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Here is a brief look at the results of our recent Bible knowledge/spiritual practices test:
The average of wrong answers per test: 4.5
The average of people who know the books of the Bible: 46%
The average of people who read the Bible less than 1 time per week: 49%
The average of people who read the Bible 4-7 times per week: 20%
The average of people who pray 5 minutes per week or less: 36%
The average of people who pray 30-60 minutes per day: 10%
The average of people who commit to a Bible reading plan: 77%!
Now, there are some things that show we have our work cut out for us. The lack of current Bible reading and knowledge underscores why we are doing our Know the Story, Live the Story! sermon series. I am very excited, then, that nearly 80% of you are willing to commit to a Bible reading plan! That’s awesome! Let me encourage you as you get going in your reading not to get discouraged if you miss a day or if you run across a boring section of Scripture. I give you permission to skip over those parts that have lots of numbers and (what initially feels like) boring details. It is OK. The key goal is to keep reading! As you develop the habit of reading, listen to the Sunday messages, and discuss in your Care Groups (coming up later this fall) the implications of the Sunday messages, you will begin to “get it.” It will start to sink in, and I believe you will grow hungrier and hungrier for God’s word!
Another area of needed growth is our prayer lives. I want to encourage you to begin to develop your own prayer life this year. I believe that Bible reading and prayer go hand in hand. In fact, our Bible reading times should be prefaced by asking God to speak to us and give us understanding. Our Bible reading will help guide and inform our prayer lives. As we speak to God in prayer, we get to listen to Him in His word.
Clearly this exam shows us where we need some growth. But I believe it also shows that we have many new believers and seekers who are hungry to grow! At the end of our series, we will once again take this exam and gauge how far we’ve come. I can’t wait to see where we will be a year from now as we look back on how we’ve grown in Bible knowledge and the habits of Bible reading and prayer.
The Year of the Bible: Know the Story, Live the Story!
A year long journey that will take you from Genesis to Revelation
I am so excited about this year’s theme and sermon series! The Year of the Bible: Know the Story, Live the Story! This series excites me for two key reasons. Number one, most people in our churches, not to mention our culture, do not have a strong grasp of what the story of the Bible is all about. Many don’t realize that Moses and Jesus weren’t neighbors. Worse yet, many don’t even know who Moses or Jesus is! For this reason, I feel strongly that we need to become well-grounded in the Bible, God’s word… God’s story.
My hope in this series is to help the beginner, as well as the veteran, come to a deeper knowledge of God’s word and how the story flows from Genesis to Revelation. Along the way we will also come to a deeper love of our God. More important than knowing facts and details about the Bible is knowing the author! We don’t go to the Bible to know facts, or to win in a debate. We go to the Bible to meet God.
The second reason I am thrilled about where this series will take us is that it will help us to read the Bible as story. Now when I say story, I do not mean made up, like, Once upon a time… What I mean is that the Bible is the story of a loving, eternal God who created the universe and humanity so that we could enjoy deep fellowship with Him. When that fellowship was disrupted and broken by Adam’s sin and death entered into the plot, the story took a turn.
Now God in His grace and mercy turns His attention to redeeming and restoring humanity to a right fellowship with Him. This, of course, would take many years, and many new characters would be added to the story (Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, etc.). But eventually the story would come to a new and far more critical turning point in which God not only allows His Son to come in the form of a little child, but would eventually offer that child up as His sacrifice for us all, so that through His dying we might have life!
The Bible is story, and when you come to learn the story, it becomes far more powerful. The more you study the major characters in this salvation story, the more you will see yourself. You will come to realize that the “heroes” of faith from the past were broken and sinful as well, yet God loved and used them. More importantly, though, my hope is that you will come to see that God’s great desire is that your story begins to meld into THE story, HIS story. When you finally begin to see yourself as part of God’s grand story of redeeming the world, your life will begin to take on new and richer meaning. That is why this series is not simply titled, Know the Story because until you and I learn to Live the Story, it does us no good. And this story is too good to miss!
What you will learn-
· The books of the Bible
· How the books are organized and what their different purposes are
· The difference between the Old Testament and New Testament and why it matters
· How the story and characters connect from Genesis to Revelation, from Creation to Fall, to Redemption, and to Final Restoration
What you will be able to do-
· To tell someone the story of the WHOLE Bible in a few minutes!
· To know your way around your own Bible
· To develop a reading/prayer habit that will carry on beyond this series
· To have a deeper walk with Jesus Christ
· To have a passion for telling others His story of salvation!
How we will accomplish this-
· We hope to incorporate some creative elements in our service that will help to cement the story in your mind.
· We will use periodic “backtracks” that we will all do together in the service to bring us through the story up to the point we are at. This repetition will help with memory.
· We will provide reading plan options that will help you choose a method that works best for you to begin a Bible reading habit.
1. New Believer Method- Start by reading Mark (the story of Jesus), one chapter per day. After Mark is finished, go to Acts and then on through the rest of the New Testament all the way to Revelation, reading one chapter at a time (about ¾ of the year to finish)
2. Sermon Series Method- Read the passages during the week before sermon (possibly reading it several times per week)
3. Whole Bible Method (slower pace)- Begin reading in Genesis and read 1 chapter at a time per day (a little over 3 years to read whole Bible)
4. Whole Bible Method (1 year)- Begin reading in Genesis and read 3.5 chapters per day (1 year, reading every day)
5. Whole Bible Method (1 year)- Begin reading in Genesis and read 4.5 chapters per day (1 year, reading only 5 days a week)
6. Whole Bible Method (hyper fast!)- Begin reading in Genesis and read 13 chapters per day (about 90 days!)
Begin your time with prayer, asking God’s Spirit to teach you and give you understading. Ttake time to just talk with God and share your heart with him. | 
