67 – Finding the Hidden Message
A weekly blog of Creative Ideas for Leading Worship
Finding the Hidden Message
Biblical Blackout Poetry
Most of us are trained to treat the printed Bible with a kind of reverent caution. We underline text gently, if at all. We annotate in pencil. We quote it carefully. But what if, occasionally, faithful engagement means doing something far more disruptive?
Finding the Hidden Message invites worshippers to encounter Scripture not by adding words, but by removing them. It’s a tactile, contemplative, and surprisingly revealing practice that creates space for deep listening and personal resonance.
The idea is simple. Provide printed copies of the day’s key Scripture passage. BibleGateway.com is a helpful place to source texts in a range of translations.
Invite people to take a dark marker or pen and begin blacking out or crossing out words, phrases, and sentences. What remains visible becomes a new, distilled text – a short poem, prayer, or declaration that emerges from the original passage.
This isn’t about altering Scripture in a careless or dismissive way. It’s about slowing down long enough to notice which words refuse to let go of us.
Why It Works
Finding the Hidden Message works because it shifts people from passive listening to active engagement. Instead of hearing the reading once and moving on, worshippers linger with the text. They scan it again and again. They listen with their eyes and hands.
This practice acknowledges an important truth – Scripture speaks differently to different people at different times. What stands out for one person may be invisible to another. In blackout poetry, that difference is not a problem. It is the point.
There is also something powerful about the physical act itself. Crossing out words can feel bold, even risky. For some, it may provoke discomfort. That discomfort is often theological gold. It surfaces assumptions about authority, permission, and who is allowed to interpret sacred texts.
How to Introduce It in Worship
This activity works well after the Scripture reading or as part of a reflective response to the sermon.
Explain clearly that people are not destroying the Bible, but engaging creatively with a printed text. Reassure them that there is no right or wrong outcome. This isn’t an exercise in literary skill. It’s an exercise in attention.
Invite people to begin by reading the passage silently. Ask them to notice words or phrases that shimmer, disturb, comfort, or challenge. They may find it helpful to circle key words or phrases first. Encourage them to black out everything else slowly, intentionally, and prayerfully.
Silence matters here. Soft instrumental music can support the moment, but the primary sound should be pens moving across paper.
Congregational Action
The key action is personal resonance. Each person decides what stays and what goes. Some will end up with a single line. Others with a longer prayer. Some will discover a word they did not expect to choose.
You may wish to invite people to share their blackout poem with a neighbour or place it on a communal board or table. Taken together, these fragments can form a striking mosaic of how the Spirit is speaking among the gathered community.
Physical Objects Needed
• Printed copies of the Scripture passage
• Black markers or dark pens
That’s all. No screens. No complex technology. Just paper, ink, and the courage to trust that God still speaks in the spaces between the words.
Finding the Hidden Message reminds us that Scripture isn’t static. It breathes. It waits. And sometimes, it reveals its deepest truths only when we dare to let go of what we think must stay.
Ngā mihi
Philip