Recently I was looking for stories of how Scripture changes lives, and I thought of this softball teammate of mine. Dragged to church by a girlfriend, he was full of objections, but the pastor challenged him to read the Bible for himself—and suggested an app for that. The results were amazing. He went from a life of aimless addiction to one of selfless ministry. Soon he was fully connected with the church, leading three different Bible studies.

Other stories had a similar pattern. People started reading the Bible, got involved in a church, and saw their personal faith grow—not always in that order. The scientific part of my brain wanted to isolate the variables. How much of this life-change was the Bible responsible for? It was impossible to separate that out. Bible, Faith and Church form an interconnected triad.

This is where you conduct your ministry, right? You connect people with the Bible, urging them to respond in faith and also drawing them in to the nurturing life of the church. I recognize that the Bible-Faith-Church dynamics may differ among various Christian traditions, but in any case, when your ministry is really working, it’s touching all three.

As we diagram this relationship, we find seven unique spaces—a sweet spot in the center, where all three parts of the triad converge, and six other situations where at least one of the components is missing.

Bible Only

We might call this “cold scholarship.” The study of Scripture is always a worthy enterprise, but it’s meant to spark a faith-encounter with the Lord. The Bible presents itself doing a surgeon’s work (Hebrews 4:12) and tasting sweeter than honey (Psalm 19:11).

Bible study also leads to and from community. That is, it drives us interact with others in fellowship and love (Philippians 2:1-4; John 13:34-35), and this loving community creates a context in which we understand and apply the Scriptures faithfully. Most of the Bible was written for the community of faith—Israel and the church—yet this does not lessen its emphasis on personal response to God. Both Faith and Church are crucial to full engagement with Scripture.

Faith Only

We could call this “ungrounded spirituality.” We have plenty of people in our culture who define themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Many of them claim a generally Christian belief system, but they’re not strongly connected to a church and they don’t read the Bible much. They tend to be susceptible to dangerous teaching of various stripes, because they don’t have the correctives of Scripture or church teaching (2 Timothy 3:16; 4:3-4).

Church Only

Could we call this “dead tradition”? Don’t get me wrong. Church tradition infused by faith and informed by Scripture is a beautiful thing. But without those other elements, it amounts to a set of motions people go through without any reason.

Let’s consider three more spaces in the diagram, the areas where two parts of the triad are present, but something is missing.

Faith and Bible (Church Missing)

Let’s call this “personal devotion.” In the last few decades, many people have drifted away from the church while maintaining personal faith and even Bible reading. To be honest, sometimes they’ve been driven away by church fights, judgmental spirits, or boredom. And while it might be easier to worship God privately, it’s not better. “Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing” (Hebrews 10:25).

Church and Bible (Faith Missing)

Here we have “informational education.” While churches that emphasize the Bible tend to talk about personal faith, the actual development and practice of that faith is sometimes neglected. Knowledge about the Bible is good, but it must not take the place of a genuine encounter with God through the Bible. Jesus chided the biblical experts who completely missed the point. “You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me!” (John 5:39).

Church and Faith (Bible Missing)

This might be considered the area of “experiential worship.” People are connecting with God and the church and it feels great, but without regular attention to God’s Word, the emphasis easily shifts to personal experience. The music is thrilling. We have meaningful community projects. Fellowship is warm and wonderful. But what is God saying?

We easily find ourselves in the situation of Peter at the Mount of Transfiguration, mapping out a building project for three tabernacles, when the voice from heaven essentially interrupted him to say, “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased—listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5).

Churches do many great things, but if they stop listening to the Word of God, there’s a serious gap in their ministry.

The Sweet Spot

In the diagram above, then, where do you find your ministry? How will you move people toward the center, that sweet spot where Faith, Church, and Bible come together by God’s grace and for God’s glory?