Michael Horan | The Michigan Catholic

Grosse Pointe Woods — As the first of three informational sessions about the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan took place at Our Lady Star of the Sea last month, 14 potential students listened to first-year student Deacon Bill Stimpson’s experience with the course.

“I gained an appreciation of how united all of Scripture is,” he explained. “There is the Old Testament and the New Testament — but there’s really one story being told.”

Deacon Stimpson, who completed his first of four years with the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan, spoke of the importance of knowing and understanding the Bible.

“I think we all, every Christian, needs to understand their heritage,” he said. “They need to understand it from a solid standpoint, not just what somebody thinks.

“We can all read the Bible. Protestants say that they can read it and understand because everybody is capable of interpreting it, that’s not right. If that were true, then why do we have a thousand different denominations?”

Although scrutinized by many Protestants for not knowing the Bible as much they should, Stimpson believes both Catholics and Protestants need more knowledge on the Bible.

“One of the things most Protestants complain about the Catholics is they don’t know the Bible,” he said. “My frustration with Protestants is they know verses — but they don’t know the Bible either. What this is, is an opportunity for Catholics and Protestants, if they wanted to take the class, to really begin to understand the Bible that they read beyond just this verse or that verse, but as a continuous story.”

The Catholic Biblical School of Michigan is a four-year program aimed at covering all of the books of the Bible and helping students learn and understand the Word of God. Started last year, the school is meant to be something more in-depth than the average parish-based Bible study program, but not quite as advanced – or expensive – as a college-level course.

Already, the Catholic Bible School of Michigan has seen more than 100 students.

Starting in the fall, the school will open up at four locations in the archdiocese – Divine Child Parish in Dearborn, Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Grosse Pointe Woods, and Easter Catholic Re-Evangelization Center in Bloomfield Township. Based on past responses and informational sessions being held through the summer, organizers think they’ll hit an attendance number of 300 for the upcoming academic year.

The interest has come from those who simply want to know their faith better, said Deacon Jack Gardner, director of the school – and that’s what the course is supposed to help with.

“They will grow in the knowledge and appreciation of scripture and also experience the sacramental power of it. Scripture is a sacramental word; it effects what it signifies,” Deacon Gardner said. “The Word of God penetrates deeper and it affects every facet of your life. People who really give themselves to it, in prayer and in study, it really changes them completely.”

Knowing Scripture, he added, is to understand the Catholic Faith.

“It teaches that there are two springs that our faith comes from, scripture and tradition,” Deacon Gardner said. “It’s the basis of God’s public revelation. From that comes everything else. To know Scripture, is to know Christ, is to know your faith, is to know what the Catholic Church actually is.”

Potential student Joann Gurlach agreed with Deacon Gardner that understanding the Bible is the key to the Catholic faith. 

“I think it’s because it’s the basis of our faith,” Gurlach said. “It fills you with the spirit and the understanding and knowing the prophecies of the Old Testament and how they were filled in the New Testament. God speaks to us through the Bible.”

Another potential student Anne Graves, who has taken Bible studies in the past, hopes this Biblical study will clear up any confusion she has and will help her fully understand all of the Bible.

“I want to get the whole picture of everything. I don’t want anything missing,” Graves said. “I’ve learned so much with the first two books and so much has been revealed through those two, but I want the complete picture of all the books because I might be missing bits and pieces that might leave some really important things out.”

As long as students apply themselves, Deacon Gardner says, with the help of the Biblical School, they will come out of the class with a better understanding of the Bible.

“They will come away from this class with a better knowledge, if their serious and they apply themselves,” Deacon Gardner said, “They’ll come out of it with a better understanding of the Word of God and scripture than 99 percent of all people.”