'Dream' which is a kind of emerging church community for 18-30's in the Liverpool and Merseyside area has set up a blog that it is calling 'dream lectio', which has a Bible passage posted each day, invites people to read it, post their thoughts about it via comments, and obviously read other people's comments and respond to them etc. So its basically an attempt to get people reading the Bible together without having to be gathered in a 'normal' Bible study group as such. It was set up in response to this post on the Dream blog about the difficulties of being disciplined enough to read the Bible regularly and understand parts of it etc., and is seen to be a way of encouraging and helping people who struggle with this. It has only been running a few days, but the response seems to be good so far.
Part of me wonders whether this is just encouraging a bit of a lazy, impersonal 'armchair' approach to Christianity and the Bible, and certainly for me one of the advantages of group Bible study is the group dynamic - the interaction and insights brought by face to face discussion and debate. However at the same time I know this doesn't always work and that some people really struggle with both reading the Bible personally and with Bible study groups etc., or can't make it to group meetings for all kinds of reasons. If this is providing a way into and encouraging regular Bible reading and study for those who really struggle with it then surely it's a good thing? Let me know what you think.
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5 comments:
some of the comments are very impressive...I think it will be an interesting experiment. It doesn't seem all that passive given the response. I have signed up fort he updates.
Me too! The response and comments are impressive, and if its helping people to get into reading and thinking about the Bible more it's definitely a good thing.
Thanks for the link Simon.
I'm all for an armchair approach to bible reading ;-)
It's worth knowing that this experiment is not meant to replace face to face meetings. There are six dream groups, some of which meet weekly. In fact one has lunch together most days becasue they all work together.
It does though challenge the evangelical notion of the primacy of individual bible reading in private, which while good, is imho a thoroughly modern addition to the faith.
great to have you join the party!
Thanks Richard - I'm enjoying tracking the lectio!
Speaking as an evangelical who has spent large parts of my Christian life feeling guilty for being fairly rubbish sometimes at individual bible reading and study, I couldn't agree more with your comment on the primacy of individual private bible reading. So much of the Christian faith is actually about community, but it is often treated so individualistically. I'm sure there is a balance there that needs to be redressed somewhat!
Hope my original comment didn't cause any offence - I don't doubt that it is not meant to replace face to face meetings, and I know that Dream groups meet regularly. It was just a general initial thought both about the idea of ‘virtual bible study’, and that some might be tempted to use it in this way; and so a question as to what people thought.
no offence taken :-)
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