Scripture Engagement: Power, Poetry and People in South Asia

“Build me up, Lord, keep me firmly rooted
So the truth I’ve found doesn’t become diluted
Let me abound in grace and wisdom
So I may not concede to a worldly system
Lord, make me stronger, take me farther and deeper,
Establish my steps, so I may be a way keeper”
[Excerpt from poem by ST – Artwork by Timaandra Wijesuriya]

You might recognise the verses that inspired ST to write this poem!

ST is a member of the IFES South Asia Scripture Engagement Multipliers Network which is made up of student ministry staff and graduate volunteers. Together we explore how God engages the hearts and minds of South Asians through his Word.

At a recent gathering of the Network, we reflected on Paul’s letter to the Colossians and its impact on us today. We noticed the underlying themes of power and wisdom in the letter and how Paul helps the small Christian community in Colossae to recognize Jesus as the true source of power and wisdom.

This sparked a discussion on where power rests in South Asian society (political entities, family relationships, social structures, memories and interpretations of history, etc.) and how we witness to Jesus and God’s kingdom in the midst of this reality.

We recognized the importance of letting the word of God dwell amongst us in a communal setting (Colossians 3:16) and how God uses those conversations to reveal the fault lines in our communities as well as in areas of our personal lives that need transformation.

For South Asian Christians – who form small, minority communities in their respective countries – this experience was both challenging and encouraging. In shame-oriented and violent cultures, airing personal and community issues presents a challenge. However, the witness of Paul, whose imprisonment by Roman authorities did not stop him proclaiming the universal Lordship of Jesus, was deeply encouraging.

As is evident in ST’s poem, itself inspired by reading Paul’s letter to the Colossians, God’s living Word continues to speak and minister to us in our various situations.

In the coming year, the IFES South Asia Scripture Engagement Multipliers hope to continue to meet, reflect on, and listen to God’s direction through his Word. In our gatherings, we want to spend time exploring Scripture engagement in terms of:

• Creative expression – exploring the interaction between the Scriptures and artistic expression (poetry, song, dance, drama, digital media etc.)
• Spiritual formation – exploring how the Scriptures lead us into greater personal intimacy with God and maturity in Christ
• Contextual engagement – exploring how the Scriptures speaks into the issues present in South Asian societies and mindsets

We’d value your prayers as we take these next steps together… and encourage you to share in this journey by reading Colossians in your contexts!

Yohan Abeynaike
Scripture Engagement Lead – IFES South Asia

Engaging Seekers in the Word

When Zhenya went to a graduation ceremony in the capital city of her Eurasian home country, she noticed the presence of hundreds of international students.They’d been living there for 5 years and were now about to depart, probably without having heard the gospel…

Her desire to reach them with the good news of Jesus seemed an impossible goal. But 12 years on, thanks to the Lord’s direction and provision, a thriving International Student ministry now exists – including students from other sensitive countries.

At the heart of this ministry are hospitality and the Word of God. I asked Zhenya a few questions so we can hear more:

1. How do you study the Bible with international students?

We now have 25-40 students who cram into a small apartment each week – we make food together, eat, and study the Scriptures. It’s really important that the students feel safe and can ask their questions, debate, and also respectfully disagree in the context of friendship.

For our inductive Bible studies, the passage is printed out in all the languages of the students attending and this makes the Word accessible to everyone. After the main leader has asked questions about the text, we split into small (language-based) groups with student leaders to help facilitate a discussion.

It is very important that we ask questions. The leader must ask good questions that guide everyone through the passage and the students must be able to ask their questions of the text, to discover for themselves what is there, and be challenged to keep looking!

2. Over the years, what have you found to be important when studying the Word with students from different cultural contexts?

I’d say there are three main things:

a. Stories- students learn from stories! We mostly study the Gospels and, sometimes, Old Testament stories about the ‘heroes’. The main task is to allow the text to speak for itself and for students to be introduced to Jesus.

b. Visuals – In a multilingual, multi-cultural environment, it is so important to visualise the story; e.g., videos that illustrate the story, students acting out the passage, drawing pictures, and retelling the story.

c. Good real-world applications: the leaders need to guide students well, drawing on what students have said and helping them to see what the passages mean in their lived experiences.

3. Do you have a testimony of how God’s Word has impacted a particular student?

‘Maria’ from a small Muslim country is one example. In her own words, ‘Maria’ thought she already knew the truth, and was curious about her Christian friends who believed wholeheartedly in Jesus. Still believing in her god, she started to discover the truth of Jesus as she attended the Bible studies. But after two years of this, she realised that she believed in one god and was studying about another… and ‘Maria’ knew she couldn’t sit on the fence forever.

Week by week, she continued to discover more about Jesus through the Scriptures, until ‘Maria’ reached the point where she started to follow Him.

Reflecting on John 10, she testifies that:

“I was able to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice… and He has guided me to this decision.”

Paula
IFES Associate Secretary for Scripture Engagement

Engaging the Challenges of Our World

Ricardo Borges, IFES Secretary for Scripture Engagement, interviews Wilson Kiuna, from Kenya, member of the IFES global network of Scripture Engagement multipliers

Ricardo and Wilson

Why might it be important to ask questions of Scripture in the light of challenges we face in this world, such as the issue of politics?

We need to ask questions of Scripture primarily because the Bible is the revelation of God’s mind about the whole of reality; it guides how God’s people are to live, interpret, and wrestle with the issues and challenges of everyday life – across time, space, and culture (Deut. 32:47; 2 Tim 3:16-17). I also see in the Bible a humbling truth: the almighty God, who dwells in unapproachable light, yet invites us to [have a] dialogue with Him in our honest struggles. God is big enough to handle our doubts, anxieties, fears, frustrations. This certainly includes the trauma of broken socio-economic and political reality, as Gideon illustrates for us (e.g., Judg 6:13).

How best to ask questions of Scripture?

First, we need to appreciate the context of the lives of the communities of faith in the Bible; how they interpreted their own challenges; the kind of questions they asked – and to do this in light of God’s overall story in the Bible. Thus, using all our senses, we will try to immerse ourselves in their grief and lamentations, their joys and hope. Secondly, we need to study Scripture in community with others, with our feet grounded in our contemporary realities. This illuminates and deepens our vision.

The Bible is quite extensive and God’s revelation is given to us as a wide variety of content in different formats. As such, how do we know where to look for answers to the questions we ask?

I think it’s absolutely important to affirm that ALL SCRIPTURE is divinely inspired, and useful for all of life (2 Tim 3:16-17) – including inconvenient particularities of it, such as filing our tax returns! There is an essential theological unity that connects the entire Biblical story, pointing to, and ultimately finding fulfilment in Jesus Christ (Jn 5:39ff). In this regard, we begin to look for answers to our questions not merely to satisfy intellectual curiosity, but to respond in obedience to a personal invitation by Jesus himself “to come and have life” (Jn 5:40). So, we approach this quest with a humble plea for illumination and guidance, that whatever our starting point in Bible study, the Holy Spirit, our trustworthy teacher, will “open my eyes to see wonderful things in your law” (Psa 119:18).

What is the benefit of asking these questions with people who are different from us?

I believe that this practice helps us appreciate our ‘fellowship of neediness’ as God’s people – regardless of our cultural, gender, socio-economic and other aspects of diversity; we are all so needy of the grace of God! Second, this practice enriches our discernment of Biblical truth, as people share hermeneutical resources and tools from other cultures and lived experiences (cultural idiom, stories and anecdotes etc.), and illustrations of use of Scripture in real life. Thirdly, it provides a ‘redemptive’ challenge to our personal and cultural blind spots, which so often frustrate our Scripture engagement.

How do we deal with questions that the Scriptures ask of us in return?

I think it is a redemptive act of God’s mercy whenever Scriptures ask us questions – especially those that confront our various shortcomings. It often invites us into self-examination and realignment (Psa 139:23-24). This transformative aspect requires us to cultivate a contrite, teachable spirit (Psa 32:8-10), and the ‘Berean’ diligence of searching the Scriptures in community (Acts 17:11).

Questions to and from the Scriptures

Photo by Matt Walsh on Unsplash

I have always been fascinated by the questions we ask and that are asked of us when we interact with the Lord through Scripture. In this I include both the big and small matters of our time, asked by people around us, as well as the way in which the Scriptures themselves act to challenge and transform us.

Perhaps this is why I have enjoyed an exercise recently undertaken by our friends at IFES East Asia. Through a series of videos, staff from different movements are exposed to a text of Scripture and invited to ask questions prompted by that text. I believe this helps us recognize an important point that we often overlook: when we come to the Scriptures, who we are and where we are impacts how we respond. In other words, context matters.

The circumstances in which we live, our background – even our age and gender – all play a part in how we read the Word of God. I think that being more attentive to this would help us to benefit more from the diversity of the community in which we study the Scriptures. This variety of perspectives and questions would help us be mindful and open to how the Holy Spirit speaks his Word.

Being attentive to these nuances can also encourage us to be more effective in our witness. I believe that religious people, whether they are long-time Christians or interested in spiritual matters, ask questions that are quite different from those asked by an atheist or agnostic. When I study the biblical text, for example, the questions I pose are unlikely to be the same as those asked by someone from another religious tradition or non-religious worldview. But I should not ignore them; neither should I try to answer them quickly, nor say that they are not asking the “right” question of the biblical text. Rather, it is legitimate and appropriate to listen carefully and seek to understand the questions they bring to the Scriptures.

Similarly, we must always pay attention when the Scriptures ask something of us – especially when such queries disturb, challenge, or bother us. It is the questions we take away from our reading of the Bible, and those for which we do not find an easy answer, that usually have the most transforming potential. They shake the foundations of what we take for granted, whether in our own opinion or from broader tradition. In doing so, they reveal more to us of God’s authoritative voice. And that voice, spoken through the Scriptures, is the One that provokes change. Questions bring forth life, and we should not be afraid of them.

Ricardo Borges, IFES Secretary for Scripture Engagement.

Asking God honest questions — the Suffering of Job

“Who is God? Does He matter? Does He care for us?”

These seemingly simple questions could be the most profound questions that students ever ask…

[Artwork by Fercho Vera, Ecuador]

I grew up in a family of pastors. God was part of our daily lives. I knew Him and had some powerful experiences with Him from childhood. But in my years as a university student, I experienced a crisis of faith during a time of personal suffering and loss.

One day, a friend I had invited to attend our Bible study said: “I don’t want to get close to God. I’m afraid of Him because of the way he treated Job in the Bible.” Lacking a concrete answer, I concluded that she did not know God at all. But I too had these very same questions: “Who is God? Does He matter? Does He care for me?”

The Book of Job feels like a book that requires its reader to have a pre-arranged appointment! My journey with Job intensified last year when I was invited by GBUCh, the Chilean student movement, to prepare three talks for their national student conference online.

I first read the book three times, praying that any prejudice and prior knowledge would not hinder the process of knowing God more deeply through this book. As I reread Job again (and again), I kept asking: “Where is God in the whole narrative? What is the author telling us about who He is?” I was still left with many questions, but also a sense of wonder and worship.

Mindful of the friend who had been scared off by God’s behavior in Job, I prepared talks focused on chapters 1, 19, 28 and 42, which I feel provide many jewels to treasure about the Divine character. We, the readers, are taken on a journey. First, we witness the declaration of who God is and his love for Job (Job 1), only to encounter the turmoil and discomfort of Job’s suffering, echoed in his anguished cry of lament (Job 19). Finally, these scenes climax with the beautiful image of God as redeemer, giver of life, and we are introduced to Him as the personification of wisdom (Job 28). In the end, though not without difficulties for Job or our own understanding of the text, we see a God who restores and brings new life (Job 42).

I have walked in suffering and in joy with staff and students from Chile, Ecuador, and, most recently, northern México, as we have made our way through Job. These journeys have brought students to moments of reconciliation with God. As one participant said:

“God surprised me… I discovered the spirituality of someone who loves God deeply, God the marvelous Creator, who deeply loves us despite all the suffering He allows in our lives. The Book of Job inspires me to a new level of relationship with God, a life of honest prayer and waiting…”

Ana Miriam Peralta, staff worker with COMPA and member of the Scripture Engagement global team.

Engaging with Scripture and God in a time of war

[A dear Ukrainian friend from our Scripture Engagement multipliers network shares some thoughts.
She is faithfully walking alongside students and staff, studying the Bible with them and together they are caring for refugees of the conflict.]

On a recent visit to my mother, we could not take our eyes off the flowering bushes and daffodils that God seemed to have scattered everywhere, bringing His light into the darkness. (photo by L.S.)

It was a good reminder that God’s light has already eradicated darkness, and that He continues to be at work in our world. It is this truth that we need to experience, in the reality of our everyday lives, in this country.

On February 24th, people in Kharkiv, Kyiv, and other cities and villages woke up to the sound of their homes being bombed. In the days and months since, many innocent people have suffered in unimaginable ways. Men, women, and children of all ages have been killed or made homeless. They carry the scars of innumerable horrors with them: housewives and soldiers alike.

Kyiv suburb (photo by M.M).

Five million people left their homes looking for safety. Hearing stories of destruction and brutal terror from the refugees arriving in Lviv, we experienced shock and anger. We wept and called out to God with so many questions.

Just before Easter I woke up with a sudden anxiety attack. I tried to fall asleep, but all my worries intensified – what if our house was bombed and we had to flee: where would we go? What if my sons and husband were called up to fight? What if people were murdered in our city? And what if peace does not come soon?

That day, I spent a long time in silence, speaking with God.

I reflected on the last conversation Jesus had with His disciples in John 13-14, when He announced that He was to leave them.

Reading the disciples’ questions, I could almost feel their panic.

For three years, they were together: eating, laughing, seeing the miracles of Jesus. They listened to His teachings, experienced His power, and then, suddenly, Jesus was going to leave them – alone.

Faced with the anxiety of being without their Master, Healer, Teacher, and Prophet, the disciples wondered how they would cope. So, they asked where He was going and if they could follow Him there. One might say that they too had an anxiety attack.

“Believe in God, believe also in Me”- Jesus responded (John 14:1, see also 14:11-12).

That morning, I could almost see Jesus holding my hand and hear His voice telling me: ‘No, you do not understand all this suffering around you, the brutality and destruction your people are experiencing, just believe Me, believe in Me”. I continue to see God graciously giving me peace in my mind and calming my troubled heart. He gives me strength to continue walking the path He has laid out for me. I do not know the end, I just trust Him.

Unlearning and learning with Paul

For most of us in the African context, prayer and prayerfulness are an indispensable part of our spirituality. We pray, and we look to God for everything, from medical care to employment and bank loans. Nothing is left for granted or to chance because mostly our systems do fail us!

Prayerful as we are, some of our prayers are very much worrying. Their content is foreign to the language and the attitude of the Bible. The same can be said of the posture of our prayers and the people who pray them. The motivation is often fear and the desire to manipulate everything spiritual to our advantage.

Here are some of Paul’s prayers we looked at in a recent journey with staff of ESWAFES, the movement in Eswatini:

1) Paul thanking God for his people (e.g. Romans 1:8-10, 1 Corinthians 1:4, Ephesians 1:16, Philippians 1:3-4, Colossians 1:3, etc).

2) Paul prayed for their wisdom and knowledge (e.g. Ephesians 1:17, Ephesians 1:18, Romans 15:13).

3) Paul asked people to pray for him (e.g. 2 Th 3:1-2, Phil 1:22) and a range of many other issues.

As we looked at Paul’s prayers in our studies, we saw a lot of both learning and unlearning to do. We need to unlearn a lot of practices with which prayer has become associated in our context, just like how in their context, the disciples needed pray differently to hypocrites and pagans (Matthew 6:5-8).

Here is some of the unlearning:

a) God is not an errand boy we send around as we wish through prayer.

b) Prayer is not a weapon we use to change God’s mind and do our bidding.

c) Prayer is bigger than our own self-centredness; it is not about us.

These were very difficult things to unlearn because they have been part of our prayer economy for as long as our salvation and that of our pioneers! Praise God there were a lot of vital lessons learnt from Paul’s prayers including the following:

(a) God’s priorities must become our priorities in prayer.

(b) God’s sovereignty over the affairs of men and his creation are the basis of our confidence in prayer.

As we think about prayer, I would like to invite all of us to look at some of the great prayers God’s people made in the Bible. Let us try to learn from them. Paul’s prayers are such a wonderful collection for Christians today!

Mukululi Ncube, ESWAFES Re-pioneering Staff and member of IFES Global Team on Scripture Engagement.

The Bible in my life

The Bible is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. It is healing for the soul; it is the breath of God himself. Through it, God challenges and comforts, rebukes and restores, exhorts and encourages. It is, in its entirety, God’s revelation of truth to us.

But the Bible can also be misused. That is why the great IFES discipline of inductive Bible study is important: learning to understand Scripture on its own terms; respecting the context and obeying the message, no matter how uncomfortable it may make us feel.

Bible study can also too easily become an abstract exercise. That is why I love that one of the core IFES values is not simply “the Bible”, but “Scripture Engagement”. All Bible study should not ultimately and primarily be about us, but about God, his character and his invitation to use this Holy Revelation to get to know him better.

When Darrell Johnson was interviewed at the 2015 World Assembly, he shared how, before he opened a passage to prepare for preaching, he would ask himself (referencing the Song of Solomon) “what does this passage tell me about him whom my heart loves?”. That should be the question for all of us when we open Scripture at any time, whether we are preachers or Bible study leaders or not.

Speaking personally, my journey with Scripture has gone through various stages. I was privileged to be taught it as an infant sitting at my parents’ feet and was fascinated by it as a listener; it was a bedtime story for me. In adolescence as I committed my life to Christ and read it regularly as a spiritual discipline, I saw it as a story to me; a set of exhortations to help me live well as a disciple.

Then as I grew in the faith, I realised it was a story about me; I saw more clearly my own shortcomings in the lives of its flawed heroes and marvelled at the sufficiency of Christ to cover all my sin. As I studied it more deeply in seminary and embarked on a preaching ministry, it became (not always for the best) a story from me; truths that I felt commissioned to pass on to others. Eventually I realised that these strands all needed to come together and, as I grasped more firmly the depth of God’s grace, they became a story growing within me. As I engage with Scripture, the Spirit who inspired those authors is the same Spirit who is convicting and changing me. That is a journey I am still on, and if I can, I want to bring others with me.

David Montgomery, IFES Europe Regional Secretary

Art & Word: A Creative Dialogue

Since 2016, CECE Ecuador has been looking for ways of intentionally promoting spaces and processes to create a dialogue between faith and art. These spaces have happened at national camps, Student Formación events and as an integral part of the Bible study resources that are used every semester on campus. The main goal is to establish a dialogue between a passage of Scripture and visual art, so that God’s Word becomes more real and changes students’ lives. This can happen by creating their own art as a response to the text or reflecting on someone else’s work of art. We noticed that it was important, and that many students needed this dialogue and to incorporate faith and art into their lives. We also realised that, for some people, visual elements are key when they engage with Scripture, as well as reading the text out loud.

We also aim to offer training in art and faith, to reflect God’s character as Creator and to place our art in God’s great story and the reconciliation of all of creation.

During the pandemic we organised several workshops and presented an online exhibition created by students, on a dialogue with Deuteronomy. Other workshops that we organised included themes such as the art of creating, artist’s vocation, justice and art, and a celebration of Advent by integrating elements of art and liturgy.

We also want to pique people’s curiosity and encourage conversations with students who are not Christians. We want to use art to create spaces where you can engage with the gospel, not only by hearing but also seeing. It has been great to see artists of different abilities taking part in this dialogue, and to see the impact it has had on their lives as a result of the dialogue between Scripture and their art.

Here are two examples of visual art created as a dialogue between two passages of Scripture in Acts and Deuteronomy. We are also giving you the link to our website (in Spanish), where you can learn more about this creative process with a theological approach, from the point of view of university students.

Artist: Kerly Cando

Title: La Verdadera Iglesia (The True Church)

Bible passage in the dialogue: Acts 10, during CECE’s National Camp in March 2021

Link: here

Artwork made by the students, presenting Jesus at the table with many people dressed in local cultural costumes, with children, and a person in a wheelchair

Artist: Juan Esteban Vásquez

Title: Tierra de Todos (Everyone’s Land)

Bible passage in the dialogue: Deuteronomy 23, after the Student Formación Event in September 2020

Link: here

Image with a black background, with points of light drawing: a starry sky, the silhouette of a woman, on the left some things thrown away, on the ground, and on the right the image of the interior of a temple

Ruth Tobar, Pastoral staff worker and member of the CECE Faith & Art Dialogue Team.

Refocusing through retreats

Two women staff workers in a pleasant environment, outdoors, with a guitar, singing, and with books on a table beside.

At the beginning of summer 2019 I had an opportunity to be part of the IFES European staff retreat. The timing was perfect for me, as I had started my three-month sabbatical around the same time. The retreat helped me walk into the sabbatical with a focus on Jesus, and already in a period of reflection on the previous few months.

Scripture Engagement has been really helpful to me in helping me learn new things. The retreat felt like a very safe space to reflect and engage, and as a learner at heart, I found numerous aspects of the retreat fascinating. Probably the most impactful thing for me was the balance of spending time in solitude with God, and with others in community. It was a healthy combination of meditating on the Word, prayer, and learning together.

After having this privilege, I wanted to share it with others. This kind of retreat was pivotal in my understanding of rest and reflection, so I decided to invite a friend of mine, who also works in ministry, to join me on our own four-day retreat in the Czech countryside. It has now become a tradition for us, and we have both since then introduced some other friends to retreats as well.

The crucial combination of solitude and community I experienced at the IFES European staff retreat was exactly what we wanted to recreate on our Czech retreats. Our pattern has been that after some discussion and prayers, we decide on a topic. Some of the topics we’ve had on our retreats include ‘Prayer’, ‘From mourning to dancing’, ‘Knowing I am loved’, and ‘Resilience in times of crisis’, among others. We always start our days with a Lectio Divina spent in a solitude time, then we share about our experience in scripture. Afternoons tend to be spent in some reflection (timeline, topical reflection), hikes or some manual labour.

These retreats have quickly become my preferred method of rest and vacation. It helps me with spiritual disciplines in my life, gives me more clarity about God‘s story in my life, and deepens my relationships with those who spend time on retreats with me. My friend Ráchel once said that she can‘t think of a better vacation as a ministry worker. I agree with her. I believe that as a ministry worker, I am at risk of spending my time with God only for the purpose of succeeding in said ministry, of slipping into business talk with God, rather than a deep relationship. I am at risk of going about my ministry by doing, rather than being. Retreats like these help me not to fall victim to these risks, but walk with God and carry out my ministry more meaningfully.

Eva Petržilková, UKH (IFES Czech Republic) staff worker