{"id":14703,"date":"2021-02-04T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T09:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/?post_type=conexion&p=14703"},"modified":"2021-02-04T09:30:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T09:30:15","slug":"the-author-is-in-the-room","status":"publish","type":"conexion","link":"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/","title":{"rendered":"The author is in the room"},"content":{"rendered":"
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IFES wants to see each new generation of students loving, studying, living and sharing God\u2019s Word. Rather than reducing Scripture engagement to programs and activities, IFES believes that it is a way of life.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u201cIt isn\u2019t a program. It’s not a department. It’s not one ministry. It is much more basic and foundational.\u00a0We want\u00a0Scripture\u00a0engagement to surround and support every aspect of IFES life,\u201d\u00a0says Sabine Kalthoff,\u00a0IFES\u00a0Secretary for\u00a0Scripture Engagement.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Sabine believes that Scripture engagement is energized when we approach the Word not looking for tasks to fulfill, but for God himself. It goes hand in hand with prayer, in that it allows us to interact with God in a more personal way.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In December 2019, the global network of\u00a0Scripture Engagement\u00a0multipliers\u00a0gathered\u2013 fourteen people from around the IFES world\u00a0sharing, learning and working together with the aim of strengthening Scripture engagement in their different contexts.\u00a0During this\u00a0time,\u00a0Sabine met with a working group to\u00a0examine the connections between\u00a0Scripture engagement\u00a0and prayer.\u00a0Together they developed ideas to strengthen the relationship between the two.\u00a0The following interview with participants\u00a0Eu Pui Chong (EP, Malaysia), Irena\u00a0Huseva\u00a0(IH, Ukraine),\u00a0and\u00a0Heledd Job (HJ, Europe)\u00a0brings their discoveries to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What is one new insight that you gained from this working\u00a0group about the connection between\u00a0Scripture\u00a0engagement\u00a0and prayer?\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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(IH) \u201cThe importance of a prayerful posture in studying Scripture. For me that is not just putting my body in a certain posture but becoming quiet before him and putting my hand into his to let him lead and walk with me through the whole Scripture engagement.  In other Words, being in a prayerful posture means being in prayer before, during, and after the Bible study.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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(EP) \u201cOften, we study a passage and after that we pray for each other \u2018leaving behind what we just discovered from the passage\u2019 instead of letting it guide our prayer needs or shape our prayer items.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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(HJ) \u201cI gained a greater awareness that when I come to engage with Scripture by myself or with others, God is present with me in that very moment. The phrase that stuck in my mind is: \u2018The author is in the room.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What encourages you and what challenges you as you reflect on this connection?\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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(EP) \u201cIn particular, the Lord\u2019s Prayer has been invaluable \u2013 praying for my nation and the world has been difficult in this period due to what I perceive as an endless cycle of corruption power abuse. Letting the Words of the Lord\u2019s Prayer lead me has been comforting. It also challenges me not to give up praying, seeing how God is at work and not to insist that God solve problems my way or in my timing.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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(HJ) \u201cThis connection encourages me as I come across passages that I find difficult. As I\u2019m reading and struggling, I can pause and ask for God\u2019s help. I can ask him, \u2018What do you mean? What do you want me to understand here? What should I do with this?\u2019 And I know that when I pray, the Spirit who caused these Words to be written is there present with me, ready to answer.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What is one practical step that you have taken or would like to take in order to strengthen the integration of Scripture engagement\u00a0and prayer in your own life and\/or ministry?\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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(IH) \u201cFor many years, I studied Scripture by carefully observing the passage, asking questions and trying to grasp its main message. Only after coming up with the main message did we ask ourselves what it says to us. I still use this approach, but I try to be in a prayerful posture during the whole Bible study, letting the Word speak to me not only at the end of the study, but while I am deeply in it. I believe that the Holy Spirit can use not only the main message of the passage, but any parts of it to touch our soul.\u201d  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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(HJ) \u201cIn my personal devotions, I have tried to be more intentional in praying in response to what I read. At the moment, I\u2019m reading through the Psalms. I try to take the words of the Psalmist as my starting point, taking those words and thoughts and making them my own. Then at the end of the day, I will return to that same Psalm and prayerfully reflect on how what I heard God say to me in the morning has been sustaining and directing me throughout the day.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Please complete the following sentence:\u00a0\u201cThe gift of Scripture\u00a0engagement\u00a0and prayer is\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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(EP) \u201c\u2026waiting to be discovered and savoured.\u201d   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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(IH) \u201c\u2026being amazed \u2013 a sense of \u2018wow\u2019 at who God is, \u2018wow\u2019 to who I am and \u2018wow\u2019 to his boundless love.\u201d  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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(HJ) \u201c\u2026that when God speaks, he is not just giving us information, he is inviting us to a conversation.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Connecting Scripture and Prayer in\u00a0Practise\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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So how can you connect Scripture engagement to your personal prayer life? Here, Sabine Kalthoff makes some suggestions and points to a number of resources: <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Preparing to hear the\u00a0Word\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u201cMost of us cannot just stop and listen to God. We sit down and open the Bible to read, but our thoughts are still elsewhere, busy with lots of things. We read a passage and at the end, we don\u2019t know what we\u2019ve read. We can read without hearing. I know that I need to prepare myself to listen to God. I need help to be present with him and his Word. What helps me most is prayerful silence. How do you prepare yourself to hear the Word both individually and in a group? Prayer helps us enter into a relational posture and awareness of God\u2019s presence.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Praying the\u00a0Word\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u201cGod\u2019s Word teaches us how to pray. We can let prayers from Scripture inspire and lead us in our prayers \u2013 both collectively and individually. This video<\/a> shows what this can look like based on the Lord\u2019s Prayer. This article<\/a> gives further examples of how God\u2019s Word can shape our praying.\u201d  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u00a0Learning to lament from Jeremiah.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u201cAfter the Covid-19 pandemic started, the Latin American region offered an online session on the topic of lament. For follow up, a resource<\/a> with three Bible studies from the book of Jeremiah was developed \u2013 giving examples of how to lament, helping to reflect on lament and inviting us to pray to God in this way ourselves.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Prayer Retreats\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u201c<\/strong>Retreats are all about prayerfully connecting our lives with God\u2019s reality and his Word. They are an invitation to retreat from the business of life, to enter into a time of waiting and listening \u2013 holding out our lives and circumstances to God \u2013 hearing his Word \u2013 and prayerfully giving the Spirit space to speak to us. You can find material for personal or group retreats here.<\/a> This testimony<\/a> helps see the value of setting apart such a time.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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There is so much more to discover. For a summary of what the multipliers learned about prayer and Scripture Engagement, check out this infographic<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What is your experience with integrating Scripture and prayer personally, in communal settings, or at camps and conferences? Share with us by writing to sabine.kalthoff@ifesworld.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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This story\u00a0was first\u00a0published\u00a0on\u00a0the Scripture Engagement blog. Find more stories like\u00a0this\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":14704,"template":"","area":[],"theme":[],"class_list":["post-14703","conexion","type-conexion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe author is in the room · IFES Conexi\u00f3n Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"IFES wants to see each new generation of students loving, studying, living and sharing God\u2019s Word. Rather than reducing Scripture\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The author is in the room · IFES Conexi\u00f3n Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IFES wants to see each new generation of students loving, studying, living and sharing God\u2019s Word. Rather than reducing Scripture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-04T09:30:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/20191208_091619-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/\",\"name\":\"The author is in the room · IFES Conexi\u00f3n Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/20191208_091619-1-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-04T09:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-04T09:30:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"IFES wants to see each new generation of students loving, studying, living and sharing God\u2019s Word. Rather than reducing Scripture\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/20191208_091619-1-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/20191208_091619-1-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1299},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/blog\/the-author-is-in-the-room\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Conexi\u00f3n\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The author is in the room\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifesworld.org\/es\/\",\"name\":\"IFES\",\"description\":\"A movement of students sharing and living out the good news of Jesus Christ. 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