COVID-19 Forces Hundreds of Bible Study Fellowship Classes Online

From Singapore to Seattle, the traditionally internet-shy ministry has moved 35,000 BSF participants to videoconferencing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Maureen Law was supposed to fly from her part-time home in Singapore back to the Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) headquarters in San Antonio last Monday. But now, BSF’s regional director for Asia has postponed her trip for at least another month. The COVID-19 outbreak has thrown her plans—and those of millions of others, including her employer—into flux.

As the overseer of BSF’s classes and group leaders across Asia, Law was part of the team that decided in recent weeks to hold meetings exclusively online in Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, and other parts of Asia. This means 35,000 participants—1 in 4 of whom are over 60 years old—are now tuning in to their Scripture discussions and lectures via Zoom, a web conferencing platform that allows users to join together remotely with audio, video, or both.

The move to meet online is a major—and quick—shift for a ministry that has traditionally eschewed the internet.

BSF hosts thousands of groups in 70 countries for free Bible studies every week, mostly in churches. The classes typically include a time of corporate worship, small group discussions about the weekly Bible reading, and a lecture by the group’s leader.

The venerable ministry, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, is known for privacy and even a sense of rigidity; for example, it used to have a stringent dress code for teachers, and leaders have been known to discourage attendance if participants haven’t done their homework. BSF only began to post its study materials online a few years ago, when some group leaders made lectures and study notes available to participants through the members’ website, mybsf.org. BSF launched its Facebook ...