One way of opening Scripture and joining the conversation in your congregation or organization is to watch the Book of Faith video together and engage each other through some of the accompanying Bible studies. The video suggests just a few of the many ways that the Bible renews, enlivens, and empowers our daily lives.

The Video
This video was created for the 2007 churchwide assembly to invite us all to join the Book of Faith initiative and open up the Scriptures. The text of the video is comprised entirely of passages from the Bible. The visual aspects of the video are designed to suggest that the Bible lives in us and though us as we go about our daily lives.

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Click here for the quotations used within the video 

These two passages are read at the beginning of the video. Then each subsequent scene is linked to one phrase from either Colossians 3 or Psalm 1. Each phrase in turn gives rise to one or two other passages from the Bible, building a picture of ways in which the Bible enters our hearts, our minds, and our lives.

The two guiding passages of the video are from Colossians 3 and Psalm 1:

Colossians 3:16-17
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Read and/or view this Bible study

Psalm 1:1a, 2-3
Happy are they...whose delight is in the law of the Lord. They meditate on God’s teaching day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.
Read and/or view this Bible study

These two passages are read at the beginning of the video. Then each subsequent scene is linked to one phrase from either Colossians 3 or Psalm 1. Each phrase in turn gives rise to one or two other passages from the Bible, building a picture of ways in which the Bible enters our hearts, our minds, and our lives.
The twelve other passages and their links with Colossians 3 and Psalm 1 are as follows:

• Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom....
       Deuteronomy 11:18-19
       Mark 4:2-3
  
• Happy are they whose delight is in the law of the Lord.
       Psalm 111: 2, 10
       1 Corinthians 2:1-5
  
• With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
  No text was used here, but rather a sense that music, gratefully offered to God, travels with us in our daily lives.
  
• They are like trees planted by streams of water.
       Jeremiah 17:7- 8
       Romans 8:38-39
  
• Bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.
       John 15:5
       Revelation 22:1-2
  
• Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
       Amos 5:24
       Matthew 25:35-36
       Mark 8:34-35
  
• Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
       John 1:14-16
       Isaiah 55:1-11

Accompanying Bible Studies
To help you think together about how the Bible works in and through us, we have gathered together 15 short Bible studies written by teachers throughout the church. These studies are intended to feed rather than to control the conversation your group will engage in. The two bible studies which accompany the guiding passages from Colossians and Psalms are in both video and written form. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson invites you into the study of Colossians 3:16-17. Book of Faith Director Diane Jacobson invites you into the study of Psalm 1. The remaining Bible studies are in written form only and each are accompanied by their own questions.

Suggested Approaches and Questions Invite your gathered group to watch the video and share responses. You may wish to consider these general questions:

How does the Bible feed your daily life? How does the Bible feed the life of this community? How are we renewed, empowered, and enlivened by the Word? What stands in the way of our opening the Bible and joining the conversation?

As you engage each of the various biblical passages from the video, you might want to ask the following questions:

What is God saying to us through this passage? What does this passage tell us about God? How does this passage speak to us as individuals and to us as a community? What does this passage teach us about our neighbors and our world?

You might then take some initial time delving into the two passages from Colossians 3 and Psalm 1. Both of these passages give insight from the Bible about our interaction with the Bible. Watch either or both of the accompanying videos on these passages.

After you listen or read the short study on Colossians 3, you might ask the following questions:

How do we dwell in the Word? Is Scripture our first language of faith? What would we like to see happen in our community to help Scripture become our first language of faith?

After you listen or read the short study on Psalm 1, you might ask the following questions:

How do we "meditate" on the Word together? In what ways do we take delight in the study of the Bible? What are we rooted in? Does studying God’s word together help us to be like trees providing fruit or leaves for others?

Each of the remaining short Bible studies approaches the study of the Bible from the perspective of one teacher of the church. Each study contains a number of questions to invite you into the conversation. You might talk about which passages stand most at the center of your faith and which of the approaches works best for your own setting. As the Book of Faith initiative unfolds over the next several years, you will have opportunities to study the Bible as new readers of Scripture or as readers who want to go into books and passages in greater depth. These initial studies are designed to help you talk together about how you hear and experience the Bible in your own setting.