{"id":31982,"date":"2022-09-10T15:51:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-ways-to-engage-people-with-scripture\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:51:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:51:38","slug":"3-ways-to-engage-people-with-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-ways-to-engage-people-with-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Engage People with Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"
Aaron Burden photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Lynn H. Pryor<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s note:<\/strong> What does a mature disciple of Christ look like? Over the past decade Lifeway Research has delved into this with thousands of pastors and church leaders. <\/em>Culling through the data, we discovered that strong discipleship ministries and practices could be put in eight categories. We call these eight categories the signposts along the discipleship pathway. <\/em><\/p>\n

One sign of growing disciples is that they regularly engage with Scripture. The latest findings show Christians say the Bible is God\u2019s Word, but even among Protestant churchgoers only a third spend time reading it every day.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I\u2019m preaching to the choir here, but any who wants to grow in Christ needs to engage with His Word: reading, studying, and so forth.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obvious, right?<\/p>\n

After all, the bulk of most churches\u2019 weekly schedule is worship services where the Word of God is proclaimed and Bible study groups where the Bible is studied and discussed.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The centrality and importance of Scripture in the life of churches and believers may be clear, but that doesn’t translate into practice. The research that led us to see the importance of the Bible in the life of a maturing disciple also showed us that too few believers are actually engaging with Scripture as they should.<\/p>\n

When Protestant churchgoers are asked how often they read the Bible\u2014not as part of a church worship service\u201432% say every day, 27% say a few times a week, 12% say once a week, 11% say a few times a month, 5% say once a month, and 12% say rarely or never.<\/p>\n

Simply reading the Bible doesn\u2019t equate discipleship, (although it\u2019s a good starting point). Yet almost 3 in 10 believers aren\u2019t even reading it once a week. For a person to become a maturing disciple, they must consistently be in God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work\u201d (2 Timothy 3:16-17).<\/p>\n

Paul told us why we should engage with Scripture: It\u2019s God\u2019s Word to us! That\u2019s reason enough, but Paul also pointed out how the Word benefits us:<\/p>\n