An idea for getting your congregation involved in scripture application …

As vital as the Word of God is to humanity, it’s useless to us if we don’t apply it to our lives.

With that said, the fact remains that many preachers do little to teach application of scripture as part of their sermons. If you want to see lives changed, you must teach people how to apply the Word of God to their lives.

Why not have some fun with the application of scripture and get your congregation involved in a way that will help teach everyone how to apply the Word to their lives?

Here’s one, very different approach you can take …

For a designated period — four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, whatever you choose — have three people from your congregation participate in teaching the application of the scripture you preached on for each of your sermons. Have the three people sit together and take notes throughout your preaching time. Then, when it’s time for teaching the application of the scripture, announce you will now pause to worship through song (just one song) while the three corroborate their notes and divide up what they noted the application of the scripture to be. When the song is done, have each one share (maximum of TWO minutes, this is not a time for a mini sermon) their point or points on the application of scripture.

For example, if there are three points of application for the scripture, have each participant share just one point. If there are five points, divide them between the three people. If just two points, have one person share a point, and the other two divide a point.

Finally, the preacher can tie together the points made by the participants, and add in anything they may have overlooked.

This can be a fun time of getting people in the congregation more deeply involved in your messages, focus on the need to apply God’s Word to our lives, and help teach your congregation how to find the application to be made from the scriptures you study together by providing them with three live examples of how people just like them developed the application to the same sermon everyone just heard.

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Scotty