Theme 1: A Place to Start

In this theme…

a. What is your favourite Bible story?

b.       What is the Bible, anyway?

c.       What is the Big Picture message of the Bible?

e.       Why are there so many translations of the Bible?

f.        Did God write the Bible? What does ‘inspired’ mean?

g.       Why is the Bible so special to Anglicans?

1. You’ve heard our presenters share their choices. What would you choose as your favourite today? Do one (or two) stand out for you?

2. How did you choose your favourite? One you’ve recently read or heard? One that means something because of its message? A favourite character or moment in the Bible? A story that has a place in your life, historically?

3. Why not share your choice today with someone else? And ask them to answer the same question!

1. Identify the different formats of Bible that you are familiar with, book, app, online text. Do you have a preferred format? Is there a Bible in your past for which you have a particularly strong attachment? If so, what does/did it look like, where did you get if from? What made it special to you?

2. Greg Jenks suggests that the Bible is ‘this amazing gift to us from our spiritual ancestors’.  How does it add to your experience of reading the Bible, to think of it as a gift to you from your ancestors?

3. There is a suggestion that some parts of the Bible are more useful than others, as in life, deep spiritual learning often comes wrapped up in ordinariness. How do you respond to that suggestion?

1. ‘God is, God created, God is with us, God is for us and nothing can separate us from the love of God.’

2. The Archbishop’s summary would make a great slogan. If you worked at ‘Big Picture Advertising’ how could you use this to advertise the Bible, to encourage others to engage with it?

3. Does this match with your understanding of the Bible and its purpose? How would you describe the big picture of the Bible? Does it have a unifying idea in your experience? Does it matter to you if it doesn’t?

1. See what you can find about the Dead Sea Scrolls. What interests you about the way they look, and what they contain?

2. Discuss the idea that there may be more to discover about the texts that make up the Bible as we know it.

3. Imagine you are on an editorial committee for a new translation of the Bible. What issues arise for the team when archaeologists discover new, authentic texts?

1. Can you think of a time when you were inspired to do something? What was it that inspired you?

2. Have you heard people say ‘The inspired word of God’?  There are a few angles! For example, one idea suggests God controlled human beings, using them essentially as typewriters to ensure particular words made it onto the page. What are some of the other ways ‘inspired word of God’ that can be interpreted? Do some research to find out more...

3. How do YOU interpret the word ‘inspired’ in terms of methods of biblical authorship?

1. This could be an ongoing idea, engage your family in this collection! Perhaps start a list on the fridge door and encourage everyone to add their ultimate questions.

2. Choose one or two and test the theory that the Bible contains ideas about life’s ultimate questions.  Find stories and characters or themes in the Old and New Testament and see what Scripture has to offer.

3. Anglicans engage with tradition, reason and scripture, with scripture as the ultimate authority. In what circumstances have you seen this in action?

4. Open a Prayer Book and notice the way Scripture is used throughout Anglican liturgy. In what ways do you understand the idea that ‘the words we offer are the words we believe’?