LEADERSHIP | INSIGHTS The Bible I love is being neglected, just when it seems our nation needs it most. As I pored over these statistics, I kept asking myself, Is there anything e can do to turn things around
Bible Engagement in America What every church leader should know — and do
By JOHN FARQUHAR PLAKE
I
got the news on alentine s Day , and it broke my heart. American Bible Society’s annual State of the ible results were in, reporting on the Scripture engagement of U.S. adults. After positive results in 2021, we hoped for more good news this year. But as my colleagues and I charted the new data, it looked like cripture engagement had fallen off a cliff. In one year, 15 million mericans had left the ranks of the “Scripture Engaged.” On the other side of the chart, the Bible Disengaged people with little or no interaction with Scripture — grew by 45 million.
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Declining Usage One of the simplest measures in the survey is Bible use — reading the Bible or listening to it, apart from church services. e define a Bible user as one who uses the Bible at least three times per year. Over the past decade, tate o the ible has consistently found that about half of Americans were Bible users. In 2021, an estimated 128 million Americans had reached for the Bible at least three times in the previous year. Bible use fell 10 percentage points in the most recent poll, however. Now only 4 in 10 Americans (3 ) ualify as Bible users the lowest figure we have ever documented.
