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What Helps People Connect With the Bible?

Research indicates that the primary factors helping people connect with the Bible are:

  • being a committed Christian
  • accessibility and availability of a Bible
  • attending church
  • reading books that aid Bible reading

Simply stated, people are more likely to engage the Bible when they are committed to Christ, linked up with other people (go to church, attend a Bible study or youth group, speak to friends and family about what they read in the Bible) and use easy to read or contemporary versions of the Bible together with devotional books, reading guides, or commentaries.

Conversely, the main reasons why people don’t connect with the Bible are:

  • they are not relationally connected to the Christian community
  • they do not read books or don’t own a Bible
  • they say they are too busy or have other priorities

Slick advertising campaigns or just handing a stranger a Bible are unlikely to have much success in helping connect people with the Bible. Relationships are crucial. We must facilitate and nurture vertical (with God) and horizontal (with God’s people) relationships. For this to happen we must share the good news (evangelize), teach people how to live for Christ (make disciples), and foster authentic Christ centred communities of faith.

© Scripture Union Canada 2014


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Why it’s Good to Read the Bible

We asked hundreds of people why they think it’s good to read the Bible. This is what they said:

  • It tells us what God is like
  • It develops an understanding of God’s relationship with us
  • It has transformed the world
  • It helps us understand God’s plans for us
  • It connects us to Jesus
  • It lets us know how we can be saved from sin
  • It focuses our faith
  • It is food for our daily growth
  • It constructively effects our behaviour
  • It provides a level of protection against temptation
  • It contributes to a more positive outlook
  • It provides guidance for life and living in this day and age
  • It gives us a sense of significance and purpose
  • It assists in our moral development
  • It is a safe place for reflection and resolution
  • It helps us understand our encounters with the seen and unseen world
  • It facilitates peace and well-being in our lives
  • It addresses the concerns of everyday life
  • It renews our minds and hearts
  • It is the meeting place of our stories with God’s Story
  • It makes us wiser and broadens our perspective
  • It keeps us from wasting our lives on what doesn’t matter
  • It prompts us to acts of kindness and mercy
  • It dramatically changes lives for the good
  • It fuels belief
  • It is a measuring stick to determine truth from error
  • It contains the life-changing message of freedom
  • It raises the dignity and rights of everyone
  • It equips us to serve God
  • It gives us comfort and hope
  • It tells us how to truly get to heaven
  • It helps us meet with God
  • It is “God-breathed”
  • It is the “bread of life” and the book of light
  • It is “living and active”
  • It is a source of “joy and my heart’s delight”
  • It is the Word of God

I read the Bible for all the above reasons. And I read it because to know God and be godly, I need to know God’s Word intimately.

Have your say. Why do you think it’s good to read the Bible?

© Scripture Union Canada 2014

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