Rob Wegner is a friend and colleague and has just posted a very generous review of Improv. He is doing incredible things at Granger Community Church one of the churches in the United States really getting it done. Thanks Rob!
I just finished reading a pre-release of Ron Martoia’s new book, The Bible as Improv.
Ron’s new book will shock and surprise all of us who grew up hearing the Bible taught as a series of short stories with a moral lesson attached. Bible as Improv compelling calls us out of a myopic, modernistic approach to atomize the Bible into timeless principles into a broader, wide-eyed approach that allows us to experience the breath-taking scope of the entire Story of Scripture within it’s own untamed voice and context.
Be prepared to have your assumptions questioned and unnoticed filters stripped away. If that sounds too dangerous, then this book isn’t for you. However, if you’re ready to immerse yourself in God’s Story, embrace that Story with the entirety of your life and then MOVE that story forward in history, then grab this book and start reading.
Ron is one of my mentors, so this will probably be far from an objective review. But, interestingly enough, that is one of the points of this book.
We’d like to believe we approach the Bible objectively, in order to exegete and then apply the text. Through the telling of his own story growing up in the church, Ron reveals how each of us unknowingly brings multiple filters to our understanding of the Text. These filters often go unquestioned, dramatically impacting how we understand and live the Scriptures.
Ron addresses some very interesting questions:
Am I currently aware of the filters that influence my view of Scripture?
Having filters isn’t wrong, it’s unavoidable. The problem is that most of us operate below an awareness level in terms of our own filters. Ron writes, “We inherit and adopt views of the Bible that remain largely blind-spot assumptions. Those assumptions are learned and assimilated long before we have the apparatus available to determine if those assumptions are good, bad, or outright misleading.”
This leads to a very myopic understanding of the Bible. Ron unpacks how his filters dramatically impacted his view of the Scripture over his lifetime. Some filters include religious experience (Presbyterian, Catholic and then Charismatic for Ron). Others are theological (our view of God or eschatology, for example). Others involve our broader worldview and historical context (modern, post-modern, etc.)
The Bible as Improv compelling calls us out of our near-sightedness into a broader wide-eyed view that will allow us to see the Scripture in new and fresh ways.
Is the ultimate goal of Bible study application of a timeless principle?
A common understanding of the Inspiration of Scripture comes down to the idea that “God gave us a set of errorless, timeless truths that are solidified and codified and freeze-framed in the Bible forevermore. Applying those and living those is the only way to blessing. “
The Bible as Improv courageously addresses this common way of approaching the Scripture and is willing to ask, “Is the ultimate goal of Bible study to figure out the ‘timeless principle’ to simply mimic and apply?” In many Christian circles, this kind of question is not allowed. I’m glad it’s being intelligently addressed in this book.
First of all, Ron argues that the mimic approach often ignores the time-bound nature of Scripture, which can be complex. The stories and messages of the Bible were not given to us hermetically sealed. Each of them were communicated at a certain point time in redemptive history to a specific group of people in a specific culture.
Assuming application without factoring this in often leads to the misuse of Scripture, where I’m applying specifics that may not be applicable to my life. In addition, this approach leaves the average person with many passages that create conundrums which they don’t know what to do with. For example, New Testament passages that allow for slavery with no clear prohibition. Many people just apply this to employee/boss relationships without seriously asking, “Why in the world didn’t Paul speak out against the atrocity of slavery in this passage?”) So, many begin to selectively pick and choose what passages in the Bible to apply and what passages to ignore.
Ron asks, “the whole Bible is for our teaching and training. But how does it apply?”
Rather than viewing the Bible as Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth or a series of stories with a moral attached, Ron invites us into the sweeping meta-narrative of the Scripture as the ultimate way of understanding and living the Bible.
In other words, we should be careful about stating imperatives until we first begin to immerse ourselves in entire narrative of the Scripture. In essence, the Bible isn’t 66 books with hundreds of mini-stories. It is one book with one Story.
“The implications of this narrative consistency means we have to make sense of the whole meta-story and not just the individual stories. We are interested in the sweeping narrative, the story of stories, and how it helps frame the smaller individual stories….The uniqueness of the Christian Scripture is the overarching drama from beginning to end – and the fact that we have been invited into the drama. In the text of the Bible we have not only the drama of God’s interaction with the world in and through Jesus but also God’s address to future actors as they seek to play a role in the unfolding drama in the world. We can not atomize the whole into bite-sized, memorable portions and expect to understand he narrative contours well enough to improvise a conclusion in continuity with the whole.”
Using the metaphors of musical or theater improv, Ron encourages us to stay true to the original structure and story while faithfully improving so that the Story or Song can move forward in our lives. He states,
“I think our lives in relationships to Scripture are more like the relationship of improvisation to the music score. The goal isn’t memorization for the purpose of recitation or repetition. Immersion into the author’s ‘world’ is important but not because the goal is repetition. Improv is not repetitive but a reinterpretive enterprise.”
In addition, this improv is not a solo effort, but must happen in deep community with the Church throughout the ages and in deep dialogue within the local church context, as well.
As a pastor, I’m grateful to have an accessible book I can point people to that will help them find meaningful new ways to embrace the Story of the Bible, continuing that Story with their lives.
I’m spending a lot of time right now working on an major initiative for GCC and our church planters abroad that will provide an on-ramp for people to immerse themselves in the entire story of the Scripture and the major meta-narratives within it. This book added tremendous fuel to that fire.
Ron’s book provides two things, a powerful impetus for engaging the Scriptures in this narrative way and meaningful metaphors to begin with.
However, the real work of pioneering this in the local church is yet to be done. I can’t wait to figure that out in this movement of God’s people called Granger Community Church.
Finally, Ron’s biographical approach to this challenging topic was fantastic. For example, as Ron unpacked the consternation and confusion experienced in youth group Bible studies as they tried to discern the Biblical mandate on tattoos, long hair, clothing styles, and various other hot topics were hilarious. I laughed out loud reliving my own flashbacks to the exact same conversations.
I highly recommend you pick up this book which will be released in March.
