Journeying Deeper into God’s Word

About six weeks ago I came before God seeking direction on what I should do next after I finish as CEO of Bible Society New Zealand (click here for the blog post on this).  I felt God leading me to prepare for the next big step, to draw close to Him through facing my sin and journeying deeper into the Bible.  So there and then I took the decision to spend more time reading my Bible, to journey deeper into the Word, and what a journey it has been!

Each day I spend around an hour and a half  reflecting on a passage, usually looking at the Greek or Hebrew, maybe consulting a commentary, but mostly praying that the Holy Spirit would teach me.  And it has been an amazing time of discovery: the blunt challenge of taking the Bible and my faith seriously and not playing at it.

And then three weeks ago while I was head down in my study, I felt God leading me to invite others  to become part of my journey.. not so much to write a devotion for them, but more to invite them to look over my shoulder at the conversation I was having with God.

So I started a page on Facebook (click here) and for those not in Facebook, a blog (click here) where I post my short reflections. So if you would like to receive my reflections by email click here.

The style of my reflection is very personal, about relationship rather than intellectual observation as I seek to journey deeper to God.

I invite you to join me on the journey!  God bless, Mark

.

simply wow!

WOW! Big news! The Bible page  I started on Facebook has just passed 350,000 fans and is growing fast! Over the past week it has grown by 36% and is presently the 10th fastest growing vanity URL page and the fastest growing Religious Organization page on Facebook this week.

Given its size it is no surprise it is now getting a bit of heat from trouble makers leaving deeply offensive language on the page, which has led to a beefing up of security.

The growth has also led me to start the Facebook Ministry Team who are commited to responding to prayer needs, offering support, and being a wonderful witness on the Bible and Praying People pages.

Let me know if you are interested in being part of this ministry!

Head over to: The Bible to check it out!

Growth of interest in the Bible? Huh?

I believe the world is going through a radical change brought about by the digital revolution.  This new landscape will and in part, does require a new approach to doing ministry and business.  One of the changes is the shift from expecting people to come to us (whether a church building, website, or a particular product) to us going to them.  So a matter of finding out where the community is and then getting involved in that community.

And one such community is Facebook.

So a number of months ago I founded The Bible page on Facebook where in becoming a fan, people receive a portion of Scripture each day.  The number of fans has just passed 100,000 and it is growing at more than 7,000 a day. And not only that but people comment on the Scripture, ask questions, answer questions, seek prayer, pray for each other and share the most amazing testimonies.  In the past week nearly 8,000 people have interacted with the page.

So if you get a moment head over and check out this amazing burgeoning Bible focused community of sorts by clicking here.

Bible Engagement Online

I have been doing a lot of thinking about Bible engagement:  how can we encourage people to engage with the Bible?  In my paper: The Bible in the Digital Space (1120) I outline the importance of church attendance, with more church attendance equating to more Bible engagement.  I offer that we need to go where people are as well as expecting people to come to to us, to a physical church building.   And an obvious place to find people is online.

One simple example is The Bible page I started on Facebook where I post a short passage of scripture which appears on the wall of each of the presently more than 30,000 fans.  A number of people then comment on the text and on each others comments, offering prayers, thoughts and affirmation.   In terms of being an effective engagement tool, my sense is that the Facebook Bible page is on the right path, but not quite there yet. Spent some time yesterday chatting with Stephen Opie, Bible Engagement Advocate for Bible Society New Zealand, thinking through how we might create an engagement resource within Facebook.  And we are not alone in exploring these sorts of questions.  A number of agencies are creating tools to encourage Bible reading in the face of shocking engagement statistics.  The American Bible Society have just recently launched an excellent website called Engage the Word well worth checking out @ engage the word

And in October, Stephen and I are leading a think tank called, Scripture Engagement in Post-Christian Societies which is part of the World Wide Scripture Engagement Consultation, where such questions will be explored and hopefully some concrete ideas formed.

Another organisation who is engaging well with the challenges of Bible reading is  Scripture Union - England and Wales. While I was in Durham I caught up with Darren Hill, their Digital Content Manager  who shared with me that their online Bible reading resource, WordLive was about to get an overhaul.. and this has now happened, with the new look WordLive being launched today.  It is a quality resource offering daily Bible passages in a number of formats: podcast, mobile, email etc..  the format is clean and easy to use.  I particularly like the About God section.. very cool presentation.  So big congrats to the team over at  Scripture Union - England and Wales, well worth not only checking it out but signing up.  Head to: WordLive.

Screen shots: Continue reading »

God Speaks My Language!

Today and yesterday are auspicious days in the NZ Church Calendar: Bible Sabbath/Sunday where churches around NZ recognize a particular aspect of Bible Society’s work.  This year it is translation.  For approximately 350 million people worldwide, there is no Bible or even a single book of the Bible in their language - the Bible is a book that only comes in someone else’s language.

Some of the facts around translation:

There are 6,909 languages spoken in the world. There are 2,479 of these languages with all or part of the Bible - for many, that means just a book of the Bible or maybe the four Gospels. There are 451 languages that have a full Bible - 13 more than last year. There are 1,185 languages that have a full New Testament. There were 71 new Bible translation projects begun this year. Most of the translation work is done by native speakers of the language they are translating into. All Bible translations under the aegis of Bible Society use the original Greek and Hebrew as the base for all translations.

It takes a minimum of 12 years to complete a translation of the full Bible. Bible Societies around the world are currently involved in 650 Bible translation projects.

For a free resource kit click here.

And check out this inspiring video about Bible Translation:
.

.
For more info click here.

Video Presentation of ‘The Bible in the Digital Space’

CODEC have uploaded a video of my presentation.. see the first of them below:
.

.
To watch the rest of my presentation click below…
.
Continue reading »

The Bible in the Digital Space

Today I presented my paper, The Bible in the Digital Space at the Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium at St. John’s, Durham University.  To download a copy click here: The Bible in the Digital Space (1120)

Note:  Can you let me know if you can’t download this!  Thanks.

Video Stream Address

The Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium is about to start.. looking forward to it!  I am presenting my paper,’ The Bible in the Digital Space’ at 9am, Tuesday the 14th (UK time).  To watch it live online head to:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/codec-vidiblog   to find out what time this is where you live click here.

Is the Bible Good For You?

I came across some interesting research by Leslie Francis which sought to find out whether regular reading of the Bible affects the chance of taking drugs amongst 13-15 year olds.The first thing Francis found was that only 2% of those surveyed read the Bible daily, with 66% reporting they never read the Bible and 29% saying they read it occasionally. This is supported by research by Bible Society New Zealand , although a different age group (15-24 year olds) it equally portrays an appalling level of Bible engagement. Francis’ research displayed that if the young person believes in God and regularly reads the Bible, they are more likely to adopt a more negative attitude toward drug use than young people who believe in God but do not read the Bible.  Francis also discovered that,

While believers who attend church and believers who do not attend church hold similar attitudes toward substance use, believers who read the Bible hold a less tolerant attitude toward substance use than believers who do not read the Bible. In other words, Bible reading is clearly associated with taking a firmer stand against substance use. (p.55-56)

In the US nearly 10% of 12 to 17 year olds use an illicit drug, which aside from the risk it poses to personal health, relationships with parents and peers, it places the young person at considerable risk:

In the United States, approximately three-fourths of all deaths among persons aged 10–24 years result from only four causes: motor-vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide. Results from the 1999 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey demonstrate that numerous high school students engage in behaviors that increase their likelihood of death from these four causes…[including alcohol and illicit drug use]” Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), Centers for Disease Control, Risk Youth Behavior Surveillance.

What sort of effect could we see if the number of young people regularly reading the Bible grew from 2%?  This isn’t about artificially ramming Bible rules down their throat, but of exposing them to the transformative Word of God, giving them a biblical world view that values health and life.

What do you think?

………

Ref:  Leslie J Francis.  (2002). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIBLE READING AND ATTITUDE TOWARD SUBSTANCE USE AMONG 13-15 YEAR OLDS. Religious Education, 97(1), 44-60. 

READ ALL ABOUT IT: Bible reading on the decline

Bible reading is not what it should be within the western church. As problems facing the church go, this is a whopping biggie.  Recent research shows that only 11% of Christians read their Bible every day and more than half of Christians report that the Bible doesn’t influence them.

In response I have written a short paper which can be accessed by clicking here: Shining Like Stars Coming under Gods Will (537)

Facebook fan? Get involved by joining the group:  Bible Crisis - Time to Act   see:  click here.