Click
here to subscribe today!
Here's what folks have to say about their experience of The Bible
Workbench:
The material is so solid that it helps the committed worshipper
predicate what's going to come on Sunday morning. What I mean is
that they have done their homework on the lectionary passage so
thoroughly they can confirm and confront the sermon.
One Bible Workbench group has met weekly for two years; the second
group for one year. I've watched the change in the twenty or so
members of these two groups. Their confidence with theological
thinking has skyrocketed.
We playfully argue theological points, stimulated by original
perspectives and persuasive rebuttals. The discussions start during
the Bible Workbench session. They pick up after the Sunday worship
service and continue well into the next week. These conversations
blur the division between clergy and laity and we see each other
with renewed respect. We are not so much teacher and learner, but
fellow explorers.
- Episcopal Priest
Before I was trained as a Bible Workbench leader, I had adult
education classes using Adult Education material. I always strived
for meaningful class discussion, but seldom succeeded. Bible Workbench
gave me the tools to make this happen. I learned to be midwife
and the class became the curriculum. Rather than lecturing to the
class about facts and opinions, I was able to encourage the class
to engage the text and have it awaken inside all of us. Having
the class consider relevant questions raised by the text is a magnificent
learning experience.
- Adult education teacher
Studying the scriptures in community, using the Bible Workbench
materials, is life-changing for me.
- Baptist Clergy
The Bible Workbench study method and the community I study with
weekly are a strong, encouraging community and force in my life.
The weekly Workbench experience is a confirming and motivating
energy for me and, more often than not, the highlight of my week.
- Retired banker
BWB represents an approach to the study of Scripture that stresses
applicability to our own lives, but in a different way from more
traditional methods. As opposed to searching Scripture for absolute
and immutable ?truths? that we must all obey, or at least "believe,"
rather it has us looking for the questions that the stories, parables,
sayings raise that were important in Biblical times as people like
us tried to understand their own lives and which can be just as
important for us who are trying to do the same today. It can be
challenging and even life-transforming to take a parable of Jesus
and, instead of deciding what it means, thus ending the discussion,
rather to identify the characters in the story, identify their
problems, their conflicts, their hopes, their disappointments,
their triumphs, their failures and then look for similar characters
or characteristics in our own world, our own lives, our own psyches.
The insights that can flow are endless and lead to a new and richer
understanding of Jesus and his mission to his and our world. Understanding
that Scripture can be a way of helping us ask the questions that
can save our own lives, rather than being a receptacle of established
and immutable truths, has been a true epiphany for me.
- Robert Rupenthal, Retired physician
No matter what your theological stance, Workbench allows you room
to wiggle and to hear other voices in the group. I find that the
poems, commentaries, and probing questions offered by the editors,
enable me to deeply engage the scripture selections of the week.
- Seminarian at the Duke Divinity School
Being a participant in Bible Workbench has brought a new dimension
to my faith experience.
- Homemaker
Bible Workbench offers a variety of streets and ways into specific
passages. It is wonderful for individual contemplation, parish
Bible study and sermon preparation. The Workbench is intellectual,
intelligent, and most of all, FUN.
- Episcopal Priest
For in-depth study of the scriptures, today's world, and oneself,
BWB is the best ecumenical bible study material available.
- Baptist Clergy
BWB has given me a strategy that has enabled me to address ? but
not necessarily answer ? the most basic questions all of us harbor.
An adjunct of this strategy has been exposure to the writings of
scholars in various fields, along with condign works of fiction,
that have given me additional material on which to reflect and
debate internally and with others who seek likewise.
- Freddy Sprock, Artist
BWB provides intelligent and informed text and discussion of the
scriptures at a depth I have never found before. BWB provides the
opportunity to share questions and life concerns with other, in
the context of the most important book in the world.
- Richard Bray, Financial Consultant
BWB has fit nicely in our journey of faith and has added momentum
to the trip. It guides us through many parts of the Bible. It is
now possible to discern the many ways ancient texts can relate
to us today. It adds interest to the expedition and allows focus
on what may be happening in our world. It is not a drill in what
to believe or practice, but a forum where multiple ideas about
Biblical stories can be expressed without fear of criticism.
- Retired Couple
BWB has enabled me to discover and be nourished by community doing
this work; to free Jesus from the ecclesiastical captivity; to
find in meeting this liberated Jesus more of who I am; and at times,
being willing to pick up my cross as he did his in a gamble of
dying into a new life.
- Episcopal Priest
Bible Workbench has contributed immensely to my personal and spiritual
growth. The method of encountering the text as story, which serves
as a mirror for me to "see" and experience parts of myself, is
life-changing. The Bible comes alive in ways I've never experienced
before in any other setting. As participants, we are invited to
walk around in the story while reading, feeling, thinking, and
experiencing the characters and life issues contained there. This
discipline requires one to stay long enough for the same story
to awaken or to be touched within. When this awakening happens
for me, it is like I'm finally understood, recognized and known.
These ancient stories and people are happening now within my life.
It is as if I've stepped into the eternal realm, the place of deep
wisdom and knowing, the place within me that is my connection to
the Divine and all of creation. And, somehow I've been given permission
to question, question myself and Life. I am released from the need
of certainty with all the fear and rigidity that comes from wanting
definite answers. There is a liberating, freeing sense of wonder
and relief to leave the lesson with even more questions to ponder.
I feel deeply connected to Life/God, myself and others.
- Gail Rogers, Therapist
BWB is first a formal and methodical approach for exploring the
many possible meanings of the Written Word and second, a process
for helping the student to interpret how those meanings are played
out in our world today. Stories and storytelling connects these
two elements. In my opinion, BWB is neither ?conservative' nor
?liberal' in its examination of Biblical history. However, it does
require an open-minded attitude to entertain new ideas about or
relationship to God. BWB is the liberator of my spiritual life
from the cultural prison of religious orthodoxy.
- Communications Consultant
I have subscribed to the Bible Workbench since 1998. The weekly
exploration of the Bible and its lessons for today's living have
greatly supported and enhanced the content of my weekly sermons.
(Actually, because of the Bible Workbench, my congregation thinks
I'm smart! Another benefit of my subscription!) The various approaches
- themes and motifs, parallel readings, and critical background
- have opened me to interpretations and applications of the scripture
that continue to inspire and spur me on to deeper study and therefore
deeper and more satisfying revelations. I am very grateful for
the systematical study, the insights and the exposure to writers
I might not be familiar with. The Bible Workbench is the first
document I open when I'm deciding my sermon title and subject.
And it's the last document I release when I've completed the sermon.
This resource works! Thank you, God!
- Unity Pastor
The Bible Workbench is the finest curriculum for Bible study I
have encountered through 28 years of parish ministry. It incorporates
sound scholarship in each lesson. Yet it makes a presumption that
most of everyday living, choosing and discerning is characterized
not by clearly delineated ?black and white' absolutes, but rather
by loads of uncertainty and ?gray' areas. There is an integrity
about BWB I have not found elsewhere. I have used BWB in sermon
preparation and for my own private devotions, as well as for adult
classes.
- Verdery Kerr, Episcopal Priest
|
