WHAT IS THE LIVING ROOM STUDY?
Basically, we want to raise the Biblical literacy of a generation. We encourage our group members to read a chapter of the Bible each day. To model Biblical stewardship/scholarship, I write a devotional for each consecutive chapter, and email it to the members of each local site…everyday.
When we come together each week, we are discussing every 7th chapter. This way, we move quickly, yet methodically through the text. At a chapter-a-day, we cover the New Testament in 9.5 months, and the entire Bible in 3.2 years.
Another purpose for the daily email devotionals is to instill value. I want our groups to know I value the text, because God teaches me something relevant every day. Beyond that, I am also communicating that I value THEM, as individuals.
Lifeway posted an article in one of their publications a year-or-so ago, stating that this present generation of young people is a “fatherless” generation. I agree with that observation. Ravi Zacharias says the problem with the average church member is not that they don’t have access to good preaching; it is that they don’t have VALUE for it. Quality information, and value for that information are 2 very different concepts. I want to communicate in such a way that people not only recognize the truth, but that they desire to apply it.
We are at a point in world history, where people are rejecting old modes. The recent American presidential election is a good harbinger. “Change” is in the air. The young people who grew up in church are no different. I believe people have little value for God’s Word, because deep down they feel neglected by the sources that God established to convey value for His Word: Fathers, and the Church. I don’t necessarily agree with their conclusion, but I believe that is how many people in the Church feel.
I want to restore a Deuteronomy 6:6-7 scenario, whereby I act as a quasi father, pursuing his children daily with Biblical truth.
Among our group, I see value already growing. For instance, every Tuesday afternoon I begin receiving emails from the 500+ email group. Individuals are apologizing that they cannot make it out to the evening’s study. Why do they feel compelled to tell me that? It is because a personal relationship has developed…one day at a time. They perceive that if I care enough to communicate with them daily, then I will miss them when they are absent. I don’t know of many congregants who apologize to their preachers, in advance, for not being able to make church. It’s pretty bizarre, yet sends a profound message: People are feeling valued, because they sense their absence will be felt.
We know the old saying: They don’t care what you know, till they know that you care. I think the message that I care is being communicated and reinforced daily.
Other than the strategies of reading a chapter-a-day, emailing devotions, and meeting once-a-week to discuss every 7th chapter, there is another very important component of the study: Where we meet. Read: 1 Cor 14:1, 14:23-25
When individuals humbly & honestly seek God’s Word, He reveals His truth to them. If you get a group of people reading the same text at the same pace, then get them together for a moderated discussion, the result is that everyone begins sharing what God has revealed to them…they are prophesying. No, they are not predicting the future. They are simply speaking-forth God’s Word as He has revealed it to them. To the extent that they are aligned with God’s Word, they will be in agreement.
If you plant that discussion in a public place…like a coffeehouse, then there is a high probability that a non-believer would stumble upon it. I see this happen on a weekly basis. Whether these bystanders join our group, make a profession of faith, or walk away…there is no denying that the group is in agreement of the scripture, and that God is among us.
Lastly, the whole thing works on zero budget. I negotiate the free use of space, in return for me filling it with customers for the (traditionally) worst 2 hours of the worst business days: Tuesday/Thursday, 7-9pm. I don’t take up an offering and everyone, (including the music artists) volunteers their time.
The owner of the Coffee Depot recently shared that the Living Room Study has made Tuesday his best-selling evening. It used to be his worst.
That’s pretty much the concept of the Living Room Study. I hope you can make it out some evening. If not, feel free to join our daily devotional email list. You can walk through the Bible with us, and listen to the weekly teaching via our PODCASTS.
Blessings.
Steve Wiggins
