October: Dwelling in the Word

Our work together as regional cohorts begins with listening: listening to God, listening to each other, listening to ourselves, and listening to the world around us. Listening to God together through Dwelling in the Word helps us begin to name what God might already be up to in our midst.

Teams in the cohort were introduced to Dwelling in the Word as a practice to share with their congregations. Dwelling in the Word is an ancient way of reading the Scripture. Dwelling in the Word is a way of spiritually engaging the text as one way God speaks to us, with a willingness to be shaped by what God might want to say through the Scripture. In this way, we are being interpreted by the text together as we listen to it.

Three questions guide our listening:

1. What caught your attention?

2. What question would you want to ask?

3. What are we hearing in this text (where might the Spirit be nudging us)?

The process of dwelling in a particular text is as follows.

Listen to the Word together:

● Pray that God would speak to us

● Read the text, slowly

● Allow for silence

● Read again

● Allow for silence

Listen to someone else:

● With one other person, share your thoughts about the text with a “reasonably friendly-looking stranger,” someone you maybe don’t know well.

● Spend 4-5 minutes each sharing about what caught your imagination, or a question you have, or what you think the Spirit might be saying.

Share in a group:

● Share in a group of 6-8 people what you heard your conversation partner say. What might God be saying to us as a group? What are you hearing?