Preface: Why the Layman’s Look Series Came to Exist
“A Layman’s Look…”: Let me explain the title of the Series
Early Training
My first training, as a young Christian, was in a small church. (Paul Hatt was a very good teaching pastor. He has long since passed on.) This was before I understood the word “layman” as I now see it. I later trained at New Tribes Bible Institute, now called Ethnos 360 Bible Institute. It was a small, 2-year, evangelical Bible School whose only purpose was to teach the Bible. They intended the training to be practical preparation for foreign missions.
Formal Training (Later consigning me to the “Layman” Category)
They offered no degrees, there. The school simply expected us to gain a working knowledge of the whole Bible at one level or another. In the process, they also required that we memorize around 450 verses during that time. They offered classes in Evangelism and Homiletics and Theology and Hermeneutics, etc., as well. But it was primarily Bible training. The Written Word of God was the Core Value at all times.
I went on to take their missionary training, too. In that training, they offered almost entirely practical Bible-based ministerial training. And, it was very good. But, after two years, the elders there (wisely, correctly) advised me that I could not serve in my intended capacity. I was plagued with bouts of chronic, severe depression. They were not equipped to help with the malady, and they simply sent me home. And… yes, that was pretty depressing!
I went home and married a wonderful young woman, Ann Vallery, who helped a great deal, but, it still took me nearly ten years to quit seeing myself as a “total reject.”
Service as a Bible Teacher (and as a Layman)
Meanwhile, I taught Bible classes in every church I attended: I taught in other people’s homes, or in my own home. I supported myself by working at my trade, as a welder, but Ann and I consistently gave financially, to support missions, and also to support the churches, while we served and taught. Eventually, it dawned upon me that this was my “assigned field of service,” and I learned to count it a privilege to serve, regardless of how or where.
“Layman” Was Used as a Condemnation
Years later, while serving in a local assembly, I heard an older pastor, with impressive degrees, disparaging a younger pastor behind his back, saying, repeatedly, “You don’t want a Layman in the pulpit!” I knew that the younger man had received the same training I had, and that he had already faithfully served for several years, as a missionary in Africa, and had pastored churches in the USA, as well. He had trained rigorously and served faithfully, but he was being blacklisted because he hadn’t attended the “right schools.”
I thought: “I would rather have a faithful man, proven by God, than a slanderous man, with worldly credentials, who condemns a faithful brother, based on his school alone!”
Yes: I’d rather have an honest “layman” than a “man of letters,” who has evil motives, and who is dishonest with the Word. So I made a choice!
“Layman” by Choice
I decided that I would willingly take up and claim the title of “Layman.” I claim no special expertise beyond the early training and 50+ years of personal study while teaching and training other leaders along the way.
Reading the Layman’s Look Series
If you’d rather have a Th.D. talking to you, then read no further. I will not suffice! But: If you are willing to read the teaching of a humble pastor with fifty years teaching and personal study behind him, then you may profit by the “Layman’s Look Series.”
If you are willing to emulate the Bereans, in Acts 17:1 and “receive the Word with all readiness of mind, and search the scriptures daily, whether these things are so” then we can fellowship around the person of Christ, the Living Word, as we study the Written Word of God. I will be using the King James Version. You can study any translation you choose.
Please take the time to find, read, and consider the meaning of each of the cross-references in each book, if you choose to read them.
C. O. Bishop 2018 (Updated and revised, 2026)
