There’s nothing wrong with studying the bible on your own. There’s everything wrong with only studying the bible on your own. Part of identifying good and bad theology is that good theology has to be consistent with other Christians.
In specific, other ordinary Christians. A whole lot of Christians try to do an end-run around comparing their beliefs with other Christians by intentionally picking Christians that they’ll always agree with. They stack the deck in favor of their own thinking… which may, of course, be wrong. But you won’t know you’re wrong when you surround yourself with yes-men. I’m not saying we should surround ourselves with critics. I’m saying we should surround ourselves with ordinary people, who have ordinary B.S. detectors that know it when they see it. The best source of ordinary Christians is your church, and the best way to study the bible is alongside your church’s bible study.
By “bible study” I mean BIBLE study. A bible study reads bible. It does not mean studying some other book, like Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life or Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God. Those books are good and useful, but a group that studies them is not a bible study. It’s a book club. It doesn’t matter how much those guys quote the bible. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading a book about the bible, or a devotional that’s based on passages from the bible, or even some brilliant scholar’s commentary on the bible. There’s nothing wrong with quoting from these books, or using them as supplements to the study. But a bible study reads bible. If the primary book in your group isn’t one of the books of the bible, it’s not a bible study. Period.
There are two different types of bible studies: The classroom-style lecture, and the discussion group. Both have their pros and cons. If you know nothing about the book, and want to learn, the lecture is for you… provided the teacher actually knows anything about the book. Some of them just preach mini-sermons instead of giving you information about the book. If you do know something about the book—or are spending your time away from the group looking this stuff up and discovering a whole lot—you’ll want to share your discoveries; you’ll want the discussion group.
Usually you can figure out which one you’re in by how the seats are arranged. When everyone’s facing the leader, it’s meant to be a lecture. When everyone’s facing one another, it’s meant to be a discussion. Of course, if the leader does most of the talking, it doesn’t matter how the seats are arranged: It’s a lecture. And if you were expecting a discussion group, yet the leader monopolizes the discussion, it’ll frustrate your skin raw. Pick the sort of group you want to be in… and don’t you monopolize the discussion. If anything you have to say will take longer than three minutes, it’s too long. Summarize or break it into segments.
True, there might be conflict and difficulty and tempers and disagreements. Some people believe very specific things about the bible, believe them very strongly, and seriously think you’ll go to hell for believing different. Others will (like I warned you against) want to monopolize the discussion. Human behavior is messy, and there will be messes. But the positive in a bible study can far outweigh the negative.
If your church doesn’t have a bible study, start one.
You’re probably thinking, “Me lead a bible study? What do I know?” You don’t need a college degree to lead a bible study. You just need a bible.
Pick a book of the bible. Don’t take a vote. You’ll just annoy all the people who lose the vote.
Talk with your church leadership. Most of the time they’ll be very supportive. Sometimes they won’t be—sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for not-so-good reasons. I won’t get into those right now; I’ll just say that pastors generally want to make sure you’re some proud heretic* who wants to lead everyone off-track. If you’re not, then no problem. They can even point you to useful resources.
Pick a weekly meeting time that works for as many people as possible. If they can’t make it, or can’t arrange child care, see if it’s possible to get ’em to phone in and put it on speakerphone, or Skype in and put ’em on a computer screen. This is the 21st century, folks; let’s take advantage of whatever technology can help us meet.
Pick a meeting place—at your house, at the church, at a park, at the public library, or even at a restaurant or coffeehouse—someplace where people on a budget can afford the food. Oh, and do get permission from the restaurants or coffeehouses before you decide to regularly meet there. Most will be just fine with it, but not if your meeting gets in the way of their rush hours. (And do tip generously.)
Pick the people in your bible study. Don’t just stand up during church and announce, “Hey, we’re having a bible study! Everyone is invited.” Unless you have a very large church, or unless you have food at your event (and even then), very few people will just show up without a personal invitation. So deliberately invite specific people. Ask your friends to come. Ask anyone whom you think will usefully contribute their thoughts to the group. Ask the smartest people. Ask the most devout people. Ask anyone who you think could really use a bible study; you aren’t the only one, you know. Feel free to ask friends who go to different churches than yours; this is a bible study, not a membership class.
If you really don’t feel up to leading the group, you don’t have to, you know. You can just be the host, and have someone else lead the discussion. Pick someone whom you know will be up to the task, and turn ’em loose. (If that person winds up creating a group that you don’t really care for… well, now you know who not to pick.) In any event, you never know: Possibly God wants that person to lead a bible study, and you’re just confirming it.
Then meet, study, learn, and grow.