St Nicholas’ Bible Study Group
Welcome to the St Nicholas’ Bible Study and Prayer Group page!
This is run jointly with Howard and Laura Leatherbarrow, the group has been meeting on a Tuesday evening since the early summer of 2009 in the Leatherbarrows home, and is presently the only bible study group operating at St Nicholas’ which is for the church family. We believe that bible study and prayer are the foundations upon which any successful Christian fellowship must be based, it is only by studying the word of God and discussing our thoughts with Him that His will may be fully revealed to us.
What we do
Our evenings begin at 7.30pm with a chat over tea or coffee, leading into the main bible study section this tends to be run by Laura who has run bible study groups in the past and has good knowledge surrounding bible study. We generally use published material, such as that produced by the Scripture Union or CWR, which runs as a course for a period of weeks, often related to a specific season in the Church calendar. We have looked at seasons in the church calendar such as Advent, Epiphany, Lent and Easter, and other subjects that stand alone as a set study such as the ‘fundamentals of prayer’ and Acts and the Holy spirit. As well as dealing with one-off studies, often based on the Sunday Gospel reading from Church, or a particular topic or book within the Bible such as Titus and Philemon.
It is a desire of the group to feed back into Church what we are doing, and we recently displayed a piece of work based on our studies, and put together by a members of our group, at the back of Church.
Our discussions of the scriptures can be wide-ranging, and are often very lively. People have work to bring each week which usually gives us the basis of the discussions, and we ensure that pre- material work is given out each week. We are pretty informal; no work is marked, as we felt this would not allow some of the open honest discussions that have taken place, even when the vicar is in attendance! Comments from all members are very welcome and we have a rule of what is said in the group stays in the Group, so that people can talk confidentially about how they may find the study is making them feel.
The second part of our evening is all about prayer this tends to be lead by Howard though both Laura and Howard will swap rolls when it is appropriate. We have changed the format of this part of the evening a couple of times, and fully acknowledge that we don’t have as much time for prayer as we would like. We do believe that a prayer section is vital, and so we usually dedicate 15-20 minutes at the end of the evening to conversation with God. We operate a prayer list, to which all members contribute their individual prayer requests. This list is used by one of the group to lead a communal prayer, after which individuals speak out with their additional petitions in a session of free prayer. The evening usually comes to a close about 9.30pm. To allow communication with the church family and to encourage prayer and bible devotion within the Church at large; we produce a bi-monthly newsletter which is left in church for the congregation to take and read. This is free of charge and includes devotions for each day as well as news about what has been taking place within the Group. This is gaining in popularity and is enjoyed by the church family including those who are house bound and receive it via our readers’ pastoral Ministry.
To try and include everyone in the Parish we have recently started up a Facebook page . This can be found at HERE. If you cannot attend but would like to leave a prayer request, please do so here.
Interested?
We are always looking for new members, whether they are regular churchgoers or not. At the present time, all enquiries should be addressed to Howard and Laura Leatherbarrow (contact details below). We realise that not everybody can attend on a Tuesday evening, and are happy to take enquiries from you even if you cannot – just give us some idea about when and where you would like to meet, and we will do our level best to arrange a group to suit you! We do hope and pray that the small group work of St Nicholas’ will flourish and enable us all to give greater glory to God.
Howard & Laura Leatherbarrow
0151 931 5413
theleatherbarrows1@talktalk.net