"People of the Book"

At our most recent Synod Assembly which took place in Eau Claire May 30-31, the theme was "Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible." This theme is based on the ELCA churchwide initiative "Book of Faith," which begins this year. The purpose of this initiative is to invite the church to become more fluent in the first language of faith, the language of scripture, in order that we might live into our calling as a people renewed, enlivened, and empowered by the Bible. In connection with this initiative, while we were doing assembly business the following was also happening:

1.     Favorite Bible verses were shared by means of print and projection on large screens around the meeting hall.

2.     During the assembly we heard what were called "Bible Bytes," brief presentations by voting members and visitors in which they describe the special significance the Bible has had on their lives at certain times.

3.     From time to time we also took time to sing the Word since most of our hymns are inspired by particular Bible verses.

All of these were ways to get us into the Bible, the Word, and to get us thinking about how we might take this information home to our congregations and get them more involved in the Word.

Well, the leadership of the congregation has been thinking about how we can do this here at Concordia. Here are some of the ideas:

#1     Have one Sunday a month which we call "Bible Story Sunday." On this Sunday, we will focus on a favorite Bible story in our worship services and Sunday School and not just read it, but sing about it, maybe have a skit or two, or whatever might work to get the meaning across in a new way.

#2     Another idea that has come up is to have a monthly "Bible Byte" (see above) either in our newsletter or as a part of our Sunday morning worship where a member of Concordia talks about the meaning that a particular piece of scripture had at a special time in their life.

#3     Still another idea is to have all of us reading the same scriptures or devotion book (Something like "Christ in Our Home") each day and then having some conversation about what God’s Word is saying to us in these readings.

#4     Or how about spending some time thinking about what it would mean to live Biblically. How might our life be the same? How might our life be different if we did as the Bible tells us to do in terms of our giving, forgiving others, and having the Biblical priorities?

The possibilities are endless. Do you have ideas - something that you have heard of or done that would get us into God’s Word in a new way? I would love to hear about it.

In His Service,

                                                                                Pastor Charlie