The public reading of Scripture is a pretty standard part of most church services - or at least it should be, according to 1 Timothy 4:13.

But 'pretty standard' doesn't mean ordinary or insignificant. Indeed, the apostle Paul thinks it is so important that he urges Timothy to be "devoted" to the task.

What about your church?

If a visitor came to your church would they conclude that you take the Bible readings pretty seriously? Or would they perhaps walk in and notice someone frantically scanning the Bible passage for the first time just before church starts, desperately hoping there is no reference to Onesiphorus or Mephibosheth or the region of Shittim?

In this short course, we'll think through the why and how of communicating God's word clearly and meaningfully for the benefit of those to whom you are reading. We'll see what it looks like, in other words, to be devoted to the public reading of Scripture in a practical and achievable way.

This training course is designed to run over two sessions. Depending on how freely the discussions flow in your training group, you should be able to run each session in less than 1½ hours. You could therefore conduct each session on separate evenings, or perhaps run both sessions back to back on, say, a Saturday morning, with a short morning tea break between sessions.

Requires accompanying workbook. Video material also available on Vimeo.