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 ItAfter 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.