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How We Read The Bible: 8 Ways to Engage the Bible With Our Students
"I needed this tool when I was a hands-on youth leader. I'm betting you do too." --Kara Powell, from the foreword "This book by Matt Laidlaw is going to be used widely by youth workers who are concerned about biblical illiteracy among young people today ... I give this book two thumbs up." --Tony Campolo, author, speaker, and a founder of the Red Letter Christians movement
Bring Scripture to life with teenagers. As much as youth leaders may love the Bible, we often handle it poorly in our ministries. We get stuck in ruts. We worry about "relevance" but fail to see the depth of what's already there. We This book is for anyone who has struggled to know how to open the Bible with young people in large groups, small groups, Sunday school, mentoring relationships, or through camps and retreats. Drawing from over a dozen years of FYI's research with young people and churches, this resource focuses in on Matt's own experience reading the Bible firsthand and attempting to teach it to students as a youth pastor. Start here to refresh the way you read the Bible with young people.
Bring Scripture to life with teenagers. As much as youth leaders may love the Bible, we often handle it poorly in our ministries. We get stuck in ruts. We worry about "relevance" but fail to see the depth of what's already there. We This book is for anyone who has struggled to know how to open the Bible with young people in large groups, small groups, Sunday school, mentoring relationships, or through camps and retreats. Drawing from over a dozen years of FYI's research with young people and churches, this resource focuses in on Matt's own experience reading the Bible firsthand and attempting to teach it to students as a youth pastor. Start here to refresh the way you read the Bible with young people.
- GenresChristian
250 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
16 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 29, 2018
For the sake of transparency, this is a bias review.
The simple reality is that I’m reviewing a book by a close friend of mine. Matt Laidlaw and I have known each other for over 10 years, he has been my boss and mentor, groomsmen and one of my most trusted friends. There are few people who have helped shaped and guide who I am more in my adult years - if I had a Mount Rushmore of influential people, Matt would most certainly be found there.
That said, our relationship has been built on the trust of the other to say the hard things – to support, but most importantly challenge when necessary. While I can’t say I am consciously holding back or toning things down in my review, I wanted to name this to help lend insight as you dive into my review of his first book from Fuller Youth Institute, “How We Read the Bible: 8 Ways to Engage the Bible with Our Students”.
[For a visual recap of the book, check out my notes over at www.illustratedbooknotes.com]
The Writing:
Though Matt no longer works at a church, as the book unfolds, it displays one thing for certain – a pastor pastors regardless of their context. His writing style, tone, and invitation speaks in a manner of an individual who not only deeply loves the Bible but from an individual who both personally and from within a ministry context has wrestled through the implications of how we read the Bible and deeply cares for how that affects us personally and those we interact with. It is narrative driven, showing readers a way not simply telling them of the Bible’s importance in their walk of faith.
The Content:
Though the subtitle might keep those who aren’t youth workers away from picking up, I would argue this is a resource for all Christians – especially those who are leading and pastoring individuals of all ages. It’s themes and overall arc display how it is a needed resource to the Church whole and also a reminder for those who might feel or find themselves homeless in their faith that they are not alone in the journey they find themselves on. Though you might be able to read between the lines on where Matt might land theologically, he mirrors Fuller Youth Institutes approach in not prescribing his theological leanings and experience as the best way forward. Instead Matt masterfully and graciously displays an ‘include and transcend’ posture to how he has personally grown in how he approaches the Bible. He is quick to avoid any type of arrival language, which echoes throughout the book as you can see him pulling from each ‘way’ he has engaged the Bible throughout his life to show how each is necessary and beautiful (along with their potential shortcomings) as we grow in life and faith.
I appreciated that from the get go, Matt quickly addressed differences and implications of focusing solely answering the question ‘What is the Bible?’ towards moving to addressing the importance of how we read the Bible. Or to put it another way, that how we engage and answer the question of ‘What is the Bible?’ is a very important one. It is a big tree in the forest that must be addressed, but often we can get caught up in that question and stuck there; instead of recognizing that the Bible should launch us into the full forest of life – helping us to move along and how we are reading the Bible helps energize that journey.
Matt also concludes each chapter concludes with questions and next steps for individuals to do on their own but also a section for those in ministry or leading a ministry to consider – a helpful reminder that transformation and growth must start first with the individual and then flow to a community.
My Takeaway:
I’m so grateful for this book.
Through Matt’s pastoral writing style, I was able to connect his story to my own and remember the love for the Bible that was once so prominent in my life. It got me excited to revisit the Bible again, which is a difficult confession since I hold an MDiv, and not as some checklist in hopes of connecting with God but rather another connecting point with a God I believe cares deeply about today and the moment we find ourselves in. This book reminded me how much I am naturally drawn towards conversations with people around what the Bible is and that I have rarely invited people into actually reading it and experiencing. Matt challenged myself and readers to not avoid the former but rather to make sure we are constantly striving towards the latter – to dive into the mess and mystery of life and faith and the Bible.
Though I understand why the publisher positioned to book as it did to focus on young people/students, this book, again, is a needed resource for the Church. I would recommend this for anyone in ministry, for parents, and for those looking for a way to reconnect with the Bible. Because how we read the Bible is really matters.
Note: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.
The simple reality is that I’m reviewing a book by a close friend of mine. Matt Laidlaw and I have known each other for over 10 years, he has been my boss and mentor, groomsmen and one of my most trusted friends. There are few people who have helped shaped and guide who I am more in my adult years - if I had a Mount Rushmore of influential people, Matt would most certainly be found there.
That said, our relationship has been built on the trust of the other to say the hard things – to support, but most importantly challenge when necessary. While I can’t say I am consciously holding back or toning things down in my review, I wanted to name this to help lend insight as you dive into my review of his first book from Fuller Youth Institute, “How We Read the Bible: 8 Ways to Engage the Bible with Our Students”.
[For a visual recap of the book, check out my notes over at www.illustratedbooknotes.com]
The Writing:
Though Matt no longer works at a church, as the book unfolds, it displays one thing for certain – a pastor pastors regardless of their context. His writing style, tone, and invitation speaks in a manner of an individual who not only deeply loves the Bible but from an individual who both personally and from within a ministry context has wrestled through the implications of how we read the Bible and deeply cares for how that affects us personally and those we interact with. It is narrative driven, showing readers a way not simply telling them of the Bible’s importance in their walk of faith.
The Content:
Though the subtitle might keep those who aren’t youth workers away from picking up, I would argue this is a resource for all Christians – especially those who are leading and pastoring individuals of all ages. It’s themes and overall arc display how it is a needed resource to the Church whole and also a reminder for those who might feel or find themselves homeless in their faith that they are not alone in the journey they find themselves on. Though you might be able to read between the lines on where Matt might land theologically, he mirrors Fuller Youth Institutes approach in not prescribing his theological leanings and experience as the best way forward. Instead Matt masterfully and graciously displays an ‘include and transcend’ posture to how he has personally grown in how he approaches the Bible. He is quick to avoid any type of arrival language, which echoes throughout the book as you can see him pulling from each ‘way’ he has engaged the Bible throughout his life to show how each is necessary and beautiful (along with their potential shortcomings) as we grow in life and faith.
I appreciated that from the get go, Matt quickly addressed differences and implications of focusing solely answering the question ‘What is the Bible?’ towards moving to addressing the importance of how we read the Bible. Or to put it another way, that how we engage and answer the question of ‘What is the Bible?’ is a very important one. It is a big tree in the forest that must be addressed, but often we can get caught up in that question and stuck there; instead of recognizing that the Bible should launch us into the full forest of life – helping us to move along and how we are reading the Bible helps energize that journey.
Matt also concludes each chapter concludes with questions and next steps for individuals to do on their own but also a section for those in ministry or leading a ministry to consider – a helpful reminder that transformation and growth must start first with the individual and then flow to a community.
My Takeaway:
I’m so grateful for this book.
Through Matt’s pastoral writing style, I was able to connect his story to my own and remember the love for the Bible that was once so prominent in my life. It got me excited to revisit the Bible again, which is a difficult confession since I hold an MDiv, and not as some checklist in hopes of connecting with God but rather another connecting point with a God I believe cares deeply about today and the moment we find ourselves in. This book reminded me how much I am naturally drawn towards conversations with people around what the Bible is and that I have rarely invited people into actually reading it and experiencing. Matt challenged myself and readers to not avoid the former but rather to make sure we are constantly striving towards the latter – to dive into the mess and mystery of life and faith and the Bible.
Though I understand why the publisher positioned to book as it did to focus on young people/students, this book, again, is a needed resource for the Church. I would recommend this for anyone in ministry, for parents, and for those looking for a way to reconnect with the Bible. Because how we read the Bible is really matters.
Note: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.
September 20, 2018
If we could go with partial stars, this would easily be 3.5 or 3.75. My impressions of the book went through a couple changes as I worked through it.
Initially, I was slightly suspicious, mostly because new books haven’t had the time to be vetted and because I’m not thrilled with single sentence paragraphs. However, as I continued to read the book, I was impressed the clear communication and practical suggestions for how to implement different reading strategies for the Scripture. The core content of the book is golden and well worth most people’s time to read (particularly if you work regularly with youth). How these approaches to the Bible will work with youth I imagine will change over time, but they all seem to be timeless in their application—at least insofar as they are all ways that people have read the Bible throughout its history.
The ending chapter I was less impressed with. The suggestions to embrace dynamic tension, run towards places of struggle, and respect other people’s readings of Scripture all could have used a little more definition/fleshing out. As it stands, I was left wondering to what degree Laidlaw sees the Scripture as an objective vs. a subjective book—aka, does the Bible have a message that stands on its own, or is it a book where the meaning rests primarily in what I understand it to be saying. From the rest of the book, I believe Laidlaw would lean more towards the objective side, but that could have been fleshed out better in the closing.
All in all, it’s a book that I’ll certainly be rereading, and definitely worth your time to sort through and ponder.
Initially, I was slightly suspicious, mostly because new books haven’t had the time to be vetted and because I’m not thrilled with single sentence paragraphs. However, as I continued to read the book, I was impressed the clear communication and practical suggestions for how to implement different reading strategies for the Scripture. The core content of the book is golden and well worth most people’s time to read (particularly if you work regularly with youth). How these approaches to the Bible will work with youth I imagine will change over time, but they all seem to be timeless in their application—at least insofar as they are all ways that people have read the Bible throughout its history.
The ending chapter I was less impressed with. The suggestions to embrace dynamic tension, run towards places of struggle, and respect other people’s readings of Scripture all could have used a little more definition/fleshing out. As it stands, I was left wondering to what degree Laidlaw sees the Scripture as an objective vs. a subjective book—aka, does the Bible have a message that stands on its own, or is it a book where the meaning rests primarily in what I understand it to be saying. From the rest of the book, I believe Laidlaw would lean more towards the objective side, but that could have been fleshed out better in the closing.
All in all, it’s a book that I’ll certainly be rereading, and definitely worth your time to sort through and ponder.
February 27, 2019
This was a very timely read for me. It helped me as a pastor rediscover my love for scripture. I think what I appreciated most about Laidlaw was his openness to his own struggle with the Bible. I really appreciated the application section of each chapter. It made it easy to directly apply some of the learned truths to my own life and our student ministry. I highly recommend this is you’re in ministry, definitely recommended if you follow Jesus, and would say it’s a must read if you’ve found yourself in a rut when it comes to reading, studying, or teaching, the Bible.
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December 16, 2020Good resource. I work in youth ministry and have thought a lot about how we communicate scripture to students. Laidlaw's book was not revelatory, but I found it insightful, engaging, and full of good ideas that I hope to use.
Though the book is geared to benefit youth ministers and volunteers, I really think the basic ideas need to be practiced in our churches across age groups. For that reason, I'd happily recommend it to anyone interested in trying out new approaches to scripture, from the lead pastor to the average churchgoer.
Though the book is geared to benefit youth ministers and volunteers, I really think the basic ideas need to be practiced in our churches across age groups. For that reason, I'd happily recommend it to anyone interested in trying out new approaches to scripture, from the lead pastor to the average churchgoer.
December 2, 2021
The author offers some helpful ways to understand scripture and help young people engage with the Bible more deeply. The author empasizes the need for any teacher to be personally engaged in Scripture in order to helpfully lead students. A nice feature of the book are the practical suggestions for both personal and youth group engagement with Bible texts. Recommended.
January 25, 2021
Perhaps the most practical ministry-related book I’ve read. But it’s so much more than practical. Matt Laidlaw’s experiences helped me feel seen and also helped breathe life into my personal Bible-reading behaviors. Grateful for this resource.
October 11, 2018
Great book for new youth leaders
May 6, 2020
A good fresh perspective on engaging Bible reading, understanding & experiencing with teens. I love all the things that come from the Fuller Youth Institute staff!
August 25, 2024
Loved this book! Especially helpful in the ideas it proposes for personal growth and student ministry spiritual growth
February 20, 2021
From a 37-year youth ministry veteran, this is the best youth ministry book I've read in years.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews