How to Start an Online Bible Study Fellowship

The advent  of technology and social media has affected every aspect of human society; physically, spiritually, academically, financially and socially. Technology and social media has not only brought ease in communication and networking, it has brought flexibility to many human endeavours . Some twenty years ago, no one would have taught that it is possible to have a bible meeting or prayer meeting online, but this is now very pronounced today. The Corona virus pandemic (COVID-19), played a major role as to how  different organisations had to seek for online alternatives to hold meetings.

Today, it is very possible to have different kinds of meetings online including a Bible study meeting. It must be emphasized that online meetings cannot and should not attempt to take the place of physical meetings and gathering of believers as that is very essential and pivotal to the Christian faith. However,  online meetings like bible study fellowships are good and necessary so that every means, opportunity and platform can be harnessed to the end that people are blessed and spiritually enriched.

Starting a bible study fellowship online is a serious task that requires proper structure and planning. We must realize that spiritual meetings, whether online or physical are to be focused on seeing Jesus glorified and the lives of people transformed. The following are things to know and put in place when starting an online bible study fellowship.
 

1. Build a Structure

Any meeting, whether physical or online that does not have a structure cannot be successful. An online Bible Study fellowship can begin without a plan and structure, but it cannot be sustained without one. Having a structure will include drawing out a plan for the days bible study will hold, the time to begin each meeting and  the duration of the meeting. A structure will help to put things in order and ensure successful organization of the meetings.
 

2. Determine your audience or reach

You have to ask yourself, who are the people this Bible study is for? A bible study fellowship can be for every believer and it can be for a particular category like teenagers, youths, men, women, fathers, mothers and many others. Knowing the kind or category the bible study fellowship is for will influence different things like the timing, the frequency and even the platform of the fellowship.  If for example your bible study fellowship is for teenagers who are students, you should not be fixing a meeting for morning during the week because students will be in school. The category of people you want to participate in the fellowship is a very important matter to be considered.
 

3. Create an online community

An online community is a group where the members communicate and interact through the internet. Usually, members of a particular online community will have a common interest. In this case, an online community for a bible study fellowship will include people who are believers and want to learn from God's word and know develop their relationship with God through His Word. There are different ways and platforms through which online communities operate and these includes chat forums like WhatsApp, Telegram, mails and many others.
 

4. Choose a Meeting Platform

For an online bible study fellowship to run smoothly and successfully, there must be a meeting platform. When choosing a meeting platform, it is very important to consider the data cost of such platforms. Different online platform have varying levels of data consumption. It is important to know and choose a platform that will not consume excess data. Some of the different platforms you can use include: zoom, google meet, telegram, whatsapp, microsoft teams and many others. It is also very important that the platform that will be chosen is one that will allow a good level of participation like screen sharing, asking of questions and answering of questions, etc.
 

5. Get materials for the Bible study

A good bible study requires good study materials. For a bible study to be effective, there must be good resources like study bibles, spiritual books and other important study materials that will help the smooth running of the studies. There are many different applications and websites of groups and individuals that have very quality study materials. Such materials must be sought for and properly utilized.

 

6. Do frequent Publicity

A bible study fellowship can have as many members as possible depending on the number of participants the organizers want. However, the goal of every online bible study fellowship should be to get people built up spiritually and reach as many people as possible. To increase the reach of an online fellowship, constant publicity is  essential. Publicity can be done by existing members of the community, sharing of links on different social media platforms,  creating social media accounts for the fellowship on different social media like twitter, Instagram, Facebook and posting frequently through the various accounts.

Starting an online  study fellowship requires a lot of planning, structure and organisation if things are going to run smoothly. The different things listed above are very important, but there is still one thing that cannot be overemphasized and that is PRAYER. Although an online bible study is run online, it is largely spiritual and spiritual things must be sustained and advanced spiritually. Therefore, starting an online bible study fellowship requires robust dedication to continuous prayer that every meeting and every of the resources available to the members of the fellowship builds them up and establish them the plans and purposes of God for their lives.