I know how you like good preaching. Friday night I attended a Bible Study that went from 6 pm past 1:30 am. The preacher preached and prayed for over four hours twenty minutes.
Picked up Ceil and made it to our Sunday School teacher's house for Secret Church shortly after six Friday evening. We started with communion, then we ate a covered dish supper before Secret Church began at 7 pm.
Secret Church was the brainchild of David Platt, now the young chairman of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. One time many years ago he arrived on location on a mission trip, where new believers had gathered in a secret location on a Friday evening. With few resources, they asked Platt to give them an overview of the Bible. Thinking he would talk for an hour, he started in Genesis and talked about the Old Testament. The people urged him to keep going, and they listened past midnight. "Can you come back tomorrow?" they asked. Platt thought it might be a short morning session. They asked him to return at 6 am, and again they went far into the night. Afterward he realized there wasn't a comparable experience here in the US.
While we don't have to meet in secret (yet), while pastoring a church in Birmingham Platt began leading holding a similar Bible Study once a year, also taking time to remember and pray for persecuted Christians around the world. Each year the subject is different. Last year the subject was cults and counterfeit gospels. Next year will be God, Government, and the Gospel. This year, the 19th Secret Church, was about prayer, fasting, and the pursuit of God. We all received 250 page workbooks to follow along.
After an opening prayer and welcome at 7 pm Platt began, alternating between preaching and praying, starting in Genesis and touching on scriptures in most of the books of the Bible: 77 topics in the Old Testament and 48 from the New Testament, a total of 125 texts and takeaways. All the verses and numerous quotes and stories were printed in the workbook. Many he would read. He kept to his outline. You had to pay close attention as there were blanks to fill in.
Platt preached rapid fire style. He covered Genesis to Deuteronomy – 16 passages – in little over an hour. His intent was to cover a lot of ground, not deep dive. This approach is okay when trying to give the listener a broad overview. A devote follower could then take the notes and dig deeper.
At 8:15 we watched a video on the persecuted Christians in Somalia, then took a short Break. By 8:55 Platt was back at it, starting in Joshua and working through Song of Solomon by 10:02 pm – 47 more points. There were about 30 of us, and during the second break we spilt into small groups to pray specifically for Somolian: their leadership, well-being, etc.
At 10:52 pm Platt preached on the Old Testament prophets, started with Isaiah. At 11:11 pm we hit the New Testament Gospels. During this third session we covered 31 more passages, hitting all four gospels before backtracking to Matthew 26.
At 11:55 pm Platt took a short break, then fired up again in Acts at 12:15 am for the home stretch – 31 more passages through the rest of the New Testament. He finished up Revelation with a recap, ending at 1:16 am. The moderator lead a closing prayer, signing off the broadcast at 1:25 am. We had ourselves a closing prayer, and started cleaning up at 1:31 am. Didn't get home until right at 2 am.
Christians in all 50 states took part in the study, along with others in over 70 countries. At least 53,000 people in all. As you can see, there have been several good topics over the years. I want to type up some notes but with 125 bullet points, it will be long.
2001 Old Testament Survey
2002 New Testament Survey
2003 How to Study the Bible
2004 Who is God?
2005 Exploring the Holy Spirit
2006 The Cross of Christ
2007 Angels, Demons, & Spiritual Warfare
2008 The Gospel, Possessions, & Prosperity
2009 The Body of Christ
2010 Crucifixion, Salvation, & the Glory of God
2011 Family, Marriage, Sex, & the Gospel
2012 The Cross & Suffering
2013 Heaven, Hell, & the End of the World
2014 The Cross & Everyday Life
2015 Christ, Culture, & a Call to Action
2016 A Global Gospel in a World of Religions
2017 Scripture & Authority in a World of Religions
2018 Cults & Counterfeit Gospels
2019 Prayer, Fasting, & the Pursuit of God
2020 God, Government, & the Gospel
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