Experiencing a whole church Bible reading week
From an article by Baptists Together
The minister of Sandbach Baptist Church, the Revd Alistair Stewart, preaches from Scripture; and many of the congregation use Bible reading notes and therefore read just a few Bible verses each day.
So, the church decided to undertake an adventure in the form of a whole church Bible reading week.
The church secretary and Alistair drew up a reading plan. It was circulated in the weekly emailed newsletter, with paper copies for those not online.
The plan highlighted Luke’s description of one church’s best practice in reading Scripture:
‘Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.’ Acts 17:11 (NIV)
On each day of the chosen week, the plan offered a choice of specified Bible passages, with six for each day—usually whole chapters. The daily selection was from the following:
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a chapter from the Gospels;
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a chapter from elsewhere in the New Testament;
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a chapter from the Old Testament;
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a Psalm or a chapter from Proverbs;
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a famous passage from anywhere in the Bible (for those wanting to stay on homely ground); and
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a short, entire book of the Bible (for the keen!).
The sets of readings were themed and the first day’s theme was ‘God’s Plan Throughout History’; themes on subsequent days included wise living, personal examples, testing, growing, the Cross, praise, and commitment.
They looked at the life of Jesus in the gospels and followed His journey from His birth through the parables and the Last Supper to the Resurrection. In the Gospels, they also discovered the lives of Zechariah, Mary or Peter.
Their journey through the New Testament letters included Ephesians, Timothy, Philemon, 3 John.
Their Old Testament passages introduced human accounts such as Jethro’s mentoring of Moses in Exodus 18, Abigail’s wisdom (greater than David’s) in 1 Samuel 25, and the books of Ruth and Haggai.
At the end of the week, they finished with Revelation 22 and then invited folks, as a real challenge, to read an entire Gospel in one sitting.
One aim was to encourage people to go beyond their favourite readings. And many Bible passages not only nourish us spiritually by pointing us to the Lord but are also really good stories. In the Bible’s wonderful accounts, we can see our own true reflections.
So how did the church react? On the following Sunday, with a full church congregation, we invited folks to feed back their thoughts. Here are some:
"I found it a real blessing being able to look at a book in its entirety. I hadn’t looked at the book of Ruth for a while, or only in small sections, but to be able to read the whole book was brilliant. In Ruth we think about love, but what came through to me was about kindness, so much kindness, that was a real lesson to me…"
"I found it a real encouragement, it jogged me to reading bigger chunks after I’d deteriorated to just reading my Word for Today; and it was nice to have that impetus and have the encouragement and support that everyone was doing it…"
"Normally I wouldn’t read a chunk. You don’t, do you? You just start to read little bits of the Bible. And as I read a whole chapter, I felt my heart sort of slow down; and then I really listened; and I really got drawn into the Scripture… a really good selection…"
"I enjoyed the challenge of reading a Gospel in entirety and that was really helpful to me, to go from start to finish, and that was a real blessing…"
For those interested, the 2024 Bible Reading Week plan (with the reading list) can be downloaded here.
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From an article by Baptists Together, 11/06/2024