Biblicaltraining.org is a free website and app that helps Christians grow in their knowledge. The site is growing all the time, and there are currently 118 classes of audio or video lectures covering a full range of topics: practical Christian living, the Bible, systematic theology, church history, counselling, preaching, evangelism, even New Testament Greek.
Most classes have ten or a dozen 30-minute lectures, although it varies considerably. Some classes are suitable for new Christians with no biblical knowledge. Others can be used for training deacons, elders or preachers. We’ve found the content to be very reliable. All the lecturers are evangelical and include luminaries such as Greg Beale, Bryan Chapell, Howard Marshall, Doug Moo and John Piper.
We use the website primarily for one-to-one discipling of new Christians, using a group of eight ‘foundational’ classes. The first class, Life is a Journey, covers the basics of the Christian life, with topics like ‘listening to God’, ‘who is Jesus’, ‘walking together’ and ‘when you stumble’. Four classes then give an overview of the whole Bible: 52 Major Stories of the Bible is perfect for those who missed out on Sunday School when they were younger; Bible Survey shows how the Bible fits together, and there are also book-by-book surveys of both the Old and the New Testaments. Those are followed by three shorter classes: How to Read Your Bible, A Guide to Christian Beliefs, and finally Basics of Spiritual Growth which is based on the Lord’s Prayer. If you listened to one half-hour lecture each week, those eight classes would take about two and a half years to complete, though you can go at any pace. They’d give any student a rock-solid biblical foundation to build on.
We find the audio or visual format works better than a book for many people, especially those not used to reading, or are younger and familiar with podcasts and online video. We encourage the student to write notes while they listen (or answer the questions if there’s a workbook), and then we meet (usually one-to-one) to discuss what they’ve learned. We’ve found the discussion is a vital component – it not only provides accountability, but it means we can answer questions, apply the learning and explore the topic further. Sometimes the discussions are the highlight of my week!
I’d recommend the site to any Christian who wants to dig deeper and to any church that wants to implement a discipleship programme.
