We were talking about missions today and how the use of the Bible fits in to it. I guess a person's opinion about that depends on the importance they place on the Bible in their Christian worldview. I use the Bible as a basis of evangelistic Bible study, particularly the gospels, because Christianity is centred about the person of Jesus. And it is the gospels that we meet Jesus through the eyes of those who lived around his time. This gives the seeker the opportunity to learn more about Jesus from the very same text that Christians use to learn more about Jesus. Also, the Bible gives the reader a chance to form their own opinions about Jesus. No doubt a pre-written Bible study nudges people to look at the text in certain ways, but it still somewhat open to the reader's interpretation. A formulated approach (e.g. black book or Alpha), starts off by giving the recipient/reader someone's interpretation of Jesus' story. These are effective and I am sure they have their place, just not my preferred choice. I lean towards using the Bible (or the gospels) as a platform to discover Jesus because it allows the reader a chance to understand the text (and thus, Jesus) on their own time and also the chance to ask questions that arise from it.
Monday, October 11, 2004
the place of the Word
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1 comment:
You're right. The Bible is extremely useful for us as Christians. God has chosen to use his word to revela himself and his purposes to us and in us.
The Bible is a constant, it is an absolute. When so much is changable we know that the scriptures do not change. It is there that we must look if we want to become more and more like Jesus.
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