HOW CAN READING THE BIBLE IN COMMUNITY REALLY CHANGE MY LIFE?

Has reading the whole Bible just felt too daunting for you?

Many people have felt this way, but you are not alone! Here are three reasons why I loved studying the Bible from cover to cover with friends through the BCC at YWAM Newcastle.

You Gain a Deeper Understanding of the Big Picture.

When I first started the Bible Core Course (BCC) I thought I had a decent grasp on the Bible because I had grown up going to church. I quickly realized there was and still is so much more for me to learn about the Bible. During the course we studied an overview of the Bible. This was so helpful because I wasn’t as familiar with the Old Testament than with the New. We reviewed the timeline and history of the Bible from creation, to the exodus, exile, divide of the kingdom, 400 years of silence and then finally into the New Testament. This was all new to me!

Gaining understanding of the Biblical context by studying historical events, learning about who wrote the Bible and who they wrote it for made me feel more connected to the Bible.

In addition to understanding the overall story of the Bible, I loved getting to read each book of the Bible out loud in one sitting.

It was such a new and rich way to experience the Bible. After reading each book, we color coded the books we studied in depth which helped me understand the books even more.

I was able to get really familiar and feel at home in the Scriptures.

It is a Set Apart Time.

Our lives can get so busy with so many things and it can be really hard to take intentional time to study the Bible, much less know how to study it.

The BCC is the perfect opportunity to have an intentional season to dive into the Bible. You also have amazing lectures and staff that teach you methods of how to study the Bible effectively, as well as amazing friends/classmates. We spend years of our lives putting our time towards a degree for a career, why not invest a few months to study God’s Word?

You won’t regret it. Some of the best months of my life were on BCC!

You Get To Pursue God in Community.

I’ve found that there is nothing sweeter than pursuing God in community. Getting to be with like-minded people who are studying, living, and eating with you is life-changing. There were 12 students in my BCC and we all became friends quickly.

It was a blast doing life with them!

Going to cafes to read or study together and late night beach swims were a few highlights. It was such a joy to share what God had been teaching me and to learn from one another.

Being in the same classes and having the same homework made things very relatable, and we were able to to work together and cheer one another on!

Definitely worth it.

– Amy Schmalz, Student on BCC 2018

The post Why Do The Bible Core Course (BCC)? appeared first on YWAM Newcastle.

1. You Will Get To Know God More

Past Discipleship Training School students have said that the number one thing they loved about the school was the way it eliminated the usual distractions of life, making it so much easier to grow your relationship with God. While on a YWAM DTS, you will build and learn so much more about yourself and your identity in Christ. You will be encouraged in your strengths and challenged in your weaknesses. Gods’ character is a big, wide ocean – just waiting for you to dive in. While at DTS you will only begin to dip your toe in the water – but will grow a hunger and yearning to wade a little further every day. Knowing God comes with being totally wholehearted whilst learning about him – and if you choose that, you will know Him on a deeper level by the end of your DTS.

2. You Will Make Him Known

When you know God – the hunger for making him known to other people will not be containable. Outreach will challenge how you think about cultures, and will leave you hungry for more. Outreach though isn’t just a 2 month trip, it’s all the time. All throughout your DTS you will be on outreach – making him known to people that don’t know him. Outreach will make you push past your comfort bubble and grow in God and boldness by telling people about him.

3. You Will See the World!

Do you want to go out, explore, and discover this wide amazing world around you? YWAM has over 1000 bases in 180 countries – the opportunities for adventure while on DTS are endless! A part of DTS is also a 2-3 month outreach which can be anywhere in the world. What an opportunity to not only travel, but learn to see the world in a new light – through Jesus’ eyes. Newcastle, Australia, is just one of the many awesome places that you can go – but along with sunny days there are awesome beaches and wicked surf!?

4. Be Part Of A Thriving Youth Ministry

Youth Street is an innovative and fun ministry that is aimed at impacting the youth of today’s culture by relating to them in areas they understand. It’s about affirming them in their gifts and showing them the love of Jesus through practical servanthood. Staff and students facilitate different teams for the kids that go out to skate at skate parks, go surfing, swimming, fishing, concerts, sports – you name it and Youth Street has probably done it. It will give you a great opportunity to grow in areas of leadership and responsibility.

5. Interactive teaching

One awesome thing about a YWAM DTS (it’s awesome all around though – if you don’t already know) is that the teaching is a lot more interactive than just sitting around listening to someone go on for hours. It’s interactive, innovative, and there’s a lot of time made for feedback and reflection. DTS is pretty relaxed – there are no long essays due or intense reports, but prepare to be challenged in the way you view learning!?

6. Grow In Servanthood

DTS is not just about learning about God but also about putting what you learn into action. You will be serving the base in a really practical way on while on DTS, and also be given opportunities to serve using your God-given gifts and talents. Youth Street, work duties and especially outreach will grow your desire to serve in a practical way.

7. Make Lifelong Friends

While on DTS there is lots of time for awesome hangouts with your fellow students and staff. Living together in community tends to bring people into close friendships, and not only will you build friendships with the people on your school; you’ll also meet and have great times with the other staff on the base. Because of the intense amount of learning and growing that happens on DTS – you and your classmates will grow together in friendship with each other and God. It’s pretty awesome!

By Susanna Dobbin
YWAM Discipleship Training School Alumni

The post 7 Reasons Why You Should Do A YWAM DTS appeared first on YWAM Newcastle.

You may be sitting there with an application partially filled out. Maybe you just found out about DTS and are playing with the idea of it. Let me first start out by saying that doing a DTS is rarely a bad choice! If you’re wanting to get real with God, experience an amazing community, and find out what God has designed you for, then ‘just do it’.

So whatever point you are at right now I want to encourage you not to wait. Don’t sit there waiting around all year for a miraculous sign or 100% confirmation. Yes, it is absolutely a good idea to pray into it. But please don’t put it off because you haven’t heard God’s voice clearly saying “GO DO A DTS”. I think we can often over spiritualize things like this and wait for the “writing on the wall”. And without that ‘writing’ we are afraid to take that step out into the unknown. Remember that it’s a faith step. If we had 100% confirmation we were meant to do something, there wouldn’t be much faith needed in that.

When I first heard about YWAM it was from one of my good friends who had just come back from her DTS. I saw the change in her and at that time in my life was desperate for a change as well. I honestly just saw DTS as an “experience” that looked fun and exciting. After hearing her stories I was sold and I went online and applied. I didn’t pray. I didn’t include God in this process really at all! To be honest my relationship with God wasn’t in the kind of place where I could include Him.

All I did was make a decision and commit to 6 MONTHS of something that I knew would be good for me!

(I just didn’t realize HOW good!), and through that, I was immersed in the most amazing community I’ve ever been a part of. I totally fell in love with Jesus and also decided to commit the rest of my life to missions. God used that decision that I made on my own and blew me away. It wasn’t until most of the way through my DTS that God told me this was the right decision, this was the adventure he wanted to take me on.

God has placed in EACH of us a desire for adventure and the courage to make decisions that lead to him. So, go and make decisions that seem adventurous and a bit scary. Just do it, don’t wait. For my own process, I was in a place where if I had waited around to hear from God I probably would have spent a lot more time waiting around and may have never come.

Instead, I stepped onto a plane and into one of the best decisions I have ever made.

By Jessica Norris
YWAM Newcastle Alum

The post Are You Unsure About Taking the Leap to Do a YWAM DTS? appeared first on YWAM Newcastle.

This will be our second time running the BCC here at YWAM Newcastle, Australia and we are beyond stoked for this next school. We saw God do amazing things through the course last year, and we’re so excited to see what God will do in people’s hearts and lives this upcoming school! We believe that when people get to know God through His Word, great things happen.

The reality is, when you gain a foundation in the Truth, you will naturally start to live your life from a foundation of truth. 

During my DTS God showed me I was like dirt or soil. At first, I had no idea what He meant by this and honestly wasn’t sure if I was hearing God’s voice correctly. I was later reminded of the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-8, where Jesus compares those who hear the truth to different types of soil and suddenly it clicked. God was telling me I was the good soil! God continued to speak into this and it became the theme of my season during BCC.

God used the Bible Core Course to do some “weeding”, “tilling”, and “ploughing” to make the soil good and ready for new things to be planted in me. I’ll be honest, it was an intensely hard but beautiful time.

As I learned the truth of God’s character for myself, I was challenged to align my beliefs and life around who God really is, and not who I had thought He was. 

And let me tell you, God’s character and love are incredibly better than I ever imagined it to be!

Getting to know God’s character for myself changed my life and faith! My relationship with God went from being based on what I had heard from others about God, to being based on who I saw Him to be personally after spending a season intensely studying the Bible.

I truly believe the Bible Core Course is an amazing springboard into a life spent loving God, and others well.

I’ll leave you with some questions to ask yourself…

Do you have a desire to grow in intimacy in your relationship with God?

Do you long to truly get to know God’s character through His Word?

Do you want to be given the tools you need for interpreting the Bible correctly on your own?

Do you dream of having the accountability you need to read through the entire Bible?

Do you seek to get practical training in preaching, teaching and leading small group Bible studies?

If that sounds like you, then it’s time to apply for the Bible Core Course!

by Holley Clark
YWAM Bible Core Course Staff

The post On The Fence About Doing A YWAM Bible Core Course? appeared first on YWAM Newcastle.