Coming to church on Sunday matters, but we can attend and still not be known. In this teaching on the Community Practice, we explore Jesus’ invitation into a new kind of family, one where people share life, carry burdens, and help one another grow. We look at four circles of community, from close friendships and kin to our wider church family, and why following Jesus is not something we do alone.

The practice begins around a table. Share a meal with someone this month: invite them over or accept an invitation, put your phones down, and enjoy being together. No strings attached and no pressure to become best friends. Just a small step toward life with Jesus and one another. If you can, make room for a second meal this month too.

Ryan Rhoden leads a practical workshop in inductive Bible study using Paul’s letter to Philemon. Building on SCOPE and the interpretive journey, he models how to observe a passage closely, understand its original setting, trace its central truth, and consider how to live it today.

Bible study is not about accumulating knowledge or doing someone else’s thinking for them. It is an invitation to know and love Jesus more deeply. Ryan encourages us to bring our questions, study prayerfully, and share what we discover with one another.

This week, choose a passage that has been resonating with you. Study it thoughtfully and prayerfully, then share what you are learning with someone else. As a community practice, pray one Psalm each morning, reading slowly and responding line by line.

Learn more: https://lwrv.org/practices/

Knowing Jesus doesn’t mean we’ve finished discovering who He is. This week, Ryan Rhoden invites us to approach Scripture with love, curiosity, and a willingness to be changed.

Building on the SCOPE practice, Ryan introduces a practical journey from understanding a passage in its original context to living out its truth today. Along the way, he explores why context brings depth to familiar verses and how study can lead us toward connection rather than pride or performance.

Choose a passage, bring your questions, and share what you’re learning with someone else. The goal is to know Jesus more and let that relationship shape everyday life.

This week, Ryan introduces the SCOPE practice for reading Scripture with a heart aimed at surrender.

SCOPE stands for Scripture, Context, Observation, Prayer, and Experience. We begin by reading slowly and prayerfully, then consider the original context and author’s intent. From there, we observe what the passage and the Holy Spirit are highlighting, turn it into prayer, and ask how we can live it out in our everyday lives.

Scripture is not meant to remain information on a page. It leads us to Jesus, the living Word, and forms us into people who look more like Him.

What is your relationship with the Bible and what would it look like to meet Jesus there?As Living Waters begins the Scripture Practice, we invite you to read slowly, prayerfully, and with hearts open to surrender. Whether you bring curiosity, confidence, doubt, or painful experiences with Scripture, you can begin honestly with Jesus.Looking at Jesus in the temple, His temptation in the wilderness, and His conversation with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we explore Scripture as a place of encounter and formation not simply information or a religious checklist.This week, begin with a short passage each day. Choose a consistent time and place if you can, and ask Jesus to meet you there.

This week, John Eaton closes our Generosity Practice by exploring the truth that all we have belongs to God.Generosity is more than money. It includes our time, attention, abilities, relationships, forgiveness, possessions, and even ourselves. Looking at Acts 4, John shows us the early church living as stewards rather than owners—holding their resources with open hearts and open hands so that no one among them was in need.Having more than we need is not wrong. But abundance becomes good when it is entrusted to Jesus and stewarded according to His heart. Good stewardship means submitting what we have—and who we are—to the One who knows better than we do.This week, take inventory of one area of your life—money, time, your home, skills, influence, or even yourself. Ask, “Lord, how do You want me to steward what You’ve entrusted to me?” Then take one concrete step of generosity or sharing in that area.

Ryan teaches from Jesus’ words about money, possessions, and the heart. Generosity is not about guilt, pressure, or religious obligation. It is about surrendering everything we have back to Jesus and learning to live with open hands.

This week’s practice: identify something you own that you do not need. Give it away, or sell it and give the money to someone in need or to a cause that serves the poor.

This week in the Generosity Practice, Aaron Hovivian invites us to see generosity as more than giving money. Sometimes the most generous thing we can offer is our story — the honest, vulnerable places where Jesus met us in pain, shame, repentance, and healing.

Drawing from 2 Corinthians, Aaron reminds us that God comforts us in our trouble so we can comfort others with the comfort we have received. Our stories are not meant to stay hidden. They become gifts of hope for others who feel like their lives have gone sideways.

Practice this week: Share a piece of your story with at least one person. Be honest about both the hard parts and the places God has met you.