On Reading the Bible
What I am about to say will sound so elementary that I risk losing you, my reader, before I even get to the end of this paragraph. But here goes. I want you to read your Bible.
See? I told you that I could quickly lose you with what sounds like an obvious suggestion. It is easy, in this rapidly changing world, to work from some basic assumptions that keep us from reading the Bible. After all, we have read the Bible in the past. We hear sermons from the Bible. And for some of us, we went to Bible school when we were kids – so we know what is in the Bible! What we need (we think) is not more Bible knowledge, but help with technology, with understanding how to reach our culture, with figuring out how to make our church life more appealing to younger adults. That is what we need … right?
Of course, I agree that we need to understand and utilize technology, that culture requires our close attention, and that making church life resonate with younger adults is important. But assuming that we sort of know or understand the Bible exposes a critical and dangerous flaw proving fatal to many churches. And that is why I encourage us to read our Bibles – anew!
So many of us who lead in congregations and who have been Christians for a long time have had so much exposure to the Bible. That exposure has given rise to a way of thinking that might be characterized like this: The Bible tells us stuff. The Bible gives us principles for living. The Bible informs us about what is right and wrong. Such a characterization sets us up to think that the Bible is something we consult when we need evidence to take up a position or to decide whether to do something.
Yet by allowing that characterization to play out in our congregational life and leadership, we are ignoring one big, glaring reality: God is alive and active in our world. And God desires to communicate actively with us!
Rather than assume that we have things in hand with the Bible’s content, I suggest that we sit with the Bible and prayerfully listen for the voice of God in our present contexts and challenges. Rather than assuming that the Bible is something we master and occasionally consult, we ought to assume that God is Lord and that as Lord, God desperately wants to speak to us.
Maybe we could hear God’s voice and find the spaces to reflect about our own congregations’ challenges if we would listen to Jeremiah or Philippians or Matthew as the living voice of God that speaks not merely in the past but also now in our present spaces and places!
How might a person read the Bible as a way of listening for God’s voice? Let me invite you to consider a few of my convictions.
The witness of the Bible is that God began something remarkable in creation, that God redeemed creation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the risen Lord in our present experience by the power of the Spirit, and that God will complete and make all things whole in the second coming. So if that is the narrative of the Bible – and of God’s people – then we listen with full expectation that God is very much at work in our lives and in our contexts. As a result, I listen with expectancy!
Whatever God begins, God will complete. If there is one idea that the Bible declares, it is that God is faithful. So as I listen to the narratives and conversations of the Bible, I do so knowing that whatever I am witnessing about God’s past faithfulness, I am also learning about God’s present faithfulness.
Whenever I read the Bible, I enter into a strange, new world. It is a world where God is actively at work accomplishing his purposes. The world of the Bible stands at odds with much of what we experience in our world. This is why Paul and Silas were charged with “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6)! In reality, when we enter into the strange world of the Bible, we enter into a place where God is setting the world right-side up! So I read and pay attention to the Bible to gain clarity about the mission and life of God’s people in our day.
Much more could be said here. But you have been gracious to stay with me thus far. So let me simply invite you to read. Read your Bible with expectancy, with an eye toward seeing God’s faithful work, and with the attentiveness to gain insight into God’s mission and work – both then and now! God is on the move in the great towns and cities that you and I inhabit. And it may well be that the most important thing that you as a leader can do is to pick up your Bible and listen for God’s voice!
