Foundations of Speaking the Bible
The reference book for the entire Speaking the Bible study series, as well as for By Heart workshops, is named Foundations of Speaking the Bible, or just “Foundations.” Comprised of eleven chapters and 350 pages, the book provides details for every aspect of reciting, from motivation and passage selection through interpretation, expression and delivery.
Foundations is an aggregation of two previous books, The Art of Reciting Scripture and The Art of Leading Scripture Recitations, three workshops and several papers. As such, it will serve as a reference for both our Activities Guides as well as By Heart onsite workshops and training videos. Foundations is a powerful step forward in providing a structure on which future training, books, and ministries can have a solid footing.
Prisca Publishing
We submitted the Foundations to our publisher two months ago. It has passed a first round of edits and theological review. Both the Foundations book and the Activities Guides are being published by Prisca Publishing, an organization founded by David Martin and Kristen Martin. They are long-time proponents of the By Heart ministry and fans of the Foundations book. Their guidance and vision have been inspiring.
The mission of Prisca Publishing is to strengthen each local church by providing members with an opportunity to use their spiritual gifts and talents to create something that is biblically excellent for churches worldwide
The book is currently in the next round of editing. Our goal is to be in print by October. Our expectation is that it will be ready much sooner, most likely in July.
Beta testing
At the same time, we are beginning a second round of beta-testing. This time using the Foundations book in conjunction with the Activities Guide “Speaking 1st Corinthians.” In our first round of beta-testing, we used one combined book. We incorporated feedback from that first group into our revisions. We also extricated the common practices into one book, i.e. Foundations. This left the Bible-book-specific content for the Activities Guides. Background of the writer, the audience, historical context, themes, and literary devices that are in the Activities Guides. The result is a comprehensive book on the process of preparing to recite Scripture. Doing this makes the Activity Guides lighter and full of book-specific content.
Each of our small group Activities Guides have numerous references to Foundations. In this way, participants in a Speaking the Bible study can keep learning at a deeper level about the basics of reciting as they work through each new Speaking the Bible Activities Guidebook.
