T.M. Suffield has a rather novel idea. Well, it seems novel to us, though the church before us had done it for centuries. Let’s meet together to read the Bible. A lot of it.
Paul commanded Timothy not to neglect the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13), and yet many evangelical Protestant churches read barely more than a few verses during their worship services. Sadly, to get a large dose of public Bible reading, you often have to go to a liberal or Roman Catholic church.
But Suffield has begun hosting gatherings in both his church and his home to simply read Scripture together. At a recent gathering, they read the entire book of 2 Timothy.
Suffield offers compelling reasons for such a practice, including:
- Hearing Scripture read in context.
- Following the thread of an author’s argument.
- Hearing the structure.
- Experiencing Scripture the way generations of believers have engaged with it for centuries.
This is worth your and my further consideration. How can we organize our local believing communities around extended public reading of Scripture together?
Though it sounds good in theory–I have a very hard time comprehending much from hearing long passages of Scripture (or much of anything else) read. I don’t know why. Different learning styles, maybe?
I listen to fiction audiobooks, but for nonfiction I need to see it, to pause, and reread bits, in order to retain it. Our Sunday School class has been covering the minor prophets, reading large swaths from Kings and Chronicles about the setting in which each prophets ministered. Usually when the teacher asks questions after we take turns reading, I can’t answer them without looking again at the passage we just read.