Resources for spiritual practices

Click on the blue titles below for either a downloadable document or a link.

Word & Spirit retreat

Download and edit for your own half-day retreat using three different prayer practices:  Leaders Guides      Handouts
Contact Shana Peachey Boshart for help planning and promoting a prayer retreat in your community.

Bible study methods

These are convenient, downloadable one- to two-page documents that can be printed, folded and kept in your Bible or journal. Use them in your personal Bible study or with a Sunday School class, Bible study, or discipleship group. ​

Swedish method
a simple method to use individually or with a group
   Swedish method blank template
The Five Rs
inductive Bible study using interpretive tools, from The Art of Teaching the Bible: A Practical Guide for Adults by Christine Eaton Blair
Food for Body & Soul
Cedar Falls Mennonite hosts this twice-monthly lunch-hour Bible study
Missional Bible Study
Missiologist Lois Barrett designed this 4-step method
​Dwelling in the Word
a practice of listening to the Word with other believers

Bible study tools

Interpreting the Bible
ten tips on interpreting the Bible with an Anabaptist method
Article 4 Scripture
from Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective 1995
Bible reading records
guides for reading through the Bible for all ages
Believers Church Bible Commentaries
a series of commentaries from Anabaptist writers
​Scriptures that call us to spiritual practices
​summarized from a Dallas Willard book
​Weekly lectionary texts for Mennonites
biblical themes and passages in Mennonite worship bulletins
2015-2016            2016-2017
​Tips on Teaching Adult Learners
read this before you facilitate your next Bible study

Prayer practices

Lectio Divina
taking time to allow the biblical text to speak to you
Centering Prayer
contemplative prayer that opens one to God
Daily Examen
review your day in prayer
Take Our Moments and Our Days prayer book
this Anabaptist prayer book contains morning and evening prayers for every Christian season
Day by Day These Things We Pray is a book that invites us to twice-daily prayer
The Lord's Prayer body prayer
your group can pray the Lord's Prayer together with these motions

Find more prayer practices here.

Bible Study Webinars

We recorded three webinars designed to equip members of Central Plains congregations to read and interpret the Bible. Our presenter is Meghan Good, teaching pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Arizona. Find videos of the three webinars here.