Questions: Local Community Response:
1. A. What are the local
assumptions both in my
community and in my local
ministry setting concerning
what Scripture is and how
Scripture should be used?
B. Are there varied assumptions
within my local ministry
setting or is there general
agreement?
C. Are there varied assumptions
within my community or is
there general agreement?
Local Ministry Setting Response:
The community in which I live is very
heavily influenced by the Southern Baptist
doctrines on the Scriptures. That doctrine is
of the inerrancy of Scripture and is
interpreted by some as inerrant in the form
of the King James Version, though this is
not the stated belief of the Southern Baptist
Convention. There are churches in my area
that label themselves as Bible believing
whose doctrines coincide with the King
James Only belief system.
The consensus in the community is that the
Holy Bible is the Word of God. You will
find very few that do not agree with that.
The disagreements come when the
discussion moves to specifics, like which
version of the Bible or the question of
inerrancy. It gets even more sticky when
the conversation moves into the level of
translation at which the Word can be
considered inerrant.
This belief system has influenced my
church to some degree. The pastors
preach out of the New King James
Version as a compromise, some of the
King James only group are tolerant of
that version, but our pew Bibles are King
James. Even so, most of the members of
the church do hold to the belief of the
plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. The
verse that I have most heard in our
church in relation to the use of Scripture
is found in 2 Timothy, All Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness (3:16, NIV)
Our church members and most of our
congregants are in agreement. The ones
who do not agree with the plenary
inspiration do not let it be known that
they do not. There was a man who came
to our church on Wednesday night some
years ago and sat in my Fathers class
who did not agree. As a matter of fact, he
was one of the King James Only
believers and took dad and then the
senior pastor to task for not believing in
nor teaching King James Only. There
were other issues that do not fit with our
discussion here, but he finally declared
our church as apostate and left, dusting
the souls of his shoes off on the way out.
2. What language (words, phrases,
metaphors, etc.) is used both in my
community and in my local ministry
setting to describe the Bible, and
what does that language seem to say
about both my communitys and my
local ministry settings
understanding of the Bible?
3. A. Within my local ministry
setting and in my community,
what biblical characters or
groups seem to be the heroes
or heroines?
B. What biblical characters or
groups seem to be the
enemies or villains?
The Bible is the Word of God is the phrase that is most often used when speaking of
the Scriptures. Even people that do not go to church or live a life for Christ will say
that phrase while taking Scripture out of context, most of the time it is egregiously out
of context.
The heroes that seem to stand out are David and Moses. There is preaching about other
heroes of the Bible, but most seem to identify with David because of his great
victory with Goliath and his great defeat with Bathsheba. Moses is seen as a hero that
is beyond reproach and is the promise that we will be delivered from our struggles by
our own, personal, Moses.
If you speak of Jesus as a hero in the There is a sense that Jesus is a very
community there seems to be a tendency to looked up to hero. In the church, the
look at him as the only perfect one and emphasis is on being more like him by
one that no one can be like. living a holy life. We love to sing the
song, I Want to Be Like Jesus, and
sing it with gusto, I have one deep,
supreme desire, that I may be like
Jesus
The biggest villain in both the church and community is Satan, Lucifer, the devil, or
whatever label is currently attached to him. I hear it in everyday language, the devil
made me do it, or the devil is in the details. Both of those statements are talking
about the enemy of all, especially those who are Christians. Of course, you cannot talk
about the devil without mentioning his fallen angels, or demons.
The church, specifically, likes to look at
the Sadducees and Pharisees as enemies
because of the trouble that they gave
Jesus while he was here on earth. Not to
mention, that it was some of that group
that were instrumental in influencing the
Romans to kill Jesus.
 C. What do the biblical
heroes/heroines and biblical
enemies/villains seem to tell
me about both my
community and my local
ministry setting?
4. A. Emerging from their
understanding and
interpretation of Scripture
itself and the full story that
stretches across the Bible,
how would the collective
conscious of my community
and of my local ministry
setting define success?
B. How would both settings
define failure?
5. A. Emerging from their
understanding and
interpretation of Scripture
itself and the full story that
stretches across the Bible,
how would my community
and my local ministry setting
The community seems to like to use the Being able to identify with David and the
devil and inability to be like Jesus as an search for a personal Moses gives the
excuse for their sin and wrongdoing. church hope. We have hope that, no
Having this villain and unreachable hero matter what we have done, God will take
allows them to lighten their load and us in and, if we are faithful to him, guide
shift the blame somewhere else. us to the success that he has for us. We
also have a hope that we will be
delivered from this life at some point.
We look to Jesus as the reason for us to
live the holy life and the devil as the
adversary to avoid and even flee.
Both the community and the church define success as making it into Heaven.
The community tends to not know how to The believer in my local setting, sees
get to Heaven even if they think they do. success as having as many go with us to
The community tends to see success as Heaven as possible.
making it through the day and being alive The Believer sees a successful day as one
at that point. where someone was helped and that the
holy life was lived.
Going to Hell would be ultimate failure for both the community and the church.
Failure for the community would be to not The Believer will see a person close to
be able to take care of the family. them dying without Jesus as a failure,
this is what drives them to reach out to
the community.
The hope that their favorite team may win or that they would have enough money in
the next check to cover the bills and take care of the family.
Hope may be defined as a lottery ticket or The Believer has an eternal hope in Jesus
contest winning (easy money). Christ and of his heaven.
 define hope (what in the Bible
would they refer to)?
B. How would my community
and my local ministry setting
define fear (what in the Bible
would they refer to)?
6. In what ways have persons in my
community and in my local ministry
setting shared Scripture together in
real life?
Fear is the book of Revelation or any Fear for the Believer is in loved ones
prophesy from the Bible. Fear can also be dying without Christ. While there is
defined as losing loved ones or dying some fear about them dying in general,
themselves. the Believer knows that those who die in
Jesus will be waiting for them in Heaven.
The churches in the community will have a couple of combined services during the
year where, with few exceptions, we all come together to worship and share talent. We
also read and share Scripture together.
Outside of that combined service, I hear the testimonies of the church sharing Scripture
with the community in various ways. From a high school principle who would speak at
FCS (Fellowship of Christian Students) meetings to a mailman that would share his
most recently read proverb to those on his route, the church shares the Scripture with
the community.