{"id":4127,"date":"2019-11-20T11:12:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T11:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=4127"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:21:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:21:00","slug":"learn-about-the-roots-of-immerse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2019\/11\/20\/learn-about-the-roots-of-immerse\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn About the Roots of Immerse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Where did Immerse<\/a> come from? Turns\nout, it\u2019s the result of over a decade of research and experimentation by the\nInstitute for Bible Reading (IFBR), the creators of Immerse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with Glenn Paauw, Senior Director of Content for Institute for Bible Reading<\/a>, to dig deeper into the history, research, and mission behind Immerse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about the Institute for Bible Reading and its mission:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institute for Bible Reading (IFBR)<\/a> is a nonprofit ministry working to change the way the world reads the Bible. Coming out of a long history in Bible publishing, our founding team members have both the experience and passion to focus on the vital mission of making sure people not only have Bibles but also read and understand them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We believe that the ongoing research into the place of the Bible among God\u2019s people reveals a glaring problem. The lack of attention to the Bible, of sustained reading, of knowledge and understanding is an epidemic. Some voices are even promoting a \u201cBibleless Christianity\u201d\u2014growing out of their own inability to understand how the Bible really works and informs our faith. It is crazy that the church has been given this essential gift from God, yet it is not intimately familiar with it. Christian communities often take the Bible for granted. \u201cOf course we\u2019re biblical,\u201d we say. But are we? Do we actually read the Bible? Do we understand how it works? Do we have a good pathway for living out its ancient story in our own world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the questions that animate the work of IFBR. Our goal is to do new, ground-breaking research into what is actually happening with the Bible in our churches. We listen and learn from the finest biblical scholars about the meaning and context of the Bible. We interact with pastors and church leaders to hear their concerns and needs. Then we work hard to translate all this learning into real help and real resources for the life of the church. We provide education and resources like Immerse<\/em> that are well-informed by the best insights of scholarship yet straight-forward and accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re an activist think tank, therefore everything we do is deeply oriented toward giving people real-world help for reading, understanding, and living the Bible well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did your team feel the need to create <\/em>Immerse?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible is the bestselling book in this country every\nsingle year. But as pollster George Gallup used to say, the Bible is the bestselling,\nleast-read<\/em> book in America. As we\nbecame increasingly aware of the research showing that people owned Bibles but did\nnot know the Bible\u2019s content or live out its message, we shifted the target of\nour own work to Bible engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too often we end up using the Bible in minimalistic ways and are guided by our own agenda. But God had his own purposes for giving us the Bible. We have this magnificent collection of books in order to invite us into his story of redemption and restoration. The only way to know this story well, and to live it in our own day, is to regularly read it\u2014at length and in depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s clear that even highly-motivated people are struggling to read and live the Bible well. They pick up the Bible and it\u2019s flat-out hard to read. It\u2019s confusing. It can be kind of dry at times. So eventually, most of them give up. We knew that just telling people to do better and try harder was not going to cut it. They need new \u201ctools\u201d (i.e., a differently formatted Bible made for reading) and new practices that give them a fresh experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we were also motivated by the positive vision that lies in front of the church: What if people loved reading the Bible? What if more and more people knew the Bible deep down in their bones? What if the majority of Christians were not only Bible literate but actually fluent in the Bible\u2019s story? What would be the new story of the impact of the church in the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we created Immerse<\/em> as a new resource and a fresh experience for the church with the Bible. We knew that it would take a different kind of Bible presentation and a new kind of communal engagement for churches to have breakthrough encounters with the Bible. So we set out to provide something no one else is providing: a simple yet significant program to help people rediscover the riches of God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your website says that <\/em>Immerse: The Reading Bible was designed with one goal in mind: to\nprovide the best reading experience possible. Can you talk about why the 6\nvolumes are designed the way they are?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looked closely at the history of the Bible\u2014the whole long journey from ancient oral tradition to contemporary electronic access. It\u2019s clear the Bible is a cultural artifact that has changed in form over time. People have chosen to design and present the Bible in very different ways in different historical eras. As the medium has changed, so has the way people answer the two crucial questions: What is the Bible?<\/em> and What are we supposed to do with it?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the critical periods for the development of the form of the Bible was the birth of the modern era. Within about 100 years of the printing press being developed, Bible translation took off, and a new chapter-and-verse format came to the forefront. As more people began to get their own copy of the Bible for the first time, what they encountered was a two-column, reference book presentation in which every verse was presented as a new, stand-alone paragraph. Add in new study notes and section headings, and the modern Bible format was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to a whole new set of Bible practices, adapted to the new form. This wasn\u2019t a reader-friendly Bible, so it became harder and less likely that long-form reading would happen. Think about it: What other book have you ever read that is formatted like the Bible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In place of long-form reading came the practice of proof-texting and focusing on single verses, often taken out of context. As Philip Yancey has said, we\u2019ve now created an entire culture of Bible McNuggets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in order to help the church get\nback to big, contextual reading, we reverse engineered the Bible to an earlier,\nmore holistic format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, by collecting the books into\nsix manageable volumes instead of one massive book, the intimidation factor is\nreduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, we placed the books in an\norder that makes more sense for good reading. For example, rather than using\nthe size of books as an organizing principle (like in the\nprophets<\/a> and Paul\u2019s\nletters<\/a>), we\u2019ve put the books in those sections back into a better\nhistorical order. This allows readers to follow events in a chronological way\nand make more sense of things. We\u2019ve also reunited books that were split into\nsmaller books: Samuel\u2013Kings, Chronicles\u2013Ezra\u2013Nehemiah, and Luke\u2013Acts. In the\nNew Testament, we\u2019ve gathered books around each Gospel that naturally fit with\nthat telling of Jesus\u2019 story\u2014for instance, Peter\u2019s letters are now with Mark\u2019s\nGospel, and so forth with the other Gospels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then, in a crucial move to enhance\nbetter reading, we\u2019ve removed all the modern additives. So there are no chapter\nand verse intrusions, no footnotes, no section headings or cross-references\u2014all\nfeatures that tend to distract readers and work against big, immersive reading\nof whole books. This allows us to present each book with its natural literary\nsections intact. So the five natural sections of Matthew\u2019s new Torah<\/em> can be clearly seen, letters look\nlike letters, songs like songs, proverbs like proverbs, etc.\u2014all across the\nliterature of the Bible. This restores the Bible to the kinds of literary forms\nthat authors chose and God inspired and helps us to have a more authentic\ninterpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we\u2019ve designed each page\nfor easy and smooth reading. The single-column text, comfortable type size, and\ngenerous margins and line spacing\u2014all surrounding the clear, straight-forward New Living Translation<\/em> text\u2014make for a\nsignificantly rich Bible reading experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your vision for normalizing Bible \u201cbook clubs,\u201d and how are\nthese different from Bible studies?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original experiences of God\u2019s people with the Bible were all communal experiences. Before the books were written down, ancient stories were being recounted and passed on to new generations; prophets were delivering their oracles openly and publicly at city gates and Temple entrances; and regular, ongoing Bible readings and discussions were organized in local synagogues. Traditions about Jesus were being told and retold in villages and early Christian gatherings. All of this was done in community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, even when the Scriptures were first written, the copies were few in number and always read aloud in groups. Think of the apostles\u2019 first letters to churches as an example. These would have been written down, transported, and then read to gathered followers of Jesus, most of whom were not literate. People overwhelmingly heard<\/em> the Bible read, and they listened together<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was only much later in church history that technological advances gave individuals the chance to have their own copy to read alone. Personal use of the Bible began to replace the previous communal experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal reading of the Bible is, of course, a great thing, and none of us should stop that. But something different and very important happens when we read the Bible in community. It\u2019s crucial to remember that the Bible\u2019s own goal is the formation of a distinctive Christian community<\/em> of people. It is addressed to communities and meant to be lived out as communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we read and discuss the Bible together, we get beyond our own biases and filters. We get to hear how the sacred text impacts others. We see more and learn more. Our own personal understanding is enhanced. It is also important for us to practice the virtues (the fruit of the Spirit) required for true community. Patient listening, striving to understand the point of view of my neighbor, and shared learning are all critical parts of being a genuine Christ-following community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional Bible studies tend to focus on dissecting smaller parts of the Bible text. While there is certainly value in doing that, what\u2019s been missing from the church\u2019s experience with the Bible is taking in the messages of whole books and having bigger, more open-ended discussions about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A book club approach to our gatherings around the Bible is a fresh way for Christian communities to read, learn, and even struggle with the Bible together. And if we were to embrace this as a regular, ongoing pattern of the Christian life, we could begin to see more serious discipleship in understanding and following the way of Jesus. Not just in our personal lives, but our community presence is meant to be a witness to the coming of God\u2019s gracious rule into the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first vision of God\u2019s people for engaging the Bible was a pattern of lectio continua<\/em>\u2014the continual (weekly or even daily) immersion of the community into whole books of the Bible. Ongoing penetration into the depths of God\u2019s word allowed gatherings of believers to understand all that God had said before and to effectively live into the story in their own day. A re-envisioning of church life today\u2014around deep engagement in the word of God\u2014could strengthen our struggling churches and empower a new sense of identity and calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you think <\/em>Immerse and\nthe other work of the Institute for Bible Reading can help the church?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once upon a time, God\u2019s people were known as the People of\nthe Book. Israel developed the only religion in the ancient world that was so\ndeeply oriented toward a set of sacred texts. Then the earliest followers of\nJesus, who were all Jewish and were shaped by this orientation, continued this\nprofound commitment to reading, knowing, and living by the Scriptures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The early church did whatever it took to make sure every new congregation of believers in the growing movement had access to the Scriptures and were regularly engaged with them. This happened in a world where 90% of the population was illiterate. The practice of reading through the Bible in regular cycles was brought from Judaism right into Christianity. At one point, being a lector, or Bible reader, was an official church office. It was considered essential in early Christianity that all of God\u2019s people were consistently and significantly occupied with God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have fallen from this. The work of the Institute for Bible Readin<\/a>g<\/a> is geared toward helping the church regain this status and rediscover God\u2019s story found in the Bible. We believe that a renewed commitment from church leaders, together with great new resources that surprise people with the Bible, are the things that can feed genuine renewal in the church. The Scriptures are infused with the power of God to bring real transformation into individual lives and into the life of the world. We believed and practiced it once, and we can do so again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the Institute for Bible Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where did Immerse come from? Turns out, it\u2019s the result of over a decade of research and experimentation by the Institute for Bible Reading (IFBR), the creators of Immerse. We caught up with Glenn Paauw, Senior Director of Content for Institute for Bible Reading, to dig deeper into the history, research, and mission behind Immerse. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,14,15,33,44,45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5749,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions\/5749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}