The Bible Society for over 200 years has been making the Bible available, by translation, printing, distribution. It is concerned about what it calls Bible poverty – people who may be rich in other ways but lack the Bible. In Britain, the Bible is easily available and cheap, so that is not the problem. We have Bible poverty because we don’t read it, maybe have never had it made interesting to us. So we live without any benefit from this Book which informs us about God in the whole story that is focused by God’s coming in Jesus Christ.
The Bible Society has a Bible Crisis questionnaire which is open till 30 June 2010. It is seeking help to focus its priorities and it wants to hear what people in the Church think about the Bible.
It is a very short and simple questionnaire so it will take a couple of minutes only to answer it. It may help the Bible Society in its work. It may also help us to think individually about how and why we value the Bible and whether in practice we read it and learn from it as it deserves. And it might also lead us to think again practically about how the Church encourages and helps us to to read the Bible. Even in Church, could there be more Bible poverty than you would expect?
There are questions here we should take to heart. It is a challenge to be asked whether our country no longer looks to the Bible because – The Church has lost confidence in the Bible. Or perhaps we would not say we had lost confidence, but we just don’t read it very much. It is odd to have confidence in what we do not pay much attention to.
The Questionnaire is mostly tick boxes. But one good question is open:
What excites me most about the Bible is……
The Questionnaire can be found here
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I too have attempted the questionnaire. It would not accept my answers as it said that I had not answered question 11a but I could not find an unanswered question and it did not highlight which question had failed. They do seem to recognise that it isn’t just about providing Bibles but that we need to make people see the relevance to life today.
As you say, Haddon, quite exciting and thought provoking.
I got as far as their requesting my name, address etc. and gave up as I receive too much unsolicited mail from both worthy and unworthy causes, and there wasn’t an appropriate tick box to allow opting out.
Sorry if I appear cynical.
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