I like forums too! My problem is that I can sometimes offer my view too quickly in face to face interactions. I keep coming back to the word in the Psalms "selah" and reminding myself to slow down a bit! I have also come to admire Treebeard in the Lord of the Rings with his motto "do not be hasty..."
I am really enjoying the way in which each of us have seemingly been brought together, and the diversity of our backgrounds and knowledge...
Apparently an old theologian was once asked what the most profound thing he ever came across in his years of Bible study. He sat back in his chair then replied "yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so"
Though we sometimes have disagreements on the complicated stuff, it is great that in the end our faith doesn't depend on what we know, but Who we know!
I really like how you describe the word "selah" as a reminder to slow down. I am going to use that. From what I remember from my a study I took on Psalms, selah was an undefined term that was relevant to the musical aspect of the Pslam so it didn't mean much to me at the time. Now, it has a meaning that is useful for me.
I also like the forums because they create more of a challenge in my study of scripture. I watched the first video again and it occurred to me illustration demonstrated a difference between taking action rather than just going to church on Sunday. This created a stress relief and helped people experience the teachings of Christ rather than just hear them.
I don't think we are being healed by sitting and listening to a message. This isn't changing us the way we should be transforming in our walk with Christ to just sit and listen to a message and it is what a lot of people are doing. However, there does seem to be many people realizing that this is creating problems and preventing growth for the church. We aren't meant to be an audience.
I think this is why I like the forums. I can take my time to research something and write about it, which helps me understand things better than if I was just listening to a message with no opportunity to interact; or, even at a Bible study where we don't have access to resources that will help further our study of scripture.
Although, I have always loved Bible study groups in church. I prefer them to Sunday service. When the kids were little, I would take them to a youth group on Wednesday and they had a women's group at the same time I would go to. That was awesome because you could participate in the lesson and we would have a mild amount of homework that created a challenge for me.
It was a great experience. However, we can't go Wednesday anymore because my daughter has an extracurricular activity that evening now, but there are often Bible study groups that are on different days of the week. I have a group on Monday evening I go to now. My son goes on Wednesday when my daughter is in her group and I am a taxi on that day. Then, my daughter goes on Monday with me too sometimes. It might be worth it to look into whether they have a men's Bible study group on a different day of the week that you have available in your present schedule.
I found the women's group was really helpful when I was going to church on my own because then there was less pressure to appear with my family. My children's father has never been interested in going and once when I went to a study before a church service on Sunday, the lady in the daycare pointed out to me that I came by myself with the kids and made it seem like the ladies there were all talking about me because they felt sorry for me. She said that they were all available to talk if I needed to talk about how hard it was.
In truth, it wasn't hard for me. I loved going and I loved that my children were with me and in my mind everything was going to grow and glow because I was going on Sunday. Anyways, this made me a little uncomfortable so it took about a year before I found myself a nice women's group on a Wednesday where going with a spouse wasn't required and it made a big difference for my whole family that I did for anyone else who might be struggling with going to church without a spouse. I think it does help to go to either the men's only group or the women's only group, at least it helped me.