Pray
Jesus taught us to pray to our heavenly Father, “May your will be done”. If we want to see people grow in their love and knowledge of God, and desire to follow him, we need His guidance in all that we do. We need His help in our discussions, our relationships and our actions. Our prayer as we introduce the SE Guide is that God will uses it to focus your prayers, your conversation, and what you do next.
Watch the intro video
if you prefer reading to watching, click here:
When people don’t have the Bible in their language it may seem obvious that translation and publication will help. Language can clearly be a huge barrier, but translation and distribution alone are not enough. Experience over many years in translations in many hundreds of languages has shown that there is a lot more to think about both coming from the perspective of Bible Translation organisations and of the church. (more in depth articles coming soon on SE and the Church)
The videos and questions in this website and app provide a starting place from a perspective of those involved in Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement to explore many of the factors that need to be in place for effective use of the Bible. These are usually in the context of a new translation being released but many apply to situations where the Bible has been available for decades or even centuries. Some will seem obvious and need little extra work, others will identify problems and possibilities that you will want to think about.
Each set of factors come with a couple of general questions and videos to help you discuss them. This will help you identify the needs and preferences of the community regarding the use of Scripture in discipleship, outreach and worship.
Each video comes with some extra questions you may want to talk about. You do not have to answer all the accompanying questions, certainly not in one go, and you may have more of your own. You also do not need to use all the videos, just choose those relevant for your situation.
Before you start think about the current use of the Bible in your community.
- Who uses the Bible? When, where and how?
- Do they understand it? Do they know that they are meant to be able to understand it?
- What books or passages from the Old and New Testaments are most helpful for addressing the basic spiritual needs of your community and are useful for people’s spiritual growth?
- What media and art forms are appropriate and available to assist your community with accessing the Scriptures and using them for both personal and church growth?
Read a little bit more about Scripture Use and Impact
To engage meaningfully with Scripture you need to:
Have access to the Bible in a language and form you use
Trust the Bible is the Word of God
Believe the Bible is relevant
Read/Listen/Watch the Bible
Meditate and study the Bible
Interpret and understand the Bible
Apply the Bible’s teaching
Discuss and share Biblical truths with others
…and much more
Watch a few conversation starters
The website and app contain over 20 videos in 8 different sections. Watch a couple of them for yourself. Talk about them with a few people. Do any help you think about things that could be a barrier or help you think what you could do next?
How you will use the Guide?
Who should be involved in talking about the questions that go with these videos? You may already have some clear ideas on what you think you need to do, in which case the different videos may help you to consider whether there are other helpful questions to ask, or you may be starting from the beginning and want to think in a clear way about the many possibilities ahead.
In order to get a complete understanding of your community, you want input from a range of people, a variety of age groups, people from both rural and urban areas, men and women, church leaders, ordinary members and people who don’t. This could require repeating the discussions with multiple groups and you might not be able to run them all the same way.
Keep a record
At the end of meeting summarise what has been said. It may help to remind them again in future meetings.
One way to gather your ideas is in a written document. We have provided one you can use that contains all the questions that we have suggested, but you can change this or make your own. View or copy the Google Doc
Students studying Scripture Engagement at universities interview representatives of a community over several weeks, write a long report, highlighting what seem to be the most urgent issues and then come up with suggestions as to what could be done over the next two or three years. You don’t have to be at university to use the same method. You don’t have to be able to write well, you just need to be able to listen to one another, and put down your thoughts in a way that works for you.
You do not need to talk about all the videos and questions at once or to talk for the same length about each.
Decide on what to do
As you talk you may think of some simple things that you can do straight away. Others ideas may need thinking about more. They may involve agreement between people who aren’t there and may take a lot of time, effort and money. You probably won’t be able to do everything that you think of so will need to decide from the different ideas what you will attempt. (more is included on our Next-Steps page)
Take Action, Keep learning, Keep praying
Doing and learning often go together. As you put ideas into action keep asking questions. Think about how you will see whether a particular idea is working or how it needs adjusting. Some results can be seen quickly, others will take time. As you work keep looking to God and ask for his guidance and blessing.
