…devote yourselves to the public reading of scripture. -1 Timothy 4:13
Reading the Bible in Community on Campus
Incentive grants for GFM staff to pilot a fresh mode of Scripture engagement
Introduction
The Grace and Mercy Foundation, based in NYC, has been a generous financial partner supporting GFM and our mission. They have provided start-up grants for new Area Directors as we’ve built our leadership; funded our Vocational Stewardship Project to increase our effectiveness in integration; and supported MBA, WAP, and BSAP. In addition to their long-standing focus on faith and work, more recently they’ve been advocating “public reading of Scripture” and “just show up book groups” as fresh means of engaging God’s Word and thinking about God’ purposes. (You can get a glimpse from their website: justshowup.club)
We’ve been in a dialogue with the foundation about how these practices might be introduced and adapted within GFM as ways to help graduate students and faculty in spiritual formation and integration. A Grace and Mercy grant (allocated by Tom Lin) allows us to incentivize up to 15 GFM campus staff to pilot Communal Scripture Reading on campus during 2019. This fits with a “key action” in our new GFM Strategic Plan: to resource GFM staff for excellence in training student and faculty in scripture engagement and faith/work integration.
Underlying Values
Paul instructed Timothy to “give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching…” (1 Tim. 4:13 NRSV). What might this ancient mode of scripture engagement add to the other approaches that we often use, e.g. inductive bible study, devotional reading, lectio divina, bible exposition, etc.?
As commended by Grace & Mercy Foundation, this approach entails three basic qualities: regularity (the reading/hearing experience is offered regularly—ideally weekly, but at least monthly), community (people meet to hear the Word together—in gatherings of three or more), and extent (longer sections of scripture are read and heard—e.g. 20, 30, 40 minutes).
Given how few Christians have even read the bible in its entirety, creating spaces for encountering scripture in this way contributes to spiritual formation:
- increased biblical literacy, a grasp of whole books or sections of books, a growing sense of the full story of God, an appreciation for scripture immersion practices.
- Experientially, such spaces provide a shared experience of hearing (audibly) the scriptures, a refreshing drink from the well of God’s word in a busy week, a welcome touchpoint with fellow believers on campus.
- Additionally, such communal readings may offer our invited seeker friends a simple, non-threatening exposure to God’s message.
Program
Up to 15 campus staff will be selected to participate. Each will commit to advocating and organizing with their fellowship(s) programmatic opportunities to experiment with communal reading of scripture. We are inviting these staff to embrace the values undergirding this mode of scripture engagement and explore the potential fruitfulness within their witnessing communities on campus. We will connect participants in an informal learning cohort around this program and name a Program Coordinator. The program will be conducted between March and December of 2019, which allows for three “windows” in which to try ideas: late Spring, Summer, Fall.
Participating staff have latitude to experiment with different forms of public/communal reading of scripture as best fits their contexts. Possibilities include:
- A weekly gathering on campus where people can “just show up” to hear scripture read/presented in a simple format.
- Example: show up at noon with your lunch; scripture reading from 12:15 to 12:35; brief response time before departure at 12:45.
- Weekly scripture reading could be combined with weekly prayer for campus.
- Example of a 45-minute meeting: gather (5 min), hear scripture (15-20 min), pray (15-25 min)
- Extensive reading could be built into a SG bible study experience.
- Example: 8-week study of short book/section (e.g. James); first week, read whole letter aloud and digest as a whole; begin each week’s study by reading aloud the letter up to and including the passage for that week before studying; final week, read the whole letter aloud again and review learning and application from the study as a whole
- Lenten scripture experience over seven weeks
- Offer a weekly reading focused on one or more Psalms, a longer OT reading, a longer NT reading, with silent reflection time built in after each reading.
With a value on the quality of the reading/hearing, Grace & Mercy Foundation makes available audio/visual resources in a variety of formats/lengths for easy use by groups, including a facilitator’s guidebook. See for example: The Bible Project.
Expectations for staff participants include:
- Sponsor an approved (by program coordinator) on campus expression of public/communal reading of scripture in your chapter or on your campus over at least one term and preferably two.
- Take part in at least two zoom calls with other participants hosted by Program Coordinator to exchange ideas and learning
- Report on your experiment and learning as requested
- Practice some form of reading scripture in extensive sections for a period of time as part of your own spiritual disciplines
How to Apply
The first window for applicants will be open until March 20. If 15 staff sign up by that deadline, the program will be full; if less than 15 staff sign up, we will create one more application window before June.
Interested campus staff should send an email to Brian Chang (brian.chang@intervarsity.org) expressing your willingness to participate and outlining your initial idea(s) for what you have in mind to propose on your campus (final plans may change after conversations with students). Also, indicate in which semester(s)/period(s) you want to try something.
We will name a Program Coordinator by March 20 who will communicate with participating staff going forward. He/she will hold a meet-up for participants at Mundelein for those attending.
Funding
Total grant for all participants: 21,750
Grants to each campus staff will depend on the number of participants. If the maximum of 15 participate, the grant to each participant will be 1,305 (equivalent to a 1,500 gift) each. If fewer sign up, the grant amount will be higher. We will need at least 9 participants to run the program. The Program Coordinator will receive an additional 2,175 (equivalent to a 2,500 gift).
Grants will be transferred in the 2019-20 fiscal year upon satisfactory participation in the program.
