Biblical Integration is… Conceptual

How do you go about trying to integrate biblical ideas in your lessons?  What is your approach or guiding strategy? How do you conceptualize the process?

For many Christian teachers, the answer to this question is that they don’t really have a consistent or considered approach.  Biblical integration happens in a somewhat piecemeal fashion… a Bible verse thrown in here, a comment about God’s role thrown in there, a prayer at the beginning or end of the lesson.  Somehow we know there should be more to it, but can’t quite put our finger on what that is.

Time to take a step back and consider a bigger picture.  Biblical integration operates at the level of our worldview.  That is, the Bible informs our answers to life’s deepest questions which then impacts the way we see everything else – including the content we are teaching in our classes.  These worldview questions include things like:

• Who is God?
• Who (or what) are human beings?
• How can I know what is true?
• What is the purpose of life?

An effective approach to Biblical integration is to identify which of these questions are being addressed in some way in the content you are teaching, then consider how the answers provided or suggested by your lesson content compare to the answers provided by God in His word.  Does the content you and your students are studying reinforce or help explain the Bible’s answers to these questions?  How? Does the content in some ways contradict the Bible’s answers? How?

Don’t be afraid of the contradictions!  Try to get your students to do the difficult thinking work of spotting them and proposing an alternative, Biblical, understanding of what they are learning.

Have you tried this worldview approach to Biblical integration?  What did you find effective about it?  What was challenging?  Share your thoughts and experience in the comments section below.