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Biblical Meditation Strategies (BMS)
The Bible has been described as the World’s First Hyperlinked Document. Words, phrases, and concepts all connect to each other, building to a multilayered, cohesive whole.
This meditative contemplation has been used by theologians for millennia - not as a means of creating new ideas, but developing true doctrine.
To teach kids to Think Like Theologians is to teach them to think meditatively.
Biblical Meditation Strategies allow students to truly explore the Bible together (building on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) and its foundation of open-ended conversation).
With BMS, students will be encouraged to note Biblical “hyperlinks” as they explore the Bible together. Week after week BMS seeks to help each class discover their own connections and point them to the eternal truth of Scripture.
Biblical Mediation Strategies look like this…
Select a single passage to read aloud as a group.
After reading, ask: “Which word stood out to you today?”
Next ask: “What does that make you think of in this context?”
Then ask: “What other connections can we find?”
At the end of the time record what words were noted. These can be referenced each week. Students will begin to detect patterns as they see words and concepts reappear in passage after passage.
Chris Harrison’s beautiful mapping of Biblical cross-references has been used by Jordan Peterson in his lectures on the Bible as the “world's first hyperlinked document.”