Workshop - The Role of the Bible in the Church

WORKSHOP - THE ROLE OF THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH
PANEL DISCUSSION

This workshop was a panel discussion featuring:

RANDY FRAZEE - pastor at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio

WILLIAM WEBB - New Testament professor at Heritage Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario

CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT - international director of the Langham Partnership International

Is our proclamation of the gospel too small or too narrow? Is there a danger in expanding it?

FRAZEE - Yes, it has been too small. Most people believe the whole deal is an individual “say the prayer - now you can die and go to heaven.” Misses the communal sense. Misses the eschatological sense - the coming Kingdom - the new heaven and the new earth. Most people just want to buy fire insurance. That’s not what I see in the Scripture.

WEBB - Yes, it has been too small. Another misunderstanding is that you can just live up to a specific list of commands and then you have it covered. Living out the implications of the gospel should cover everything.

WRIGHT - Because sin and evil have touched everything, God’s answer must be as big as the problem. You can’t have a gospel that is too big! You have to see the whole Bible story as God’s action. Paul says God’s plan is the redemption of all of creation, and his people get to be a part of it.

FRAZEE: Even our church mission statement have focused on helping individuals to “cross the line.”

WRIGHT: The thief on the cross is the exception. The gospel leads to transformation.l

FRAZEE: The church reveals the gospel through Kingdom-like living that includes social justice. We give witness by who we are becoming as a community.

WEBB: The very nature of God as revealed to Moses is part of the essence of the gospel. “Gospel” is humanity coming back into close proximity and presence of the glory of God. The new heavens and the new earth it is the absolute presence of God coming down with humanity.

FRAZEE: The danger is that if we mobilize our congregation for action WITHOUT this understanding of the gospel. Some churches fell into this trap - action without gospel.

WRIGHT: That was the divide of the 20th century - the activists went one direction, and the evangelicals retreated to focus only on the Word. There is a Truth - but it is a living thing - you DO the Truth. It is like asking whether breathing or drinking is more important for the human body.

What does it mean to learn to read the Bible as a story (rather than just snippets of truth)?

FRAZEE: It is important that people learn to access the Word themselves, not only rely on a teacher. Many Christians hide between the fact that they don’t even really know the story. Too many of us are soundbite Christians - we have verses we have memorized in a piecemeal way. We also get fascinated with the “feel good” inspiration. So much of the Bible is not. How do we get people to understand the “meta-narrative?” We are taking the congregation through 31 weeks of “The Story” (Zondervan). It is the burden of the preacher/teacher to always include a connection to the overall story.

WRIGHT: I try to do this as well, not in a heavy-handed way. I ask “What story is governing your life?” (See Scot McKnight’s book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible.)

WEBB: We emphasize this now in seminary - it is a must that you see how the story unfolds and how each piece fits together. One course focuses just on that.

FRAZEE: We need to make sure it is not story OR didactic teaching. We need both. Not long ago, we seemed to focus on gifted leadership, not so much the content. What is your practical plan to expose your congregation to the story in a heartfelt, passionate way. Also - the Bible can be a guide - but don’t go first of all into soundbite guides if they don’t understand the larger story. People do this because we have taught them that way.

It seems like we all pick and choose which verses we think still apply. How do we seek a consistent hermeneutic? (Example - I was asked about the Bible passage on tattoos.)

WRIGHT: To decide which commandments still need to be obeyed is really the wrong question. “All Scripture is useful.” If I affirm this I need to affirm it for all of Scripture. The question - “How is it useful?”

WEBB: It is appropriate to ask about the cultural components in the text. What transcends the cultural elements? All texts have a certain amount of covenantal aspect binding on our lives. I try to do this with all Scriptures, not just a few hot-button ones. What we need are helpful principles for addressing ANY text. It’s like an iceberg - most of it lies beneath the water. Much of the meaning in the text lies beneath the surface. With regard to tattoos, the “why” lies beneath the text - because it connects to the practices of pagan religions.

FRAZEE: This is hard, because we haven’t really grown up with the telling of stories. Often hermeneutics is nothing more than good old common sense about the context.

WRIGHT: It is also “common sense” that is governed by the story. There are aspects of the Old Testament to which we would actually be in disobedience if we were to re-adopt them. For example, the abolition of “clean” and “unclean” foods actually ties in to the way the story has unfolded. It symbolized the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, which has now been abolished.

WEBB: But make sure you still keep teaching those parts of the story (like sacrifices) that help us understand the whole Jesus story!

At one time, people did not have access to the written Bible - it was more communal. To what extent should we be lifting up that communal value today?

FRAZEE: We try to make sure people are opening up their Bible and not just using a book with a few verses in it. We need to get back to reading the Scriptures out loud. As opposed to reading in advance, and just discussing our conclusions. Promote that kind of integration as leaders.

WEBB: Some are working on more visual presentations of the Bible. Culture is dying for something visible.

WRIGHT: There are huge sections of the world that are still predominantly oral. So there is a missiological interest in how to use the Bible in oral cultures. Missionaries are trained as storytellers, memorizing 250 key stories of the Bible. In north India, there are remarkable things happening in very poor communities. Many people are coming out of Hinduism. These are premodern cultures. Fairly new converts are sent out as teachers after having been drilled in the overarching biblical story. Their world view has to be reshaped by the new meta-narrative of the Scripture. They can teach the Bible even without one in their hand! I wish we could be anything close to this in the western church!

What is your idea of preaching Christ from every text?

WRIGHT: No - Jesus is not in every text - but every text contributes to the gospel. Some people quickly skip to Jesus - a sort of short cut - where you can read any text and skip to Jesus. Fundamentally this is damaging to the Scripture. Of course he is the coherent center. But that does not mean that every verse is “about” Jesus. That is foolish. It’s like the scenery on a destination. It all leads toward Jesus.

WEBB: On the one hand, No. But in another sense, a big Yes! The new Jesus is the Spirit, and that is part of the story. I need to embrace that part of the story. Where I live is in the era of the Spirit functioning in the community.

FRAZEE: Someone asked me, “Is the point of the story Jesus?” I answered, “Well, yes and no. The point is that God had an idea in creation that got messed up, and the gospel shows us the extent to which God is going to reclaim that vision. Jesus shows us that.” Some key OT stories do have a clear explicit connection, and are even reference in the NT.

WRIGHT: If we do this, we also tend to limit what we teach about Jesus, focusing only on the cross and missing the rest. The personal atoning work of Jesus is gloriously true, but it’s not all there is.

Who are the leading thinkers and theologians in this area? What resources would you recommend?

FRAZEE: “The Promised Plan of God” - by Walter Kaiser. It has been helpful to see each segment of the story and how it all unfolds.

WEBB: In the academic world, we sometimes write to each other unfortunately. I’m thankful for pastors who can communicate to a different audience. Look for an upcoming publication that tries to marry biblical theological ideas into an application commentary series. For me, that is one of the best ways to start tying it all together. “Biblical Theology for Life.”

WRIGHT: When I wrote “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” this was what I tried to do in an accessible way. I find great help from N. T. Wright. He builds with this whole narrative. John Golding ate (sp.) from Fuller. First volume of a trilogy - “Israel’s Gospel.” Even John Stott wrote a book years ago “Understanding the Bible.” I still recommend Fee & Stewart, “How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth.”

Any last comments?

FRAZEE: We talk about the upper story (What God is up to) and the lower story (what is happening in my life). I tend to want God to align his life to my lower story. There are two “stalls” in spiritual life - and the first is getting angry with God (thinking he is committed to resolving all of my issues). (The second stall is getting angry with the church.) We try to help people adjust THEIR lives to God’s upper story rather than vice versa. This is what Joseph could see in order to forgive his brothers.

WEBB: Whatever the suffering, our lives are tying to the greater story. That’s what gives us meaning. I have the occasion to trust God.