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I’ve been teaching students how to understand and read the Bible missionally for about a decade. This was my favourite piece of student feedback.

In the class was a student who had agreed to preach at his home church after term had finished. At the end of the module he said that the way he approached the sermon changed as a result of his studies. That’s how I knew the teaching had ‘landed’. Yes, there were good essays submitted. Yes, we had rich conversations. But here was someone whose learning had made the transition from classroom to pulpit. Some days you just have to punch the air and give thanks to God that you get to do this stuff for a living!

This July (23-27^th) Rosalee Velloso Ewell and I will be teaching ‘Reading the Bible Missionally’ as part of Redcliffe College’s UK Summer School. It can be taken as part of our MA in Contemporary Missiology or as a standalone, non-validated week of teaching for personal and vocational development.

But why should you, a church leader, invest time immersed in a missional reading of the Bible? Here are five reasons why I think you’d love it and your ministry would be enriched by it.

Grasping more of the Bible
In my experience, a missional approach to reading the Bible grows our understanding and love for God’s Word. It deepens our appreciation of why we have the Bible, what God is saying through it, and how he uses it to shape us for his purposes in the world. I find my view of Scripture is enlarged and my sense of wonder deepened: ‘I can’t believe I’m in on this!’

Fresh ways to approach familiar texts
What biblical texts do you most associate with mission? Matt. 28? Luke 4? John 20? Gen. 12? Isa. 49? All vital passages for understanding God’s mission, of course. But have you ever found yourself wondering if there is more to say on these Scriptures? A missional reading of the Bible helps us to articulate questions we may not have considered before. In so doing it helps us to revisit familiar texts in fresh ways. To see this at work in the context of Bible study, see my previous post, Making Bible Studies Missional.

New approaches to neglected texts
One of the really exciting things about a missional reading of the Bible is the way this approach breaks open new possibilities for connecting ANY biblical text with God’s mission. This is not to downplay the complexity of reading certain texts missionally; indeed a good missional reading will probe those complexities. I’ve seen the benefit of a missional approach through students working fruitfully on Nahum, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Esther, as well as the Beatitudes, and women in Luke’s Gospel. And if you need further proof that a missional approach enables us to be attentive to an unlikely source of biblical reflection on mission, consider that my own PhD was on a missional reading of Job!

A more connected congregation
A missional reading makes us more attentive to mission in the Bible and the Bible in mission. It heightens our awareness of our identity as God’s people and our role together in God’s mission. At its best a missional reading of Scripture makes us all more attuned to the call to follow Jesus and make disciples. It challenges the whole congregation with a whole-Bible call to engage in God’s mission. It critiques the notion that there are those that ‘do mission’ and those that don’t. It confronts our simplistic divisions between ‘local’ and ‘global’. It comforts us in our pain and says that even in our brokenness (perhaps especially in our brokenness) we have a part to play in God’s purposes.
A missional approach to the Bible can be a way of encouraging a congregation to turn our disposition to God’s mission as a central part of who we are, rather than relegating it to the periphery. Because a missional reading breaks open multiple layers of possibility for thinking biblically about the Church’s participation in God’s mission, there will be no member of the congregation for whom it won’t apply.

Refreshment for your own life and ministry
Maybe you need to immerse yourself in a missional reading of Scripture just because it will do you good! Maybe you are tired, or feeling battered by the pressures of ministry. Maybe you feel like you’ve been running on empty or that you’re looking for a fresh approach to your preaching. Maybe you’re curious about what a missional reading might mean for your own Bible reading, prayer, preaching and leadership. Maybe you love studying but need the discipline of a structured programme.

Whatever the reason, maybe spending a week immersed in a missional reading will do you good! For more information on joining Rosalee and me this Summer, visit: UK Summer School, MA in Contemporary Missiology, or drop me line. For details of costs and how to apply to ‘audit’ the module click here. See you in July!

Next month I’ll be one of the speaker’s at the 2017 Forming a Christian Mind conference, which has as its theme, ‘Redeeming our Days: academia and a Christian view of time’. My session is focused on ‘Locating ourselves in redemptive history’. Here’s some information from the Jubilee Centre website if you’d like to find out more and book a place:

Forming a Christian Mind (FACM) explores how the Christian faith interacts with personal and academic development. It aims to help postgraduates and post-docs to develop their capacity to think biblically about their discipline and address the tensions between secular and Christian perspectives on their subject, both in the university and in wider society.

FACM is an annual conference in Cambridge, organised by Jubilee Centre together with Christian Heritage, Cambridge Papers, Christian Graduate Society, KLICE and The Faraday Institute.

The event is primarily for postgraduates, post-docs and junior academics; however anyone who is pursuing an academic career in other ways is welcome.

Dates: The 2017 conference takes place over two days: Friday evening 10th November, and Saturday 11th November

Venue: St Johns Old Divinity School, St John’s Lane, Cambridge

Theme: Redeeming our days: academia and a Christian view of time

Speakers: Os Guinness (on Friday only); John Coffey (University of Leicester), Rhoda Hawkins (Sheffield University); Tim Davy (Redcliffe College)

The leadership of Redcliffe College and Trinity College, Bristol, announced today the launch of a collaborative initiative that will make a ground-breaking contribution to how the Church engages with the Bible and mission.

With the aim of ‘serving the Global Church through missional engagement with the Bible’, the Centre for the Study of Bible and Mission (CSBM) initiative builds on previous work done by both Colleges, and will be a platform for new areas of teaching, research, writing and speaking.

Over the coming months, CSBM is planning an array of activities for the public to engage in. Starting with an initial launch event in the autumn, the Centre will run public lectures with significant keynote speakers and subjects; hold regular research seminars; and host new articles and discussion points on its website and blog, with content produced by CSBM’s contributing faculty and students.

The Centre is co-directed by Dr Jamie Davies (Tutor in New Testament at Trinity) and Dr Tim Davy (Lecturer in Old Testament and Mission at Redcliffe), who jointly coordinate the activities of CSBM.

Potential students wanting to work in the area of the relationship between the Bible and Mission will be able to study through Redcliffe’s MA in Contemporary Missiology (Bible and Mission) or Trinity’s PhD programme.

Rob Hay, Principal of Redcliffe College, expressed delight in a partnership that is the fruit of the two Colleges’ shared heart:

“This collaboration makes so much sense! It draws together activities we have already been doing and will be a catalyst for exciting future projects. There are things we can now do that wouldn’t have been possible on our own. By combining the expertise of both colleges we will be able to steward our expertise more strategically, listen more attentively, and serve more effectively.”

Revd Dr Emma Ineson, Principal of Trinity College, noted the value of the Centre to the wider movement and community:

“We at Trinity are excited to be entering into this collaboration with Redcliffe College. The CSBM’s work will draw on the established strengths of our two colleges while being more than the sum of its parts. It promises to be an exciting place for teaching and research, serving both the academy and the church in contributing to a vibrant and growing field, the interface of Biblical Studies and Christian Mission.”

To find out more about CSBM and some of our upcoming activities, use the menu at the top of the page. You can subscribe to the blog at the bottom right of this page, and be the first to know about any upcoming events you might wish to be a part of.

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Redcliffe College is based in Gloucester, and provides Masters programmes in missiology, leadership and member care for people working in mission and ministry. Courses are studied over 2 to 4 years in blended delivery modes, ensuring that students remain engaged in their work while they learn, able to apply their learning throughout.

Trinity College, Bristol is passionate about building missional church, and seeks to advance the mission of God through theology programmes for church leaders and those approaching ordination or leadership. Students can study full-time, part-time, or dig deeper to earn a postgraduate research doctorate with the College.

To discuss studying Bible and Mission at Master’s level, contact Tim Davy at tdavy@redcliffe.ac.uk.

For those interested in studying at PhD level, contact Jamie Davies at j.davies@trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk.

For media enquiries or to request an interview about anything in this press release, contact James Clarke at jclarke@redcliffe.ac.uk.

 

Are you reading anything in particular over the Lent period? I’ve chosen a couple of things to work through between now and Easter. The first is a new book by Lynn Japinga on Preaching the Women of the Old Testament. It has 40 chapters covering 40 women and, according to the blurb, the author ‘demonstrates how the character’s story has been read in Christian tradition and offers sermon ideas that connect contemporary issues to each story.’

The other thing I’ll be reading through is a resource produced by All We Can called All Together for Justice. I have contributed one reflection on ‘Made in God’s Image’ and it was put together by Claire Welch, a current student on the ‘Bible and Mission’ stream of Redcliffe’s MA in Contemporary Missiology. I asked Claire to say something about it for this blog:

I work for a Christian international development charity called All We Can. As part of my role, I have the privilege of helping Christians engage their faith with issues of poverty and injustice. To do this I write resources that pull together biblical reflection with current world issues. The most recent resource I have launched is called, All Together for Justice, which benefits from the contributions of theologians and leading Christian figures. All Together for Justice is a book of reflections, activities and prayers that can be followed over Lent (or any other 40-day period). It is designed to be used daily by individuals or weekly by small groups. This resource is free for you to order and enjoy. Just visit www.allwecan.org.uk/justice

In a recent news item, All We Can talk about the enthusiastic uptake of the resource. Indeed, they have now developed an email version that you can access here: http://allwecan.eu

Well done Claire, we’re all proud of you!

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If you want to wrestle with issues of Bible, mission, justice, advocacy and reconciliation why not sign up for a Redcliffe MA programme in Contemporary Missiology? Join with others from around the world at this year’s 3-week MA intensive in July. Find out more

I spend a lot of my time thinking about what the Bible says and what the Church does with what the Bible says. How you and I involve the Bible in justifying our actions or those of others should be held up to rigorous scrutiny.

The importance of this simple observation is evident in the current debate over Franklin Graham’s support of President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from several countries. In an article on the HuffPost website, Graham used the phrase, ‘That’s not a Bible issue’ and it is this wording (and what it implies) that I’d like to explore. I’m not claiming this to be an analysis of the whole debate, or that I am able to offer an authoritative voice on all the issues. I do, however, want to attempt to bring some clarity to this one particular aspect of how the Bible has been used.

To begin with let’s quote the relevant passage in the HuffPost article (posted 25.1.2017):

The Huffington Post spoke with Graham on Wednesday, and asked whether it’s possible to reconcile Trump’s temporary ban on refugees with the Christian commandment to welcome, clothe and feed the stranger, and to be a Good Samaritan to those in need.

Graham said he doesn’t believe those two things need to be reconciled.

“It’s not a biblical command for the country to let everyone in who wants to come, that’s not a Bible issue,” Graham told HuffPost. “We want to love people, we want to be kind to people, we want to be considerate, but we have a country and a country should have order and there are laws that relate to immigration and I think we should follow those laws. Because of the dangers we see today in this world, we need to be very careful.”

A former colleague of mine here at Redcliffe used to give students three questions to ask when reading something, to which I have added my own annotations. There are many other questions we could ask, of course, but let’s stick with these three.

‘What are you saying?’  This is a question of clarity. Have I taken the time to be clear on what the author/speaker is (and is not) actually claiming? This matters in terms of accuracy but is also a matter of principle and respect to the person writing/speaking.

‘How do you know?’  This is a question of methodology. How has the author arrived at their claim? What assumptions have they made to get there? What logical steps have led them to this conclusion?

‘So what?’  This is a question of significance. What are the implications of what the speaker has said? This could be significance in terms of what it reflects about the author’s context and role (especially when in a position of influence). It also has to do with the practical consequences of what they are saying, or the effect their words may have beyond their own immediate action. We might say, if people take this word seriously, how might this change their behaviour and what would be the consequences of this?

So let’s apply these questions to Graham’s statement, or at least the sound bite that people have focused on, ‘that’s not a Bible issue’.

What is he saying?  The ‘that’, which Graham considers ‘not a Bible issue’ is the idea of a government policy that would ‘let everyone in who wants to come’. There is no biblical command, says Graham, requiring a country to do this.

A response to Graham’s comment that simply lists the multitude of biblical injunctions to welcome the stranger and care for the alien doesn’t directly address what he is saying. It is not the biblical requirement for caring for the vulnerable he is questioning; it is how that requirement should, or should not be adopted as government policy. The problem is, of course, that Graham has set up a ‘straw man’ by arguing against an extreme idea of uncontrolled, completely free immigration.

How does he know?  How does Graham arrive at his view? What assumptions are at play? The logic seems to be this:

1. Something counts as a ‘Bible issue’ if there is a specific commandment about it;
2. The opposite of the policy is the uncontrolled letting ‘everyone in who wants to come’;
3. The Bible does not command a country to do this;
4. Therefore this policy is not a ‘Bible issue’ and is allowable

The logic doesn’t work on a couple of fronts. Defining a ‘Bible issue’ this way is a very narrow way of understanding biblical ethics. It is essentially requiring proof-texts for behaviour and policy rather than the construction of biblically informed frameworks with which we can think ethically.

The argument is also advocating against a form of immigration policy that isn’t (to my knowledge) being debated. He is not arguing against a representative view of critics of the policy, but a straw man. In this way the opposing view is dismissed by association with the extreme form.

So what?  What’s more important: the way an argument is made, or the effect that it has?

Graham’s statement has been used to give credence to the current government policy. It implies that the policy is not incompatible with biblical teaching and, therefore, provides a biblically satisfying way of supporting the policy.

In my view it is a way of deflecting the debate because it has the effect of undercutting the biblical teaching on caring for the vulnerable. It places biblical objections to the policy (i.e., the views of those within the Church opposed to the policy) to the sidelines. It basically says that because the Bible does not have an explicit commandment requiring an extreme form of a specific government policy, the Bible is therefore irrelevant to this matter. Hence, it is not a Bible issue.

I have written previously on the Bible’s call to care for refugees and asylum seekers. In my view Graham’s way of justifying his support for the policy is based on an argument that does not stand up to scrutiny. It seems to me that in this case the Bible has been used inappropriately and unjustifiably, but that it has the effect of giving the perception of biblical credence to the policy, and this needs to be challenged.

As I said at the start, this post does not attempt to tackle all the issues in the debate. I do not believe the Bible can be used legitimately to justify the policy under debate and I am deeply concerned with the way it has been used. The focus of this post has been about the latter.

My main point is this: if we are going to evoke the Bible when discussing controversial issues (whether ‘within the Church’ or in the ‘public sphere’) let’s do so rigorously. And that applies to me too.

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If you want to develop rigorous thinking about the Bible, faith and society, why not sign up for a Redcliffe MA programme in Contemporary Missiology? Join with others from around the world at this year’s 3-week MA intensive in July. Find out more