A new year is upon us, with new opportunities for Scripture engagement in our churches. This is a time of fresh beginnings and optimism. The old has come and gone, and the new is rising up among us. What will the year bring? What promises are hidden in the days ahead?
One of the challenges we will face as church leaders is establishing our own Bible reading habits. Many of us have committed practices but may feel dry or stagnant. Some of us are so busy leading others in understanding Scripture that we haven’t carved out time to receive from God’s Word ourselves. Still others of us are happy with our regular time in the Bible but long for ways to go deeper.
We know that God longs to refresh us alongside our people—but how can we attune our ears in the midst of service and busyness? I recently came across a Bible reading practice that will be valuable to leaders because of its simplicity and profundity.
In her [2014] book “What’s in a Phrase?” Marilyn Chandler McEntyre describes the practice of “pausing where scripture gives you pause.” This practice draws on the ancient tradition of Lectio Divina, or holy reading, that moves us out of an intellectual reading of Scripture into a more contemplative encounter. Lectio Divina leads us to notice the words and phrases that catch our attention in a passage, prayerfully listen to what God is saying to us through them, and end with resting in God’s love.
But Lectio Divina doesn’t have to stay within prescribed steps or a specific timeframe. As we continue to meditate on these words and phrases, they come to life in our everyday activities, interactions, and knowledge of the Bible. We begin to see the “words within the Word as invitations, summoning you as you read to go in for a little while before you go on, and in doing so to find that the little phrases are places of divine encounter, epiphany, or unexpected guidance.”
In one of my favorite meditations, McEntyre reflects on the phrase “we live and move and have our being” in Acts 17:28. In exploring this triad, she discovers God’s presence everywhere. God is our dwelling place and home, “the place toward which all our wanderings tend.” God created us from dust and enlivens our every neuron. This interconnectedness permeates even our reading of Scripture:
“We move as readers and participants through the vast, unfolding story of salvation, inhabiting that story as we pause over words, allow images their impact on our imaginations, and illustrate and enliven the archetypes it provides with instances of our own lives.”
Just as God is everywhere, everything informs our reading. Scripture becomes a dynamic interplay where we are both reader and participant. We read about the unfolding story of salvation, and we participate in its unfolding. The words impact how we see the world and interpret our experiences. And the words come alive through the everyday instances of our own lives. We inhabit the words within the Word, the one in whom “we live and move and have our being.”
This practice presents a delightful invitation to us as leaders. Rather than reading Scripture in a way that feels like more sermon-prep—focused on interpreting it for others—it lets us pause. Rest. Participate in the dynamic interplay of the unfolding story. Spend time in the words within the Word. It makes us ask: Why has this word caught my attention? What is God saying to me through this phrase? How is Scripture for me, and not just for others?
Try this practice today, and perhaps into your new year. Read a passage in Scripture and notice what word or phrase stands out to you. Then carry it with you—let it anchor you during tasks and transitions. Freely encounter it. Freely live into it. Freely interact with it. Let this little phrase give you pause, and let that help you pause throughout your day to notice the many ways God is longing to refresh you alongside your people.
