Pivotal People
Join us in conversations with inspiring people doing amazing things. Their insights and experiences help motivate all of us to find our purpose that fits with our abilities, gifts and life situation. Get a "behind the scenes" look at successful people making a difference in the world and benefit from their advice for the rest of us. Our guests include authors, artists, leaders, coaches, pastors, business people and speakers.
Pivotal People
Transforming Bible Study into Everyday Action with Katherine Hall
Meet Katherine Hall of North Point Ministries, as we discuss her ministry and her new project, EverydayScripture.org. It's a fabulous resource to help make the Bible understandable and practical in our everyday lives. She is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and her insights into scripture are not just academic; she is truly passionate about making the Bible accessible and engaging for all.
As Young Adults Director at Buckhead Church, Katherine equips young minds to navigate life's challenges with a strong biblical foundation. Her initiative, Everyday Scripture, offers tools like chapter summaries and study questions, making the Bible relatable to both new readers and seasoned leaders.
EverydayScripture.org is free to users, and can be used for personal Bible Study or as a resource for Bible Study leaders.
Learn more and connect with Katherine at EverydayScripture.org
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I'd like to welcome my friend, katherine Hall, to the Pivotal People podcast. If you haven't met Katherine yet, you are going to love this. Katherine works on staff for our church's organization, north Point Ministries, with Andy Stanley. She's been with them five years. We'll talk about that. She's here today because she is passionate about making scripture engaging and easier to understand, so it makes sense that she's on staff at a church. She attended University of Georgia and Dallas Theological Seminary and, as I said, for the past five years, she's worked in Andy Stanley's organization and somehow on the side, she has developed this incredible website and resource called Everyday Scripture, and we're going to talk about that because, I told you, she's passionate about making scripture engaging and understandable. For explanations, she has made it so simple. It's absolutely free. You don't even have to log in and I'm passionate about letting people know about this because I think if more people knew about this website, more people would be reading the Bible. So, catherine, welcome. It's so great to have you here.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm so honored to be here. I'm excited to talk to you today.
Speaker 1:Well, I have just told a little bit about you. Could you tell us a little bit more about who you are, who you do life with, what you like to do in your spare time, kind of the whole person of Catherine Hall.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I grew up in the Atlanta area and then went to UGA in Athens, and that's where I got plugged into Athens Church and really just fell in love with ministry. I did an internship there, which led to me coming to Atlanta to do the residency program with North Point, which is where I worked for a church while getting my seminary degree, and then I've been on staff ever since, so I never really saw myself working in ministry. I think if I told my younger self that, she would be surprised. I've always loved nonprofit work, though, and then I've also really loved writing, so it's been really sweet to see how God has woven those two things together and redirected them into a ministry context. But I live in Brookhaven, north of Atlanta, and I live with my husband, austin. We actually met in the lobby of Buckhead Church, so it's a really special place I know big things happening over there and our dog Molly.
Speaker 2:So that's my little family and some of our favorite things to do are just spend time outside and cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs. Oh, that's right. Did he also go to UGA? He did not. He went to Kennesaw. He was kind of a free agent as far as where he was going to cheer in the SEC. So I've converted him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're listening to this and you don't live in the South, let me just tell you that, second to faith, sec football would be the most important thing around here. Not for me. I don't understand football. I have two sons and a husband and I watched them all play football and I don't get it. But whatever, I shouldn't even say that. That's sacrilegious to say here in the South. So tell us about everydayscriptureorg. I love any entrepreneurial story, especially this one, because this centers on Catherine's faith and she obviously has been called and inspired to provide this. This is not a money-making deal. This is just a gift. This extends her ministry. So I'd love to hear how you thought of doing this and what inspired you to do it, and then tell us more about what it really is, what people can get from it.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. Well, while I was in seminary, I really loved my classes. You know I loved learning about the Bible and theology, but it was like drinking from a fire hose. It was just so much information and I remember thinking to myself that I wish I could have a place where I stored all of this information that I have learned and all these things I wanted to remember about scripture, and while I was there and taking a class called the story of scripture, it talked about how the Bible is one narrative. It's made up of a lot of different books and literary genres, but it is really one narrative that points to Jesus the whole way through, and I just love this concept. And during this class, I had the idea for a website that broke down every genre, every book and even every chapter. And this class is only one semester, so there was no way I could get this idea to fruition in just that one semester. So doing that class is when I thought of the idea for a website like this, but I really put it on the back burner and then flash forward.
Speaker 2:About two years later. I'm working in full-time ministry, I'm starting to teach a little bit more and I'm referencing my notes and things in the Bible and I was already forgetting so much and I wanted to remember all of the powerful things that I had learned. So I started going through the Bible and just taking notes, chapter by chapter, going back through my old lectures and old projects and just writing down, chapter by chapter, what I wanted to remember and how that chapter specifically pointed towards Jesus and told the overall story of scripture. So that's how it got started and it would have made a lot of sense for me to start in Genesis 1 and just go through all the way to Revelations 22, but that's not how it happened.
Speaker 2:It actually started in 1 and 2 Kings, which is very random If you're not familiar with those chapters or with those books.
Speaker 2:It's a split of the nation of Israel into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah and there are so many different kings during this time and they all have really complicated names and they're all spelled really similarly. So it's very confusing to keep track of who's who, and I was doing a Bible study by Lisa Turkhurst on 1 and 2 Kings, called Trustworthy, and I love that book. I would definitely recommend it. But as I was going through I was getting confused by all these names and all these people in different places, and so I started going through the Bible in 1 Kings 1 and writing down what happened in each individual chapter. And it was so helpful for me as I was doing this Bible study and I realized that it could be really helpful to have something like this for any part of the Bible. So after I finished that study of 1 and 2 Kings, then I went back and started in Genesis and just went all the way through and it took about two years.
Speaker 1:Well, I can understand it taking two years, aren't there 66 books in the Bible?
Speaker 2:There are 66 books and 1189 chapters.
Speaker 1:Whoa, and I think I Googled this one 780,000 words or something like that.
Speaker 2:A lot. I don't even know how many words, but a lot.
Speaker 1:So now let's talk about the nuts and bolts of the website, because after our conversation anyone listening to this I really want people to go look at it, because you're not going to believe how easy it is. So here's what I did. I said I'm going to practice, I'm going to give this a little trial. I love to read the Bible. This morning I spent a lot of time.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite chapters of the Bible is Hebrews 12. So I'm like, okay, and I've written it, I've copied down the passages and I've thought about it and I kind of stumbled on this one part that I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to before. It was something like I'm going to butcher this, okay, but it was something like and do not trade your inheritance for a single meal like Esau did. And then in the notes, I'm like I don't even know that story. What is that? In the notes it referenced the specific story from Genesis. So I flip back to Genesis and it explains that, okay, jacob was the father, had these twin sons, was no Esau and Joseph. Am I getting this right?
Speaker 2:Jacob and Esau.
Speaker 1:Son, jacob. Okay, so they're twin sons. No, esau and Joseph, am I getting this right? Jacob and Esau, jacob, okay, so they're twin sons, esau and Jacob. Their father is Isaac, right, okay, so, yeah, so this is. I need her website.
Speaker 1:And it said you know, the older brother, esau, was hungry and the younger brother was making lentil soup and he wanted a bowl. And his brother said, okay, give me your inheritance for a bowl of soup. And he's like, okay, so that was the story Do not trade your inheritance for. But this is what I'm talking about with Catherine. So I look up Hebrews 12 on everydayscriptureorg.
Speaker 1:Here she says, remembering the mistakes as Esau, who traded his inheritance for a single meal, the author encourages believers not to trade what they ultimately want for what they immediately want. Faithfulness and persistence will always yield greater results than instant gratification. Why couldn't my study Bible have put that in the notes? I would have understood it a lot better. And that's my point.
Speaker 1:Her goal is to make scripture engaging easier to understand because all of a sudden, catherine, that triggered my thought about something in my life. That is okay, be patient, you don't need that instant gratification. Ultimately, we know what God has for us, so don't get off track, don't get off track and your whole commentary on Hebrews 12,. It's not long, but she takes what I think are complicated stories and distills them down with an application for our life today, and that is what makes scripture come alive when we can see how it applies to our real life. Thank you for doing this. So, as you can see, I am absolutely fascinated and perplexed at how she wrote and created this. You said it took two years, so did you use references? What was your writing process?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, thanks for bringing up that example. I love that story and I think it's a good reminder too that the Bible is funny. I mean, imagine being so hungry you give up everything you have for a bowl of soup. I just think there's a lot of moments like that that we just brush right over and they're actually pretty relatable and pretty funny and also applicable. So you know, I love the New Testament references to the Old Testament. That's one of my favorite things, and then the prophecy of the Old Testament to the New Testament. They just mirror and compliment each other so well.
Speaker 2:But my process for writing this was asking a lot of questions. So I think it's very natural when we're reading the Bible to ask how you know, how could Esau do that, how could Jacob do that? And the truth is we don't know the answer to the question how a lot, because we only have what's recorded. You know, we don't know how certain things unfolded. We don't know how people responded. That's usually my question.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, when someone says something really bold or really funny or weird, I want to know how did everyone around respond? What did the crowd think? But we don't necessarily know that. So I think the important question to ask is why? Why would Jacob and Esau give up their inheritance? Well, because they wanted what was urgent over what they wanted long-term.
Speaker 2:And so I think that we can find an answer to the why a lot of times more than we can answer the how, and so that was one of the things I went through just in the Bible was asking a ton of questions, and some of the answers I was able to find from seminary notes, from other free resources like the Bible Project or the Bible Recap. Those are two of my favorite resources. But just being curious, I think, is the biggest thing I would encourage someone who's reading the Bible or working on something like this is to just ask a lot of questions and ask why that was included. You know, all of scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit and so there's nothing in there that's not worth questioning. Why was this included? What does God have for me in this, or what does this reveal about God's character?
Speaker 1:I love that. I'm thinking okay, I don't mean to keep talking about my little quiet time today, but what you said prompted this. So when you talk about why, to take it a step further and say not only why did this happen in the story, but why did something happen in my own life? So back to Hebrews 12,. The author is talking about God's discipline. You know how discipline doesn't feel great, but it ends up yielding righteousness and peace and we're better for it afterwards. But why and sometimes it's really painful I'll share.
Speaker 1:I've had a friendship disappointment over the past few years and I give too much thought to it, but I really do feel like it's a trial that God has taught me through and I this morning, all of a sudden, just reading that, made me think wait a minute, maybe that's God's discipline. What are some good things that came out of it? How did this refine me? And you know, catherine, I quickly six bullet points came. I don't know if that's the Holy Spirit or what that is, but all of a sudden I had a better feeling about the outcome of this relationship. I didn't feel like it was a failed relationship. I felt like God had refined some traits that I needed to refine. You know pride and you know other things. So that's what scripture can do it gets us, prompts our thinking.
Speaker 1:And to take it a step further, as Catherine said, not just to read it and say, oh, I feel good about myself, I read the Bible, but to look at the stories and say why is this happening at that time? And then turn it on our own lives. How is God talking to me right now? What is it he wants me to learn from this, step-by-step? So I am going to start using everyday scriptureorg alongside my quiet time, because I think it's going to help me get to what you're talking about, catherine. Why are they including this detail? What does this mean and how am I supposed to be a better follower of Jesus, lover of other people, as a result of reading this today?
Speaker 2:That's so good and that's our mission statement too, is to encourage spiritual growth through the knowledge of God's word. It's really easy to just know about God or know about the Bible, know what's in there, but to actually apply it and live more like Jesus is the goal of all of this, is not just knowledge and information, but understanding and living it out. And I know you love Bob Goff, as do I, and he has a great quote that says Jesus never said study me. He said follow me, and we have to know what that means. We have to look and examine the life of Jesus, ask questions like why to be able to follow him. That's the whole point, not just knowledge, but action and life change.
Speaker 1:That's right, yeah. So since we're on the topic of Bob Goff, he talked about doing a Bible study with a group of men and he was like okay, because he loves the Bible. But he said I want to do a Bible, doing Like we're reading all this, but how are we doing a better job of loving other people as a result of reading this? So he always incorporates some sort of what I would consider self-sacrificial work to show other people the love of Jesus as a result of following him and learning more about him in the Bible.
Speaker 1:It's not enough to know about God. I don't think God said I just want you to know all about me, I want you to be like me, which is a pretty tall order, but, as Hebrews 12 said, it ultimately leads to our having peace, peace and contentment. So I'm interested in your ministry. Now let's talk specifically about your ministry application of what you're learning and ministering to what I think is probably a pretty challenging group, catherine, is the ministering to the young adults group in Atlanta, which I think you said had defined young adults, and how many people are involved and what that role means for you.
Speaker 2:So I'm the young adults director at Buckhead Church and I get to lead a great group of people. They're out of college, but in their 20s still, so about 22 to 29. And I think that age is just so pivotal. I think you make a lot of big life decisions that transform the trajectory of the rest of your life your job, career life, marriage and family life. A lot of big things happen in that time, and I want those decisions to be informed by scripture.
Speaker 2:And I think sometimes when we read the Bible, we open up to a chapter, we think, okay, what did I just read? First of all I think that's a common question we wonder what's even going on? Or we wonder why does this matter? Or we think am I missing something major here? And so my biggest goal, both with everyday scripture and with young adults, is to help people feel confident in what they read, so that they can focus on who God is and God's character instead of just trying to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 2:So you know, sometimes there's some more boring boring, I have to say, in air quotes, things that are like a genealogy, and it's easy to just brush right over those things. Okay, the son of whoever and the ancestors of whoever. But sometimes, if you dig a little deeper in that, you can realize that that's an answered promise from God, that he would send Jesus from the line of David, for example. Or there's more to it, that it's really, really rich, and then sometimes it is just the dimensions of the temple and that's it. There's nothing necessarily more there but to understand, to dig into those things and to be informed by those things, not just to know the Bible but to make decisions and to live a life that's honoring to God. So that's my, that's my goal with everyday scripture is to just remove barriers when it comes to reading the Bible, to answer those questions like what's going on here, so that people can focus on who God is and what it means for their day to day life.
Speaker 1:And I was thinking if you ever find yourself in a position of being a small group leader or a Bible study leader leader who isn't necessarily super proficient at the Bible. I've certainly been a small group leader before. We played a video and I studied, and there was a format, there was a facilitator's guide, so I wasn't writing the thing, but it would have been very helpful to have your website as a resource. As I said, you can get a good summary of a specific chapter just easily click, click, click, and also for all of the participants, because we have used in our group, we have used other resources, but it required people to have memberships and they had to log in and there was a little bit of a barrier there, and Catherine may need to progress to that at some point, but she hasn't yet. So take advantage of it now.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's great. Well, that's a huge goal of everyday scripture is just to equip leaders to teach the Bible. I think that that can be really intimidating to a lot of people, even who do know the Bible well, but to have a guide and to have pre-written questions and a reading plan is really helpful. So that's a gift I want our church to have and our leaders to have is just these free resources. So each book also contains a reading plan and study questions. So it ranges from just one session all the way up to 10 sessions. That one's Psalms, because there's 150 of them, but they range. I think most of them are about four to six weeks and they go through a book of the Bible and it's just here's which chapters to read and here's some questions to talk about it, and then the chapter summaries go along with it. So I think it can facilitate some really great conversations and groups and just provide a little bit of relief to the leader trying to prepare for those things.
Speaker 1:The cliff notes of Bible study. I love it. Oh, I'm dating myself.
Speaker 2:No one even knows what cliff notes are yes, oh no, we love cliff notes Very helpful. Yes, If it could be the cliff notes or the spark notes for scripture. That is the goal there.
Speaker 1:You go Spark notes. Well, I am looking forward to seeing not only where this goes, but where your ministry goes. I mean, I'm amazed at how much you've accomplished in just five years, and a lot of that time you were doing seminary at the same time. So you have a lot of energy and passion and a whole lot of faith, and I am looking forward to seeing you really take off and influence so many people. This is the kind of thing you're never going to know this side of heaven how many people you're influencing and helping and directing towards God. So what a wonderful career.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much. I just remember at the very beginning of this, I was spending so much time and, to be transparent, a lot of money to build this out and to have it edited, and I just remember thinking to myself if no one ever reads this besides me, it was still worth doing because of the transformation it had in my life. So if it impacts just one person, that is already more than I could have hoped and dreamed. So thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And I do need to point out that Catherine I should have said this in the beginning she is one of our Imagine More grant recipients. She was selected by our very stringent committee of one here. My book, imagine More, had royalties and we use those to support people like Catherine who are doing amazing things. So I have a double interest in watching her grow and look forward to supporting her more in the future because she's amazing. So how can people get in touch with you and learn more? I'll have this in the show notes, but most people don't go to show notes, so remember this. Tell us where they can find you.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the website is just everydayscriptureorg, and then we are on Instagram. The handle is at everydayscriptureorg, so we're there. And then we are on Instagram. The handle is at everyday scripture org. So we're there. And then you can email me just at hello at everyday scripture dot org. That's me, and I'd love to hear from you, and thank you so much for following along.
Speaker 1:And I also imagine you would be a great speaker for any group. So keep that in mind. I just offered that up, but I think it's a great speaker. Certainly an inspiration.
Speaker 2:I speak sometimes at church and I've had the honor doing three people's weddings. Wow me to marry them. I think that's the biggest honor, but I do feel like I'm a better writer than a speaker, but I'm up for it sometimes.
Speaker 1:So well, I see a whole lot in your future and I just appreciate you spending time with me. I always learn so much by being able to do this, and we will stay in touch. Yes, thank you.
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