The brief history of the Book of Faith initiative is that in 2005 a church in North Carolina brought a resolution to their synod assembly that the ELCA encourage more bible study. This then came to the national assembly in 2007 where the resolution overwhelmingly passed. Since then the ELCA and its publishing house Augsburg Fortress has produced a new study bible (the Lutheran Study Bible), a new Sunday School curriculum and children's bible (Spark materials) and multiple Book of Faith bible study materials that look at themes in the bible, books of the bible and people in the bible.
The festival on Saturday was a way for people in New England to come together in celebration of the Bible and the Book of Faith Initiative and learn how to better do bible study. We did this through worship, keynote addresses and workshops.
The day began with morning worship and a keynote address by Dr. Diane Jacobson, the director of the Book of Faith Initiative. Dr. Jacobson discussed some of the things that keep people from bible study - time commitments, the idea that you need to be an expert, it can be confusing, we are a instant gratification culture and bible study takes time. She also discussed what the Book of Faith Initiative is and what it is not - it is way of encouraging people to read scripture in ways that are engaging to them, it is for all people not just adults, it is conversation, it is not a specific curriculum.
We then broke out into workshops. I attended two, one on small church Sunday School and another on hospitality. I highly enjoyed the Sunday School one and got some specific ideas on how to support our Sunday school teachers and make the program better for next year. The hospitality workshop was good but more of a general conversation about hospitality in churches. I think most attendees wanted to hear about being hospitable to visitors and welcoming the community and the leader was more focused on how to extend hospitality to refugees and homeless people in our midst. So while the conversation was good, I didn't get as many specific ideas to bring back to the congregation.
The Dr. Jacobson's afternoon address lead us through the four ways of reading scripture for study. Here is part of a hand out which sums up the address:
Devotional Reading (no experts...thank you very much)
- What scares, confuses or challenges you in this text?
- What delight you in the text?
- What stories or memories does this text stir in you?
- What is God up to in the text?
- What insights from history would be helpful to know in order to hear, read, study or understand this passage?
- Do we know anything about who wrote the passage?
- Why was the text written?
- Where was the text written and what do we know about that part of the world?
- When was the text written, and what was going on in the world at that time?
- A great way to do this is to mark the text with asterisk were you want a study note then researching the internet, study bibles and other resources for answers.
- What type of literature is that passage? (letter, poem, history, etc)
- What is the plot?
- Who are the characters?
- What is the theme of the passage?
- What is the setting of the passage?
- In what ways is the text leading us to Christ?
- In what ways do we hear law?
- In what ways do we hear gospel?
Overall it was a great experience. I enjoyed my day at the festival and hope that I'll be able to continue to help grow bible study at Bethlehem.
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