Here’s a terrific Bible study guide for women who want to grow better at talking about their faith: Why Do You Believe That? A Faith Conversation.

“Why Do You Believe That? A Faith Conversation” by Mary Jo Sharp

Author Mary Jo Sharp packs six weeks of personal Bible study into 160 pages. She’s sprinkled Confidence Builders throughout that address handling tricky conversations. A helpful leader guide at the book’s back suggests discussion questions and even supplies weekly social media samples. Interspersed within the seven video lectures are eye-opening clips of Mary Jo talking to atheists and former atheists about their conversations with Christians.

When I announced I was leading a women’s apologetics Bible study using this book this summer, so many women signed up I offered two sessions. Women truly felt a need to be better able to give reasons for their faith to their friends, co-workers, and teens. By the end of the study, we felt not only better equipped to answer questions, but that we’d developed better relationship and conversation skills.

• Review
• Conclusion
• Chapter Summaries

Review

Why Do You Believe That?  Study Guide

The personal study guide examines how Jesus handled faith conversations. It addresses conversation conundrums that women regularly face: “All religions teach basically the same thing”; “Religious people believe in spite of evidence”; “Why do you Christians always push your morality on others?” There’s a summary of what different religions teach about Jesus that was a unanimous favorite.

Each weekly personal study section is broken into five daily lessons that average about 35 minutes, except for week two (55) and week three (45). The homework length and topic make the study best for those with prior Bible study experience.

Daily lesson titles and key questions begin each lesson and provide good focus. The material is laid out attractively with teal and gray highlights that are easy to read. Often Mary Jo asks how you would respond to a situation before giving her suggestions. Good trick! We eagerly read on as we imagined ourselves being in that situation.

Chapters begin with a Group page listing questions from the previous week’s homework in case you prefer that over leafing through the pages; these lacked page numbers for looking up one’s responses, however.

Several chapters have sample statements to practice responding to out loud. Practicing in the group was enlightening—you could tell if you sounded sarcastic or timid, and watching someone with a particularly gentle manner gave everyone something to imitate.

In our group discussions, I encouraged the women to first share examples of when they’d actually encountered the situations we were discussing. Hearing real-life stories added lots of excitement and drove home the practicality of what we were studying.

There are a few minor issues, all easy to work around. The questions are not numbered, making it a little more difficult for people to find questions during the discussion, especially those using a digital format. The table of contents lists “Week One,” “Week Two,” etc., but doesn’t give chapter titles, making it impossible to know what the book covers from Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature (not to worry: I list the chapter titles and content at the end of this blog).

Week Two’s daily homework averaged nearly an hour per day, and if I offer the study again, I’ll cover the chapter in two weeks. This is an excellent chapter, but day three’s homework was a bit tricky. The Confidence Builder on the minimal facts defense of the resurrection (p. 39) was apparently edited down to where it doesn’t accurately represent the argument. This made it difficult for women to answer the question about it. This was easy to get around, though. I gave the group members a Minimal Facts handout that not only quoted the minimal facts, but had a hyperlink to an example of how apologist Clay Jones uses them in faith conversations: http://www.clayjones.net/2010/09/my-200-word-resurrection-witness/.

Videos

Everyone loved the seven session videos. They’re clear, well taught, and visually exciting. Rather than the typical lecture-only videos, Mary Jo’s lectures are nicely interspersed with vignettes of her talking to atheists and former atheists, and of her answering her editor’s questions. Scripture references and answers for the video guides stay on the screen long enough to write down. Graphics are top-notch. Most session videos are twenty to thirty minutes, except for the last which is nine minutes. The videos are designed to be shown at the end of a session since they introduce the following week’s homework. They’re available on DVD in the separately sold Leader Kit or by download.

Leader Guide

The leader guide at the back of member books is exceptional. It has promotion ideas; suggestions for weekly Facebook, Twitter, and email announcements; proposed discussion questions with page numbers (these differ somewhat from the discussion guides); and optional session exercises.

Conclusion

Why Do You Believe That? is an excellent Bible study for women with previous Bible study experience. I will probably offer it again, splitting Session Two into two parts and teaching on the minimal facts approach to explaining the evidence for the resurrection. In all, the lessons engendered lots of excitement because they talked about issues Christian women regularly face.

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Chapter Summaries for “Why Do You Believe That?” Member Book

Week One: Introducing Apologetics

What is apologetics, why do we need it, and how can we use it in a godly, loving manner?

Week Two: Knowing Your Beliefs

A very basic introduction to apologetic topics: Jesus is the only way; Jesus is different in different religions; Jesus’ resurrection is foundational to Christianity; Jesus uses good reasoning; Jesus’ story has been reliably transmitted.

Week Three: Listening to Others

How to develop good listening skills and an introduction to fallacies. (Click here for my Session 3 Practice Responses handout, which you are free to use and distribute.)

Week Four: Questioning Others

Asking questions as an essential communication skill (my favorite chapter!).

Week Five: Responding to Others

Tips on how to respond to errors, recognize conversation stoppers, deal with the sawed-off shotgun approach, and reply when time is short.

Week Six: Roadblocks

Dealing with our own roadblocks; others’ intellectual and emotional roadblocks; feeling inexperienced.

Week Seven:  Wrap-up & Challenge

Video guide for the last session, which is a challenge to get out and talk about faith.

Women looking for a small group Bible study should definitely consider Why Do You Believe That? It’ll build skills and confidence in having faith conversations in ways new to most women.

Sharp, Mary Jo. 2012. Why Do You Believe That? A Faith Conversation. Nashville: Lifeway. Available from LifeWay and Amazon.

Related:

• For more on the minimal facts defense of Jesus’ resurrection: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary R. Habermas & Michael Licona
• Blog post “Why Do You Believe That?” Bible Study
• Great Intro to Apologetics and Philosophy (review of “Shot of Faith to the Head”
• Giving Reasons for Faith: Four Basic Resources

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