By JENNIFER MAIER / Community Columnist

“Jesus told us to go, He didn’t tell us to maintain,” said Marsha Parsons.

Based on a really real strong calling, Parsons, along with Brenda Seale, Wanda Duvel, Debbie Timmons and Jessica Evans, have formed a prayer group with the goal of creating a nighttime Bible study for women that will meet in Columbiana.

Currently, 325 women meet on Mondays at First Baptist Church Columbiana during the day as part of Community Bible Study, which is an organized inter-denominational Bible study.

“To make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in our communities through caring, in-depth Bible study, available to all” is the mission of Community Bible Study.

Following the Shelby County school year calendar, these ladies, as well as children who participate in a youth study, come together for two hours during the day time and participate in an in-depth study of a book of the Bible with the aid of a course book. This semester they are studying Ephesians.

Not a single minute of those two hours is wasted. Women are encouraged to come early and enjoy a light breakfast and fellowship, but once the clock strikes 10 a.m., they break into smaller groups. It is in those smaller groups that these women openly discuss what they have been studying.

But although the daytime class has been meeting the needs of hundreds of women, there has been a need to reach out and offer the course of study to women who can’t meet during the day.

“It was a whole different group of women we could reach,” said Parsons.

Parson, along with Seale, Duvel, Timmons and Evans, left their leadership roles with the day time Community Bible Study, and have been working hard to get a new class started, which has been named CBS@night.

The course topic will be the same, but the class will be shorter and the study guide not nearly as large as the one used for the Monday morning class.

“This will be a very abbreviated course designed to get women in and out and back home with their children and family by 8 p.m.,” said Parsons. “But it does not lessen the quality of the study.”

CBS@night will meet Tuesday evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at First Baptist Church Columbiana. Registration for the class will be at the church on Sept. 6 and it will last 12 weeks.

As the newest member of the prayer group, Jessica Evans is delighted to see that the night time Bible study is coming to fruition.

“This night class overwhelms my soul,” Evans said. As a busy mother juggling childcare and work, Evans felt the calling to find a way to have a Bible study available to other women that couldn’t do a daytime study.

Unlike the day time class, there will not be a registration fee for the course, and the only cost will be for the $10 study guide.

At this time, child care is not offered for the evening class, but Parsons hopes that as the number of participants grows, they will be able to meet that need.

Columbiana’s Community Bible Study has been blessed with strong leadership, and leadership requires a certain level of dedication. Many leaders set aside other activities in order to serve in their capacity. It is a responsibility they take on gladly.

Parson has ordered 60 books for the class, and would be happy to order more if needed. Based on the feedback she has received, there is a lot of interest in this class.

To learn more about CBS@night, visit their Facebook page ‘Community Bible Study at Night for Women.’