Reading the Bible together

As a church we are trying to read more of the Bible together, it flows out of two things: 1. Conviction after preparing and preaching Acts 2 that we do not spend enough time reading the Bible together and 2. Reading in The Briefing the statistics that the average morning Bible reading is 15 verses which means you cover 2.5% of the bible in a year.  Taking a staggering 40 years to read the whole Bible if you never repeat verses!  Which means most ministers never do it in their ministry shelf life!

As a result we are going to be trying to read an overview of the Bible by reading a chapter a week.  It has been quite difficult to whittle it down to 52 readings; we don't read Gen 2 which is so foundational to marriage, we miss out on Job and Proverbs altogether, the majestic Romans 8 and Philippians 2 are also missing.  What I have tried to do in devising this is stick to the Bibles big storyline.

Wk	OT Reading	Wk	NT Reading
1	Genesis 1:1-2:3	27	John 1
2	Genesis 3	28	Matthew 4
3	Genesis 12	29	Matthew 5
4	Genesis 22	30	Mark 4
5	Exodus 12	31	Mark 8
6	Exodus 20	32	Luke 15
7	Numbers 14	33	John 11
8	Joshua 23	34	Luke 22
9	Judges 2	35	Matthew 27
10	1 Samuel 8	36	John 20
11	1 Samuel 16	37	Acts 1
12	2 Samuel 7	38	Acts 2
13	Psalm 2	39	Acts 10
14	Psalm 22	40	Acts 13
15	1 Kings 8	41	Acts 15
16	1 Kings 11	42	Romans 3
17	1 Kings 18	43	1 Corinthians 12-13
18	Isaiah 9	44	Galatians 2
19	Isaiah 53	45	1 Thessalonians 4
20	Jeremiah 25	46	James 1
21	Daniel 6	47	1 John 3-4
22	Ezekiel 34	48	Revelation 1
23	2 Chronicles 36	49	Revelation 4-5
24	Ezra 1	50	Revelation 7
25	Nehemiah 8	51	Revelation 21
26	Malachi 3-4	52	Revelation 22

Obviously each reading will need to be introduced and quickly set in its context, but I think the bigger challenge with this will be read it in a way that is engaging. That may mean using different people to play the role of different characters, it will certainly involve reading it more dynamically than we so often read the Bible. But it comes from the conviction that all scripture is God breathed and profitable. And I pray that as we read and get a bit more of God's word into our hearts and minds that God will be speaking to his expectant and reliant people.