How One Bible Study Group Changed My LifeBy William Shoemaker

In early 2000, I started leading a small-group Bible study as part of the men’s ministry of our church. Of the five of us, one brother had attended Tres Dias, and after getting to know me, he urged me to attend a weekend.  After several of the usual excuses for not attending, I finally made my weekend in 2003.

BAM!

The Holy Spirit made it unequivocally clear that this was the ministry to men that I was to be involved with. So, on Saturday afternoon, I asked one of the team how I could take the next steps, and he introduced me to the rector for the upcoming weekend.

The rest is history.  I have served on more than 70 weekends, been a rector three times in two different countries, served on the International Secretariat, and am currently the chairman of our local community. I have some very special relationships with men from all over the world and cherish them dearly. (I don’t say all this to make it appear that I’m wearing a crown, but to point how God will use someone when that person “gets out of the way” and lets God work in his life.)

Also, I am involved in two reunion groups.  Both include a Bible study of one sort or another. My sponsor and I are still in one of those groups together!  We have walked with each other through years of single life and shared the joys and challenges of married life. We have prayed over prodigal children and held each other through the sudden illness and death of his wife. We are closer than blood relations.

I don’t believe that a gathering has to qualify in any regard to be a reunion group because piety, study, and action must include Bible study as part of growing in our Christian walk.

Editor’s note: The last sentence refers to the article in our last issue on the difference between a Bible study and a reunion group.