Becoming Students of Scripture?

One of the books around which we'll discuss this year at Prelude is Scot McKnight's latest, The Blue Parakeet. At the very beginning of this book, McKnight recounts a seminal moment in his life, while in high school at a camp, where his vocation crystallized for him upon praying that God would fill him with God's Spirit. There, McKnight says, he "unexpectedly became a Bible student with a voracious appetite to read."(1) The Bible became this book in which McKnight found incredibly rich worlds open to him, where surprises abounded. Surprised by the sudden interest in all things Scriptural, McKnight's life takes a trajectory to where McKnight has gone on to become somewhat renowned for his study of the Bible. And it all began at camp, with a prayer. The scope of McKnight's reach in biblical studies demands that we see the activity of God's Spirit in this call. Even so, something of interest, and instructive for our ministries with young people, pops out in McKnight's biography. 

I can remember something similar happening with one of our students during a mission trip. For whatever reason, God's Spirit had prodded her towards a deep love for Scripture. She immersed herself in the Bible. We observed and noted this development in her spiritual formation. Our encouragement was of the type, "Cool. Keep reading." Contrast this with the response from McKnight's youth leaders:

Some of my former Sunday school teachers were as surprised as I was by what was happening. My youth pastor encouraged me to read serious books, and he also modeled a way to study the Bible by teaching Romans to our youth group. He also suggested I learn Greek, which, because he had a spare beginning Greek book, I began. I had no idea what I was doing, but I liked languages, so I plugged away, never knowing quite what to expect. My father gave me some books to read, like John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. I devoured books. My teachers observed that I read books for class, not because I had to, but to learn and engage in conversation. (2)

Notice the communal response to McKnight's newfound love of Scripture. First, his Sunday school teachers took notice. Now, who knows if their surprise was sort of a backhanded compliment, but nonetheless they took notice. Second, his youth pastor pushed him. He modeled for McKnight an approach to Scripture that went beyond mere reading to actual study. He further situated that study in the context of their youth community, so that presumably they may begin to bounce ideas off of one another, and become co-learners in their communal conversation with Scripture. In addition, his youth pastor encouraged him to dig deeper into the language of Scripture, in this case Greek. Third, McKnight's father gave him other books to supplement his reading of Scripture. In doing this, he implicitly helped his son see how his newfound appetite for Scripture was situated in a tradition of interpreters. That is, McKnight was part of a tradition of readers, and as such, his engagement with Scripture could be enriched by listening to voices other than his own.

Here is the thrust of what I'm getting at. I'm not insinuating that all our students who somehow acquire an intense interest in Scripture are the next Scot McKnight, but I am saying that McKnight is who he is today partly because he had this community teaching him how to read Scripture (and likely how to let Scripture read him, hence the Romans study). We are, far too often, content that our students seem to be reading Scripture regularly. It is a good thing when our students are captivated by Scripture, but it is our job and calling as those whom God has entrusted to help shepherd and guide these students, to help them learn to really become students of Scripture. This requires that we, ourselves, are students of Scripture. Do we really dig into Scripture ourselves? Do we situate ourselves in a community that will push us as co-learners? Do we supplement our reading of Scripture with the voices of those past and present, aiding us in our encounter with the Bible?

I confess, these questions bite as I write them. It is part of the reason we are devoting such attention to Scripture at Prelude this year. Will we, together, become true students of Scripture, learning to read and be formed by God's address therein? If this is what we desire for our students, then it is what we must become ourselves.

=====================================================================================
(1) Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 10.

(2) Ibid.

Erik Leafblad