PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Beautiful Work Gatherings
The CSI Bible Symposium is a day set apart for Bible teachers who love what they do and want to spend time with teachers who share that calling. Gathered to learn and called to teach, you’ll read, discuss, and practice alongside fellow Bible teachers from schools across the region.
Bible Symposium
February 11, 2027 | Ontario, CA
Join us at CSI-accredited member Ontario Christian School in Ontario, California for a transformative day exploring Bible teaching in Christian education. Register by February 7, 2027.
Interested in hosting a Bible Symposium? Contact Jim Peterson.
A DAY TO GROW, CONNECT, AND BE RENEWED
Loving teaching the Bible? Spend a day with teachers who do, too.
Grow as a Reader of Scripture
At the center of the day is the Bible itself. Practice slowing down, noticing patterns, and reading passages within the larger story of Scripture.
Learn in Community
Connect with educators who share your passion for helping students engage with God’s Word. Read, discuss, and practice alongside fellow Bible teachers from schools across the region.
Take It Back to Your Classroom
You’ll have dedicated time to consider how these reading practices can enrich your reaching and identify one concrete next step for your students.
WHAT YOU’LL EXPERIENCE
A Deeper Way of Engaging With God’s Word
Lead by Dr. Dru Johnson, you’ll be stretched in your own understanding of the Bible as you practice turning down your own voice and turning up the voices of the biblical authors: slowing down, noticing patterns, and reaching each passage within the whole story of Scripture.
Come ready to be challenged as a reader, not just as a teacher.
LEARNING TARGETS
Leave with a renewed conviction and practical next steps.
As a community of Bible teachers, attendees will leave with a renewed conviction that reading the Bible well, for themselves and their students, is formative—an invitation into a whole way of seeing God’s world.

The learners will explain why reading the Bible well means turning down our voices and turning up the authors’ voices.

The learners will experience the Bible as a text that expects something from its readers, growing in their own reading by slowing down, noticing patterns, and reading within the whole.

The learners will decide what fits their students’ context and name one concrete next step for their own study, classroom, or school.
LEARN FROM FELLOW BIBLE TEACHERS
Encouragement From the October Symposium
“Go with an open mind and ask, ‘How can I breathe new life into what I am teaching in Bible so that my students fall more deeply in love with the God they meet in this story?’”
Bible Teacher, Grand Rapids Christian High School (MI)
“What’s most valuable is a whole group of Bible teachers within the same enterprise and the work that we do—just the encouragement that what we’re doing can continue to grow and be increasingly meaningful in a complex and difficult world.’”
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Designed for Bible Teachers at Every Level
High School Teachers
The reading practices and classroom applications are mostly directly designed for high school students.
Middle School Teachers
Middle school Bible teachers will find many valuable approaches they can adapt for their classrooms.
Elementary Teachers
Elementary teachers are welcome, too. While the classroom strategies aren’t built for younger students, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the Bible and a day well spent in community with other Bible teachers.
Dr. Dru Johnson
BIBLE SYMPOSIUM SPEAKER
Meet Your Facilitator
Dru Johnson is the Templeton Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. He researches, writes, and teaches on the intellectual world within biblical literature. He studied psychology as an undergraduate while serving seven years in the US Air Force and National Guard. He earned his MDiv at Covenant Theological Seminary and worked for eight years as a pastor. He earned an MA in analytic philosophy at the University of Missouri—St. Louis and his PhD in biblical studies/theology at the University of St. Andrews. He is ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (USA). At Wycliffe Hall, Dru directs the Abrahamic Theistic Origins Project (ATOP). Alongside this, he is the founder and director of the Center for Hebraic Thought, a visiting professor at Hope College, editor of the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism series, host of The Biblical Mind podcast, and cohost of the OnScript podcast.
Event Details
- February 11, 2027
- 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
- Ontario Christian School | Ontario, California
- Lunch provided by CSI
- $50 CSI members | $75 non-members
Schedule
8:30: Coffee & Refreshments
9:00: Welcome and Opening Circle – Jim Peterson, CSI
9:30: Why Do We Need to Develop Bible Reading Skills?
10:45: Break
11:00: Guided Practice in Bible Reading Skills 1
12:15: Lunch provided by CSI
1:00: Guided Practice in Bible Reading Skills 2
1:45: Design Time
2:30: Closing Circle – Jim Peterson, CSI
3:00: Wrap up
Gathered to Learn, Called to Teach
Join fellow Bible teachers for a day of thoughtful learning, meaningful conversation, and renewed engagement with Scripture.

Vicki Huizenga
Eighth Grade Teacher, Highland Christian School (IN)