Lectionary Studies

Hello 2019 and hello old blogging space!

New year, new routines, new disciplines.

When I was a pastoral intern many years ago, I tagged along with my mentor pastor to her lectionary study group.  It was so helpful.  A group of Methodist preachers had been gathering for lectionary study for a few years.  One pastor would host each month, providing coffee and a parlor or Sunday school classroom or fellowship hall.  The group met on Monday mornings at 10am.  Volunteers would study one of the lectionary passages, and then lead off the discussion on that passage.  The group closed with prayer and then went off for lunch somewhere nearby.  This study group was helpful on many levels - to hear experienced preachers studying the text and discussing their ministry contexts, to have the friendship of other clergy who freely shared their wisdom and their mistakes, and the advanced planning for preaching.  This lectionary study group worked two weeks in advance, so the study gave us time to think and pray about worship planning.

When I moved out of interning and into a role as clergywoman, I was *just* too far from the city to join in that lectionary group on a regular basis.  I missed the routine and the fellowship.  So I turned to online resources like RevGalBlogPals.  This was 2004, and as a newly minted clergy who wasn't yet blogging, I didn't join the RevGalBlogPals party, other than to answer a few of the Friday questions.  To be honest, I think those initial blogging efforts were on MySpace (hey, it was 2004!) and they didn't migrate over to this blog when I ditched MySpace.  I still read on RevGalBlogPals and am always blessed by the community there.  Support, encouragement, questioning, always seeking to be faithful. 

Two other resources I used during those early years of preaching were blogs by South African pastors Dion Forster and Arnau VanWyngard.  They are still active in ministry and online, but in different ways.  I see Arnau's work on Facebook with the Shiselweni Homebased Care Ministry, and Dion is on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  I also can connect with Dion via American Academy of Religion meetings, and have met Arnau's son Cobus at American Society of Missology, thanks to his work teaching theology at UNISA. 

I dove deep into further academic study for a few years and got out of the routine of lectionary study and preaching.  This last July, I picked up a two-point charge (that's two churches for folks not familiar with Methodist lingo) and am back into the swing of regular preaching - and quickly realized I needed a lectionary study again!

I'm currently in a lectionary lectio divina group.  It's clergywomen from several denominations who gather for a bit of conversation, prayer, and study.  But it's not advance planning.  We meet on Wednesday afternoons and hear the lectionary reading for the upcoming Sunday.  Too late to work as a study, and I prefer not to blend lectio divina and study.  Lectio divina is a time for me to still my mind and heart and allow the Spirit to speak.

So one of my resolutions for 2019 is to pick up a lectionary study via blog.  I'll be using this space each week to write out my study notes on the lectionary readings two weeks in advance.  A first glance at the readings coming up in Year C, and I think I'll focus on the epistle and gospel readings at least through Easter, probably through Pentecost.

My goal is to be better prepared for preaching and worship planning, and hopefully to interact with other lectionary bloggers.  I have been so blessed by many faithful pastors and scholars, and I hope to pay it forward.