{"id":172,"date":"2017-10-11T17:36:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T17:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/?p=172"},"modified":"2017-10-17T20:33:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T20:33:56","slug":"the-whole-story-a-sermon-series-and-a-whole-lot-more-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/thoughts\/?p=172","title":{"rendered":"The Whole Story – a Sermon Series and a Whole Lot More"},"content":{"rendered":"

All ministers want to encourage our congregations in the habits of daily devotional reading and personal Bible Study. To this end each week we publish the Bible passages for the following Sunday\u2019s sermons. From time to time we let everybody choose from the wide variety of styles of Bible reading notes to try out \u2013 it is usually possible to get out-of-date issues of dated notes free or very cheaply. We give space in our services and Home Groups for folk to share what they have been learning and what God has been saying to them in their personal readings. But the most effective way I have found to draw people into personal Bible reading and study is a programme I developed called \u201cThe Whole Story\u201d.<\/p>\n

The idea is to inspire everybody to set aside time each day for personal Bible reading by integrating that into the teaching programme of the church across sermons and Home Group studies. At a suitable time in the year, everybody is invited to join in the exciting challenge of reading the entire New Testament over thirteen weeks. The Participants\u2019 Guide sets a portion of the New Testament to read each day. Then the sermon on the following Sunday Morning and the Home Group Study for that week each unpack a major theme from the New Testament books covered in that week\u2019s set readings.<\/p>\n

First created in 2009, The Whole Story has been used successfully by a number of churches of different sizes in varying settings. Many people are encouraged because everybody in the church is reading the same thing and this inspires some to explore daily Bible reading for the first time. Publicity launching the programme highlights the advantages of reading through the whole of the New Testament with these words.<\/p>\n

On top of the great value of reading each passage you also gain: <\/strong><\/p>\n