otLIVE: from “Creation” to “Christ”

If you’ve ever been to a Walk Thru the Bible otLIVE event, you’ll recognize these as the first 4 keywords and hand signs that help people understand and remember the big picture of the Old Testament. From Genesis to Malachi, from “creation” to “Christ,” participants learn the important people, places, and events from the Old Testament in just a few short hours. 

It’s not a deep dive, full of details, of course. There wouldn’t be enough time for that. Instead, it’s as if we’re building the frame of a jigsaw puzzle that helps people understand what the Old Testament (or the New Testament) is really all about. And when they understand what it’s really all about, they are more excited about diving deep into the Bible. 

The Problem 

Studies consistently show that Bible engagement is the catalyst for spiritual growth. Yet a recent Barna study found that 48% of the U.S. population is “Bible Disengaged,” 19% are “Bible Engaged,” and 5% are “Bible Centered.” About 90% of U.S. households own at least one Bible, with the average household owning three. But 58% of churchgoers do not read the Bible. So many Americans—even in the church—don’t know God’s grand story and how the Bible all fits together … because they rarely pick it up. 

We have unprecedented access to the Word—from Bibles (in print and online) to study resources to devotional books and more, but we don’t read it or engage with it.

Why? Is it busyness? Apathy? Intimidation? Confusion? 

Whatever the reason is that people don’t read God’s Word, Walk Thru the Bible wants people to experience the Bible, to understand how it can change their lives. We want people to know what it means to them personally, and that it is Truth. Rather than viewing the Bible like eating vegetables or exercising—We know it’s good for us but we don’t do it!—Walk Thru’s live events take people on a journey to a lifelong love for the Word and its Author. 

Walk Thru the Bible’s live events (otLIVE and ntLIVE) unpack the larger story of the Bible— connecting the dots of the Old and New Testaments in a fun, compelling, interesting, and memorable way. We have seen it in people’s eyes, those “aha!” moments when they start to get how the Bible fits together. 

At a combination otLIVE/ntLIVE event held at held at Foundations Church in Colorado, one of the hosting pastors, Josh, said: “People have heard stories of the Bible but they don’t know how they’re connected to the bigger story that God is trying to reveal to His people. To be able to connect these stories through this event is huge.”

“An event like this is really great at weaving together the larger narrative of God’s story. People can locate how the Old Testament connects with the New Testament, and seeing how God’s creation story leads up to Christ Himself is very powerful,” said Erik, another hosting pastor at the church.

And in this world of biblical illiteracy and apathy toward engaging the Bible (even among Christians), otLIVE and ntLIVE participants are excited and inspired to read the Bible. How do we know this? They tell us. 

“I really didn’t expect to come out of this with all of the knowledge that I have now of the Bible. The event literally was a walk through the Bible. And when the time comes to go deeper into the different books of the Bible, I feel like I’m prepared now,” said an otLIVE participant from the Foundations Church event. 

We hear story after story of people who have never opened the Bible begin to read it on their own. We’ve seen believers who have become engaged with the Bible, falling in love with its Author, growing in their faith, and sharing it. We’ve even seen people at our live events who meet Jesus as their Savior.

Beginnings 

As a seminary student in the early 1970s, Bruce Wilkinson realized that few people really knew the whole story—the big picture—of the Bible. For whatever reason, people were not grasping or understanding the macro view of Scripture from their own reading, from the sermons they heard, or from Sunday School or Bible studies they attended. Most people knew parts of the story pretty well—like Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Joseph and his colorful coat—but other parts of the story seemed hard to understand or confusing to them. Some didn’t realize the importance of the stories to the whole, and many were learning the stories in isolation from the big story of Scripture. And some people, lost in the rituals of Leviticus or the obscure messages of the prophets, had given up trying to understand. 

So, as part of his master’s thesis, Bruce devised a way to teach the story of the Old Testament in just one day. At first, the teaching was for Bible scholars and seminary students, and included more than 150 memorable hand signs (and lasted 

all day long!). But he soon realized the broader impact of the approach. What if he could take it to people who aren’t seminary students or Bible scholars? 

He trained a handful of his friends to teach that first, original event. They found that the hand signs and the interactive learning style helped people remember the story of Scripture … and to be able to tell it to others. In local churches and Christian schools, people of all ages were getting excited and having “aha!” moments as they began to see and understand the big picture of God’s grand story. Old truths they had learned from the Bible—stories they may have heard in Sunday School as children—could now be “seen” in a new context and application. The pieces began to fall into place, just like a puzzle—and for some people, for the very first time. 

In 1976, Walk Thru the Bible grew out of this experience. And over the ministry’s 40+ years, the Old and New Testament live events have changed and evolved to be more effective and efficient. The number of hand signs went from 150 to 77 to now, 40. 

Even though the events have changed and been streamlined to better fit today’s busy audiences, the core approach of getting people into and through the Bible from beginning to end remains the same. Everyone can learn and remember the key people, places, events, and truths of the Bible in a fun, interactive, engaging way. 

Erik of Foundations Church said, “This is a refreshing and fun way to learn the Word of God. It’s fast paced and exciting. I would absolutely say that this event rekindles a love for God and a love for His Word.”

It’s Global 

Because of all of the different ways in which people learn—verbal, auditory, kinesthetic, visual, social, and others—many of Walk Thru the Bible’s teaching methods are transferrable into other cultures and languages. This is why Walk Thru’s otLIVE and ntLIVE are widely taught today in more than 140 countries. 

In addition to U.S. churches, seminaries, Christian schools, and other ministry organizations, people around the world are learning the big picture of God’s story using the teaching and hand signs of Walk Thru the Bible’s otLIVE and ntLIVE events—from public school children in Malawi and the UK, to tribal leaders in the Amazonian region of Brazil, to brand new Christians in a predominantly Hindu village on a mountain in Nepal, to oral learners in remote villages in Africa, to under-resourced pastors in Hungary, to persecuted believers in the Middle East, to special needs adults in Raleigh, North Carolina, and more.

The language may be different, the cultural context may be different, the applications may be different—but it’s still one Story and people of all ages, languages, cultures, circumstances, religions, walks of life, and settings are learning the story of God through His Word. Scripture is for all people of all times, and we need to read it, engage with it, understand it, and apply it in order to grow in our faith and relationship with God. 

Today 

From launching a global ministry for kids, to leveraging technology to expand our reach, to expanding our live event ministry here in the U.S.—Walk Thru the Bible’s live events are an important part of our ministry opportunities. Our events work with kids. Our events work in a streaming environment. Our events across cultures, languages, even literacy. 

Whether inside the walls of the church or outside the walls of the church, in communities and cities and villages, in playgrounds and schools and war zones and gang neighborhoods and more, Walk Thru the Bible’s teaching methods and hand signs are helping people everywhere live God’s Word. Millions of people all over the world have been impacted for eternity by a simple seminary project guided by the grace of God.

Because the Bible changes everything.