It is exciting to preach to people exposed to the material during the week.
Churches need pastors who are able to feed the flock God’s Word. Their task is not completed, however, until they have helped their people learn how to feed themselves. Unfortunately, few pastors know how many of their people or families are reading the Bible regularly and systematically.
Recognizing this deficiency, my assistant and I, together with our elders, developed a strategy we felt would motivate our people to read the Bible more. We took about two months to introduce the program and challenge people to participate. The results have been encouraging.
First of all. I set a personal goal of reading through the Bible in a year. I have done this on a number of occasions—always with great benefit. This conviction, grounded in experience, was the basis for encouraging our people to join me in this spiritual journey.
I knew that most, if not all of us, would need more than challenge in order to fulfill our commitment. We would need continued prodding, encouragement, and assistance.
To help me, as well as our people, I made a second commitment: I promised to preach through the Bible during the year. I would try to get sufficiently ahead in my reading in order to prepare weekly messages based on something read by the people in the section scheduled the previous week. It might be a survey of the material. At other times a specific theme would be developed. Biographical messages would be given when a dominant character appeared. Or it might be an exposition of a selected portion.
Some years ago I was asked to speak to a group of college-age youth on “The Pentateuch and You.” I pondered how to make the Pentateuch interesting to them. I concluded that most people have no trouble becoming interested in something they can see has practical application in their lives. With that in mind, I read the Pentateuch with a view to finding the major practical principle in each of the five books. I got so interested in the project, that in the next half year I went through the whole Bible with the same objective. Last year this study was incorporated in my book, A Daily Guide to Knowing God (Tyndale). This was made available to our people as an additional aid to their reading.
Each month my assistant prepares a daily reading schedule. Included is a suggested shorter section which could be read in a family devotional time. For example, if the day’s material is Genesis 31–33, the shorter section might be Genesis 33:1–20. He also prepares suggestions for an extended family devotional time once a week. For the week when the reading covered Genesis 20–42, he presented the following project: “Throughout Scripture, men had the practice of setting up memorials to God. Some were called altars and others were called places of remembrance. These served to remind individuals and their descendants of the history of God’s relationship to themselves. Here are four passages about altars Jacob built: Genesis 28:10–22; 31:43–55; 33:1–20, and 35:1–15. As a family read some or all of these, discussing why Jacob built each of them and then providing clay for each member of the family to make an item of remembrance related to their experience with God. For some, it will be something they are thankful for, and for others, it may recall an event in which God taught them much. For still others, it may represent a lesson learned.”
After explaining the assignment, my family took about 10 minutes to prepare our memorials. When we gathered together, our oldest daughter put together some rocks she had picked up while on a Teen Mission’s trip to Scotland the previous summer. It had been a significant opportunity to serve Christ. My wife drew a picture of a home to express her appreciation for the beautiful home God had provided for us. My youngest son made a face out of play dough. He put a big smile on the face. He was so happy that God had helped him improve significantly in his schoolwork in answer to prayer. I had made a mission trip to Europe and Asia the previous summer, spending many hours enroute in an airplane. I formed an airplane out of play dough in remembrance of safety in travel and fruitfulness in ministry. We bowed for prayer to thank God for each of these reminders of God’s goodness to us as a family.
We have a weekly “Body Life” service in our church. At times we suggest that folk share insights, blessings received, or ask questions resulting from their reading. Other opportunities for this type of interaction are found in small study, share, and prayer groups that meet through the week.
A random survey earlier in the year indicated that 50 percent of the people were using some of these materials in their family or personal devotions. Midway through the year we did a more extensive survey covering a number of concerns in our church. In this survey we found that 35 percent of those responding read the Bible together as a family at least three times a week and 82 percent read the Bible personally at least three times a week. There are 59 percent memorizing verses of the Bible, and 64 percent studying something in particular in the Bible.
It is exciting to preach to a group of people when many have been exposed during the previous week to the material on which your message is based. Their responsiveness is contagious. In fact, one of our elders got so excited about what he is getting out of this year’s experience, that he asked me to consider doing the same thing again next year!
Too often we assume that the people in the pew just want to be spoon-fed. Properly motivated and guided, many of them are ready to experience what the Psalmist declares: “Blessed is the man … [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1–2).
Lud Golz is pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
