Skip to content ↓

The 3650 Challenge

Articles Collection cover image

Here is something to consider: Do you think it would change your life if you were to read 3,650 chapters of the Bible over the course of the next year? Let me explain why I’m asking the question.

It was a little over a year ago that I discovered Professor Horner’s Bible-Reading System. His system is intense: you read 10 chapters per day, every day, all year round. Not only that, but each of the 10 chapters you read in a day comes from a different book of the Bible. You do not study these chapters and over labor every word, but read at a good pace and count on repeated readings to do the same kind of work as fewer, slower readings. I have not followed the plan every day since then, but have enjoyed it for months at a time. Recently I’ve been doing the plan by listening to the Bible instead of reading. This provides 2 benefits: it redeems my commute and it also slows me down to a better pace (I tend to read too quickly).

A new year is approaching and I got to thinking about doing a program like this in some kind of community. I’m wondering if you’d be interested in banding together, perhaps linking up through Facebook over the course of the year.

Professor Horner’s plan calls for 10 chapters per day. Spread over a year, that equals 3,650 chapters. So again, do you think it would change your life if over the next year you were to read or listen to 3,650 chapters of the Bible? That would mean that over 2012 calendar year you would read through (or listen through) all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the Old Testament wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the Old Testament History and Prophetic books about 1.5 times.

The program is not for the feint-of-heart. But for those who have the time and those who are able to stick to it, there is a lot of joy in drinking from the biblical firehose in this way.

I have not yet decided if this will work, so this is not quite an invitation to join me. Rather, I am simply trying to gauge interest. So…would you be interested in banding together to do Professor Horner’s plan with me in 2012? We can meet up via Facebook or some other network to share what we’ve been learning, to encourage one another, and so on. Leave a comment if you are at all interested.


  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (June 14)

    A La Carte: Diapers of glory / The manipulator / A censorious spirit / Know your teenage child’s frame / Even if he doesn’t / How can I be a godly father?

  • Managing Household

    Managing Your Household Well

    The Bible lays out a whole list of qualifications that must be present in the life of a man who wishes to be a pastor. He must be the husband of one wife, he must be a lover of good, he must be hospitable, and so on. Meanwhile, he must not be arrogant, quick-tempered, violent,…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (June 13)

    A La Carte: A northern warning / Are my struggles personal or demonic? / Being the best Christian / UnOriginal sin / The importance of competence / Patterns false teachers follow / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (June 12)

    A La Carte: Helping the poor / Screen time sabbaticals / A right way to pray / Thinking too little of yourself / Rehabilitating ministers / Christianity speaks to everything / and more.

  • Friends Astern Friends Ahead

    Friends Astern & Friends Ahead

    I’ve heard that it was an old nautical tradition that when a boat sailed across the Atlantic, the passengers would spend the first half of the voyage raising their glasses to friends astern—to the ones who had seen them off and bid them a fond farewell.