Bible Engagement Crisis

Research has confirmed the growing Bible engagement crisis happening in New Zealand and many other western nations. Despite the ready availability of Bibles in many different English versions, most New Zealand Christians do not see engaging with God through Bible reading as a priority.

Bible Engagement Crisis

According to Bible Society research undertaken in New Zealand, 68% of all New Zealanders own a Bible, and yet only 23% of Bible owners pick it up and have a read at least once a month.

The research shows that 7% of Bible owners read it daily while 9% read it weekly.  The survey also revealed that 46% of New Zealanders describe themselves as Christian.  Among Christians, only 11% read the Bible daily and 13% read it weekly.

Some Kiwi Christian leaders have labelled this potentially catastrophic problem a Bible Engagement Crisis.  The Bible is a central part of the Christian faith.  Most Christians still beilieve it is the written word of God and a set of guidelines by which to live life.  But why aren't people reading it?

The answer unfortunately is not simple.  There are cultural factors such as the growth of postmodernity and personal factors such as the increased busyness of peoples' lives.

Cultural factors include:

> People are generally moving away from reading large amounts of text.
> The changing place of the Bible in churches - scripture is being fragmented to support themes rather than the Bible story being preached.
> A suspicion of meta-narratives - postmodern people don't like an overarching story that describes truth.  Truth is relative to each person.
> Faster communication and consumerism promotes a society expecting quick results and instant satisfaction.  A journey with God can be slow and total change through the Holy Spirit takes a life-time.

Personal factors include:

> Increased busyness leads to engaging with the Bible becoming a lower priority.
> People find the Bible difficult to understand, as a lack of understanding of the Bible story makes putting the different books, writers and types of writing into context difficult.
> Difficulty in understanding and applying the Bible to life situations, especially violent Old Testament stories.

Bible Society is now committed to tackiling this crisis.  We are working on a web strategy (so would greatly appreciate your feedback on the Bible engagement section of this site including your ideas), innovative resources for indifviduals and churches.

Watch this space!

To download the full Bible Society research report, click here.