Instructive Devotion

Rationale, Descriptions, and Definitions
by Gary D. Collier

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Contents:

1. The Problem

2. Uncharted Territory

3. A Solution

4. Guiding Terms & Concepts

5. PROBE Method

The Problem:
The "Business" of Devotion

Daily devotion through reading the Bible and Bible study should be . . .

• about finding God in your life,

• about solutions to problems,

• about discovering balance, direction, beauty, liberation, hope, justice, happiness, love, peace, and purpose.

But especially in recent years, there has been a fall off around the world of Bible reading, Bible study, and Bible-based devotion. There is a serious and growing problem:  With no attempt to belittle the sincere efforts of anyone, the fact is, devotional approaches have developed some very unfortunate tendencies . . .

• They often follow an over-simplified (and often shallow) model of biblical exposition.

• They often hop-skip-and-jump all over the place with little or no regard to context.

• They often gravitate to "feel-good" or "hot" topics while bypassing equally important (or more important!) biblical concepts.

• They often end up promoting (however unintentionally) watered-down Christian teaching.

One result is, Christian readers overall have a fragmented understanding of Scripture and are often un-conversant with Scripture on its own terms.

In fact, Christians as a whole are reading their Bibles less, or not at all. Devotional material is being used by many as a kind of "cliff-notes" of the Bible, saving them the trouble of having to read the Bible itself on any kind of responsible level.

Whether people

• are afraid to read the Bible (it's a big book!),

• find it irrelevant,

• are too busy,

• or simply refuse to go past a basic understanding,

it's all the same:  the Bible itself doesn't get read!

This is partially due to what is available. Academic treatments of the Bible are often hard to read and seem (or actually are) irrelevant to where people live. So, people have flocked to a more "feel-good style" of reading, which may or may not be biblically informed at all.

During the 20th and 21st centuries, there has risen a vast "business of devotion." In many cases, these devotional approaches have watered-down Christian teaching to context-less, easy-to-swallow, emotional tid-bits which appear inviting but in the long run can sap the message of the Bible of its incredible depth, awesome power, and astounding mystery.

The point is not that all devotional approaches are harmful. Some approaches, can be very helpful and inspiring. Not only that, some Christians have a voracious appetite for reading Scripture.

Even so, the pathway of typical or standard devotional approaches has problems. Although light and airy approaches can be refreshing at times, a steady diet of many of the available devotional materials, and even many of the free online "Bible studies" (often little more that quick and easy topical outlines) can lead even strong readers away from reading the Bible itself "in context," and certainly away from intelligent, interactive, spiritual conversation with texts.

Uncharted Territory:
New Ideas and Directions

Because the problems stated above are so widespread, we set out to see if we could break free from the traps and pitfalls of standard practices. The problem to be solved had four basic challenges:

How do we . . .

• reach busy, intelligent readers,

• bring them to a responsible handling of Scripture,

• make it personal,

• and keep them interested long-term?

Knowing that not even Jesus was able to reach everybody, our solution was not designed simply to please people.  Eventually, we came to call it, "Coffee with Paul."  The approach was simple and direct:

What if you could sit down over coffee
every day with a biblical author? 

Not everyone "gets" why that would be an extremely valuable thing to do.  But many people do get it.

This approach allows you, as a reader, to explore truly uncharted territory in your devotional life.  Here is a unique and vigorous solution that brings vital concepts together and creates a new kind of focus when reading Scripture, a solution that is so powerful it can literally change lives, and yet so simple and easy to follow anyone can do it.

At the heart of the approach are three principal benchmarks.  The first two are not new, but are approached as if they were, since they are now dealt with a bit differently than is typical:

1. Instruction: First, read in context. The focus here is on the text we are reading, but an energetic, innovative approach to that text. (We start with the letters of Paul, but the principle applies to all of Scripture.)

2. Devotion: Second, read in a way that is relevant, engaging, and inspirational. The focus here is on you and your situation, but a focus that is thoughtful, probing, challenging, interactive, and honest, not simply self-indulgent.

Often, these two ways of reading are kept separate, as though unrelated. Academics vs. Devotion. Academic books are sometimes so academic they can hardly be read by most people. Devotional books often totally ignore context, and spend their time bouncing around like a pin-ball machine, grabbing texts willy nilly to apply to some current need being addressed.

Our approach avoids those pitfalls. Using both Instruction and Devotion as foundational benchmarks, we now do something unheard of. We now add a third and vital component:

3. Conversation: Third, read as if sitting across the table, one-on-one with a NT author. This involves a great deal of intentional creativity and imagination, things normally disallowed in the Bible reading process.

A Solution:
Instructive Devotion

These three important ideas are blended in a unique way in what we call "Instructive Devotion: A Conversational Reading of Scripture."  Here is our 4 point definition of this concept:

Instructive Devotion is

1. a responsible, contextual, and imaginative reading of Scripture,

2. while interacting with the author conversationally (over coffee),

3. and while participating in and internalizing the story being told,

4. with the spiritual goal of drawing closer to God.

No one should ever think this is about focusing on Paul instead of pursuing a relationship with God!  Of course not!  This is, rather, a way of becoming more responsible readers of Scripture, by attending to fundamental issues of how to read ancient documents. 

By focusing on the letters of Paul (as a starting place, since his letters were the first of all NT documents to have been written), we are able to explore the notion of getting to know a biblical author as if having coffee with him.  The assumption and expectation is that this will lead us closer to God.

This is not a speed reading approach. It won't show or encourage you to read the Bible in 3 days, 3 weeks, or 3 months. Actually, it is just the opposite. It is about slowing down and having a real conversation, as with a friend.  

This is both a simple and compelling concept.  In order to go from concerns about the text of Scripture (instruction) to concerns about God in our lives (devotion), or vice versa, we must have conversation with and about both, and there must be some continuity between them.  It is the conversation with both that allows us to understand both and bridge them, as if sitting in front of the very author.

This approach is best understood when seen in practice.  Coffee with Paul Ministries is built around this concept. 

Guiding Terms & Concepts:
Foundational Issues

The following terms & concepts dominate the approach and deserve a bit of description here:

1. 1^st Person Encounters:  First, session one of each encounter is written entirely in the first person, as if by Paul himself.  He comes to you, as a friend over coffee, in a series of 5 “encounters,” each one developing a continuing narrative.  From the very first of these encounters, a story is told by Paul himself, as if in an ongoing conversation.  Encounters and sessions can be taken at your own pace:  daily, weekly, monthly.  It’s up to you.

2. Conversation:  Second, this is no lecture or one-way conversation.  You are invited to participate in it (i.e., engage it) from beginning to end through sight, sound, imagination, and touch, as in any one-on-one personal conversation.  In fact, unless you resist the temptation to speed-read the book, and unless you decide to get involved in the conversation, you will miss the bulk of what is here for you, and you might just “not get it!” 

3. Context:  Third, “contextual conversation” is a major principle of this approach.  How do you like it when someone takes your words “out of context”?  Paul would not appreciate it any more than you do.  So, instead of jumping willy-nilly all over the Bible, Ouija board style, to find proof-texts or devotionally compatible tidbits, we will walk through the first letter we have from Paul one contextual step at a time.  Contextual conversation applies both to responsible listening (to Paul’s context) and responsible application to your own life (your context). 

4. Imagination:  Fourth, “imagination” is key for reading conversationally, even though it is not usually emphasized when speaking about Scripture.  In fact, it is often discouraged.  Not here.  Here, the more you can imagine yourself actually sitting across the table one-on-one with Paul, one of the greatest movers-and-shakers of Christian history, the more valuable your experience will be.

IMAGINE, every day, that you are actually sitting with Paul having coffee.  You will be talking with him about a letter he once wrote, but also about a life you are now living.  Look at this as a dialogue between you and Paul, a personal conversation.  

IMAGINE, every day, that Paul has somehow entered into your century and he is conversant with the issues you face.  He is not God, but a human being, as you.  Together you speak of God and life.  He will tell you what it was like for him to live, work, and write at the time he did.  But he does not talk to hear himself speak;  he wants to hear from you.  He needs a conversation partner. 

Imagination is a key to effective reading, not for the sake of fantasy, but engagement.  It is reading with the mind, but also with the heart and soul. 

5. Process:  Finally and very importantly, this series emphasizes “process.”  By this we mean both (1) in the broader sense, the general procedure we follow in this series (i.e., the steps we promote to read and understand Scripture through sight, sound, imagination, and touch, as if in person), and (2) in the more personal sense, the manner in which you “process” what you read (i.e., how you internalize it or make it part of you).  For us, "process" is not intended to be a technical term at all, but a practical attempt to get more and more people to pay attention to the processes (procedures) they use to process (internalize and make sense out of) Scripture. 

Method (PROBE)

And finally, we bring all of the above together in a very simple, day-by-day, easy-to-follow method.  Hardly a rigid scientific procedure, here is a user-friendly routine which allows all of the above-stated principles to work seamlessly together, for here is a day-by-day conversation unfolding. 

The acronym, PROBE, stands for a 5-step practical, daily method¹ offering a responsible frame-work for reading the Bible conversationally, one step for each day of a five-day week. You probe a single text interactively throughout the week, reading both from your own Bible or other translations, as well as our new CWP translation (CWPT) several times during the week. Each day builds upon the day before, each week on the week before.  During the process, we are continually asking questions, seeking solutions, and knocking on the doors of unexplored territory.

The general idea is simple, but powerful:  Read the same block of text (large or small) repeatedly during the week while asking a variety of questions each day and using a variety of tools.  Altogether, a week looks like this:

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• Day 1—Prepare:  Based on a specific "Text for the Week," here is a first-hand general introduction to the week's theme, as if the apostle Paul were sitting across your table;  gives an introduction to and sets the tone for the coming week.

• Day 2—Reflect:  Reading the "Text for the Week" again (from your own Bible), you now reflect generally on how your life and experience may connect with this text and with the comments from Day 1. 

• Day 3—Observe:  Reading the "Text for the Week" again (from the CWPT), you now will make specific observations about this text, including summarizing it, writing it, and praying it, looking closer at specifically what was written. 

• Day 4—Balance:  Reading the "Text for the Week" again (from your own Bible or other translation), you now compare and balance different translations of that text to find how these can be useful for your own life. 

• Day 5—Engage:  Finally, reading the "Text for the Week" again (from any translation you choose), you specifically engage Paul in a conversation about your journey for this week. 

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This practical method avoids either the irresponsible hodge-podge often emanating from devotional approaches, or the overbearing rigor of academic focus and verbiage.  At the same time, it promotes appropriate standards to conversational ends. In other words, everything from proper word-study procedures to critical evaluations of ancient literature can be included in this, all the while attending to questions of life and application. 

There is no notion that this formulation resolves all problems of reading the Bible;  this is rather an attempt to offer an approach that is at once responsible and helpful.

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