The Word on Fire Institute is opening a new community group: the Bible for Evangelists Community. Enjoy this interview with the community’s leader, Vanessa Lopez, about the origins of the community, how it will function, and who it’s designed for.
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Nell O’Leary: Vanessa, thank you for your time today to discuss the new community at the Word on Fire Institute: the Bible for Evangelists Community. This community launches on September 30, and we’re already hearing that people are very excited about a dedicated space at the Institute for this level of both guidance around Scripture and connection with others along the way. Please share with us a little about how this community came to be.
Vanessa Lopez: Nell, thank you so much for your help in getting the word out about this new community focused on the Word! Bishop Robert Barron says that “the Bible is the key to evangelization,” and equipping others to encounter the Bible well and share about the Bible well has always been at the heart of the mission of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Just look at the name of the ministry: proclaiming the “word” of God in and through the “fire” of God’s love, the Holy Spirit!
The Bible for Evangelists Community will launch on September 30, the memorial of the great biblical scholar and translator St. Jerome. Jerome famously said that “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” We want to know Jesus Christ more and help others come to know him.
September 30 is also the vigil of the memorial of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the primary patron of Word on Fire. In fact, the Word on Fire Institute was launched on her day, October 1, back in 2018. Thus, the Bible for Evangelists Community will launch on the eve of the Institute’s eighth anniversary. I am delighting in how the number eight is evocative of eternity: seven days of creation followed by Jesus’s resurrection day, the “eighth day.” That is why baptismal fonts are often octagonal. Many members of the Word on Fire Institute have requested an opportunity to study the Bible together in a focused and systematic way, and it is a great joy to prepare this community in time for the Institute’s eighth anniversary.
You’ve been leading communities at the Word on Fire Institute since 2023, and I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing you in this role. You’re both a natural leader and filled with the curiosity of a life-long learner at the same time! How does this new role fit with your background and experience with Sacred Scripture?
I have been reading, studying, and praying with the Bible since I was twelve years old. I had reached a milestone in the Protestant tradition of my childhood, and my mother gave me a “student Bible” as a gift. To her astonishment and delight, I actually read it! She had prepared me well for that moment by nurturing the seeds of faith, hope, and love planted in my infant baptism.
It will be a beautiful biblical discussion extended through time and space: a microcosm of the Church’s own biblical life.
I continued to read and study the Bible throughout high school, and when I reached college at Stanford University, I helped to lead Bible studies with my Christian fellowship group. I also naturally integrated Scripture into my literature studies. Eventually, it dawned on me that I wanted to study theology, and I enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, for a master’s degree in biblical studies and theology.
During my first term at Fuller, God put the finishing touches on the work of calling me into the Catholic Church. Learning about early Church history, including how the Bible came into existence, was a critical part of that call. How could Christians base their faith exclusively on the Bible if it was not fully assembled until the end of the fourth century? I came to see the need for the God-ordained teaching authority of the Catholic Church and to understand that the Bible is the Catholic Church’s book.
My biblical love and understanding have deepened considerably in my twenty-plus years as a Catholic. The Word of God is inexhaustible, so I am simply thrilled to get to continue my biblical formation together with my fellow Word on Fire Institute members.
Many of us are familiar with Bible stories, meaning we heard them when we were younger, and we hear them now as adults proclaimed at Holy Mass. But in recent years, we’ve seen enormous interest in being nourished by the Word. Examples that come to mind are Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons, free for anyone with an internet connection each Sunday, where he breaks open the Word with his signature humility and wit, or The Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz. In a world of perpetual content churn, this community offers systematic formation to become “biblically literate and biblically savvy evangelists” to use your description of it. What’s the format and flow of the community learning and sharing?
It is an absolutely wonderful time for Catholics to be learning about the Bible. Thanks be to God for so many rich and complementary resources!
The Bible for Evangelists Community will follow a very straightforward format. We will be reading and discussing our way slowly through the volumes of the Word on Fire Bible (but people are more than welcome to participate with any Catholic Bible). We will therefore begin with the Gospels, and we will probably take two full years to go through them. We are most definitely aiming for depth rather than speed.
Once a week, I will make a group of posts that people can work through on their own time and at their own pace. There will be absolutely no pressure to “keep up” with anything, and people will be able to join the community at any point down the road and take themselves through the posts. It will be a beautiful biblical discussion extended through time and space: a microcosm of the Church’s own biblical life.
We will also occasionally read and discuss resources from our great Catholic tradition, such as the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, that will help us with biblical interpretation and application. And we will regularly welcome live guests to enrich our formation.
An essential aspect of this community is highlighted by the title: the Bible for Evangelists Community. We will consistently consider how to bring what we are learning into evangelization. The treasures of God’s Word must be shared! Also, people often have very misguided ideas about the Bible, and evangelists must be ready to help others “recover the depth and power of the Bible in the twenty-first century,” to quote Bishop Barron.
Holy Mother Church, in all her wisdom, has handed down teachings from the apostles to the early Church fathers all throughout the centuries to the holy popes and councils of our time. Your community will use the phenomenal Word on Fire Bibles for those who desire to purchase them (any Bible and Catholic translation will do!), which include teachings, writings, and explications of the Word. Would you explain how these “cathedrals in print” will be incorporative in the learning process of the community?
One of the primary purposes of the Bible for Evangelists Community is to accompany the Word on Fire Bible project, to offer readers of these extraordinary Bibles the opportunity to connect and discuss with others. That project was born out of Bishop Barron’s desire to draw people anew into the world of the Bible by leading with beauty and sharing the timeless treasures of Catholic biblical interpretation. Discussion posts will therefore be devoted to each essay and each artwork found in the Word on Fire Bible, as well as to each portion of Sacred Scripture. We will be extending the mission of the Word on Fire Bible by forming evangelists in the same ethos that informs every aspect of Word on Fire.
For those who feel like the Bible is very intimidating and that a community like the Bible for Evangelists Community must be restricted to folks with degrees in theology, would you please speak to how a new learner or someone early on in their faith journey could partake and benefit from the community and your leadership?
Just like the Word on Fire Bible, the Bible for Evangelists Community will welcome and benefit people of any and all levels of familiarity with the Bible. No previous biblical knowledge will be assumed, and people of all backgrounds will be encouraged to contribute their insights and experiences. The Word of God is for everyone!
Thank you so much for your time and the evident enthusiasm and servant’s heart with which you are approaching this new community. We will be praying for its success and for you as well!
Thank you very much for your help and your prayers! St. Jerome and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, pray for us!