A tool for the global church.
A biblical research assistant to help you prepare your sermons.
Bible Research Assistant exists to serve pastors, teachers, church planters, and ministry leaders as they study the Word. The goal is simple. It comes alongside those who teach the Bible and helps them understand a passage more deeply so they can teach it faithfully.
We built it alongside some wonderful people to serve the church and see the Gospel bear fruit, and to make it accessible in many languages and affordable for people all over the world.
How we built this
My heart has always been to serve the global church. I wanted to give pastors around the world something that could help them preach biblical sermons every week. This is not something to replace your own study and prayer over the passage, but rather something that enhances your own personal study and reflection.
We are gathering a library of faithful teachers and scholars, from across church history down to today. We are not just pulling their quotes and throwing information at you. But we spend time learning how each of them reads Scripture. The questions they ask. What they notice first. How they work through a passage. Then we take that way of reading, put it in our own words, and use it to help you look at the text the way different leaders would, instead of just borrowing their sentences. We are building our knowledge base and analytical engine to break down the Scripture passage even more from different viewpoints and perspectives. I've always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes, who notices things that the regular reader doesn't notice.
I also knew a pastor who launched many church plants in the city of Chicago. He shared how all the pastors would get together each week to prepare for the sermon for the following Sunday. They would all preach from the same passage. One pastor would prep the material in advance, and then they would study and talk through the passage together. Same passage and thoughts, but different stories and illustrations based on the context they were in. That always stayed in my mind. As I was building this Bible Research Assistant, I wanted to build that capability. So little by little we will build out our analytical engine of professors, theologians, ministry leaders, pastors, and preachers and getting their perspective on a particular passage. Thus, when you look at a passage, you are able to see different perspectives that people have on a particular passage.
I hope this will be a tool to equip the local church wherever you are at. I know that some of you who are using this tool may not have had seminary education, and hope that this tool will be a resource to you as you pastor your congregation.
Built to serve the work of the Gospel.
- Scripture holds the authority.
- It serves your study. It never replaces it.
- Grounded in careful, faithful interpretation, so every passage leads to the grace of Christ, not to a list of things to do.
- For pastors, teachers, ministry leaders, and Christian marketplace leaders.
A message from Tommy Lee
This is something I made to help you in your study, not replace it. It is best used after you have done your own study and reflection on the passage.
To truly hear what God is saying to you in a passage, you have to let it marinate. Read it, and then read it again and again and again. Take time to read it 20 times over a few days. While you do, pray that God would speak to you through it. Take a phrase or a verse that stands out to you and pray, God, would you show me what this passage looks like in my life today? Come back to it. Read it again over a few days. What are you starting to see and hear?
Do that work first. That is where God deals with you, before he ever deals with your people through you.
Once you have done that, then come here. See what it caught that you may have passed over. And where it gets something wrong, and it will, trust what you have heard from the Lord over the machine. It is only ever a servant to your study, never the authority in it. I hope it is a help to you.
Tommy Lee
Keeping it accessible
Why is it free? We have generous partners who let us use their content, so we could build this for the body of believers and get it into the hands of anyone around the world. We still need funding to build out the platform and keep adding to it. So we are asking for your help. If this serves you, would you consider a gift to keep it going for others?