Dwelling in the Word

One of our spiritual practices is to dwell in scripture. We encourage congregations to begin the spiritual practice of dwelling in the word at the beginning of any meeting (session, committee, etc.).

Instructions

  • Invite the participants to prepare minds and hearts through a moment of silence.
  • During the first reading invite participants to listen  for a word or phrase that jumps out at them. Leave a minute of silence before a second reading (it should be read by a different voice each time and preferably different genders).
  • After the second reading (followed by a moment of silence) invite participants to turn to a partner and share one or two things they heard.
  • Ask each participant to share with the larger group one thing that they heard their partner share (do not ask people to share what they themselves hear – only what they heard their partner say).
  • To finish up invite the group to reflect on any themes they picked up on.

Acts 8:26-40

Acts 10:25-28, 35-48

Acts 10: 1-12

Acts 16

Acts 17: 16-23

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Genesis 28: 10-17

Luke 17: 11-19

Romans 5: 1-11

II Timothy 1-3, 6-9

1 Corinthians

John 4: 7-15

Experiments

Experimenting with joining in God’s work in the neighborhood has been a key discipline for us in our missional transformation.  First we listen for and discern together what we think the Holy Spirit might be up to in our neighborhood, then we come up with an experiment based upon what we heard, we follow through with the experiment and then we come together again to reflect on what we learned from the experiment.  But it doesn’t stop there – we come up with another experiment based on what we heard as we reflected. Attached below are some experiments we have tried.

Webinars

In 2016-2017 we experimented with hosting webinars where panelists would explore a topic together and anyone within the presbytery could attend, listen and ask questions about the topic.