Rising to the challenge

Tragically, the UK masses are as ignorant of the Bible as they were in the 16th century.

At that time William Tyndale committed his life to making sure this was not so. His aim was to see everyone, high born or ploughboy, able to understand it for themselves. This has been resolved through the production of good translations in clear English. But today the Bible is largely unread and marginalised.

That is why Bible Society (or British and Foreign Bible Society to use its full name) is committed to doing more than just making the Bible available. Although this is still a vital task worldwide, the challenge in so many developed cultures is to address the need for the Bible to be ‘heard’. For those inoculated against the wonder of the Bible, this means helping them to see that its message is relevant to their daily lives.

Serious engagement

In responding to this need, Bible Society sees its first task as being to stimulate Christians to engage seriously with the Bible. This enables us all to live authentically by God’s Word in God’s world. Of course, we can only do this as partners with the churches. We fully affirm all that preachers, pastors, youth leaders, home group leaders and others do to enable this vital process to go on week in and week out. This is often at great personal cost, as the recent EN survey indicates. The fact that the Bible is under constant critique from the popular media and sometimes from intellectuals, is yet another pressure. So we are doing many things to encourage, support and supplement the work of the churches. Here are just a few examples.

Christians need both to be challenged and helped to use the Bible more frequently and fully in all aspects of ministry. So, for the past five years, Bible Society has been involved with Cardiff University in a research project called ‘The Use of the Bible in Pastoral Practice’. The first of three volumes will appear shortly. This deals with how Christians through the ages have made use of the Bible. The following two books will be published over the next two years. One is a challenging look at how the Bible and pastoral work fit together, the other is a work book. These will help Christian leaders and pastoral workers release the riches of Scripture both in the church and beyond.

Hearing the Word

A stimulating resource for Christians is Faith Comes by Hearing. All church attenders are encouraged to listen to the Bible (on tape or CD) over a set period. Through Faith Comes by Hearing the congregation can share together the unfolding story of the New Testament. We have many testimonies to the positive impact that this has had on congregations. This year Y Llais has been launched, the first audio version of the New Testament in the Welsh language. This recording uses the latest Welsh translation which has been produced with the help of evangelical scholars in Wales.

But we also make ourselves available to people by ‘coming to you’. Shortly we will be on tour to introduce a new resource called The Drama of Scripture. Based on a book of the same name, it helps all Christians gain an overview of the whole unfolding drama of Scripture. The publication helps us to see how to live more faithfully and creatively for God in our own day. Many Christians, even some who know their Bibles well, lack that sense of the ‘Big Picture’ which God has given us in the Bible.

Then, of course, each year we provide a variety of resources to focus churches on the centrality of the Bible. This is an issue that can never be stressed too much. Bible Sunday materials this year are based on the theme ‘The Drama of the Bible’, linking with Colossians 3.16, ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…’ (NIV).

Other useful resources available regularly include Reel Issues. This is designed as a discussion resource for outreach, making connections between films and the Bible. And Newswatch, a free weekly digest of stories in the secular and church media.

Negative attitudes

Perhaps the even greater challenge is out there in the culture where negative attitudes and apathy towards the Bible can erode the confidence of Christians too! They also undermine the tasks of evangelism and make building a God-honouring society much more difficult.

Four years ago, God provided us with an opportunity to make a difference here. Bible Society was invited to market the film The Miracle Maker to cinemas. This animation retells the story of Jesus from Luke’s Gospel. We worked with the film company and local churches. Over 400 cinemas showed the film and hundreds of thousands of people saw it. The fact that it was in cinemas gave the story of Jesus ‘credibility’. When young people came to study Jesus in schools they were more inclined to be interested and take it seriously. We also produced a full colour workbook to help teachers get the best out of it.

Education

We are also doing more in education. For example, a major research project about RE in schools has resulted in new curriculum materials. These help ensure that students engage with the subject of God in the Bible. It was found there was a strong tendency to filter God out, so Noah’s Ark was dealt with as an ecology topic! We want children (and teachers) to realise that the Bible is everywhere in our lives, enriching and informing us. A new project will produce study guides. These show how English literature is full of biblical allusions and cannot be understood without knowing something about the Bible.

Working in education is one of four key areas that Bible Society is exploring as ways to reintroduce people to the rich resources of Scripture. The others are politics, media and the arts.

Tale of two cities

Over the past couple of years, we have used media and the arts to advocate for the Bible in two cities, first Nottingham and recently Bristol. Through billboard and bus advertising, along with local radio ads, we have driven home the message that the Bible is relevant. The advertising has shown how the Bible deals with the relationship issues and choices that people make on a day-to-day basis. The use of East Enders, the BBC soap, initially seems strange. But the explanation is simple: many people know about its characters and their stories. They see in this unfolding drama ways to handle their own lives. Once we have gained people’s attention, we can then show how the Bible is God’s resource for helping us live fuller lives.

All of this is done in partnership with the churches. With them we put on around 100 events in Bristol to help ordinary people engage with the Bible’s message. Events included debates about current issues such as democracy and what the Bible might say about this. We also explored the spirituality in films and even told the Parable of the Prodigal Son through circus. There was also more straightforward Bible telling in pubs and other venues where ordinary people would feel comfortable.

This campaign provoked great interest in the local media, leading to radio and TV interviews, as well as many newspaper articles. All of this provides a door of opportunity for churches to build relationships with the people in the community to help them find out about Jesus.

Politics

We also work in politics. We have a Bible Society staff member, Dr. Dave Landrum, working in Parliament. We are very conscious of the work of Christian politicians in the past, such as William Wilberforce. His understanding of the Bible has had an immense impact on so many nations through his work to abolish the slave trade. We believe that politicians need Christ as much as we need godly politicians.

Dave Landrum helps to support and organise Christian events such as the National Prayer Breakfast and Alpha course in Westminster. Also, by building relationships with staff and MPs, he is able to provide them with biblical resources. These help them appreciate what the Bible teaches on many contemporary topics. Naturally it is not our job to tell people what to think, still less how to vote. But we are grateful for the opportunity to connect people to God’s revelation.

All denominations

As the Letter to the Hebrews might suggest, time forbids us to tell of all our work. We are imaginatively and passionately seeking, with God’s guidance, to re-establish the credibility of the Bible in our society. We know this will be the work of decades, not days. But already we see signs of people beginning to open up to the possibility that God’s story may be a plausible way to rethink life issues.

We also know that we need the support of Christians everywhere. We work with all orthodox Christians, whatever denomination. Bible Society, right from its founding, has put the Bible ahead of denominational distinctions. We believe we are called by God to make the Bible available, accessible and credible to people everywhere. This task is big enough to demand that all of God’s people be involved.

We need your prayers and perhaps your skills as a volunteer. Of course, all financial resources we receive are devoted to making the Bible heard around the world. In this sense we are following in the footsteps of Tyndale and also of the Sower who scattered the seed of God’s Word everywhere. So we trust God for the promised harvest.

For further information on the work of Bible Society, see the website at http://www.biblesociety.org.uk

What Bible Society is doing to re-establish the credibility of Scripture in modern society