Ray Handisides — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:05:58 +0000

Please give information on yourself. Let us know where you grew up, where you work, what are your hobbies etc. Let’s get to know each other.

Ray

Welcome to e-BibleGroups Blog

Ray Handisides — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:33:42 +0000

This Blog is to provide a place for conversation on Christian issues that face us in our everyday life. Each week I will put up a new post on a topic that will be of interest to Christians. We hear so much negative about the Internet and its use. I would like to see us claim it for Christ and use it for good. Please join me in these dialogues so that we can share our thoughts and grow to be better disciples of Jesus Christ.

e-BibleGroups is an idea I have been developing that allows people to do Bible Study despite how hectic our lives are. While developing a Small Group ministry in a church I attended in California I realized that many people could not participate due to hectic life schedules. There was long commutes, work travel, busy schedules with children’s activities. I came to realize that there were two elements that impeded people coming to a study. They were time and space. Times when we ran studies were not always convenient and to be at a particular place may not be possible. In trying to develop ways to overcome these restraints I was led to believe we could use the Internet to remove these boundaries. If we formed a Small Group that used a secure website and they interfaced with each other over the web then we could provide Bible Study and Small Group experience to people who otherwise could not participate. Participants could read the study material and respond whenever they wanted and however they were. You could do it at 2 a.m. sitting in a hotel room.

In the trial groups I had we had people who travelled a lot, mothers who were busy with their “Mom’s Taxi service,” an ER nurse who when she got of a stressful day at midnight used the study to unwind and let God speak to her before she retired.

I believe that this is a way our future studies could go. I do not believe it will replace face to face contact but for many people it is a way they can join together with otter Christians. Look at my web site http://www.e-biblegroups.comand let me know your thoughts on this idea and any other ideas that would help develop this ministry.

In His Grip

Ray Handisides