Why we read one passage at a time

Every January someone suggests we do a series. Something with a title, six weeks, a theme people can hang their week on. It is a reasonable suggestion and we almost always say no.

Here is what we do instead. We pick a book of the Bible, start at the beginning, and read straight through it — one passage a week, in order, until it is finished. It took us fourteen months to get through Luke. Nobody made a graphic for it.

It keeps the preacher honest

When you choose the topic, you choose the passage that fits the topic. Do that for twenty years and you have quietly built a Bible out of the parts you find agreeable. Reading in order means the difficult verse arrives on a Sunday whether or not the pastor has anything clever to say about it.

That is uncomfortable, which is the point. Some of the best conversations this church has had started with a passage the preacher plainly did not enjoy.

“The text sets the agenda, not the season, not the news, and not the preacher’s mood.”

It teaches people to read for themselves

A congregation that hears a book worked through carefully learns the moves: read the sentence before, notice who is speaking, ask what the author is arguing. After a year or two, people stop needing a pastor to hand them a verse. They can find one.

We would rather produce a room full of people who can read the Bible than a room full of people who can quote a sermon.

It is slower, and that is fine

Consecutive preaching does not spike attendance. There is no launch Sunday. What it does is compound: five years in, the room shares a working knowledge of several whole books, and the illustrations from March still land in October because everyone remembers where we have been.

Where we are now

We are eleven weeks into Philippians, which will finish sometime in November. After that, most likely Exodus. If you want to read ahead, the passage for the coming Sunday is always printed at the top of the handout and posted at the lobby desk by Friday.

If you have questions about any of this, I keep Tuesday afternoons open. Call the office and ask for a slot. People do, and it is one of the better parts of the job.