Recitation of Scripture is a wonderful ministry. Hearing the Word of God as it is - living and powerful - can greatly impact the listener with God’s truth. One of the ways I love to share the ministry of recitation with others is by hosting special presentations where a team of people recite different passages around a theme to bless their audience. These events are like mini-versions of the ScriptureFest, which is something you might enjoy learning about as well at scripturefest.com. I’ve hosted these smaller recitation events in my home and at my church. We’ve done all kinds of themes and celebrated most of the major holidays. These events, what you might call “mini fests,” are a great option for you to encourage Scripture memory in your own circles, and equip reciters to become Scripture speakers. If you would like to host a recitation event and want to have the best chance of success while doing so, then read on.
Structure
A recitation event can involve any number of people but usually works best with 5-10. These people each memorize different passages and on the day of the event will take turns reciting them. I have focused on this being an opportunity for people to recite in a manner more similar to public speaking than what we think of as ‘dramatized.’ Each person recites to the best of their own ability and voice to speak the Scriptures as if they were their own teaching, speech, or story to share.
Other parts of the event can be included and designed to fit your needs and resources. You can have a teacher in your church give some transitional speaking in between each passage or just speak at the end to provide a summary of what the audience will hear. In between each passage you can also have special music. This music can be as much or as little as you’d like to be: we have had the choir share a special song, our worship pastor lead us for a song on the guitar in between each passage, and we’ve had everyone pull out a hymnal in our house and sing a cappella. It’s a good idea to include some refreshments for the event, which can be whatever you would like to arrange, from a big potluck to simply coffee and store-bought cookies.
Passages
When choosing passages for the event, you will want to consider who you might be asking to join your team. So far most people I’ve roped in to joining me will not consider a passage much longer than ten verses. If a culture of scripture memorization is more established where you are, you might get away with including longer passages. Regardless, you will want to have a list of passages that vary in length. You can have a few more challenging passages, a few shorter ones, and a couple of options that are just one or two verses in length. This variety of length will encourage all ages and abilities to participate.
Unless your theme needs specific passages to succeed (presenting a book of the Bible together, for example), you may want to have extra passages on the list. Just make sure that, if you plan your list this way, it doesn’t matter which ones are picked in the end.
Theme
There are limitless options for themes in the rich text of the Bible. Your team can present a whole book or a group of passages centered around one message. You can choose a theme to go with a specific day like Christ’s resurrection for Easter or His birth for Christmas. Our church is currently preparing a recitation event for Good Friday with passages of prophecy (Isaiah 53) and Christ’s trial and crucifixion from the gospel of Mark.
If you are considering a special day, you may want to consider some other creative options: a “Five Solas” theme for Reformation Day on October 31st, an evangelism theme for St. Patrick’s Day March 17th, a true wisdom theme for April Fool’s Day April 1st. A theme on “The Greatest Love Story” would fit well for the month of February!
Other themes to consider: prayers in the Bible, creation throughout the Bible, the names of God, Jesus in the Old Testament. You could have a special occasion for just the men or just the women with select passages that are of particular interest. You can also start with one passage as your theme and choose corresponding passages to accompany it. For example, you can have Colossians 1 as your theme and use corresponding passages like Genesis 1 and John 1:1-14.
Leading Your Team
It’s important to recognize that a recitation event is not just for accountability - it’s also a way to minister to the audience with God’s Word. Every recitation, no matter how mistake-riddled and hesitantly spoken, is a blessing. But, with some focus and effort on refining our ability to recite, we can have a greater impact on the audience. In order for your team to do well in this, you’ll need to make sure they share the understanding that this is a ministry opportunity and that they have the knowledge they need to succeed. To accomplish this, you will want to meet as a team at least twice before a recitation event and check in with them from time to time in between.
Meetings and Check-ins
The first meeting: vision and memory techniques
Be sure to gather your team together for their first meeting right away, once you have all your members signed up. At your first meeting, share with everyone the vision for the event and check on their experience with memorizing Scripture. You can ask the team members who have memorized before to share about the methods they use. Then you can share other techniques that can be helpful to the people present. Keep in mind that since some of the more advanced techniques might be too intimidating for the new memorizers, you should stress that simple methods work well too! Be careful to emphasize that some of their practice should be done out loud and spoken naturally just like they will be speaking it to the audience. Without including practice like this, they can struggle with the recitation because it will sound “wrong” to their ears since it sounds different than how they practiced it. Be sure to find out the best way to contact each person.
In between: check-ins
Your next meeting should be about a week before the event, but before then you’ll want to keep checking in with your team. You can text or email some encouragement including links to YouTube videos with helpful tips or inspiring recitations or online articles as well. My two favorite sources for these are Scripture Memory Fellowship and Bible Memory Goal, in addition to this blog you’re reading! Ask how everyone is doing with their progress and make sure you hear back from each person at least once during this in between time. Track down anyone you can’t reach - it’s important to check on each person to help them avoid starting to memorize too late. You can remind them that even two minutes of effort in Scripture memory each day goes a long way! Encourage everyone to have their passages memorized at least two weeks before the event to dwell in them and review them. They should at least consider the final meeting the week before the recitation to be their hard deadline.
The final meeting: recitation practice
During the final meeting, you will want to give every team member an opportunity to practice their recitation and give them encouragement and specific feedback for their performance. Be sure to find something positive to point out about their recitations before you share constructive criticism. It’s also best if you only focus on two major areas for improvement.
If you are able, it’s best to practice in the same place you will be reciting for an audience. You can even ask everyone to come dressed as they plan to for the official recitation, which gives them an opportunity to build greater familiarity with the new experience to come and also ‘test out’ any problems that could occur with a certain outfit.
Watch out for these things:
- Volume: If you are reciting with a microphone, make sure everyone uses a microphone during their practice. A lot of people will struggle with a microphone by holding it too close, too far, or not speaking loudly enough to be picked up by the mic. You can give feedback to help them improve. If your church has a dedicated sound team, you should try to have them on-site as well to balance mics and troubleshoot any issues that may arise during rehearsal. If you are not reciting with a microphone, you will want to encourage everyone to speak up loudly enough for the whole room to hear them. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to recite again if you cannot hear their first attempt.
- Speed: It can be easy for people new to public recitation to recite quickly and emotionlessly due to nervousness or just a misplaced focus. If someone is reciting in a way that doesn’t look like they are trying to connect with the audience (very quickly, in a monotone, and staring at their shoes, for example), encourage them to remember why your team is presenting these recitations together: to share the words of Scripture with the listeners. Even if we are nervous, we want to take our time speaking the words we’ve memorized in a way that reaches the audience.
You’ll want to focus on giving each person specific feedback for improving their performance. Some more things you might want to mention are: breathe as you recite, mistakes are expected and are not embarrassing, nervousness affects everyone and it’s okay to feel it, the audience is rooting for you.
Above all:
From the first meeting to the final performance, be sure to prioritize prayer. You can pray over your team every day and you can encourage team members to do the same. Open and close each meeting with prayer and pull each other aside a few minutes before the official recitation to ask for God’s blessing one more time. Pray that God would write the words in your hearts and fill you with the Holy Spirit for the special purpose of speaking His Word to the audience.
Bringing it all together:
On the day of the event, be sure to focus on leading your team. You can check in with how everyone is feeling and offer special support to anyone overly nervous. As the team leader, you would be wise to bring a ‘kit’ with you of Pepto Bismol, peppermint or ginger gum, and lukewarm water bottles for each member. Set the tone of excitement and be very encouraging for each person, no matter how well they do in the end. It’s hard to recite in front of an audience and it’s a wonderful accomplishment that they have made it up there at all!
You also get to set the tone of the event for the audience. You might like to give an introductory speech to the event and explain your team’s intention to minister to them. Consider asking them to keep their Bibles closed so they can focus on listening to the message in the words. Invite them to encourage the team afterwards, and to consider joining a future event as a team member themselves. You can consider putting a sign up sheet out at the event and encourage anyone interested in joining a recitation team in the future to put down their contact information.
Follow up
After the event, you should follow up with each team member individually and thank them for participating. You can consider giving them a gift, something given at the beginning of the recruitment time or after the event. I would highly recommend my book, “Speaking Scripture: How to Memorize and Recite with Purpose and Delight” since it can double as a gift and as a valuable resource for the memorization and recitation process. I’ve also given team members matching t-shirts that they wore for the presentation and got to keep afterward. My favorite t-shirt shop for custom prints that match the theme is my twin sister’s handmade vinyl shop: Merry & Wit. You’ll need to message the shop to arrange custom prints She also makes a variety of other gifts that may work well for your purpose, too.
If you would like to keep hosting recitation events you will want to keep up the momentum you have from your first event by hosting the next one within six months. Another way to help build anticipation is to have an event for the same day each year, perhaps for a holiday.
Closing Thoughts
You can see an example of a recitation event hosted at my own church HERE. The event was a recitation service we hosted for Christmas Eve, something more formal than past events. We also had two team members call out sick right at the end and had two people volunteer to read in their place. One of them surprised us by reciting the passage anyway, with only a 24-hour notice! While I recommend everyone have their passages finished several weeks before an event to give ample time to dwell and review, I was greatly encouraged to see someone brave enough to take it on anyway with one day to prepare. At the time of this writing, we are currently preparing for a Good Friday service with a special focus on Christ’s trial and crucifixion.
Recitation to an audience is such a wonderful ministry for both the reciter and listener! There are many creative ways you can minster to others through recitation, and one of my favorites is hosting recitation events with a team. This event provides accountability and purpose to the team for Scripture memory, and it ministers to the gathered audience in a very special way. These events can be designed in any way you wish. How will you adapt this idea to make it your own?