By Erika Norton | Echo
Taylor's Center for Scripture Engagement will team up next year with Bible Gateway, one of the most popular Christian websites in the world.
The center, formed in 2009, includes Taylor professors Phil Collins and Steven Bird and student researchers. Fergus Macdonald of Scotland is the international director
Collins, the executive director, explained what Scripture engagement is.
"Scripture engagement, most simply, is helping people to reflect, to meditate, to ponder, to mull over the Bible because it's God's Word, (because) as we engage with the Bible, we engage with God-and that's where the transformation comes in," Collins said.
The center tries to accomplish this through research on and off campus and overseas. The center travels to churches holds workshops on campus with the goal of educating and equipping church and ministry leaders, along with students, about Scripture engagement.
The center is then compiles the research into articles about Scripture engagement and posts onto their website (tucse.taylor.edu), functioning as a clearinghouse for all things Scripture engagement.
About a year and half ago, Collins attended a conference in New York and met Rachel Barach, the general manager of Bible Gateway. After a long conversation, they decided that instead of posting the center's Scripture engagement research and information on Taylor's website, they would post it on Bible Gateway's website.According to Collins, Bible Gateway will be redesigning its entire website. Around February or March, when the website relaunches, it will include a new section devoted to Scripture engagement.
"It will be co-branded with Taylor University and Bible Gateway, so Taylor's name will be on Bible Gateway's website and then all these articles that we've been writing will make up the bulk of that information," Collins explained.
Collins described how this is phase one in a larger vision for the Bible Gateway partnership.
"Eventually, what Bible Gateway wants to do is, anytime you click on a certain passage, there would be four or five or six different ways to engage with that passage right there," Collins said.
Bible Gateway hopes the website itself will help readers engage with Scripture through various media, such as songs, drama or videos related to various passages, or an audio reading of passages, according to Collins.
"The website itself becomes interactive," Collins said.
With 13 million unique visits on the Bible Gateway website every month and around 100 million every year, the Taylor Scripture engagement section on Bible Gateway's website has the potential to reach hundreds of people outside of Taylor and connect them to the university.
Collins clarified that this is a partnership with Bible Gateway, not an advertising agreement, though it is an opportunity for Taylor to introduce itself to a broader audience.
"It's just a nice relationship that we can get our information out there more broadly and end up advertising in some ways for Taylor," Collins said.
Through the Scripture Engagement Center and its part on the Bible Gateway website, Collins' hopes to facilitate student's connection and understanding of the Bible.
"When we're engaging with God's Word, we're connecting with God, we're learning about God, knowing God, and he changes us," Collins said. "It's a spiritual formation process we very much believe in and are trying to enhance through the center."
