scripture in mission conversation

8/8/2019 Scripture in Mission Conversation

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Scripture in Mission

Restoring the Bibles Missional Role in the Familyby Paul C J Burgess,Bible Families

Introduction:

Recently retired from 24 years Seminary teaching in Pakistan, my wife and

I have launched a fledgling fellowship calledBible Families to combat the

increasing Biblical illiteracy stunting growth in Christian communities in

both Pakistan and the West.

It began with a book Selina Hastings fine Childrens Illustrated Bible

discovered in the Sale section of a Glasgow branch of W H Smith. Upon

studying this book the idea occurred to me that, apart from making a great

gift for our grand-daughter, it could serve an excellent double purpose of

promoting regular family prayers amongst my former students (now young

pastors throughout Pakistan) while ensuring a balanced grasp of the BigStory of the Bible itself as each father proceeded through these retoldcontributing stories with his family.

Aprojectwas begun to obtain 30 copies (at much reduced price) and send

them out with various willing friends travelling to Pakistan and place them

with 30 families. (We began with pastors because there seems little

likelihood of success with lay people if their pastors were not doing it

also!) A year later this March we visited 24 of these families are were

impressed by their commitment to the vision of each father reading the

Bible regularly to his children and the family praying together.

Further Bible Families were established among Pakistani families settled in

America as a result of a visit there in May for a Missionary Reunion. Morerecently a family is joining in Sweden. We now pray forBible Families to

grow into a movementof Gods people rediscovering the joy and

fruitfulness of family prayer life around Gods Word. The challenge is to

engage Western parents as well as Pakistani families.

Response to Preparatory Report

Reading the Lausanne Cape Town report Three Major Priorities InEradicating Bible Poverty has stimulated the following comments that

pitch Western attitudes against Eastern values (as experienced in Pakistan).

I will present these responses under four headings:

1. The Situation2. Its Causes

3. Its Consequences

4. Working towards its Solution

The Situation: UK

Biblical Poverty How ironic that the very Sunday night we go to a

venue advertised as one ofLausanne Cape Towns 600 Global Sites, we

find the Bible Teaching consists of a slide show of a church membersworld tour, with only passing reference to a Bible passage! This thin diet

was on offer at a church whose motto is Making Christ Central in

Peoples Lives!

Why do the Scriptures not transform lives where and when

they are available? This is the key question pastors and local

church leaders should be asking themselves in the West.The

church we attend has been blessed with more Bibles in the pews

than any other I have ever attended, but that doesnt make it a

transformed church!

The Situation: Pakistan

Western adults and youth are mostly ignorant of the simplest facts

found in the Scriptures Biblical illiteracy is not just prevalent in the

West. In Pakistan Adnan Sandhu, once, during a family visit as a recently

graduated student, was so troubled by a teenage relatives ignorance of

basic facts about Jesus, that he founded thePakistan Sunday School


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Movement., Now, 8 years later, it is Pakistans largest Sunday School

organisation. Horror can stimulate action!

Its Causes

What blocks or hinders the Scriptures from bringing about

transformation?

A busy lifestyle

Busy with work, family, church responsibilities and entertainment

Why has this busy lifestyle affected westerners in a way not so true of

easterners? Thus, for example, the projectBible has spread quickly

amongst Pakistani families in Pakistan (its origin), America and now

Sweden, but has not gained commitments from indigenous UK families.

Secularism. How far has secularism affected the West more than

the East?

The TV cult engaging too much time and infiltrating a secular

mind-set.

Individualism resisting the communal demands of family life,

leaving no opportunity for praying and study of Gods Word. as a family

community. In Scotland Rabbie Burns idea of the Cotters Saturday Night

time of prayers and Bible reading is dismissed now as a thing of the past.

Lack of challenge from the pulpit about family responsibilities

(often because the pastors themselves do not make time out of their busyministry schedule to attend to their own families spiritual life.)

And The barriers where I live?

No interest in Bible study by the majority of church members

Its perceived irrelevancy as simply a minority academic interest

Lack of regular experience of sound expository preaching with the

result that any spiritual wisdom and guidance seems to come from the

sermon itself rather than the living Word of God authenticating and

empowering the sermon. Human homilies rather than authoritative

preaching!

Its Consequences

Biblically impoverished, because the Scriptures are not having the

transforming impact on their lives that God intends. Have we so

dwelt upon the causes leading to biblical poverty (busyness, secular

pressures, etc) that we have neglected to sound loud and clear the

consequences of such neglect of Gods Word in family and personal life?

Do pastors warn their people of thepoverty of their spiritual lives,

highlight the lack of any differentialin the quality of their daily living,

challenge thefeebleness of their witness, and, perhaps saddest of all,

explain the loss of their children to a secular mind-set?

Two key purposes of the Scriptures Jesus summed up memorably

the two effects of Scripture (salvation and training) when he quoted

Scripture itself:

It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every

word that comes from the mouth of God.

Those who fail to get this message of Jesus to live by regular feeding on

the Word of God cannot rest assured of life here or hereafter, but willshrivel up and die.

Contributions to its Solution

Start young!

It was from infancythat Timothy had known the holy Scriptures

Young families with their first new born baby are most likely to respond


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to the challenge of committing to regular family prayers. TheBible

Families representative in America started to read a Baby Bible Storybook

to her baby from the day after he was born. Now three, he knows all the

stories by heart and is eager to tackle an older Childrens Bible.

Another question? How can we get Western families to return to the

practice of their grand parents of regular family prayers and study of

Gods Word, in an age when individual members rarely come together toeat, let alone pray?

Support with intercessory prayer!

Timothys grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice had sincere

faith, the same faith lived on in Timothy can we assume that

Timothy and his mother were prayed for by grandma Lois? The additional

ingredient of a close friend / relative praying for a family must increase

the likelihood of that family persevering in family devotions. A family in

Pakistan has joinedBible Families because her sister is a member andappreciating the value of Family devotions. A 10 year old from a Bible

Family in Kashmir has said she wants when she grows up to teach her

children the Bible; now in a boarding school she is already teaching

younger girls in her hostel from the Childrens Illustrated Bible (suitablefor 8-13yrs).

Start with the pastors in training!

No one has taught them how to feed themselves or how to enter into a

time around the Scriptures together with others. In Pakistan wetaught Seminary students how to exegete passages for preaching and for

group Bible Study. Scripture can only impact on lives that are open toengaging with it, whether through answering questions about the text itself

or of the issues that it raises.

Provide training in congregations!

They would never consider giving time to reading the Scriptures

unless someone helped them see a reason to do so. Testimony of how

a Scripture has helped the believer is the only likely way an outsider will

see a reason to study the Bible himself or herself. Thus priority must be

given to training believers in Bible study.

A challenge for Christians to connect with the Scriptures and find the

meaning and relevance of the text for their lives A simple course onbasic hermeneutics (the principle steps in interpreting a Scripture) should

be available for church members in every congregation. Pastors should

give reasons for why this is important and hold regular classes every

year! Perhaps a questionnaire on: What things currently have an impact

on your life?- prioritizing a list might be challenging!

Invite to a one-off trial study!

Many believe that biblical truths, whether about the world or

morality, are just opinions from an earlier era with no universalclaims on human beings. You can either appeal to apologetic

arguments to show the inadequacyof such philosophy, orinvite to try

out a study of a Scripture and test whether or not it speaks as indeed

Gods living Word. The latter certainly is a step of faith for the one makingthe invitation. (There is no method of evangelism or education that ensures

automatic results, for God is sovereign while man is wilful!)

Dont dismiss the little children approach!

How could Peter and Angela come to value and then learn to sharethe grand overarching story of the Bible with Lucy and Julie? If we

believe in the power of Gods Word. passing a copy of that Word is thefirst step to appreciation of the overarching story of the Bible.Bible

Families began with a Childrens Illustrated Bible of Bible stories given

out to families in Pakistan, mainly in pastoral ministry, with the aim of

providing those families with a solid over-all understanding of Gods Story

of Redemption. Tom Houston, late of World Vision, told me in a private

conversation, that when Russia first allowed Childrens Bibles (but not


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proper Bibles! into the country a revival started that so impressed the

British and Foreign Bible Society of the day that it ceased its policy of only

publishing the pure Word embedded in English and other translations of

the Bible and started to include Childrens Bible Storybooks.) When last

year I showed an un-churched fellow patient in hospital a copy of the CIB,

he was so impressed he said, This would be good for me, I think! and a

few months later emailed me to tell me that after a long search he had

eventually bought one. We still keep in touch. Indeed The Spirit is notlimited or restricted by any environment but crosses all barriers.

Encourage mutual encouragement!

Meeting with others holds each person accountable to the other

members of the group. The regularity of the meeting allows each

person to give space to the Scriptures in his or her life. Most Bible

study cells are valued also for the degree of meaningful fellowship that

allows its members to share burdens in their lives that relate (however

tenuously!) to the passage being discussed. Sharing each others burdensaround Gods Word is surely an important building block in the local

church. SomeBible Families mothers have said how much they appreciate

the idea ofanother family praying for their children as they grow up.Intercessory prayer should go hand in hand with listening to Gods Word.

Bible Readings led by the minister before a Prayer Meeting, while no

doubt having their place, do not fulfil this deeper ministry ofmutual

encouragement under the Word.

A final word aboutBible Families

This fellowship operates at different levels of involvement.

Distribution of the Childrens Illustrated Bible. While priority is

given to the household of faith, occasional Bibles are given as present to

un-churched friends and relatives, though always where there is a strong

continuing connection and under-girded with prayer.

Active reading of the Childrens Illustrated Bibleby a child. This

occurs where the child is keen to read, but lacks committed parental

leading. The CIB appeals greatly to 10s-13s eager for facts.

Family prayers led by the head of the household. Where children

are very young we encourage the use of other Bible Storybooks for

younger children.

Prayer support from another family close to the first family.

This is considered a crucial factor in the success of a Bible Family

connection. The knowledge that another family cares enough to pray

regularly for your children is a strong incentive to maintain regular family

devotions.

Sharing the vision with another family. This provides a chain

reaction that extends the influence ofBible Families in a truly missional

way.

Knowing that all mission is Gods Mission means that we start with

ourselves, allowing His Word to have its effect upon our families in orderthat our families may become his agents of mission as a result.

More information can be had from [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

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