Today's conversation is deeply personal to me. There are certain voices God uses in specific seasons, voices that steady you, ground you, and gently remind you that his word is enough for me. Angie Bauman has been one of those voices I've listened to our teaching for. Multiple years now. I've worked directly with her ministry in the past, and what I can tell you, not just as a listener, but as someone who has walked through my own valleys, is that she is solid.
She has walked through difficulty, she has faced rejection, she has wrestled honestly with God, and she has come out on the other side anchored in scripture. We share something precious in common, and we both know that what it is to have God's word meet us in the broken places and heal what shame tried to define.
And today, faith mom, I want you to listen closely because if you've ever felt unsure opening your Bible, if you've ever wondered whether you're, whether you're doing it right, this conversation is going to help you feel like a breath of fresh air. Welcome to the Faith Mom Mentor, the podcast for moms who want more than surface level faith for themselves and their kids. I'm Anne, and if you're a mom who feels unsure where to start, spiritually worries. You're not teaching your kids enough and wants a calmer or confident faith at home, you are in the right place.
Here we cut through the noise and get grounded in truth. Each episode helps you know God deeply, teach your tween faithfully and build a home that feels strong, steady, and Christ-centered even in the middle school years. If you are ready to stop guessing, start leading with confidence and grow a faith, your family can actually live out.
You are in the right place. Welcome to the Faith Mom. Mentor.
?Let me tell you a little more about Angie. Angie Bowman is a licensed pastor, Bible teacher, author, podcaster, and founder of Study on Ministry.
She's the creator of Step-by-Step Bible Study Method and leader of Study on University, an online community helping women grow in biblical knowledge and spiritual confidence. A 16, Angie was groomed into a romantic relationship with a high school teacher and later faced. Harsh community rejection. When she shared her story over time, it was God's word and the consistent practice of studying his promises that helped her break free from the shame that tried to define her.
Today. She equips others to experience the same freedom. Through meaningful time in scripture. Angie, thank you for being here. It's such a gift to have you with us. I am honored to be here and I'm like crying already. Ann, thank you so much for that beautiful introduction. When I think about God's f, I listen to you talk about my own life and God's faithfulness, and those sentences just moves me to tears.
So thank you for reminding me of how much God has and is doing in my life right now. Yes, yes. You are a testament of God's faithfulness, Angie. And um, when we think about moms, so many moms listening right now, they love God. Mm. And they love his word. And yet when they try to sit down and open the Bible, there's hesitation, they're fair, they feel unsure of doing it on their own.
Why do you think insecurity in Bible study is so common? Yeah, I think that's a really great place to start. Uh, I think, I think a couple of reasons. I love the local church, have served in the local church all of my life. I believe that the local church is the answer to every problem in the world, and I believe we are.
Uh, Laxs in teaching people how to study. And that doesn't mean we're lax as a local church of teaching the Bible. I think there are a lot of churches that teach the Bible really well, but I don't think there are as many churches or faith communities that are teaching people how to study the Bible on their own.
And so therefore, sometimes our Bible studies turn into more like conversation or therapy sort of things, or it stays light or whatever. 'cause we just. We're not confident in studying the Bible on our own and what tools we need and where to go and what we can trust and, and all of that. So I think that's one of the reasons.
I think another reason is many of us lack mentoring relationships. I don't think that's as, as common as it needs to be. I don't think that's as prevalent as it needs to be that someone who's a few steps ahead of us is investing in us. And someone who knows the word a little bit better than us and does have more confidence is saying, you can do this too, and helping you and someone that we can go to with our questions.
I think many women are feeling, even if we're in a church and we are in a small group or something, I think, I still think a lot of women feel alone in that spiritual journey, especially when it comes to Bible study. And I think the third reason is that we just haven't invested the time to learn. You know, we're busy and we're distracted and Hello mama.
I'm a mama too. Right. And it's hard. It's hard to carve out or make space or prioritize the time, especially when you don't learn something. I think of how many of us are like, oh, I would love to speak Spanish or French, or something like that. Right? But we just keep saying we'd love to do it because it's hard.
It's hard to learn something new and we don't who to practice with and we don't have everybody. To converse with or whatever, right? When we lack those things, it's something that just kind of keeps getting pushed down to later. So I, I'm curious your thoughts if you have thoughts on why that is true. But those are the things that I think are, are really prevalent and why that we are, you know, unsure of reading the Bible on our own.
And then as we get talking about this, teaching our kids to do it too, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I think what you've said is very relevant. I think distraction, I think busyness, I think all those things are a specific. Why, but I also would like your take on this, Angie. What would you say to the mom who wonders, can I really understand the Bible without somebody?
Over my shoulder, right there beside me. Can I really understand the Bible without an expert? Mm-hmm. Well, I think John 1426 answers that question best for us because Jesus is promising in that chapter that the Holy Spirit is our helper and teacher. And so I think that is the answer. The Holy Spirit wants to teach us through our own individual Bible studies and having tools and having other people to follow and other Bible study.
I'm not gonna be hypocritical. I'm a Bible teacher, right? I think Bible teachers are great, but here's the thing, knowing his voice is essential. I always say this that I can, I can do a really good job of going into the word and then presenting to you what the Holy Spirit told me and taught me while I was studying, right?
And that's valid and true and helpful and encouraging and all those things, but I cannot ever go to the word and tell you what the Holy Spirit would say to you. Right, and so that's why we need both. We need Bible teachers who encourage us and inspire us and teach us and grow us, but the Holy Spirit, one-on-one with the word with us that, that we, we can have that confidence that we don't have to know the answers because the Holy Spirit is teaching us what he wants us to know as we're studying.
Yeah. And it's not that your message is different than my message. It just speaks, he just speaks to us differently. That's that's right. We understand it differently. Right. It's the nuance for, you know, you step your right foot forward and I can step my right foot forward. But your impact is a little different than my impact because we're two individual people, but we're still on the same path.
Really interesting. Yeah, I think, you know, I think of a familiar story like you know, the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son or something like that. A story that we've heard lots of times and heard preached on and all that. But if we were to read that story out loud right now for your listeners as I read it, there would be something that would be calling me in that story today.
Right. I'm guessing there would probably be something different that would be calling you. You're like, oh, this is standing out to me today. And for each listener, there would be something that's calling to her right from this familiar story. And when we get together and we're like, God taught me this, God taught me this because I, you know, I'm dealing with a child that's.
Uh, wandering away or I'm dealing with unforgiveness or what, what are we, whatever we're dealing with, that the Lord is like, I wanna talk to you about where you are through this passage. And so that's what we're talking about when the Lord is alive, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It reminds me of the story. You know, there's a bunch of people around the same building, but each of them has a different perspective of what they saw.
It was the same. Thing. Mm-hmm. It was just a different perspective or the same thing. That's right. And that, that's what you're saying with that one story. It's one parable. It's one story, but it's a different perspective depending on where we are. Right. In our walk with the Lord, where we are in our closeness with the Lord, where we are in our knowledge of his word, where we are in our circumstances.
Everything. Everything. Um, where we are. Helps us understand the word of God, and, and, and the Holy Spirit has this just, you know, miraculous ability to speak to us through the word about things that we don't even know is the issue that we're dealing with, right? I mean, that's the thing. I'm right now in a personal.
Study of Second Kings. And when God called me into Second Kings, I was kinda like, well, I've read that The Kings did bad. It was all, you know, it's bad. But, and the thing that has been so amazing in this season is I've been going through Second Kings, is he's teaching me so much about leadership over and over again.
I'm reading these stories of the Kings and I see, I'm like, oh, this was the misstep or this is the right. And I, and I, like, I didn't go in there. To learn about leadership. That's not what, but he called me into the word and that's what he's teaching me about in this season. And I feel that, like I feel so honored.
'cause I'm like, I know what he's trying to do. I know he's trying to refine me and to smooth off some rush at drift edges because he wants me to be a better leader. But I don't, I don't think I could have received that. I don't know that there's any Bible teacher, right. That would've been like, Angie, I'm gonna use Second Kings to teach you about.
What God wants you to know about leadership in this next season of ministry. Right. Like it's just, it's just, that's just not gonna happen most likely. Yeah. Like he knew what you needed either before you asked. I didn't ask. That's right. That's right. Un
Angie, you teach us bible study method called Step by Step. Can you explain in a way, a busy mom or even a. Eight to 12-year-old could understand Yes. How to use it step by step. Yes, I love that. And I will say that Anne's gonna link some study sheets and things, so you don't have to grab a pencil or write this down, but I'll just do an overview, Anne, if you think that would be helpful for your listeners.
Yeah, so step by step has five steps to it, and step one is to choose a verse of scripture and choose a word. And a lot of times people are like, where do you get your verse of scripture? Or I'm just gonna say right now, and I'll probably repeat this a couple times, if you're doing any kind of daily devotion.
Or if you have a little popup on your phone, maybe that says like the verse of the day or anything like that, you already have the material you need. That's all that you need. You just need a verse of the day, and then you're gonna pick one word. And the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna look at that word, the English definition of it, and some synonyms and antonyms just to get this like idea of what is this word in this verse of scripture about?
And then we're gonna move to step two, which I call investigate, and that's where we go. A little bit deeper in this word. We compare the word in other Bible translations 'cause the Bible wasn't written in English. And it's really fun to see how other people who are learned in the language translate the word.
Then we're gonna research the original word, which is one of my favorite parts where we go into the Hebrew or the Greek. And I always say that when we do that, and, and again, I, I have all the tools that you need. If you're like, Hey, I don't know how to. Do that. I'm gonna teach you how to do that. But one of the things I always say about the original language it is, is it doesn't always mean something different, but it almost always means something more.
And so it just like, it's like this flower that opens up and you're like, oh my goodness, I didn't know it meant that. Right. That it carried that weight. And then in step two, we're gonna continue on looking at some commentary. And I have some places where I encourage you to go and look for some respected commentators, and then at the end of that step we rewrite the verse in our own words.
We just based on everything we've learned about the word reading some commentary, we begin to like apply it to ourselves and we just try to rewrite that verse in our own words. And then step three, four, and five takes us to what I call the life application part. And step three, we're looking at characteristics of God.
And I have some prompts for you on like that God is merciful or that God is faithful, or that God is a promise keeper, right? Like what's standing out to you. And then step four might be one of the ones that. It's the most unusual or different in terms of a Bible study method, but that's when we try to identify the lie of the enemy.
We look at the verse of scripture and everything that we're learning, and we ask ourselves, what might the enemy be whispering? The enemy works in half truths, right? What half truth might be the might the enemy be whispering that would make this verse, or what I'm learning, what I'm excited about, what I'm feeling about, what I'm seeing, how I described God, all of the things that's happened.
What might the enemy whisper to me that makes that hard to believe or hard to live out? And then step five I call. So what, which is just kind of a cute way, I guess, of saying, what's your key takeaway today? What's one thing that you really like to remember in this time of study? And so again, I have resources for you to learn how to do that, but that's just kind of an overview of how we unpack averse of scripture.
And I think it's really exciting to do that individually. And it's also really exciting to do that with someone else because just as like we were saying with familiar stories, one verse. The things that are gonna stand out to you in those steps as you go through are, can be radically different even though you're studying the same verse with the same tools even sometimes.
Yeah. And that, Angie, what you have described there, builds steady faith for the person. It's not somebody's borrowed faith, it's not somebody, what they told me. It's not what. Um, the pastor said, but it is your own. When you study and go through those step by step yourself, then it's your knowledge. That's right.
It's not somebody else's knowledge. That's right. That's right. And what I, and what women have told me, and moms have told me through the years too, is just that the, like, the method is, uh, is structured enough. It provides safety and consistency and all that, but it's flexible enough that you can use different resources and things.
What you know, things that over time you might learn really mean something to you. So, and I think that's one of the reasons that people can stay with it a long time. 'cause it is adaptable, but it's also the same. Yeah. It gets into people's learning styles. Mm-hmm. They people learn differently. So even though you're reading, some people might picture it.
Mm-hmm. Some people might say it out loud, some people might draw Yes. To help understand it, and so. You may have already somewhat answered this question, but I'm just gonna ask it just so you can just give, as you describe it more. Mm-hmm. For the, for the listener, if a mother or a middle schooler wants to start studying the Bible for themselves, I know you would definitely recommend the step by step-by-step Bible study, but would there be a precursor to that?
Would there be something that if they just want to a quick win today in studying the Bible for themselves, something that they can. Take hold of and say, yes, I'm gonna do this. Mm-hmm. I, I would just go back to what I said beforehand, Anne, that maybe you have a devotional line around, maybe there's something that you're using every day.
I know I, especially on mornings when I want just kind of an extra something. I read the little stories in the upper room devotional or just a one page and has a prayer at the end. Maybe you use something like that or maybe something on your phone, and almost always there's a verse and or a passage.
Connected with that. And so what I would do is just sit with that scripture a little bit longer. It's not, sometimes it can just be sort of like that thing. Oh yeah. And it's just kind of tagged onto the story or whatever. But what does the Holy Spirit wanna say to you through that verse that's called out or that passage that's listed there?
Read that a couple of times and see what's standing out to you, and then whatever verse or word that's kind of popping out to you, uh, then you can use this method to be like, I'd like to go a little bit deeper with that and learn a little bit more about you. Be about it because the Holy Spirit is speaking to you saying, I have something to share for you in this.
And so moms approach that morning devotion or their evening before they go to bed, devotion as if they have to get it right. Mm-hmm. So many moms feel that pressure that they're not doing it right, or they are, they are not doing it as well as somebody else. How does slowing down. Scripture. Maybe it's one verse.
Maybe it's a one word. How does slowing down in scripture change the tone from pressure to peace? I am going to just share a little bit of my own, how that has happened with me personally as a mom, especially because Ann shared just a little bit about my story in my intro, and I did carry a lot of shame and I went for years.
I went to a. Understanding. I aligned with the lie that said, you do not have value just in who you are, so you must have value in what you do. Right. Which put a lot of pressure on me, right. To produce and to stay busy and just this like go, go, go. And to. Raise children even that were, I don't know, a certain acceptable way or I, I don't even know the language, you know, but just like I'm, I'm like all this, like, I'm failing all the time.
I can, you know, I continue and, and, and to feel like even my children's setbacks were reflective on me or my teaching. And just like a lot of pressure moms, you know, like just a lot of pressure that we have. And here's the thing, over the years that independent Bible study has done for me, Anne, and I think this answers your question and feel free to.
Push if it doesn't, but I, what, what independent Bible study has done for me over the years is it has connected me relentlessly with the grace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with the love that he has for me and the grace that he pours into my life daily. Right? And as I sit under his teaching and I'm reminded, reminded of the grace in my life, it has encouraged me over the years.
To have more grace for myself and have more grace for other people. And so I'm gonna say that this, uh, pressure comes not from, it doesn't come from Jesus. It doesn't come from God. It might come from church. I, I, I don't, I can't say that it doesn't come from church, but it doesn't come from God, this pressure to do it right.
Uh, and the only thing that God says over and over again is that he wants our heart. He wants a mom's heart laid before him in the morning or evening or whatever, right? Like, and he is going to help us understand what right looks like in our circumstances so that then we can, we can model that in our marriages, in our parenting, in our workplace, in our volunteering, if we're homeschooling, whatever, right?
The woman that is filled up and connected with that grace in the morning has the grace to pour out during the day. See if a mom's not feeling that. If a mom's like, I just, I try and I am, I'm just not getting to that relationship. I'm just not, I open the Bible. I, I have my quiet time, but I, I, I don't even know.
I'm not hearing, I'm not at peace. What would you say to that Mom? I, I'm gonna say to hang in there, I really am. Yeah. I, this is not, there are in spiritual, in Bible study and in our spiritual walk, there's all kinds of quick wins. So I don't wanna say that there's no quick wins. You know, there are mountain type experiences and there are times when we feel very connected with God and sometimes we're just walking in obedience.
Sometimes we're just staying faithful. I went through a season, uh, for about six months. And I'm about four months out of it. So this is a fairly recent season and I was really flirting with burnout. I was really struggling. I did not want to do the things that the Lord was calling me to do. And everything that I was reading in the morning was sort of like irritating me actually.
'cause it was like just, it was stories of perseverance. It was stories of hanging in there. It was, and the only word that I heard from God was just Hang, hang with me. Hang in there with me. Just hang in there with me. And I wanted to be released. From the thing that was giving me such a burden, I wanted to walk away from it.
I wanted him to tell me I didn't need to do it anymore. I right. I just like, this is what I wanted and I just heard this gentle like, hang with me and I didn't want to Ann it. It was like a six month kind of thing. But I just stayed listening to him and I stayed talking to him. And at some point then when I was actually able to get away.
I did have kind of what I'm gonna call a spiritual breakthrough, and I did understand more about it, but it was, I'm gonna call it a long season of not really hearing very much from him and being like, I'm trying hard to serve you and to answer this calling. And maybe it's not ministry call. Maybe it's because you've got littles at home and you're like, I am like I left a career to do this and I don't like it.
Or These kids are. Harder than I thought they would be and I don't like it. Or you know, whatever the case may be. Right. And I just want to encourage you, he is listening. He is faithful and I just, I sometimes just turn my prayer, Ann, when I'm struggling in a place like that to Lord, help me open my heart to your faithfulness because I believe you.
I believe you're at work. I believe you're faithful. I believe you're good. I believe you see me, but I don't feel it right now. Help me see your faithfulness. He honors those prayers. He does, he does. It reminds me of the, of the man that brought his son, I believe it was to Jesus and said, heal him. He throws himself in the fire and and he is like, I believe, but help my believe, my God, I think.
It is so welcoming, so refreshing to hear that. To hear that from a teacher of the Bible that says that, to hear that when we fill it in our own heart, we just see it in scripture and say, God does not deny the fact that it's hard. That's right. He doesn't deny the fact that he asked us to persevere. He doesn't deny the fact that he is with us and he doesn't mind.
Yeah. That. We say we believe, but there's a part of us that, that somehow doesn't believe. But we want to believe we want that part to even. Yes. Yes. And I don't, I don't wanna wrap everything up with a bow and, and, and, and not, I want to honor the struggle. 'cause I want to honor the place that you're talking about, Anne, where the mom's like, I'm not hearing it.
And I just say, I know I've been there. But I will say on the other end of that struggle, on the other end of that journey, I will tell you that. The reason I believe that I set for six months in that is because the Lord was really wanting me to see that my struggle was more about unprocessed grief than it was the situation that I thought that it was like I was placing the unprocessed grief on this other situation, but I know that he knew I wasn't ready to look at that unprocessed grief.
Right? Grief. So I just, I want it what sometimes feels like he's ignoring you or what sometimes feels like silence. If you can know, if you can trust him and lean in to, to his promises and know that actually if there's any delay in this at all, it's for my good because you won't, you don't do anything in my life that's not for my good, and I just believe that I really do.
And Angie, the reason you believe that is because you have seen his character. Yes. Mm-hmm. His character in the word, which is what your step by step bible study does. It helps you see the character of God throughout the word. Yeah. So let me ask you this. If a mom wants to grow in that confidence of the character of God and to help her middle schooler, who was just all chaotic at this time in their life, yeah.
Grow in their confidence. What's one small step they could do this week to do that? I, I think, I hope this is okay. I'm gonna say decide the win ahead of time. WHEN ahead of time, right? Look on, look at your calendar, look at your week, and think about your child and when they're at their best for learning.
I have this, I have a step-by-step starter kit that Anne's gonna link. If you're interested in the method, we're gonna link that. So it will take you through it, watch that and look at it ahead of time, um, so that you get familiar with it, and then be like, you know what? On Friday morning, on Tuesday evening, whatever the case may be, right?
Like, this is when I'm gonna carve out some time and I'm gonna spend it with my child or children. And we're gonna go through this. And I would just wanna say that the, the method is I have homeschool moms that are using it to teach Bible in their curriculum. It has been used as curriculum in Christian schools.
It's currently being used in a juvenile detention center in New Mexico. It's been used at youth groups in, uh, churches, large and small. And so I do know, I do know that kids like this. I do know that kids get it, and I, I really believe that it can be a really great way for moms and kids to grow in their confidence and understanding together.
Yeah. And Angie, the way it's set up. You. It's good if you do it all in one setting, not to lose the pace of it, but it could be broken up into different settings for sure. If your child has a short attention span, this would be a great thing. You could do one little chunk a day and do it over a week. Bible study is not a certain 30 minute, nope.
Segment. I mean, it could be five minutes. Mm-hmm. Five times a day, it could be three minutes, a few times a day. Yep, yep. So, um, so it really is a versatile, yeah. So Angie, I know that we're gonna link that study, um, step by step bible study, those links that you've given us. Thank you for that resource. Yes.
For our mom. One last question. How can faith moms find you or find more information about you or hear how you break this down on a regular basis? If they wanna be encouraged in understanding the Bible for themselves? Yeah. Well our, my website is live. Study on.com. That's kind of the hub of everything.
But since you're already podcast listeners, if you wanna jump over and listen to mine sometime, it's called Understand Your Bible. And many of the episodes use step-by-step to open up the word and to study a verse of scripture. Sometimes I drop other topical things in there, like how to stay. Studying the Bible when life gets busy or when the people of God disagree.
We talk about church, church and things like that sometimes every once in a while, but a lot of the episodes are study related using the method. Very good. And you also have, um, do you want to tell us about your study on university as well? I would love that, yes. For a woman who might be ready, if you know that you would like to have community and loving accountability and fresh resources every week.
I do have an online bible city community called Study on University. We're currently in a study people can join anytime. We have about four studies a year that we go through, and right now we're in a study called Gather, which is on the Jewish Feast and Festivals, and then also on the Christian calendar.
We're moving through that in the spring. We're gonna be doing a study on called Cast Your Cares Anchored in First Peter five, seven. Cast your cares on him for He Cares for you. And we're gonna talk about recognizing and speaking to anxiety and that will start in the spring. But yes, I would love to have anyone who says I.
Don't have a small group or I'm ready for a small group that really the focus is going deep into the word. I would love for you to check out study on university. Well, thank you for sharing that, Angie. Yeah, gie, thank you truly for being here. Faith mom, if you've been listening and thinking maybe I can open my Bible with confidence, that's not an accident.
That's the spirit inviting you closer. You don't need to be an expert. You need to be present, and as Angie has reminded us, steady Faith grows one simple step at a time. Yes, you can learn more about Angie's Ministry, as she said through live Steady on.com. We're gonna link a Jumpstart Your Own Bible study through the Bible study, um, step by step starter kit that will link for you in the show notes.
Angie, thank you again for being here. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. It has grown, um, encouraged me in my faith and just wanted me to get back in to get into Bible study, um, even more. So thank you. Thank you for your friendship and thank you for being with this. Thank you for having me. What a joy you are, Ann.
Thank you. Thank you.
Before you go, remember this, you are doing sacred work as you nurture faith in your home and it matters more than you realize.
Thank you for choosing to spend this time growing stronger and steadier in truth. If today helped you take one more step forward. Head to life and peace ministries.com for simple faith. Field resources designed to support you as you know God deeply, and teach your tween faithfully, including faith, mom, t-shirts, and ways to connect for speaking and faith mentoring.
You can also help another mom by following the show, leaving a quick review or sharing this episode with somebody who needs encouragement right now. Until next time, keep leading with faith. Your faithfulness is shaping a legacy.
