‘Dwelling in the Word’ is a practice which helps us form the habit of noticing what God is saying through the Bible and naming it to one another, that we might all be enriched.
As we read a passage of Scripture together, we pause to notice what the Spirit draws our attention to, then we talk to one another, naming what we’ve noticed, so others can hear it, and so that the truth of it can sink even deeper into our hearts and minds.
We want the Word, the living text of the Bible, to shape our imaginations, intentions and actions. Engaging with the Scriptures is something we can do in our personal life of faith. It’s also something we do as communities, knowing that the impact of God’s Word can be even more powerful when we hear it through one another.
How to lead ‘Dwelling in the Word’
- Open in prayer, inviting the Spirit to help you hear the Word through one another.
- Read the passage aloud, then give people a few minutes for silent reflection.
- Ask people to find a ‘friendly-looking stranger’ and invite them to share what they noticed – how the passage made them feel or which part caught their attention. This is sometimes called ‘listening someone into free speech’, because we give them room to share their thoughts without interrupting, commenting or judging.
- Then invite people to share with the group what they heard their ‘friendly stranger’ say. (Note you’re not asking them to share what they themselves thought or said, just what they heard the other person say.)
- Finally, invite people to share any threads they’ve noticed in the feedback, or any action of the Spirit they’ve noticed in the room.
If the group is too large for everyone’s voice to be heard in the feedback, invite each pair to join with another pair and name their noticings in fours.
Dwelling in the Word is most effective when a group visits the same passage regularly over a period of several months, because it leads people into an attentiveness to the text itself, but also to each other and to the Spirit who speaks afresh in every context and encounter.
Further resources
- , along with a downloadable passage to help you get started.
- ‘Dwelling in the Word’ is a practice which the Missional Learning Communities in our diocese use on a regular basis.