Our community is invited to read the Bible through in two years.
We began on Ash Wednesday, Feb 14th 2018, and people are welcome to join at any time. We aim to finish on Feb 17th, 2020.
Find Books of the Bible Reading Notes, here (Genesis - Isaiah are available).
Recordings of our RBi2Y gatherings are here (Gen, Exod, Lev, & Num are available).
Date for our next optional monthly gathering:
- TBD
Schedule. The idea is to complete the reading by the date on the schedule.
To opt-in to the email list to receive book summaries and other news, email admin@gcbchurch.ca
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reading through the whole Bible together in two years will be useful for you whether scripture is an old friend, a respected acquaintance, a relative that requires engaging, or a new lover. Over the next two years, we will deepen our friendship with scripture by giving it our full attention, by listening to all of it (not just the bits we find inspiring), by attending to its nuances, by engaging with its paradoxes, by noticing the conversations among stories within it, by carving out time to be with it, and by deliberately nourishing trust for two years.
We don’t enter this friendship alone. We’ll read in community: emails for each book of the Bible will provide you with useful contextual information, monthly gatherings will be a space to receive input and also to bring your doubts and questions, and homegroups or reading partnerships will keep you motivated to keep pursuing friendship with scripture. Perhaps you will choose to read certain books aloud. Let us know if you find other creative ways of inviting scripture into community.
Our relationship with scripture varies across a lifetime. Our lives are continually encountering the story of the Bible. And a lot happens in our lives and in the Bible! As we enter into a two-year journey with scripture, you might want to journal about your relationship to the Bible. Where are you at now? Where do you want to be in two years? As we journey together we hope to 1. deepen our awareness of the ways its stories shape us, 2. become familiar with the big story of the whole Bible, 3. get a sense of the character of each book of the Bible, 4. deepen our communion with Christ.
There are lots of on-ramps scattered through this process. And, if you fall behind, don’t feel like you have to catch up on what you have missed. Just pick up where the schedule is up to.
Contact: Kurtis Peters is guiding us through this project.
Ways of reading:
This section aims to offer you some ideas for your reading, as you seek to integrate your reading with your life in Christ. The main game in this project is the reading itself. So, only use these ideas in so far as they are helpful. Bear in mind that you will probably use a variety of methods throughout this journey.
Journal
Journal regularly, including insights, thoughts, emotions, prayers, convictions, actions, passages that are especially meaningful, and questions.
Listing questions
Write a list of questions that arise as you read (maybe as part of a journal?). Hold these questions. Questions that arise in one part of scripture are often answered by another part of scripture. When you find a clue to a question from another part of scripture, write this down.
L.E.A.P.S.
Write LEAPS down the side of your page. Next to each letter, write:
L - learn: write down something that you have learned.
E - emotion: write down something that you felt as you read.
A - action: write down something that you have been invited or challenged to do.
P - prayer: write down a short prayer.
S - share: write down something to share with another person in the next 24 hours.
One verse lectio divina:
After reading the whole passage, practice a lectio divina on one verse or section that stood out to you. Take one minute for silent and still prayer. Read the verse multiple times. As you do: Listen for a word or phrase. Then, listen for a picture, image, memory, story. Finally, ask what is God’s invitation in this text?