October 2025

During the Spring term, Roots ran a small group Bible study exploring different ways to read the Bible in community. We believe that the texts in the Bible were written for communities and are best read in community. We tried a few different ways to do this, and we wanted to share a couple with you here.

Based on the Discovery Bible Study method

We read the passage twice using different translations of the Bible and then retold it to each other using our own words. 

We then answered these 3 questions:

1.  What did this passage help me discover about God?

2.  What did the passage help me discover about myself or other people?

3.  How does this passage impact how I live my life this week?

Based on a seminary activity

Much of the Bible, especially the New Testament, was performed orally to communities instead of reading directly from the text. Because of that, we took turns performing a small passage for each other. The goal is to imagine what it would have been like to be the person delivering this passage to a small group gathered in a home. 

We had to give the text the emotion we thought the author had, use our bodies and the space around us to convey the point we thought the author was making, and use our best judgment with wording to make sure our audience understood the meaning of the text. 

This is a fun and engaging way to dive deep into a passage, and all of our interpretations highlighted different parts of the passage.