Fringe Dweller: Opening up the scriptures together

In this blog post, Jonny Baker explores how we can invite listeners into the leading, studying and understanding of Scripture - together.

One of the challenges I find in preaching is how to invite participation. In my experience transformation happens when people begin to engage with the text themselves. But it can feel as though you are locked into a provider/client relationship with a congregation. As the preacher, particularly if you are paid, the unspoken expectation is that you will serve up something impressive as the expert. It takes a bit of courage to try something different. One of the ways I have tried is to use participative ways or communal ways of reading the text. It’s a very simple approach.

• I explain what the method is.

• We then read the text slowly once or twice.

• I then invite people to get into twos or threes and share what caught their attention.

• Then usually I open it up for a wider conversation together during which I will share some insights I have gleaned through preparation of the text but also build in what people share.

• I do this in such a way that it is a natural part of the conversation.

There is a discipline to this approach of trusting the process and the Spirit. And for those of us used to being the one talking there is a discipline of saying less and discerning where to take the conversation as it flows.

Let me give an example of how I adapted this process.

One method I made up for a service went like this:

There was a photography exhibition in the church and members of a local photography group present in the service so I conducted what I called “lectio divina through the eyes of a photographer”.

The text was Mark 10:46-52 which is the healing of Bartimaeus from his blindness.

This was our method

1. Listen to the story

2. Give space to people to imagine it unfolding and notice what catches their attention.

3. Imagine if they were to take a photograph or two of the scene what would that be.

4. I then invite people to share with others their ideas.

5. Then we hear together as a large group some of those ideas during which I build on what is said by offering some insights I have noticed or unearthed through my study in preparation.

6. But I am careful to not feel the need to talk too much or to share everything I have prepared.

Whenever I have used this kind of approach the church is buzzing with ideas, conversations and insights. Invariably there are some things that emerge that I have not noticed or thought about. I often write a liturgy or prayer in response to the text to invite people to respond to the story in another way. In the case of the Bartimaeus passage I wrote the liturgy below.

I want to see

When I am sat by the roadside

Unable to see, poor, trapped

And I notice your presence comes near

Like Bartimaeus give me courage to shout out

And when the crowd silences me courage

to shout louder

When I am in the crowd

Blindly following group think

Telling those at the roadside to pipe down

May I hear your voice interrupt

Telling me to call them

When you ask me what I want

May I listen to my deepest God given desire,

Get beyond riches, status and honour

I want to see

Like Bartimaeus, the unclean son become

the honoured one

May I spring to my feet, throw off my cloak

and come to you

Receive the gift of sight

And follow you down the road

Amen

I have recently published a book Fringe Dweller which is a series of 40 reflections from encounters like this that Jesus has with those at the fringes. Several of these had their first airing as sermons at St Mary’s in Ealing where I am a licensed lay pioneer. Each one has a practice and liturgy and there are contemporary illustrations throughout including the liturgy and illustration used here.

Included in the practices are nine participative ways of reading the scriptures. As a preacher I suspect you’ll love it for the reflections - it will give you some good material, and indeed there are several series you could put together from it. We invited Paula Gooder and John Drane, two New Testament scholars to give us their feedback which was helpful and encouraging - Paula Gooder said “I loved it. This is a really useful resource and works brilliantly’. I say that because it is informed by scholarship. But I hope it too might give preachers the courage to explore the ministry of the word in participative ways that trust the process of listening to the word together in the presence of the Spirit. It’s also ideal for personal devotion and small groups.

Fringe Dweller by Jonny Baker and David Cotterill is available from www.getsidetracked.co

About the author:

Jonny Baker is the director at Church Mission Society (CMS) of mission in post Christian Britain. He is an advocate for pioneers, set up the pioneer training pathway at CMS, and is a founding member of Aspen, a spread out ecumenical ecclesial community of pioneers. He has published several books and contributed to several others as well as blogging consistently for over twenty years. He is a lay pioneer in the Church of England and on the leadership of Grace, a Church of England congregation in London. He is a partner of Getsidetracked. 

Blog  https://jonny-baker.com/blog

Instagram  @bonnyjaker