Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series presents Hesston College’s signature Biblical Literature course
Marion Bontrager had trouble hanging his hat at Hesston College the evening of October 30. As he spoke to approximately 200 participants from across the church in the U.S. and Canada at the college’s annual Anabaptist Vision and Discipleship Series (AVDS), he repeatedly tried to hang his hat on the biblical timeline posted beside him. But there were no hooks.
“Learning the Bible in life-giving ways: History, hooks, and heilsgeschichte” was the title of the AVDS weekend Oct. 30-Nov. 1, featuring Marion Bontrager and Michele Hershberger as they shared a condensed version of the college’s Biblical Literature course. Ted Swartz was on hand, using dramatic sketches to bring both comic relief and insights into the information-packed sessions.
For more than 20 years, Hesston College’s “Bib Lit” course has been grounding students in a knowledge of the biblical story. It is required of every student at Hesston. In walking through the whole Bible story, it seeks to answer the question: “How has God worked in history to solve the sin problem and bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ?”
Beginning with the account of creation in Genesis and continuing through Revelation, Hesston College Bible professors Hershberger and Bontrager led participants through the heilsgeschichte (salvation history) as found in the Bible. Along the way, they provided visual and mental “hooks” on which to hang the stories, helping learners to remember not only the stories, but the sequence and how they fit into the big picture.
Hesston College students Clayton Bontrager (freshman, Harrisonburg, Va.), Travis Duerksen (sophomore, Canton, Kan.), Solomon Rudy (freshman, Manheim, Pa.), Brooke Gugel (sophomore, Wauseon, Ohio) and Matt Lehman (not pictured, sophomore, Kidron, Ohio) work with Ted Swartz of Ted and Company TheaterWorks, Harrisonburg, Va., to present “Genre Cafe,” a dramatic interpretation of the various genre of biblical texts.
Ethel Lind, age 96, a 1939 Hesston College graduate, attended the weekend because she audited the Bib Lit course years ago and thought she needed a refresher course. Her late husband Ivan Lind was a dean and Bible teacher at Hesston College from the late 30s through the 60s, and one of his students was Marion Bontrager. Reflecting on what she learned during the weekend, Lind said “We have a human tendency to pick our own way. We need to be reminded that we are children of God and he is our leader and he has chosen us.”
Alan Stucky, a young pastor at Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church in Harper, Kansas, reflected that even for a seminary graduate, the weekend was “very enlightening.”
“One of the striking things that I came away with was that how you tell the whole story of the Bible matters,” Stucky said. “It’s not just about interpreting any one passage in a particular way, but it’s how you understand any passage in relationship to the whole Bible that counts.”
Hershberger, who is on sabbatical and teaching Biblical Literature and other classes at LCC International University (formerly Lithuania Christian College), traveled the farthest for this year’s AVDS. A carload from Saskatchewan drove 23 hours each way to be a part of the weekend. Anna Rehan, area church youth minister, organized the trip. Reflecting on the weekend, she said, “I have struggled some to understand the missional concept. But learning that we are chosen to be a missional people-that was helpful. I hope this weekend will give me new interest and vision to read and understand the Bible in new ways.”
An important concept stressed throughout the weekend was the crossing of the imaginary “hermeneutical bridge”-studying the story in the culture and context in which it happened, and then bringing the application back across the bridge into today’s world. For Gladys Voth of Hesston, this was one of the highlights, along with the laughter and new insights brought by Ted Swartz and the college students who shared in two of his presentations.
Steve Roth of Beth-El Mennonite Church, Milford, Nebraska had three reasons to be at Hesston that weekend – daughters; Emily and Jen who are students, and the desire to experience a short version of the Bib Lit class they have taken. Roth said he will take home with him the knowledge that God’s grace is evident not just in the New Testament, but throughout the Biblical story.