What’s in the Bible?
It’s simple question, really – or at least, it may seem so on the surface. The Bible is 66 books, the inspired Word of God, the story of God and his great rescue plan for humanity. It starts with a garden in Genesis and ends with the hope of God’s kingdom yet to come in Revelation.
And yet the way we answer that question – What’s in the Bible? – can vary widely. Our answers say a lot about who we are and what we believe, about the church and community we call home, and about our relationship with God.
When we set out five years ago to create a community around the What’s in the Bible? DVD series, we knew we were embarking on a challenging journey. And yet we were – and still are! – determined to foster a conversation about the Bible. Our prayer daily is that as your family engages with Buck Denver and Friends on their journey through God’s Word, you begin to have conversations about God and the Bible in your home.
A natural extension of those conversations happens online – through our blog, our Facebook page, and our Twitter account. In fact, What’s in the Bible? has more than 865,000 fans on Facebook. Wow! That’s almost 1 million people who have “liked” our page, many of whom engage with our posts on a regular basis.
We love our Facebook community! But like in any group of people, there are bound to be disagreements … especially when it comes to the Bible or theology!
And so sometimes, when we post a blog or a link on Facebook, people in our community want to express their thoughts about it. Sometimes they do so in a healthy, kingdom-building way, whether they agree or disagree. But sometimes, comments are unhealthy, critical – or even downright mean.
In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul writes about the body of Christ. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of One Spirit. […] But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.”
We love our community, this group of Christ-followers that has united online with a mutual cause of sharing the Bible with our families. But as a community that represents the broader body of Christ, we are called to treat each other with kindness, gentleness and respect. We are called, as Paul says, to have “the same care for one another” – the same care the God has for us. Paul instructs us to avoid division, but he does so in the context of highlighting our different gifts! He wants us to know that we are all different, but we are still united for the cause of Christ.
We want our community to remember that when responding online to posts, videos, blogs and comments. You may disagree with how someone else interprets a certain Scripture, or you may not celebrate holidays like Christmas or Easter, but we ask you to engage respectfully and with the kindness that Jesus models for us throughout the Gospels.
What’s in the Bible? does not identify with a specific denomination. In fact, through our DVDs and all of our content, we hope to provide the foundation for your family to start conversations and ask big questions about the Bible and God. Your family will answer those questions in different ways than some other What’s in the Bible? families, and that’s more than ok – it’s how it should be. But when those conversations move online, our hope and prayer is that the online What’s in the Bible? family can behave with respect and kindness toward each other to build up the beautiful, diverse, beloved body of Christ.
