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Y Team Guidelines for Bible Study Gatherings and Discussions

Learning about the Jesus of history, the one we call Yeshua, transforms our understanding of the one over two billion people today call Jesus Christ. I have been researching and studying the Jesus of history and his words from English translations, Greek manuscripts and reconstructed Hebrew texts for over 30 years now with scholars, professors, rabbis, ministers and a lot of sincere students of the Bible.

Over the years I created guidelines and models for the people that I study with to follow and use when we gather to study the words of the Bible. They make our Bible Study gatherings very different from other Bible study groups. Below are three guidelines that have proven to work very well for almost thirty years now.

Guideline #1
Participation Agreement for Members of Group

(1) My Belief System will acknowledge all of the facts.

(2) I will be open to having my Belief System examined and questioned.

(3) I will change my Belief System when errors or new facts are discovered.

Guideline #2
Linguistic Model for Bible Study

(1) A word is a group of symbols with attached bundles of associations (memes stored in constellations of memories in the brain). Symbols are letters, punctuation marks and other symbols of the language. Memes are pieces of information that exist only in human brains.

(2) The memes are products of the Source’s culture, historical time period, geographical location(s) and personal experiences. The Source is the one writing or speaking the words.

(3) Our first goal is to discover what the words meant to the Source.

(4) Next we compare the Source’s meanings to those of participants.

(5) If the Source’s meanings and the meanings participants have a different, we follow the journey of the words from the Source to the participants to discover when the meanings changed, who changed them and why.

Guideline #3
Rewarding Bible Studies are Interactive Team Experiences

(1) Guideline #1 requires two or more participants.

(2) The number of participants must be small enough to allow everyone to interact in discussions.

(3) Having participants with different beliefs increases the potential rewards of the experience.

(4) Knowing how to participate in face-to-face experiences is becoming a lost art in today’s social media world and increasing your skills in this activity will produce many rewards in your interactions with others in all phases of life.

If you are new to the Y Team, I hope that you will be able to find a local Y Team group to study and interact with. If there is not a group in your area, find a “study buddy” and we will provide information that you can use in your studies. Studying the Bible alone is like swimming alone. It’s always safer to have a buddy around.

We plan to live stream and post Bible studies online that you and your buddy or team can use to help you develop your Y Team skills. Members of Y Team also receive direct emails with much more information about team studies, activities, new research results and upcoming events. We always welcome your Bible study comments and questions.

How do you become a member of the Y Team? Simply send an email to jim@theyteam.org and let us know that you have chosen us to become part of your team. A real person will reply to your email and send you information. Keep in mind that you are dealing with real people not computer algorithms, so emails aren’t instantaneously answered by autoresponders the moment to you hit “send” – but they will be answered by a real person soon.


Consider the Y Team Option if the words of Jesus are important to you. Chose the Y Team Option and let us know you have chosen us as part of your team by send an email to jim@theyteam.org – and let us gather to learn.

Visit the Y Team Page at our website -- http://www.biblicalheritage.org/the-y-team.html

Shalom!

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