Sisters in Scripture

Over the last few months, women from across all three congregations have been gathering on Saturday mornings to walk through the Old Testament scriptures together. Each biweekly session follows a simple rhythm: breakfast, Bible-reading, reflection, and prayer. Led by Bisi, Paulina, and Naomi, the study has brought together women from all walks of life, who share more below.
 

Seeing Scripture as One Story

Following David Platt’s Secret Church: A Survey of the Old Testament, the group has been unpacking scripture as one unified story that points to Jesus. As Bisi shared, “It was a joy to trace God’s glorious story as it unfolds and to see how it all fits together perfectly. God has been establishing his kingdom right from Eden.”

“If you want to properly understand Christ”, she continued, “you need to understand the Old Testament. It’s rich in Christ symbolism, hiding more easter eggs and foreshadowing than any Marvel movie. This also matters because knowing that the Bible is coherent and totally consistent gives you confidence that it’s not only reliable but the true revelation of God.”

Naomi added, “It’s so good to see such hunger for God’s word among sisters at Grace. A highlight for me has been tracing God’s heart for mission throughout the Old Testament. I could write for ages about this, but I’ll summarise by saying I didn’t expect to be so stirred for mission through this study. It has deepened my understanding of God’s unwavering and faithful heart, and made me so excited about his kingdom coming. It’s been such a gift.”
 

Building community

For Paulina, a highlight has been seeing not only spiritual hunger but also friendships flourishing. “Welcoming people who started this with us one year ago, when we were studying 1 Peter, has been really encouraging, as well as seeing new faces. We’ve seen such a growth in interest this time around!”

“I hope we continue gathering to open God’s word and to remain curious about what he’s doing in and through our lives, the church, and the world. I just love all the women that have come… happy, weary, curious… all have been a blessing.”

Salome, who joined the Waterloo PM service earlier this year, reflected, “Being new to London sometimes feels isolating, but this Bible study has helped me experience God through a community of fellow women. It's more than just an intellectual study of scriptures - it's life-giving to hear from people of all different ages, personalities, and backgrounds.”

As we wrap up our Old Testament study and look ahead to our next session in the New Year, we warmly invite any woman at Grace—whether you're happy, weary, or curious—to join us for the next study. To get involved or ask questions, email Bisi at bisi@grace.london or join the women’s Bible study group chat via our WhatsApp community.

As Laura from the Waterloo evening service put it, “I will never regret not sleeping in on a Saturday - but to think what I could have missed if God didn’t meet me and say, ‘Come, I’ll fill your cup till it overflows!’”

How Do You Read the Bible?

Have you ever read the Bible and felt like you're not ‘getting it’? This feeling can stem from approaching the Bible with a faulty paradigm - a framework or set of expectations that shapes our understanding of reality. Paradigms operate subconsciously, guiding how we interpret and understand our experiences. We all bring paradigms when we read and study the Bible. So, it's helpful to examine ourselves and consider which paradigms we've adopted and whether they're helping us understand God’s Word.

Here are three common but unhelpful paradigms for studying the Bible. All three share a ‘reference book mentality’. They treat the Bible like Wikipedia or a dictionary – a source only helpful for answering our questions. We flip through reference books to find the information we need rather than reading them cover to cover. While the Bible addresses human needs and answers our questions, if we read it like a reference book, we miss out on the story it’s telling.


The Bible Is Not a Theology Dictionary

The first of these ‘reference book’ paradigms says, “The Bible is a theology dictionary.” This paradigm treats the Bible like an expert resource on theological matters: how to structure a church, how to deal with the problem of evil, how to understand Jesus’ humanity and deity, etc.

Reading the Bible like this can be helpful. However, when this becomes the sole way we engage with it, we miss the grand narrative of the Bible, the greatest story ever told. We forfeit the richness of a passage if we reach for it simply to make a broader theological point. The best theologians first seek to understand passages of Scripture in their original context, as part of this greatest story, and then derive theological principles from that understanding.


The Bible Is Not a Moral Handbook

It’s not uncommon for people to appeal to the Bible as the basis for their moral beliefs. An overemphasis, however, trains others who follow Jesus (and those who don’t) to see it primarily as a rulebook.

Of course, deriving moral principles from the Bible is necessary – otherwise, we would arrive at moral preferences without any authority but our own. The Bible itself begins with the question, “Who gets to define what is good, humans or God?”.

But instead of only answering moral questions with a set of rules, the Bible invites people into a dynamic process of forming and aligning their ethics and character with God. For example, Jesus affirms the rule against murder and also teaches his disciples that there is a greater depth to it, that anger and hatred within a person’s heart are akin to murder (Matthew 5:21-22). A rulebook tells people what to do and leaves it at that. Instead, the Bible is designed to cultivate wisdom and purity in us and form us into people who need fewer rules because our character has been formed by God through his word.


The Bible Is Not a ‘Devotional Grab Bag’

At best, this paradigm professes a (true) belief that the Bible exists to connect us to the presence of the living God. But, it also focuses attention only on the ‘feel-good’ sections of Scripture that leave us with a strong emotional sensation. In the process, the devotional grab bag paradigm ends up doing what the other reference book paradigms do – sidestepping the full story of the Bible.


Perhaps the Bible has become stale for you, like flicking through the pages of a dictionary or rulebook. Exposing these three unhelpful paradigms is not meant to leave you deflated but hopeful. God gave us the Bible. He could have given us a theological dictionary, a moral handbook or a devotional grab bag if that is what he thought we needed but, he gave us the Bible: a divine-human book that speaks God's word to his people, telling the greatest story ever told that ultimately leads us to Jesus, the one who has power to change lives.

You’re all ministers of the word

One of the greatest dangers churches face is the professionalisation of ministry, when the gap between the pulpit and the pew widens. At this point, church members become consumers instead of co-labourers, and the work of ministry is entrusted into the hands of a few. At this point, immaturity rules the day.

The New Testament has an entirely different view on how the church should operate. The place of leadership is never diminished, but the dignity and purpose of every individual – the priesthood of all believers – is elevated. When this happens, there is potency and life that flows through the body.

One of the core ministries of all believers (that includes you) is the ministry of the word. Aside from the authoritative preaching that is expected from ordained pastors, each person in the church family is entrusted to wield the word for the building up of the body.

This happens in numerous ways, but the main ones mentioned in the New Testament are these. First, there’s encouragement (see 1 Thess 4.18; 5.11; Heb 3.13; 10.25). This is not so much encouragement in the way we think of it – ‘You’re amazing! Back yourself! You’re gonna slaaaay’. Instead, it’s something like this: Putting courage into others by telling them the truth of what we believe; stoking up the fire of faith by helping others cling to the truth.

Second, there’s teaching (as in Col 3.16 or Titus 2.3). Obviously, not everyone is equally knowledgeable in the Scriptures. But the point here is that even if you know just a little bit more than someone else, you can teach them something. It might be a verse you read that morning that happens to be relevant at a particular moment talking to a friend.

Finally, there’s instruction or admonition. There’s a bunch of verses in the New Testament that use a Greek word noutheteo, which is translated differently in different places, but essentially it means this: Giving clear, directive, even forceful advice to someone. Take a look at Romans 15.14, or 1 Thess 5.12, 14, or or Col 3.16. 

I think of it like this. If the church is a group of people on a voyage together on the high seas, there are constant waves washing over the deck ready to sweep people overboard. Someone is experiencing doubts; another is caught in temptation; another is walking through suffering. At that point, when someone is about to get washed out to sea, the nearest person needs to throw out a hand and grab them without hesitation. That’s noutheteo – a readiness to speak the truth to each other with real conviction and to help each other do the right thing and stay on board.

All of this to say: You are a minister of the word. A healthy church involves your willingness to build up the body by speaking the truth of the gospel. So ask yourself, who needs to hear from you today? Who can you encourage? Who can you help?