At the start of this year, I sat down with a group of students about to make their first foray into the world of Bible study leading. As I read to them the goal of the training we would do together – to give them the foundational skills and character to lead impeccable small groups for the next fifty years – there were both glimmers of excitement and a series of near-audible gulps. Most had never led a Bible study before, let alone an ‘impeccable’ one!

Two semesters on (and countless studies, mis-steps, prayer and successes later) I sat down with these same students and asked them what they had learnt. Their reflections are a wonderful insight into the way God has formed them as proclaimers of His word!

“Before I would have just Googled the passage, but now I sit down and work through the steps to understand it myself”.

“I was quite shy about sharing God’s word, but learning to do exegesis has given me the confidence to know what it is saying and explain it boldly”.

One student reflected on how she had been inspired to champion a more substantial time of reading the scriptures in a local fellowship she is part of.

Another, how she realised that there is nothing stopping her from opening the Bible with other young women at church.

It grips my imagination to consider the ripple-effects of students who love God’s word, and who will search it for themselves, open it with others and speak it with confidence! Please join me in praying that God would continue to work through these students to unleash the power of His word on campus, in their churches, and for the next fifty years of their lives!