"Did you read your Bible this morning?"

This question was oft asked in my home. A devoted Navigator from her college days, my mother was trained to do a quiet time every day, which for her had become a part of a natural rhythm of life. She desired the same for her kids, and so, the question. Trouble was, rarely could I answer affirmatively, and rarely did I want to. The problem for me was that this discipline of reading my Bible entailed a duty, an obligation. The question was always if I had read my Bible, and not -- or if it was this, I don't recall it -- how I read my Bible. Even better, how had my Bible been reading me?

One of the topics we'll discuss and wrestle with at Prelude this year is how we, along with our students, approach Scripture. Do we approach it with a slavish must-read-it-today mentality, or do we engage it as God's speech? Do we come to it for information, or are we seeking ourselves to be formed by it? These, among many others, are considerations we'll explore as discuss what it means to read Scripture missionally. 

So, over the next few months, we're devoting Mondays here at the Prelude blog to discuss our practices and theologies of Scripture. We'll draw on Scripture itself, as well as listen to voices of those from our shared heritage whose thoughts on the topic point to the vibrancy and liveliness of God's Holy Scripture. Our hope is that these Monday morning topics will generate new and insightful thoughts for us all, and begin to help us think more intentionally about encouraging our students not only with the if question, but also the why and how of reading Scripture.

Erik Leafblad

Comments

[Ray]

my parents practiced a similarly faithful approach to daily scripture reading and prayer (devotions) and desired to pass the habit on to their progeny. thankfully, they modeled for us ways in which to incorporate the disciplines into our own lives without the common parental trifecta of manipulation, guilt and fear.

[Erik Leafblad]

I've come to see in looking back that indeed this faithful practice is something I cherish. At the time, I think I had too many other voices (from church, friends as we tried to outdo one another spiritually) turning a beautiful discipline into a slavish duty. Older (and hopefully wiser) I indeed have much thanksgiving for the consistency of my parent's modeling what a vibrant rhythm of life with God looks like. Somehow they were asking the how question, it seems to me, even I was not hearing it.