Making the Bible Accessible
How do we make the Bible accessible to young people? This is a question that must be thought about, discussed and acted on. Here are a few introductory thoughts…
Expectations
I've heard it said many times that, “Young people just don't read anymore.” It maybe true that, for many, television has replaced books as the most popular ‘story-telling' medium, but most young people still do read. They read magazines, websites, and many still do read books.
Sometimes I think our expectations are too low – we don't expect young people will want to read the Bible. It's easy for us to have a defeatist attitude, “What's the point in me trying to get young people to read the Bible, they're not going to, because they don't enjoy reading books anymore?”
Let's pause for a moment. Just think about how popular the Harry Potter books are amongst many young people. They are not short books! In fact, book five in the Harry Potter series has 255,000 words in it, whereas the New Testament of the Bible only has 181,000. Clearly, there are many difference between the two, however, it puts things into perspective.
Magazine styles, paraphrases and different translations
There is a wide variety of translations and paraphrases of the Bible. These can be a great help in making the Bible more accessible to young people. Many young people read magazines, so perhaps one of the magazine style Bibles you can purchase may help young people delve into the text? Rob Lacey's ‘Word on the Street' effectively engages some young people, it doesn't others, but for those it does it is an excellent introduction to the overarching biblical story and the crucial, life-changing message it contains. (And it's also available as a 60-minute audio CD.)
Paraphrases such as ‘Word of the Street' are often a great way to initially engage young people with the Bible, and they can be great for ‘mature Christians' to get fresh insights. However, if a young person has been a Christian for ten years and is still using ‘Word on the Street' (for example) to do ‘Bible study' and it's the only version they read then I would be concerned.
Providing the tools
In my experience there are many young people in our churches who have a real desire to ‘get stuck into' the Bible and learn from it. However, for a multitude of different reasons, many find it really hard work. Whatever the reason, many young people give up, or simply carry on reading it day-by-day out of a sense of duty. That's why I believe it is essential that we provide young people with the necessary tools, so they can get to grips with what it is says. We need to equip young people to understand the different types of literature, to take seriously the context of the passage, to realise how important it is to relate a passage to what comes before and after it, to discover how it would have sounded to the original audience and to learn how to appropriately apply what they read to their lives. (See article “Quote, unquote”.) In doing this we will make the Bible much more accessible.
Question to consider
In your experience do young people read the Bible? If not, what are the reasons? If they do, what struggles do they have?
How can you make the Bible more accessible to the young people you work with?
Do you think the young people you work with have the ‘tools' they need to understand the Bible? If not, how can you make ‘teaching the tools' a part of your youth work programme?
Article originally published on the Evangelical Alliance's *essential website.
