Nancy Guthrie articulates her mission in correcting popular misconceptions about Bible study for women. She lays out a case for Bible study that elevates the story of the Bible.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of the video above. Before quoting, please check the video to ensure accuracy.
I’m on a bit of a mission; it’s a personal mission of mine. I want to introduce biblical theology into women’s Bible study in the local church.
Now, why is that my mission? Well, I look at the websites of various churches, oftentimes churches where I know the pastor preaches from the pulpit with a sense of redemptive history. And by that I mean, he preaches the Bible with Christ at the center from beginning to end. And yet sometimes I see in what’s being offered in women’s Bible study that the studies are sometimes just very topical, sometimes very emotion-driven, sometimes even psychology-driven, or self-help-driven.
My great desire is that, in women’s Bible study, we would be growing in our ability to understand the Bible as one story centered on Christ. Why is that important? Maybe we hear that talked about, we just wonder what the big deal is with that.
But I would say to you, apart from that, we use the Bible to maybe teach good things, but not the best thing, helpful things, but we miss the person who is always at the center. We must relate every passage that we are studying in the Bible to the person and work of Christ.
If we cannot show how that passage itself relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we’re merely offering self-help or inspiration to people. So it’s my mission is that we as women would constantly be growing in discovering the way that every book of the Bible we’re in fits in with the larger story of the Bible so that the person and work of Jesus Christ is always at the center of what we’re studying and what we’re teaching.
