Women’s Bible study groups are a way of centering fellowship around a focus on the truth and timeless counsel revealed through God’s Word.
By Tina Boesch
Are the women in your church thriving spiritually? Is your church encouraging women’s discipleship throughout the week? Do women in your church feel confident reading, studying, interpreting, and applying Scripture to their daily lives? Would the women in your church say they have significant relationships with other women in your fellowship? When women are struggling or experiencing a painful crisis or loss, do they know trustworthy women to turn to for prayer, counsel, and encouragement? Are women excited about introducing friends to Jesus by inviting them to worship, studies, or small group gatherings?
Evaluating these questions will help you gauge the vitality of women’s spiritual growth in your church. They touch on discipleship, biblical literacy, Scripture engagement, connectedness within the body, authentic fellowship, and missional excitement. If you answered all of these questions with a resounding yes, we praise the Lord for the way He’s working among the women in your fellowship. Keep nurturing that growth. But if you weren’t sure or answered no to any of the questions, then there’s one activity that will make a difference in all these areas—women’s Bible study.
Investing in women in your church
Women need to feel connected to other women. They need opportunities to gather and a group where it’s safe to process what’s going on in their lives. But when fellowship is untethered from the truth of God’s Word, it tends to become self-serving rather than God-honoring. Women’s Bible study groups are a way of centering fellowship around a focus on the truth and timeless counsel revealed through God’s Word. Bible study also has the advantage of encouraging personal time in Scripture throughout the week while giving women an opportunity to meet and discuss what they’re learning together. It marries personal spiritual growth with discipleship in community. And both are essential if women are to be conformed to Christ’s character and integrated into His body, the church.
“When fellowship is untethered from the truth of God’s Word, it tends to become self-serving rather than God-honoring.” — @TinaBoesch Share on XIt’s important to women in the church that they feel valued by the pastors and leaders of their church. One way you can do this is to be an advocate for women’s ministry and women’s Bible study. While working alongside women’s ministry leaders across the country, our team at Lifeway has observed five essential benefits of women’s Bible study that are consistent across varied ministry contexts. Alongside these five benefits, we’re recommending five studies that are exemplary in the way they contribute to spiritual growth.
1. Bible study encourages women to open their Bibles daily and gives them confidence to read, interpret, and apply God’s Word
It’s hard to get excited about reading a book that’s hard to understand. We all know how easy it is to lift verses out of context and twist them to suit our needs. The best Bible studies encourage women to read God’s Word daily. And they give women a framework for comprehension and good interpretation, drawing meaning from the text.
Navigating Gospel Truth: A Guide to Faithfully Reading the Accounts of Jesus’s Life by Rebecca McLaughlin gives women tools for biblical study they can apply to any passage. McLaughlin guides women through the Gospels, assuring them of the historical truth of the testimonies to Jesus’ life, while teaching them to identify and understand the genres of literature they encounter while reading. Women will learn to recognize and interpret narrative, metaphor, parables, teaching, dialogue, and prophecy, while gaining a more captivating view of the Savior.
2. Women’s Bible study groups cultivate spiritual disciplines within the stability of community
Accountability is often the key that unlocks spiritual growth. We need other believers to check in on us, cheer us on, and challenge us. At the genesis of the church, believers were constantly and corporately devoting themselves to teaching, fellowship, and prayer (Acts 2:42). It may be possible for a woman to study the Bible and pray alone. But those spiritual disciplines are more sustained and transformative when women do them within the context of fellowship. Corporate expressions of worship and prayer testify to the supernatural community formed in and through Christ.
“Accountability is often the key that unlocks spiritual growth. We need other believers to check in on us, cheer us on, and challenge us.” — @TinaBoesch Share on XWhen You Pray by Kelly Minter, Jackie Hill Perry, Jen Wilkin, Jennifer Rothschild, Jada Edwards, and Kristi McLelland is a study that brings together six Bible teachers to dig deep into six prayers in the Bible. Prayers like the Lord’s Prayer, Hannah’s prayer, psalms of lament, and Paul’s prayer in Ephesians will inspire women to express the full range of their emotions to the Lord. As women draw near to God through prayer, they find their hearts united to Christ and to one another.
3. Bible study refreshes women spiritually while giving them a safe place to connect with other women relationally
Jesus promised those who believe in Him will “have streams of living water flow from deep within” (John 7:38, CSB). He revealed this truth in conversation with a Samaritan woman who was spiritually, emotionally, and relationally thirsty, meeting her in her need. There are many women in our churches suffering silently. Their marriages may have fallen apart. They may have lost a loved one. They may feel hopeless or disillusioned with God.
Desperate for Hope by Vaneetha Risner tackles the hard questions women ask God in suffering, loss, and longing. She offers a scriptural framework to help women find hope even in pain. And she introduces readers to women in the Bible who suffered loss, longing, and grief. In the end, she affirms women can find answers to their deepest questions in the character, goodness, and sovereignty of God.
4. Bible study increases biblical literacy
Women who don’t know their Bibles can’t fully understand the goodness of the gospel or their place in the story of God’s mission to redeem the world. Addressing the crisis of biblical illiteracy is one of the most pressing needs of our churches today.
“Women who don’t know their Bibles can’t fully understand the goodness of the gospel or their place in the story of God’s mission to redeem the world.” — @TinaBoesch Share on XDevoted is a study of more than 30 women in the Bible whose lives have inspired generations of women in their faith and devotion to God. Their stories are a reminder that every woman is made in the image of God. And every woman has an important part to play in God’s story.
5. Bible study strengthens women’s faith and gives women confidence for mission
Women whose souls are nourished by the ministries of their church are more likely to reach out to others to invite them to experience grace and truth in the person of Christ. We can’t offer others goodness we haven’t fully received ourselves.
As for Me by Adrienne Camp is a journey through Psalms that helps women find Jesus on every page. Women will gain a deeper understanding of who God is and be encouraged to hold on to Him no matter what is happening around them. They’ll be inspired to let the psalms become the prayers they carry with them into every moment of every day. Then they can say with confidence, “As for me, I will worship and serve the Lord no matter what.”
For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.
Tina Boesch
Tina has lived in seven countries on three continents. She earned a MA in theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. These days she serves as manager of the Lifeway Women Bible study publishing team. You can find more of her writing and design at tinaboesch.com.
