Slovenia Bog Blog

Each year the Bible Society of Slovenia organises a week when the Bible is read for 24 hours a day for 7 days. They call it the Bible Marathon. People from around Slovenia can come to a chapel in central Ljubljana and read the Bible aloud. Usually churches organise a few hours one day when they all come together and take turns to read chapters. The event opens and ends with pray and throughout the week there are some talks to accompany the theme of the Marathon. This year the event was held at the beginning of October and theme came from Jesus' words in Mark 5: "Don't fear, only believe".

I am very supportive of the work of the Bible Society throughout the world. For years this society has been involved in publishing the Christian Scriptures into all the different languages of the world. My eyes have also been opened to the vital role this society plays within Slovenia. They have been publishing the Bible here for many years, but within a diverse theological context. For example, they have to accommodate a very large Roman Catholic presence in Slovenia. There may be a few Catholic influences in the Slovene Bible translations, yet it means that everyone has access to the Bible. The society helps people read it, whenever they hold their Bible Reading marathon. Furthermore, one of the aims of the society in Slovenia is to engage in evangelism whenever and wherever they perceive the church is failing in this.

This year Peter Novak, the pastor of the Reformed Evangelical Church (REC), who also happens to be my boss, organised for us to give two talks in conjunction with the Bible Society Marathon. The titles for the talks were "Do you understand what you are reading?". This was Philip's question to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Our goal was to help people consider an appropriate approach to read, understanding and applying Scripture. Using the narrative from Acts 8:26-40 as my main example for this approach, I spoke on the basics of comprehension skills, the centrality of Jesus Christ for understanding Scripture, and the importance of reading a passage in its context. Peter Novak's talk picked up these ideas, and focused more on reading the Old Testament.

If you would like to look at the talks, follow these links to Youtube:

Mark's Bible Society Marathon Talk 2012 - English with Slovene translation

Peter's Bible Society Marathon Talk 2012 - Slovene

Personally, I found the preparation for this talk rather challenging. Usually I speak to audiences which understand the importance of reading the Bible and then put this into practise. In Slovenia I might assume that some people would say the former, but there would be no evidence of the latter in their lives. The questions at the end of my talk confirmed that there was a very broad spectrum of attitudes towards the importance and place of reading the Bible. So I had to work hard in preparation, making my presuppositions and assumptions clear, being practical, as well we faithful to Scripture.

Overall, I think the Slovene Bible Society Marathon is an excellent opportunity. It really is just a start too, since it seems that it is the only exposure to the Bible that a lot of Christians receive throughout the year.