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Discovery Bible Study

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By: Chef Tofu

For most Japanese people, being invited to any event or group that relates to spirituality or “religion” can be nerve-wracking. Particularly, the word “religion” (“shukyo” in Japanese) carries a lot of fear with it

 in most Japanese people’s minds because of cults or other fearful terms associated with the word. However, we as believers know that Jesus himself often opposed religious leaders and rebuked them for missing the point. Instead, Jesus welcomed His followers into a life of love, grace, mercy, and sacrifice. Jesus releases us from the law and invites us into a life of obedience that is motivated by love. This is why I believe the most effective way to introduce Japanese people to Jesus is through friendship; opening our lives to them and putting Jesus on display in our every-day lives. As we do this, false images of “religion” come falling down as they experience the life and love of Christ dwelling inside of us. 

Rather than inviting them to an American-style church, I’ve found that Japanese people have experienced God in a tangible way through simply inviting them to read the Bible together, out of an overflow of friendship. Inviting them to the church you attend isn’t a bad thing. However, it is most likely the case that what the pastor says will be too difficult to understand for them, and their chances of relating with God in a personal way in that space are low. When working with any unreached people group with little to no knowledge of the Bible or of God, it is our responsibility as believers to make Jesus tangible to them, just like Jesus came to earth to make God tangible to us. This is why I love using Discovery Bible Study with my Japanese friends. 

Discovery Bible Study (DBS) is a Bible study method that de-centralizes leadership, sets the stage for multiplication, allows the Holy Spirit to speak through the Bible, and prioritizes obedience in love, rather than simply gathering knowledge. Most importantly, Japanese friends who have never picked up a Bible in their lives, can read a passage, understand it, experience the living and active God, be empowered to apply the passage to their lives, and share it with their friends. 

The DBS method:

  1. Pick a simple passage. A good starting place is the Samaritan Woman, the woman caught in adultery, or other stories that show how Jesus interacted with people. 
  2. Read the passage out loud as a group in both English and Japanese. Reading various versions of the same passage in English really helps with comprehension, which is so important because if they do not comprehend what they are reading, they won’t be impacted by the passage.
  3. Everyone in the group takes a turn summarizing what they just read in their own words, as if they were going to tell the story to a young child. 
  4. Ask the same 4 questions each time: 
    1. What does this tell us about God?
    1. What does this tell us about people?
    1. How can we obey this/ how does this change my life?
    1. Who do you want to share this story with?

It’s very simple! And we uphold the simplicity of the method to get out of the way and allow The Holy Spirit to move through the living Word of God. Rather than making ourselves the leaders and teaching our Japanese friends everything we know about God, we set the stage for them to discover God on their own, which is a beautiful thing to witness. We also uphold the simplicity of the method so that anyone can lead the DBS; believers or non-believers, which empowers multiplication of DBS groups. One of our main goals when we start a DBS is to raise up a Japanese friend to lead the group (ideally in Japanese) so that they can experience God in their heart language and be empowered to start more DBS groups wherever they go.

To uphold simplicity and keep the vision of multiplication, there are a couple guidelines we follow in DBS as believers:

  1. Only focus on the passage you are reading that day. You may be tempted to mention other passages in the Bible that relate to what you are reading, and in other groups with all believers, this is a great thing. However, when believers bring in other Scriptures in a DBS discussion, this makes you the one with all the knowledge and hinders discovery for our Japanese friends because they do not yet know these passages. To them, the conversation will start to get too difficult and it could seem unattainable to them to know God, as they could believe the lie that you have to know all parts of the Bible to follow Jesus or to lead the DBS conversation. We want to keep everything reproducible, to raise up leaders and foster multiplication. 
  2. Don’t directly answer questions. This is also in an effort to keep everything reproducible and discovery-style. Instead, as much as you can, direct the questions back to the passage you are reading. If the answer is in the passage, point out the verse and see if they can answer their own question by reading the verse. Another option is to direct the question back to the group to see if they can answer it on their own, because we want to see the group multiply, and keeping yourself as the one with all the answers keeps the group dependent on you. If the question cannot be answered, you can write it down and read a passage next time together as a group that answers the question. This keeps them going to Scripture for answers, rather than to a person. This also protects the group from heresy, as they learn from the very beginning to look to The Bible for all of their answers. 

I have been using Discovery Bible Study with my Japanese friends now for around 8 years. I believe in it’s power and effectiveness more and more as I watch my friends encounter God in a personal way over and over again. I believe DBS captures the heart of God, who draws near to us and makes Himself known to us in a way we can understand Him. I’ve also seen friends come to know and love Jesus, get baptized, and start their own DBS groups with their friends using the DBS method. As we step back and watch God move through His Word, we give room for God to multiply these groups through the power of The Holy Spirit as we partner with Him to empower our Japanese friends to take ownership of the groups and experience God for themselves.