Reading Scripture Together

Tonight during our prayer meeting, we read scripture together. I simply told our church family that I would like to hear them read aloud passages that held meaning for them, had been encouraging lately for them, had placed them under conviction, etc. We weren't all going to read them together; rather, we would listen as one person read, and then another, and so on.

It was beautiful to see what happened after I said this. People began looking into their bibles. It got fairly quiet as people flipped between pages trying to find particular passages. I could see that they were engaged in what we were doing. They were involved! Different people read from Isaiah 53, Psalm 42, James 1. I read from Leviticus 9-10.

The fascinating thing about this is that our folks seemed more involved than when I simply ask them to turn to a specific passage. When I do all the choosing, our people are less engaged. When they have more responsibility, they are far more involved.

It reminds me of I Corinthians 14:26, which says, "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification."

It is clear that more involvement means more edification.