{"id":4611,"date":"2018-05-04T18:16:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T18:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=4611"},"modified":"2018-09-26T18:21:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T18:21:10","slug":"meeting-promotes-conversation-about-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2018\/meeting-promotes-conversation-about-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting promotes conversation about biblical inspiration and authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nMay\u00a04,\u00a02018<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Worship center at the \u201cBiblical Authority Conversations\u201d on April 23-25 in Ohio. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat kind of authority does the Bible have for us?\u201d asked Karoline Lewis, one of the keynote presenters at the \u201cBiblical Authority Conversations\u201d on April 23-25. The Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, she joined with Jason Barnhart, director of Brethren Research and Resourcing for the Brethren Church\u2019s denominational office, in leading a group of about 100 Church of the Brethren ministers and lay people at a meeting called by the midwestern districts.<\/p>\n

With an overall theme of \u201cThe Bible I Cherish and that Challenges,\u201d Lewis and Barnhart led the group through times of instruction followed by times of \u201ctable talk\u201d in which participants engaged in lively conversation. Facilitating table conversation, and giving background on Brethren heritage and practice regarding the Bible, were Bethany Seminary professors Denise Kettering Lane and Dan Ulrich. Lane also reviewed the 1979 Annual Conference paper on biblical authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to say the Bible has authority…but what kind?\u201d Lewis pressed the group that gathered at the Hueston Woods state park in western Ohio. Often what happens in conversations around biblical authority is the dominance of an unquestioning attitude characterized by the statement: \u201cThe Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.\u201d Lewis noted this approach as \u201ca circular argument,\u201d basically that \u201cthe Bible is authoritative because it\u2019s the Bible.\u201d She invited the group to ask why and how the Bible is authoritative. She and Barnhart explained various approaches to biblical authority, various understandings of how to read the Bible, and demonstrated a reading of a passage from her favorite gospel, the book of John.<\/p>\n

Among the questions posed for conversation in small group at round tables: What is in the Bible and what parts do you care about? When was the last time you really thought about what the Bible means to you? What kind of authority does the Bible have for you, personally? How do you define and understand that authority?<\/p>\n

Barnhart led a session on cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias, noting that each person has picked up attitudes from the popular culture and inevitably \u201cwe read the Bible through those lenses,\u201d he said. People read the Bible in part \u201cbecause of some experience I\u2019ve had in my life. That experience has informed how you read the Bible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem comes when our biases aren\u2019t checked.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also asked the group to consider what to do when encountering people who read the Bible differently, calling it a key Christian witness. \u201cWhen we encounter people who read things differently we get this thing called cognitive dissonance…. I\u2019m looking at the same text as you are looking at, and I am not reading that at all. It is in that moment that our witness really begins. You don\u2019t have much of a witness when you are alone reading the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
District executive Beth Sollenberger (left) hands the microphone to keynote presenter Karoline Lewis at the \u201cBiblical Authority Conversations\u201d on April 23-25 in Ohio. At right is Jason Barnhart who worked with Lewis to present sessions on the overall theme of \u201cThe Bible I Cherish and that Challenges.\u201d Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBiblical Authority Conversations\u201d was sponsored by the midwestern districts of the Church of the Brethren and planned by their district executives: Beth Sollenberger, South Central Indiana District and Michigan District; Kevin Kessler, Illinois and Wisconsin District; Torin Eikler, Northern Indiana District; Kris Hawk, Northern Ohio District; and David Shetler, Southern Ohio District. Also supporting the event was the Ministry Excellence Project. The event was hosted at Hueston Woods, a state park lodge and conference center in western Ohio.<\/p>\n

Michaela Alphonse of Miami (Fla.) First Church of the Brethren preached for the opening worship service, and Ted Swartz of Ted and Co. performed \u201cThe Big Story\u201d for an evening entertainment.<\/p>\n

At the end of two days of intense conversation, some consensus seemed to emerge from the leadership of Lewis, Barnhart, Ulrich, Kettering Lane, and the district executives: The Bible is important to Brethren. The Bible has a lot to teach us today. Reading and studying the Bible together with others is crucial to our faith.<\/p>\n

Some questions rose to the top as well: Are our disagreements with each other in the church still about biblical interpretation, inspiration, and authority? Or are they about how we have allowed the culture to dictate the way we approach the Bible?<\/p>\n

— Frank Ramirez and Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat kind of authority does the Bible have for us?\u201d asked Karoline Lewis, one of the keynote presenters at the \u201cBiblical Authority Conversations\u201d on April 23-25. The Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, she joined with Jason Barnhart, director of Brethren Research and Resourcing for the Brethren Church\u2019s denominational office, in leading a group of about 100 Church of the Brethren ministers and lay people at a meeting called by the midwestern districts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1273,1304],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-4611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spiritual-life","tag-training"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4614,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4611\/revisions\/4614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4611"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}