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Summary

On the latest episode of Keep Asking, we continue the conversation about Bible engagement. We examine how people’s reading habits influence how and when they read scripture. We also discuss research findings reaffirming the importance of Bible for spiritual growth and discipleship, and why leaders can’t assume affirmation of their ministry equates to widespread engagement.

A few highlights:

“We also see from our research that many Christians and definitely many Americans have not read the whole Bible, and so they haven’t heard the whole message. In fact, just under half of Americans say they’ve read half or more of the Bible, but just one out of five Americans say they’ve read all of it.”

“Reading a passage once, you often don’t catch everything that’s going on. As you read it again, you’re in a different place in your life, and so it can have new meaning, and you can relate to that passage in different ways. People who are not reading systematically, they’re not in the Bible on a regular basis are missing out on a lot of the richness that’s there.”

“There’s an element in which people aren’t necessarily saying that Scripture reading is bad, but they’re not on board as far as, “I’m ready to…I’m doing it.” A lot of times, we miss that. For other ministry leaders, the same implication is there, that your followers, your employees, your donors may not be as engaged as you think they are.”

Be sure to Tweet your questions and comments to us: @LifewayResearch and individually: @smcconn, @statsguycasey, and @lizettebeard. Join us next time for another edition of Keep Asking.

(See the full transcript for the episode –with links–on next page)