A recent study sponsored by LifeWay Research and highlighted by Facts & Trends shares some unfortunate but unsurprising results: “A third of Americans who attend a Protestant church regularly (32%) say they read the Bible personally every day. Around a quarter (27%) say they read it a few times a week.” They divide the results demographically and provide lots more information, but the facts are clear enough: plenty of good, Christian, Bible-believing folk are not spending time in the Word every day or even every week. Over the past few years, I’ve found the most common prayer request from the people I shepherd is that they would be faithful in personal devotions, and this has been my constant prayer on their behalf: “Lord, I pray that she would simply open her Bible and read even a small portion today. I pray that he would close his eyes and pray, even for just a few minutes.” While I receive some requests about difficult circumstances and advanced matters of obedience, the most common by far are the simplest: Pray that I would read and pray. This has shaped me as a pastor and as a preacher. Our church is biblically-literate and theologically-conservative. Many people have come to it specifically because they crave sound doctrine and expository preaching. It would be tempting to believe that in a church like this the majority of people would be in the Word just as much through the week as they wish to be on the Lord’s Day. But I’ve long since … Continue reading When Christians Just Don’t Read the Bible