Bible engagement as transformation …
What is Bible engagement?
Most of us think of Bible engagement as giving people a Bible, reading or studying the Bible, giving our loyalty to the Bible, or the work associated with Bible translation, linguistics and publishing. At Scripture Union Canada, we believe Bible engagement should go beyond these transactional and cognitive elements to embrace and emphasize encounters, relationships, interactions, and transformation. That is, Bible engagement is the process whereby people are connected with the Bible such that they have meaningful encounters with Jesus Christ and their lives are progressively transformed by Him.
Transformation, not just information.
Bible engagement is about people meeting the One the Bible speaks of and allowing His Story to change them. Transformation, not information, should be the desired end for Bible engagement to occur. When transformation is the desired end, then Bible engagement is first and foremost about letting the Bible have its way with us.
Roy Harrisvile’s perspective.
Lutheran theologian Roy Harrisville, in “The Loss of Biblical Authority and Its Recovery”, in Reclaiming the Bible for the Church, eloquently makes the point that the Bible “will have a man’s or woman’s heart and soul, and if not, it will work despair . . . whoever you are, if you do not repent and believe the testimony laid down in this book concerning God and his Christ, it will judge you to inconsequence, render your reading of it, your interpretation of it, your preaching on it a comic spectacle to the world to which you believed you had to adjust it.”
More than connecting with the Bible.
The point is this: Bible engagement should be more than connecting with a book (even when described or thought of as the Book of books). Bible engagement should connect with the triune God’s Story in a way that a person’s or community’s story intersects with, is changed by, and finds its place in the Story.
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Summary
Bible engagement goes beyond reading or studying; it’s about having meaningful encounters with Jesus Christ that lead to transformation. At Scripture Union Canada, we believe the true goal of Bible engagement is not just information but life change through an active relationship with God. Roy Harrisville emphasizes that without allowing the Bible to truly affect the heart and soul, its message becomes irrelevant. Ultimately, Bible engagement connects individuals with God’s Story, transforming their lives as they find their place within it.
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