BIBS (an acronym for "Big Idea Bible Study") is just the kind of book we need more of in our churches. In fact, if your church has a bookstore, I'd recommend this be the second thing on the priority list. (After Bibles, of course!)
In the churches I grew up in, reading the Bible was, of course, highly encouraged. "Read the Bible in a year" checklists were made available, and many an aside in sermons hit upon the subject of reading. Yet, like so many teens, I simply didn't understand much of what I read. There were no programs, no courses, no resources (that I was told of that) would help me answer those questions. In fact, the common advice was to read those difficult passages/books for the sake of reading them, but if they were too hard to understand, just move on to something I did understand. That advice was, sadly, the go-to answer for Christians new and old.
The author's experience seemed little different, as he admits on Page xvi: "In some ways, I wasted my growing up years because I never really understood how to read the Bible."
BIBS was written as a simple and easily understood approach to help teens learn HOW to study the Bible. For those interested, the method reads as a simplified version of Haddon Robinson's hermenutic from his well-known Biblical Preaching. As such, the titular "big idea" is a brief summary of the major point the author was saying with that material. In teaching that, the author here emphasizes reading the Bible with a historical-grammatical lens, with a sensitivity to the context and the author's original intent. One point in particular was Rench's stressing the need to see the Bible as a whole book, rather than the usual view of just seeing it as a "collection of verses." (Page 16) In fact, he writes: "Reading my Bible was different, though. When I read my Bible, I treated it like a different kind of book. Instead of looking at it like a novel in which the author has a flow of thought, I treated it like I had always treated the Bible: I opened it to a verse and just started reading." (Again, Page 16)
He also takes time to commend studying chucks/passages/stories of the Bible, and refutes the all too common practice of just cross-referencing everything. For example, from Page 22 "The Proverb meant something to its original readers. By finding Solomon’s intent, we find God’s intent. By finding God’s intent, we hear God’s voice." and two pages earlier in the book: "Too many people get hung up on cross-references and lose sight of God’s message at a particular time."
Later, he rightly notes: "Each scripture you read has only one truth to it. [...] On the other hand, living by principles means that one truth can have many applications." (Page 63)
Those are the guiding principles of the book, and good ones at that.
Following the introductory material, and a word on the need for studying the Bible, the author finally gets into the meat of the book.
The "BIBS Method" is broken down into three major sections.
Observation (Chapters 4-5)
This section teaches students to ask basic questions like "What genre is this?" "What was the historical background?" and "What's the context of this passage in the book?" This section also teaches how or where answers to those questions can be found.
Interpretation (Chapters 6-9)
These chapters introduce the all-important idea that Scripture has only one interpretation, yet many applications. That distinction is (Thankfully!) hammered home. This also teaches the difference between the main idea and supporting ideas within a chosen text segment. It leads students to chose a topic word, that's expanded to a phrase, that eventually results in the "Big Idea" sentence that summarizes the main idea of the passage. Chapter 8 is full of sample texts with blanks for students to work through those steps before moving on.
Application (Chapter 10)
This teaches the great question "What is God saying to me?" and drives home the needs for specificity and a plan of action that results from the interpretation steps.
These three major steps help establish the genre and context of that passage, as well as noticing key terms and learning how to form that "Big Idea" statement. Then, the final section details how to connect that statement to the struggles and needs of today without abandoning the intent of the Biblical author.
The remaining 35% of the book is comprised of additional helpful material, such as the author's sources behind the "BIBS Method," numerous examples of the entire process examining different passage (a huge plus!) and a deeper look at genres of Scripture.
Throughout the book, Ryan Rench's writing is very approachable, conversational, and simple. While one may accuse the book of being simplistic, it has to be. Most Christians I know don't have the slightest clue how to study the Bible, and thus, need something this elementary. Throughout the book, humor, illustrations, and examples make the concepts clear and easy to follow.
However, that isn't to say it's not without it's flaws.
Many of those flaws seem to stem from how concepts were simplified, either going too far, or accidentally making them more complex in the process.
I feel like reducing a passage to a single word first, then building to a phrase, before building back to a "Big Idea" statement, could easily derail interpretation in it's simplicity and generic nature. Honestly, that is far too non-specific to even be worth mentioning. I think this could easily lead to topical studies and missing the exact interpretation of that exact text unless done carefully. Another issue is that quotes, stats, and some rather large claims are left without footnotes or references, leading to a questioning of their authenticity. Chapter 9, "The Branches" doesn't seem to add much, apart from slight confusion and another attempt at simplification that seems to have gone off the rails. Rather, jumping straight from the sentence created in the last chapter to the How/Why questions at the end of Chapter 9 would be a more straightforward and helpful simplification.
The other flaw is that the method seems based almost exclusively upon Robinson's method. This idea of a "big idea", while certainly a strong one, and without question better than topical, cross-reference based, allegorical, or present-audience driven methods, does have it's flaws. That being said, I still believe it's a wonderful Bible study concept to teach teens and early Christians, as refining that teaching later is far easier than attempting to explain Kuruvilla's "Pericopal Theology” to those lacking any previous foundation in interpretation whatsoever, and especially to those seeped in numerology, excess typology and topical nonsense.
However, I feel adding a portion of material concerning "The World in Front of the Text" and "What the author is doing with what he is saying" would not be hard to integrate into a class using BIBS as a textbook. Adding those concepts would build up the flaws and make this a wonderful resource well worth the sticker price.
The final flaw I'd mention is that the writer's personal tendencies and quirks shine through quite brightly. He never recommends consulting other English translations, (A simple and very helpful tool that even the KJV translators highly recomended!) because of his KJVonlyism. He heaps enormous and probably exaggerated praise upon his personal ministry role models, and while he (cautiously) recommends use of commentaries, lexicons, and other Bible resources, he never explains HOW to use them, or recommends particular resources. (apart from Strong's Concordance, and the King James Bible Commentary, that is.) This leaves readers completely in the dark on how to proceed in with those tools. In fact, I'd even argue that misusing those resources could potentially be even more destructive that not using them in the first place.
However, I still think this is the best book for teens and new believers on Bible study other there. While other books are too complex or long-winded, or miss the historical-gramatical method entirely, this book's easy style and approachable method allow it to appeal to all. It makes for a great foundation, one that can be built upon easily with further teaching.
My only caution would be that it's best recommended within a special class or course offered by the church that not only explains the book, but provides appropriate expansion/clarification/correction where needed. An educated pastor/teacher could take the skeleton of this book and build a wonderfully beneficial class around it.
Even without that course format, promoting this book alone would revolutionize the IFB idea of "just Bible reading" that I grew up in. This alone would bring great help to those currently struggling in understanding the Bible and would be a great benefit to all, especially volunteer Sunday School teachers.
Notable Quotables:
"If every young person that goes off to Bible College had followed the BIBS method (with some degree of regularity) from fifteen years old to graduation from high school, they would enter the experience a full year ahead (and in some cases, more) of where most enter."
[I'd argue much more than that!]
"It seems like it should go without saying, but just reading your Bible is not the real goal. You should understand what you’re reading."
"Even though you can be helped by any random text, that does not mean that you should be random in your Bible study."
4.5/5
Buy here on Amazon.com
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