The Blue Parakeet

Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it...In The Blue Parakeet, McKnight again touches the hearts and minds of today’s Christians, this time challenging them to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic theology but to see it as a Story that we’re summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day. In his own inimitable style, McKnight sets traditional and liberal Christianity on its ear, leaving readers equipped, encouraged, and emboldened to be the people of faith they long to be.

Scott Anderson says: 

At the core of the Christian life is hearing and following God’s Word.

This is why we are inviting everyone to participate in the Shema Project (a daily bible reading/engagement initiative). We want to grow this year as people who hear and follow God’s Voice.

But how do we do this well? Specifically, how do we read and interpret the Bible well? How do we know or decide that one text (about food laws or head-coverings, for example) is not applicable today, but other teachings are applicable for all people and all times? In truth, we have often not thought much about how we read and interpret the Bible.

Clearly, this question relates significantly to our congregational conversation about women and authority in the church, but it’s bigger than that – because this relates to how we read and interpret everything and anything in the Bible.

With this in mind, we are inviting everyone who is interested to pick up a copy of a book called,

“The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How We Read the Bible” (second edition) by Scot McKnight.

McKnight is an evangelical theologian, New Testament scholar, and ordained minister. As the subtitle to this book suggests, “In this bold, engaging re-examination of reading the Bible, Scot McKnight calls all Christians from both ends of the conversative/progressive spectrum to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew to our hearts.”

And here’s the invitation – to not just read this book, but to read it in conversation with others. Read it with a friend or with a small group.

Lastly, Scott Anderson (our lead pastor) is offering to lead two Blue Parakeet discussion groups that will work through the book together over the next few months. Both of these groups will start the first week of February and will meet every other week (roughly) through till April (one group on Tuesday nights, and the other on Wednesday nights). Sign up below!