Exploring Scripture Together

— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —

In the youth group at the Protestant church, we recently discussed a method for reading the Bible. It is designed for reading the Bible together, but you can also adapt it slightly to use on your own. It consists of the following steps:

1. Invite:
   we invite God into our midst with a prayer and ask him to speak to us through his Word.
2. Reading:
   we read the text – for example, taking it in turns, with each person reading one verse
3. Reflecting:
   we mention individual words or phrases that particularly strike us. No comments, no sermon, no discussion. Words or phrases may be mentioned more than once. There is no set order.
4. Silence:
   everyone reads the text again and reflects on it in silence. We listen to God’s voice, highlight passages and jot down our thoughts. We agree on a time limit for this beforehand.
5. Sharing:
   now everyone can say something about the words that have stayed with them. Speak in the first person; questions to clarify understanding are fine, but no debates
6. Action:
   what does God want us to do? What do we take with us into our daily lives? Where and how can the text become a reality in our lives?
7. Prayer:
   pray together; everyone is welcome to contribute aloud, but there is no obligation to do so. The time of prayer can conclude with the Lord’s Prayer, a hymn or a blessing.

I’m sharing this technique here because I liked it. We tried it out in a small group and it really helped us get to grips with the text, enabling us to spot things in a fairly short passage that we wouldn’t otherwise have noticed at first glance.

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The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.

Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.

We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.

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