossians 3:23 – "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters."  Amazing verse.

You'd make it something like this: "Whatever/work all heart/for Lord/NOT human masters."

I think.  I'm with what whimsical whisp of a woman over here. They say a good job no matter how you do it,  so who knows.

 Yet, homiletics make you break down the verse so completely that mysteries hidden within come alive.  It brings forth great discussions. We have to find word commonalities and themes.  We have to create a subject sentence. That is the AIM.  Fun fact – it has to be 10 words. Oh, that is fun for a writer's mind.  Some of mine are slightly too personified, with some Lord of the Rings references at times – we're studying Revelation this year – so it happens.

Thankfully, they are kind and forgive all my literary references.

Our homiletics discussion today was on Revelation 18. Heavy stuff.  But through homiletics, a theme came forth: why do the Kingdoms of the world so often hate Christians? We're friendly, right?  Forgiving. Kind. Nice. Helpful.  So many of my generation wrestled with this.

Our discussion brought forth an interesting point to ponder:  We don't serve the Kingdoms and rulers of this world, no matter who they are. We are called to respect them and obey them, as Daniel did in Babylon. But our kingdom is not on earth. Our Ruler is not here. We serve another Ruler, another Kingdom. We are subjects of His alone.

And that makes us dangerous. Maybe my Grandma was more cutting-edge than I assumed.

Homiletics surprises me each time.