# improving devotional life of congregation



## soakland (Apr 21, 2009)

Hello - I Pastor a congregation who has a rather shallow understanding of the Word. They just love The Daily Bread by RBC. I want to get them into something of more substance without tearing down TDB. Anyone have any ideas? Spurgeon seems over their head, as I offered one older member and he couldn't make heads or tails out of it. I was also thinking about MacArthur's devotional booklet.

Thanks,
Pastor Scott


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## EricP (Apr 21, 2009)

*Reasonable devotional*

Though no expert in such things, I've enjoyed the content, variety, and "through the bible" progression of the Scripture Union devotionals, particularly Encounter With God. Available both in print and electronic.


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## Rich Koster (Apr 21, 2009)

I get the "John Stott Bible Study" & Daily Thought e-mailed to me daily. It's not Spurgeon, but it is mostly sound teaching and the price is right. If the congregation is not into computers, ask for permission to print out a week's worth at a time as a handout.


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## jambo (Apr 21, 2009)

Grace Gems provide daily devotionals by e-mail, some are short some are longer but always of substance. They also allow you to use their collections taken from their website for your own church (Provided you are not selling them) _"We encourage others to use our literature in any way they desire. Forward it to others — add it to your website — put it in your church bulletins — make it into books or booklets for distribution."_

I have actually used this as a basis for devotional booklets for my own church. Some people like them and have passed them onto friends, whilst others prefer other styles. But its worth considering. 

Grace Gems!


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## OPC'n (Apr 21, 2009)

They don't understand Morning and Evening? Maybe start at the pulpit explaining the doctrines from the bottom up.


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## Rich Koster (Apr 21, 2009)

sjonee said:


> They don't understand Morning and Evening? Maybe start at the pulpit explaining the doctrines from the bottom up.



Some people get hung up on the olde English.


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## toddpedlar (Apr 21, 2009)

Is there any hope of encouraging them simply to be reading their Bibles daily? I would say the first step ought to be to get them doing this - the daily crumb isn't going to help them if they don't know Scripture... and they won't know Scripture if they never read more than a verse at a time that is fed to them in that little pamphlet. 

So, I would see what you could do about encouraging this - there are companies who sell daily calendars for this very purpose - that give them not only a place to keep appointments, etc., but Scripture reading for the day. It's a trivial thing, but a gift like that put in the hands of your flock might get some of them out of the daily crumb rut and into a practice that will bear spiritual fruit.


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## SolaScriptura (Apr 21, 2009)

Scott - just a question: How long have you been their pastor?


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## Scottish Lass (Apr 21, 2009)

Have you tried Tabletalk?
Ligonier Ministries | Tabletalk Magazine I think it comes to about $1/issue if you do 10+.


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## jambo (Apr 22, 2009)

It should be stressed that not everyone is into devotional booklets such as Daily Bible Readings. Although I produced a booklet of daily readings taken mainly from Grace Gems, I did those for those who may find them helpful. But personally I am not a big fan of daily devotional booklets. 

That may sound contradictory after my previous post but I want to explain.

I have often felt that using daily devotional booklets is like eating someone elses dinner! Someone else does the thinking and the meditating which saves us the bother. I recall one person who always used devotional books by a particular author. Whenever you had a bible study all you got from them was 'Selwyn Hughes says this and Selwyn Hughes says that...' I wanted to know what they thought of the passage, not what selwyn Hughes thought.

The greatest daily devotions are found in the scriptures themselves. To read and meditate on scripture brings more fruit than simply reading a passage and blindly reading a devotion on that passage. We need to be teaching our members _how_ to read the bible. We need to teach principles of biblical interpretation. Now the term hermeneutics may scare some people off but if we can teach people to observe the context of the passage, how to cross reference to other relevant passages, the NT fulfilment of OT passages or the OT background to NT passages etc then we will go a long way. 

I have often found that we overestimate the biblical knowledge of our members. Gettting back to basics is no bad thing. 

Another idea is to develope a bible reading plan and set a couple of simple questions each day that draw out the meaning of the passage. Something along the lines of "Search the Scriptures".

Now I do not wish to write off books of daily devotions. They can be helpful to some people. They can bring fresh ideas or set the mind off in a way we might have otherwise missed. But some may prefer to read the bible alone without devotional aids.


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## soakland (Apr 22, 2009)

*question response*

I have been Pastoring them for almost 1 1/2 years. Yes I have handed out a daily bile reading handout. When I did visitation this past Monday, I asked if they had tried it but one didn't and the other did just one day. It is on my heart to get them into Scripture. They are all in the high 50s plus in age and think they have arrived I fear.

Scott


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## toddpedlar (Apr 22, 2009)

soakland said:


> I have been Pastoring them for almost 1 1/2 years. Yes I have handed out a daily bile reading handout. When I did visitation this past Monday, I asked if they had tried it but one didn't and the other did just one day. It is on my heart to get them into Scripture. They are all in the high 50s plus in age and think they have arrived I fear.
> 
> Scott



If you want them to read Scripture as a discipline, then I would avoid any sort of 'devotional magazine' or 'booklet'... any such thing, I would think, will only make it harder to actually get them into Scripture itself. I'm not sure I can think of any substitute for the Word of God. It sounds to me as though you have a flock of 'comfortable Christians'... 

ESPECIALLY for such a flock, a daily Bible reading handout won't do much on its own - if they're not convinced of their desperate need for the food and drink of the Word, then no list of Bible readings is going to do much for them... and I'm not saying this is what I think you're doing, I'm just trying to encourage you. 

Do they respond to your teaching and exhortation well? Are they willing learners? Do they understand the power of the Word, and the necessity to meditate upon it day and night? I suspect not, given what you've said - have you given thought to making the Word of God as food and drink for the needy Christian an explicit target of your preaching? It seems to me the only way to get your flock to study the Word of God is to live and breathe it in front of them, and exhort them that they must live and breathe it too.


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