Earlier this weekend I sent an email message out calling for all to “BYOB” this Sunday. (You can read the email message here.) The use of the popular abbreviation was meant to attract a little attention from our readers, but BYOB from me meant, “bring your own bible.”

I remember vividly my first experience when BYOB was a call to bring alcoholic beverages. It was in a small community in Minnesota where, on summer evenings local farmers would take turns opening their barns for live music, dancing and soft drinks. I think the tables and chairs even came from local churches. They asked for two bucks a head to cover expenses and since they didn’t have liquor licenses, it was BYOB for those who wanted something stronger. Brown bags peppered the tables throughout the barn. It wasn’t a rowdy occasion. It was just the way that community got together.

The folks up in Minnesota embraced one another as community on those summer nights. The whole town and countryside showed up. Consider for a moment, what it would look like if a lively, toe-tapping, soul-refreshing, “bring-the-whole-family-and-neighbors-too” gathering around the Word of God took place with such spirit. Now maybe that sounds a little bit odd, but I want to give us a license to do it!

I realize we’re not really accustomed to bring our bibles to church. Ordinarily the servings are all neatly prepared for us. We’re blessed to have the scriptures served to us in a rich course of liturgy, hymnody and even the lessons printed in our bulletins. There are an abundance of bibles available in our pews and meetings rooms. All this is good. I remain committed to making access to the Word of God with such abundance. I’m calling BYOB for those who want something a little stronger.

This weekend we begin a six week journey (June 10 through July 15) in the life of King David. Just as meditation on the Word of God was so important in David’s life, we too will mirror that in our community this summer. We will integrate worship, preaching and the education hour in the community watering hole with David. We’ll MEET Jesus, EXPERIENCE the support of the church and LIVE as disciples—who, like David, are seeking God’s heart.

When my daughter Erica lives at college, she is an active member of a BYOB+ kind of community. Not only does she carry her bible with her, she and her friends carry personal journals of scripture as well. I like what I see. This is a community where people are listening to the Word of God not only in the worship service, but they have a license to carry it beyond the church setting. The journal is an important piece of their discipleship. They recognize discipleship as being students of Jesus under the direction of the Holy Spirit. By writing down what they hear from the Word of God—in worship, sermons, study groups and in their personal devotional life—they are literally hanging on every word. By keeping those insights in a continuous journey they are providing for themselves a roadmap of where God has taken them.

I believe St. John’s “MEET! EXPERIENCE! LIVE!” mission embraces the BYOB lifestyle. To “LIVE as disciples,” in particular, means carrying Jesus and his words with us wherever we go. If we start bringing our bibles to church and journaling what we hear God saying, I’m positively convinced that we’ll even gain the confidence to bring our bibles and what we have heard and learned into other areas of our lives. Perhaps we’ll have to brown-bag it for a while, but eventually with our own personal story of God’s redemption carried in our hands and engrained upon our hearts, we’ll acquire that license to distribute. Let’s BYOB this summer and have a life-changing, growing summer together in Christ!

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