2023 Evangel Gathering - Friendship and Flourishing for Missions

40 • 2023 E vangel G athering • S acred R oots T hriving in M inistry : F riendship and F lourishing for M issions

d) Lectio Divina (literally meaning Divine Reading ) is reading Scripture (the divine book) with an aim to meet the triune God. 1. For example, the tagline of Taylor University’s Center for Scripture Engagement is “Engage Scripture. Encounter God.” 2. Lectio Divina is the primary way God’s people have read Scripture throughout the last three thousand years. 10 3) Reading spiritual classics must never replace Scripture engagement. Rather, reading spiritual classics helps us engage Scripture and encounter Jesus at ever deepening levels. a) Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends (SRSC 1) helps us recover the lost art of praying the Psalms. b) Becoming a Community of Disciples (SRSC 2) can help us how to recover the lost art of silence (Ps 46:10) as we come before the Lord.

b. “Perennial pastoral problems”

1) “Cure of Souls” is an ancient way of describing the work that leaders in the church are called to do (Heb 13:17).

a) Jesus often presented his ministry using medical terminology like a doctor for souls.

b) Jesus also used the language of agriculture, like a farmer caring for an orchard of fruit trees.

10 Lectio Divina is one of the seven essential practices of the church described in Uche Anizor and Hank Voss, Representing Christ: A Vision for the Priesthood of All Believers (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016); For more on lectio Divina see Jim Wilhoit and Evan B. Howard, Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary Life (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012).