Luke 10: 1-12

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.  He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.  Go on your way.  See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.  Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’  And if anyone is there who shares in peace your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.  Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid.  Do not move about from house to house.  Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;  cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The  kingdom of God has come near to you.’  But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.  Yet know this:  the kingdom of God has come near.’  I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.  (NRSV)

Dwelling in the Word

Whenever Church Innovations Institute staff meets, we spend the first 20 – 30 minutes, sometimes more, dwelling within the Word of God.  For us, most of the time the passage is Luke 10:1-12. It is a story of mission, of being sent out with the most basic of instructions, dependent upon our receivers’ hospitality.  As we consider our work, this passage speaks to us, sometimes moving us forward, sometimes making us think differently about what is happening and how to respond.

You can have this habit, too.

1. Choose a passage – perhaps a text for this coming week, perhaps a story already meaningful to your group, and read it aloud.
2. Sit together in the Word, in silence, in talk, sharing with one another where your imagination was caught or a memory or a question was triggered. Live in the Word.
3. Bring the passage up when you’re trying to make a decision. See what it says to you then.
4. Close with the passage and with prayer.
5. Bring up the passage again during the next meeting in the same manner.
6. Live in the passage for several months. It will bring more and more to you as you revisit it (at Church Innovations we have been living in Luke 10 for ten years now).

Let us know how this works for you. We love feedback, and we love collecting stories and insights.  Send us an e-mail at info@churchinnovations.org.