A Brief Introduction to the Website & Blog
Welcome to georgehguthrie.com! Thanks very much for stopping by. In this initial post I want to tell you about the website’s mission, what you can expect in terms of blog topics, resources you can find on the website, and how you might be involved in the weeks and months ahead.
Mission
Several years ago I worked with LifeWay to launch a biblical literacy initiative called Read the Bible for Life. Primarily, we wanted to help churches train their people to engage the Bible more effectively by focusing on two things:
developing skills for reading the Bible better and
- growing in an understanding of how the whole story of the Bible fits together. As you can see here, we developed several tools to help with that process.
We now are adding another, a seminar called The Heart of God’s Story, which traces the power and beauty of three threads through the tapestry of Scripture: Knowing God’s Face, Thriving in God’s Space, and Extending God’s Grace in the World. You can learn more about that video study here. With the launch of HGS, the good folks at LifeWay (with direct prompting from Trevin Wax and Chris Martin) convinced me that the ministry could be extended by doing a blog. I had already felt the need to update significantly my old website, with its Bible study resources page, and I became convinced that I could blog in a way that would simply flow out of and support the ministry I was already doing; that’s why I’m here.
In short, as the website’s tagline states, the mission is to help you read the Bible better. I want you to grow in skill, but more importantly I want you to meet the living God of the universe in the pages of Scripture and learn to live more effectively for him in the world.
Topics
3 general areas will provide a framework for the blog, with lots of subcategories. All built around Bible reading and study, the three guiding areas will be:
- Tools and Methods
- Interpretive Issues
- Delight & Motivation
Under these we will deal with a host of categories (that will populate an index of topics on the site). Categories will include Bible Translations and the process of Bible Translation work, “Be Kind to Your Bible” (how not to abuse the Scriptures), Word Studies, Stories (from Individuals who are engaging the Bible in helpful ways), An Introduction to Gifted Scholars, Teaching the Bible, Training in the Church, Biblical Theology, Difficult Passages, the Bible in the News/Culture, Application, the Bible and the Family, Bible Reading/Study Tools, Digital Resources, Historical Context, Cultural Context, Literary Context, and The Bible in Literature, Film, and Art. These should point us to dozens of helpful topics over the coming months.
What Else is Here?
As the blog develops I will be building the “Bible Reading & Study Resources” page. There you will find Bible reading plans, instructional videos, links to a lot of Bible Study websites, and other helps you can download. I am just getting started with it, so be patient as we build. On the website there also are dedicated pages for the Read the Bible for Life materials, as well as The Heart of God’s Story (both of which you can access through the menu on the top-left of any page). On each you can see promo videos, samples of the curricula, and suggestions for using these tools personally, or in a church or Bible Study context. Finally, I have included information about myself and how those wishing to contact me for speaking engagements might do so.
Join Me
There are a number of ways you can be involved, and I would love to have you come along. Of course you can subscribe to the blog feed (see the top of the sidebar on the right) and follow me on Twitter (I promise not to tell you that I am exercising, or what I am eating for a snack, or that I can’t find my wife in the bowels of WalMart!). Needing bags of affirmation for my personal validity, please “like” me on Facebook—I now have an Author Page that will track what I am doing in terms of writing and speaking. The twitter and Facebook connections are on the top of the sidebar on this page or to the right of the open menu. And get this: If you are among the first 250 people to subscribe to get posts delivered to your email inbox, the generous folks at B&H will mail you a free copy of my book, Read the Bible for Life.
Finally, if you are what my British friends would call a “keen” follower of Christ (read, “serious about it!”), please pray for this ministry. I believe deeply that God meets us and changes us in his good Word, and to grow in our interaction with the Bible puts things in motion in world, doing us good and bringing God glory.
