Today, I feel the burden to minister to local people. I must feed the lambs! I must preach the word "in season and out of season". Preaching 'out of season' means using online communication to evangelise the lost and to strengthen the lambs, to help them grow to maturity.
So please bear with me if this post has typos or is sloppy in some ways. My aim is not to spend my hours preaching in English, but rather in Kurdish.
But English is my best language and I do most of my thinking in English. The end result of blogging these thoughts - and I pray for this - will eb that I am more effective in training up KUrdish shepherds.
Today I am trying to sharpen my thinking and yours on what it means to 'feed Jesus' lambs'. We have seen that it means providing spiritual food. Much of it is done in song, not just in spoken word. But today we look at the importance of reading out the Scriptures, not just preaching them.
1 Timothy 4:13 (ESV)
Shepherds of the church are not just meant to explain the Bible, they are to read it out. And they are to 'give themselves' to this, to be 'devoted' to it. All too often, the public reading of Scripture is given to people who are not gifted at public reading. Or the task is assigned very late in the week, so they get no chance to practise.
Here's a tip: if you are preaching a apssage, do the reading yourself. You can devote some of your preapration time to really conveying the meaning of the passage well in your reading. It will often take three read-throughs. First, you get used to the words. Second time, you understand the meaning a bit more. And on the third time you read it out loud, you know what meaning is coming up so you inject the right emotion into the reading too. Public reading conveys interpretation.
Another suggestion: if you give the second reading to someone else, ask those who are reasonably gifted at public reading to send you a voice recording of the reading the day before the service. Assuming that nearly everyone has a smartphone - here in Duhok they do - that's quite easy to do and it's part of the preparation. "If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words" 1 Peter 4:11
Churches gnerally do not tolerate a guitarist making a hash of the songs because he hasn't pratised. Let's be graciously intoerant of people reading out the Bible without practising!
Finally, another practical thought. Let's say your church decides to teach Jeremiah- the longest book of the Bible. We are used to the pattern that you have a short reading and then a long exposition. But I want to challenge that tradition. I think we neglect the longer books of the OT becuase we are too wedded to that system. I think for a church/ home group to cover 52 chapters of Jeremiah, they could consider doing it like this:
-roughly 4 chapters each time, over 3 months
-the leader should practise his reading intensively, somewhat like an actor rehearses for Shakespeare's Hamlet [no, I'm not saying memorise the words completely, but actually I am saying you should memorise the words. That's what good public reaading is! You have partially memorised the passage. You know what's coming next. You know when to sigh, you know when the speed up with anger and you can deliver the mother of all depression poems in chapter 20 with all the right mood swings]
-deliver your reading with little chunks of exposition as you go, enough to bring out the meaning of Jeremiah's words.
-don't be pinned down by the tradition that exposition follows the reading. It might be better to say: 'Now, friends. We're going to hear Jeremiah sinking into a deep pit. As I read, remmeber that this is fiulfilled in Jesus's dark dark hour. He walked through the valley of the shadow of death for you. He felt forsaken by his Father. Take this reading in and hide it in your heart. You will face dark days yourself. Jer 20 will keep you bearing fruit in the wilderness years. Here goes, I'll read it to you- prepare to be shocked by how desparate life can feel, even for true believers..."
For more on this topic,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-yskME0Y4&feature=emb_title
http://thebriefing.com.au/2011/03/devoted-to-the-public-reading-of-scripture/
https://www.amazon.com/Devote-Yourself-Public-Reading-Scripture/dp/0825442192
https://matthiasmedia.com/products/reading-the-bible-aloud-workbook
So please bear with me if this post has typos or is sloppy in some ways. My aim is not to spend my hours preaching in English, but rather in Kurdish.
But English is my best language and I do most of my thinking in English. The end result of blogging these thoughts - and I pray for this - will eb that I am more effective in training up KUrdish shepherds.
Today I am trying to sharpen my thinking and yours on what it means to 'feed Jesus' lambs'. We have seen that it means providing spiritual food. Much of it is done in song, not just in spoken word. But today we look at the importance of reading out the Scriptures, not just preaching them.
1 Timothy 4:13 (ESV)
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Here's a tip: if you are preaching a apssage, do the reading yourself. You can devote some of your preapration time to really conveying the meaning of the passage well in your reading. It will often take three read-throughs. First, you get used to the words. Second time, you understand the meaning a bit more. And on the third time you read it out loud, you know what meaning is coming up so you inject the right emotion into the reading too. Public reading conveys interpretation.
Another suggestion: if you give the second reading to someone else, ask those who are reasonably gifted at public reading to send you a voice recording of the reading the day before the service. Assuming that nearly everyone has a smartphone - here in Duhok they do - that's quite easy to do and it's part of the preparation. "If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words" 1 Peter 4:11
Churches gnerally do not tolerate a guitarist making a hash of the songs because he hasn't pratised. Let's be graciously intoerant of people reading out the Bible without practising!
Finally, another practical thought. Let's say your church decides to teach Jeremiah- the longest book of the Bible. We are used to the pattern that you have a short reading and then a long exposition. But I want to challenge that tradition. I think we neglect the longer books of the OT becuase we are too wedded to that system. I think for a church/ home group to cover 52 chapters of Jeremiah, they could consider doing it like this:
-roughly 4 chapters each time, over 3 months
-the leader should practise his reading intensively, somewhat like an actor rehearses for Shakespeare's Hamlet [no, I'm not saying memorise the words completely, but actually I am saying you should memorise the words. That's what good public reaading is! You have partially memorised the passage. You know what's coming next. You know when to sigh, you know when the speed up with anger and you can deliver the mother of all depression poems in chapter 20 with all the right mood swings]
-deliver your reading with little chunks of exposition as you go, enough to bring out the meaning of Jeremiah's words.
-don't be pinned down by the tradition that exposition follows the reading. It might be better to say: 'Now, friends. We're going to hear Jeremiah sinking into a deep pit. As I read, remmeber that this is fiulfilled in Jesus's dark dark hour. He walked through the valley of the shadow of death for you. He felt forsaken by his Father. Take this reading in and hide it in your heart. You will face dark days yourself. Jer 20 will keep you bearing fruit in the wilderness years. Here goes, I'll read it to you- prepare to be shocked by how desparate life can feel, even for true believers..."
For more on this topic,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-yskME0Y4&feature=emb_title
http://thebriefing.com.au/2011/03/devoted-to-the-public-reading-of-scripture/
https://www.amazon.com/Devote-Yourself-Public-Reading-Scripture/dp/0825442192
https://matthiasmedia.com/products/reading-the-bible-aloud-workbook
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