Raise your hand if you’ve ever set the goal to read the entire Bible but never quite finished it.
Raise your hand if “read the Bible in its entirety” is on your bucket list!
Raise your hand if you’ve always wanted to read the Bible, but it always felt just a little too daunting to undertake on your own.
Raise your hand if you’ve read the Bible but didn’t feel like you fully grasped the meaning of each passage or understood its relevance in your own life.
Ok. You can put your hands down (and so will I). Most of us have had “Reading the WHOLE Bible” on our agenda for quite some time — for some of us longer than others. And that’s OK! FUMCFW has decided the time has come to help you make this goal a reality in 2020!
With the help and insightful leadership of Dr. Zhenya Gurina-Rodriguez, this goal can and will be accomplished in the new year through the 2020 Bible Challenge!
Here’s how it will work:
- Register for the challenge
- Get a Bible, if you do not have one already. We recommend the Common English Bible, but you are more than welcome to choose the translation you like best.
- Download the plan here. (Or get a hard copy of the plan from Dr. Z) Every day will have a reading from the Old Testament and the New Testament — a total reading assignment of about four chapters per day.
- Beginning January 1, set aside about thirty minutes a day for reading your Bible.
- Read Zhenya’s blog (posted every other week) for special insights about the context, culture, and historical events relevant to the current readings.
- Email Zhenya (zgurina@myfumc.org) any questions you have as you read. Remember, no question is unimportant! If you raise it, it is valid.
- Meet with other readers for coffee every other month at 8:00 am in Room 350 to review what we have read and enjoy Zhenya’s introduction of what is coming up next in our plan.
- See how reading the Bible becomes a nurturing part of your day and how your own experience of God grows with every passage you read!
- Let’s get real. This is a tall order, and some of us may fall behind or skip some days! That’s OK. Just catch up if you can, and if you missed too much to catch up, just jump back in and join us wherever we are at the moment. It will also be easy to use the Bible Challenge Meetup as a reset opportunity — a quick recap of what you missed and encouragement to start reading again. Whether you have read the Bible every day for your entire life — or if this is going to be your first time opening it — all are welcome to take up this challenge! AND, with the support of a group of fellow readers around you and Zhenya’s gentle leadership, you will feel supported throughout the entire year and enjoy the special connection of achieving this goal with likeminded others who will assure you, “We all are in this together!”
- Let’s look forward together to 2020 as a year when we see our faith in God grow and our lives transformed as we read the Bible together.
Contact: Zhenya Gurina-Rodriguez | zgurina@myfumc.org
