5-Part Bible Reading Plan for Church Planters
For this season of life I’ve come up with a 5-part Bible reading plan that’s tailored to what God has called me to do as a church planter. Every morning I work through 5 different chapters of the Bible.
1. Heart (Psalms)
I begin by reading a psalm to warm up and engage my heart with God. Starting with a psalm sets a prayerful, desperate-for-grace, and passionate tone for my Bible reading. Most of the time I read/pray the psalm out loud. This plan gets me through the Psalms in five months.
2. Wisdom (Proverbs)
Next, I read a chapter of Proverbs. These days I feel in over my head every day. I need wisdom. Each day I find fresh wisdom in Proverbs. This plan gets me through Proverbs once a month.
3. Power (Acts)
I follow Proverbs with Acts. I read Acts to remind myself of the power of God, his gospel, and his Spirit, asking God to give me a bigger vision for what he can do through my life, through our church plant, and in our city. This plan moves me through Acts once a month.
4. Preaching (Philippians)
Next, I read Philippians. Right now our church plan is in pre-launch phase. We will launch in September with my first sermon series, a series on Philippians. This plan has me read through Philippians every four days and it’s building in me a deep reservoir from which to preach from. Once I start preaching from Philippians, I will replace this slot with the next book I plan to preach from.
5. Leadership (Pastoral Letters)
Finally, I read the Pastoral Letters. I read 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus to better understand my calling as a pastor/leader. I’m facing situations I’ve never faced before, and these letters are helping me see how to lead through these situations in a gospel-empowered way. This plan moves me through the Pastoral Letters every fourteen days.
How I End It
After working through the five chapters, I zero in on one truth or verse that I think the Holy Spirit is calling me to pay special attention to. I write that verse down in my to-do list/notebook that I carry with me. I then take a few minutes to meditate on, apply, and pray through that truth/verse. Then, I move forward and attack the day. Throughout the day I find myself re-mediating on, re-praying, and re-applying the truth/verse from my morning reading.
My pace of reading varies each day. Some days this plan takes me twenty minutes, other days it takes me one hour. It depends on what I have going on, how desperate I feel, how long I pray for, etc.
I love this plan. In a year I’ll change it up and do something different. For now, God is using this Bible reading plan to greatly encourage and empower me. I hope it’s helpful to you.
This post also appears on The Resurgence.
Thanks for this Justin. I’ve been doing something along these lines but without having thought it through quite so far. It’s helpful to see a structured outline and rational.