The School Of Biblical Evangelism

Getting Started With The School Of Biblical Evangelism Curriculum

I ran a small group using their materials back in 2019 and found the whole thing to be competent but somewhat rigid. The curriculum itself is free, which is rare. You go to their website and download whatever study you want. There is no subscription model, no premium tier, nothing to pay. The most common entry point is the "Understanding the Bible" course. It's a twelve-week survey of biblical theology that walks through the major themes from Genesis to Revelation. Each session has a reading plan, discussion questions, and a clear gospel presentation built into the framework. That structure is where it shines. If you have zero experience running a study group, you can pick it up and teach it without writing a single page of your own material.

The School Of Biblical Evangelism

The organization behind these materials has been around since the early 1970s. They started as a correspondence course operation, then moved into print, then digital. Their core mission is training people to share the gospel in a structured way, not necessarily training theologians or pastors. That distinction matters because it shapes how the whole curriculum feels. It is practical. It assumes you are talking to someone who knows very little about Christianity. Here is what most people miss when they start. The studies are written for one-on-one conversations first, even though they get adapted for groups. The questions are deliberately short and open-ended. They are not designed to test knowledge. They are designed to keep the conversation moving forward without the leader dominating. I learned this the hard way when my first group of six people sat in silence for twenty minutes after every question because everyone was waiting for me to supply the answer. We restructured the format halfway through the twelve weeks and switched to having participants read answers aloud from the handouts before discussing them. That fixed it completely. Another thing nobody warns you about is the gospel presentation itself. It is straightforward, maybe too straightforward for anyone who has spent years in a church that emphasizes sanctification alongside justification. The study presents salvation as a single decision moment. It works fine for initial evangelism. It falls apart if someone comes back weeks later asking about ongoing sin, doubt, or the practical side of discipleship. I had a participant ask me point-blank about Romans 7 and the struggle with sin, and I realized the curriculum had given me zero material to address that. I had to wing it using Ephesians 2 and Philippians 1, which is not ideal when you're supposed to be the one with answers.

The materials are available in several formats. The primary download is a PDF packet for each lesson. There is also an instructor guide that includes the suggested answers to discussion questions. The files are usually around two to three megabytes each. You do not need special software to open them. Any PDF reader works. The website organizes them by topic: basic Bible knowledge, evangelism training, doctrinal studies, and deeper theological courses. The doctrinal section includes courses on prayer, the Holy Spirit, and the authority of Scripture. One practical issue you will run into is that the language is dated. Not archaic, but the examples and cultural references assume an American context from the 1990s and early 2000s. Some of the illustrations feel stale after the first couple viewings. I got around this by substituting local examples during my own sessions. When a handout used an example about television advertising, I switched it to social media algorithms. The underlying principle stayed the same. Nobody in the group complained. The main downside is that there is virtually no support structure. There is no forum, no instructor training program, no email list where you can ask questions. You are on your own if something goes sideways. For someone who has led Bible studies before, this is fine. For a complete beginner, it can be frustrating. The FAQ page on their site exists but is extremely thin. I spent about forty-five minutes looking for clarification on how to handle someone in the group who was arguing against the biblical authority of Genesis, and I found exactly one sentence that addressed that scenario. It was not helpful.

If you need more interactive support, you might pair this curriculum with something like the DisciplePath resources or a local church-led training program. Those add the mentorship layer that this standalone curriculum does not provide. But if your goal is simply to have a solid, free, theologically sound starting point for evangelism conversations, this is probably the best option available. There is very little else at this price point that is this thorough. I would recommend starting with just the first three lessons before committing to the full twelve-week sequence. See whether the pacing works for your group dynamic. Some people find the study moves too slowly because each session covers a lot of ground with limited discussion time. Others find it moves too fast because they want to linger on particular topics. That variance is normal. Adjust the schedule as needed. The handouts are modular enough that you can skip sections without losing the overall flow. The download page is straightforward. No account creation required. No email capture wall. You click the link, the PDF opens, you print it or read it on a screen. That lack of friction is actually unusual in this space and worth noting because most competing resources try to collect your information before letting you access anything.