"MAKING HOME BIBLE STUDIES ILLEGAL"

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Framingham’s Jennie Maroney has a great Letter to the Editor in the Tuesday, March 23, 2010 MetroWest Daily News entitled, “Making Home Bible Study Illegal”. It’s found at:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x126578209/Maroney-Making-home-Bible-study-illegal

I realize Jennie Maroney has a reputation as a local right-wing political activist and pro-life activist. I also realize that quite a number of people dismiss Jennie Maroney as a right-wing kook. I count Jennie Maroney as a friend with whom I agree probably about 80% of the time and disagree about 20% of the time. She’s a nice lady with a passion for truth and righteousness and certainly not a kook.

Her letter about home Bible studies expresses a legitimate concern. Jennie tells the story of situations in both San Deigo, California and Gilbert, Arizona where the municipalities tried to forbid home Bible studies as “religious assemblies”. In the San Deigo case, the government wanted a pastor to pay several thousand dollars for a “major use” permit to hold home Bible studies. After this case got a lot of publicity on Fox News it was thrown out, but a similar case in Gilbert, Arizona is still ongoing.

I have read in Christian periodicals of a number of such cases over the past fifteen years or so. I think there ARE several cities and counties around the country which currently forbid home Bible studies. It’s interesting that not all such municipalities are in “blue states”. Some are in fairly conservative states.

Home Bible studies made up a HUGE part of my own spiritual journey. After I “got saved” as a Christian teen I attended a home Bible study for several years. At the time, my old-fashioned Catholic parents were of that “you’ll go to Hell if you set foot in a Protestant church” mentality, but they did not object to home Bible studies. Later, I came into the Assemblies of God through a Friday night home Bible study which I attended faithfully back in 1976. In the early 1980s the church where I served on staff (Christian Life Center, Walpole, MA) pretty much pioneered the idea of “home fellowship groups” (today often called “care groups”) in the Boston area. Such groups ARE Bible studies, but also include the components of evangelism, discipleship, and prayer ministry.

Most large American evangelical and charismatic churches have home “care groups”. Back in the ‘80s, they were mostly geographical. When someone signed up to host a group it was pretty much “forever” and all the groups used the same material. That’s almost never done today. In large churches, usually care groups will give people a choice of 2 or 3 topics being studied and usually the commitment is for 3, 4 or 6 months. Typically churches will take August and December OFF from having care groups. I remember that record keeping was a big part of the groups in the ‘80s, and I’m aware that record keeping when people all change groups and locations every 3-6 months has got to be a little complicated, but computers and software have also gotten a lot more sophisticated since then.

The bottom line is, home Bible studies and home care groups are very important components of Christian discipleship. Certainly, I can understand that if a family in a residential neighborhood were having a weekly religious assembly with, say a hundred people present, that would constitute all sorts of problems. I suspect it would easily violate occupancy and zoning laws. But home Bible study groups work best with 6 to 12 people present. If a group were to grow beyond that number, you’d want to create a new group someplace else. HOW a group of 8 or 9 people studying the Bible in Joe Jones’ living room every Tuesday night is a threat to zoning or neighborhood sensibilities or anything else is beyond me! It used to be that it was totalitarian Communist regimes who forbad home Bible studies. God help America if we continue down such a path! As Jennie Maroney writes,
“What next? No Cub Scout meetings? No baby showers? No football parties? Where does it end?”

Amen, Jennie!
oops.... it is illegal to say “Amen”?!