Baylor’s status as the largest Baptist university in the world raises the stakes for local Baptist ministers. Crafting weekly 30- to 40-minute sermons on ancient texts is already difficult, but doing so for an audience of biblical scholars and Koine Greek instructors is even more demanding.

The Bible is powerful. Saints have been slain and wars have been waged over its contents. The Bible itself describes the word of God as “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). So why do we treat it like a textbook?