Are you looking for a new study? Are you ready to dive deeper with Christ? Or perhaps you’re looking for something to help you see God’s Word from a fresh perspective.
Here at Lifeway, we have an amazing customer service team that loves the Lord and cares for our customers well. You may have spent some time on the phone with them, perhaps even looking for Bible study recommendations. We thought it’d be fun to round up some of their recommendations and share a few of their personal stories from walking through the studies themselves!
Below are four studies our friends on the customer service team loved, and we think you will too!
20/20 by Christine Caine | 7 Sessions
In this 7-session study, you’ll develop a new understanding of how God sees you and has chosen you to help make Jesus’ name known on this planet. Through biblical teaching and lessons from her own life, Christine Caine will challenge you to share the story of how God’s love has transformed your life right where you are.
I enjoyed this study because it reminded me of how God sees me and what He’s done in my life, and it motivated me to keep moving forward with the callings and purposes He has for my life. Christine Caine is my favorite author and speaker, her passion for Jesus is evident in everything she does, and it is contagious! This study rejuvenated, encouraged, and remotivated me! I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to be encouraged in their life with Jesus.
I really loved the video sessions. Along with Christine Caine’s passionate and truthful teaching, the scenery was very beautiful, relaxing, peaceful, and invigorating to watch. The videos really made what I was learning a visual experience that encouraged me! – Christa Smith, Lifeway Customer Service Representative
Defined by Alex and Stephen Kendrick | 8 Sessions
Inspired by the Kendrick brothers’ new movie OVERCOMER, and written by the #1 New York Times best-selling author team behind The Love Dare and The Battle Plan for Prayer, comes an exciting new resource about discovering your God-given identity and embracing the wonder of who you were created to be.
Based upon powerful insights from the Book of Ephesians and seasoned with personal stories and practical wisdom, Defined challenges you to let the One who knows you best be the One who guides your heart the most. It’s time for all of us to live in the amazing light of His acceptance, abundance, and strength.
I loved Defined! I have grown up in the church and have read over the Bible many times. Defined had me thinking about different verses in a whole new way. The main example is the creation story. It had me thinking about Genesis 1 in ways that I have never thought of before.” – Holly Greene, Lifeway Customer Service Representative
God of Covenant by Jen Wilkin | 10 Sessions
Beginning with Genesis 12, walk alongside the fathers of our faith—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—to discern Jesus in the stories of His people.
Over 10 sessions, discover how God orchestrates everything for His glory and the good of His people, and see how the God of creation and covenant is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I loved the richness of Genesis that Jen brings alive. She teaches you to read the Bible to know about God, not make it about you. She gives you a greater perspective throughout the ages and provides a rich history with a Hebrew perspective. My small group studied this last spring, and it has resonated in me for the last year. It’s a MUST read!” – Cassie Dunning, Lifeway Customer Service Representative
No Other Gods by Kelly Minter | 8 Sessions
Often, idols are obvious—money, power, fame. But subtler idols can sometimes take the form of sweet loved ones, Instagramable interiors, and busy seasons of ministry.
But if your heart is prioritizing any of those pursuits before God, they are taking up space meant for Him alone.
In this 8-session study, learn to identify the functional gods you are serving daily and the lies they tell. Only when you learn to dethrone modern-day idols can you pursue a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Jesus.
One of the most impactful Lifeway Bible studies in my life was No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. I was in a college BCM lifegroup when we did the study. Along the way, the Lord pointed out the biggest flaw within myself about idolatry. As I got deeper into the study, the Lord was revealing one particular thing that I had needed to cut out of my life for awhile. This study encouraged me to reevaluate my heart and the lies I’d believed in for so long. Because of this study, I have seen other things that have taken the throne of my heart, been happier, and lived abundantly in God’s steadfast love.” – Sarah Davis, Lifeway Customer Service Representative
Bonus! If you don’t have time for a full study, check out this book recommended by our friends in customer service:
Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry
In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could?
At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.
I don’t just think this book is a great resource, I think it is a necessary resource. In the past, most—if not all—resources pertaining to God and homosexuality were written by people who have never struggled with same-sex attraction. Perry is the refreshing change to that trend and talks about what it’s like to experience God’s transformative goodness as someone who not only struggled with same-sex attraction, but was living in the middle of it. I believe this book is necessary for everyone to read to gain a better understanding of what it is really like and how we should approach loving our struggling brothers and sisters.
Our God is a good God that is full of grace and forgiveness. He will always forgive those who come to Him, and He will reveal Himself in His timing to those that need Him. This is the resounding theme of the entire book. No matter your sin, no matter how lost you are, God is good and faithful to forgive. That is the point of this book, she just happens to be talking about it from the point of view of someone who struggled with same-sex attraction. That should never be a deterrent from a book or from believing someone’s salvation story. Sin is sin, but God is faithful to forgive, and that should be all that matters.” – Lauren Whitlock, Lifeway Customer Service Representative
What studies have impacted your life? What studies are you currently recommending to your friends?