Recently, The Atlantic published a sobering article about America’s reading habits. Author Rose Horowitch makes the argument that America has entered a “postliterate” era where book reading has collapsed across all demographics.
Here are a few of the findings from the National Endowment for the Arts:
- Fewer than half of American adults read a book of any kind in 2022, and only 38% read a novel or short story.
- The percentage of people who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28% in 2004 to just 16% in 2023.
- The share of 13-year-olds who rarely or never read for fun rose from 8% in 1984 to 29% recently.
Those numbers should concern all of us. Reading has always been a cornerstone of a free society. But for Christians, the implications run even deeper.
The Christian life is made up of all sorts of different practices that each allow us to experience God in different ways, but for pretty much all of history, the primary way God’s people have come to know Him has been through His Word. It’s hard to argue that throughout history Christians are people of the book.
Before we had God’s written word, God used his audible word when he spoke the world into being and called Abraham to leave his home. But then, as early as Exodus, he began writing his words on tablets and scrolls.
By the time of Jesus, Jewish life consisted of memorizing the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament), and every Sabbath, families gathered in the synagogue to hear Scripture read aloud and explained.
When Jesus began His public ministry, His first public act was reading from Isaiah. When tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus answered every temptation with Scripture. Even hanging on the cross moments before death, he quoted Psalm to describe how he felt.
The early church continued the same practice. The apostles wrote letters to churches throughout the Roman Empire, and those letters were read aloud during worship gatherings, copied, shared with other churches, and eventually recognized as the New Testament we have today.
For centuries, most Christians still couldn’t read, but Scripture remained the primary way that people knew about God because it was read publicly, preached, memorized, prayed, and sung. It has always been God’s word that has been the predominant way that God’s people have gotten to know him. Christianity without the Bible is just sentimentality
With that historical perspective, it’s concerning that more and more people not only do not read the Bible, but do not read at all.
A New Challenge For The Church
Every generation of pastors faces unique challenges. For ours, one of the greatest may simply be helping people become readers of Scripture again. Not consuming sermons about Scripture, or podcasts discussing Scripture, or devotional books inspired by Scripture. All of those have value. But we must help our congregation read Scripture.
To the church’s credit, in the last 20-30 years we have done well to stay up to date with technological advancements and keep the Gospel “relevant,” but perhaps the next movement will be a return to literacy. Ironically, one of the many reasons the reformers fought so hard—sometimes giving their life—is so that common people could have the ability to read the Bible. William Tyndale, the first man to translate the Bible into English, famously said,
“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
The Reformers dreamed of a day when ordinary people could read the Bible for themselves. Now we can, but don’t. The famous Mark Twain quote comes to mind, “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
For centuries, the church was one of the greatest champions of learning in the world.
- Monks faithfully copied manuscripts by hand.
- Monasteries and cathedral schools became centers of education, eventually giving rise to many of Europe’s first universities.
- Missionaries developed written alphabets for previously unwritten languages so people could read the Bible in their own tongue.
- Reformers risked—and often gave—their lives translating Scripture into the language of ordinary people.
Christian leaders have long believed that literacy wasn’t just academic but spiritual. It’s time to reclaim that calling.
I believe Bible Study is poised to make a big comeback. People are overwhelmed with opinions, algorithms, short-form videos, and endless commentary. They’re looking for something solid. But churches don’t accidentally become biblically literate. They build a Bible culture, and it must start with the pastor.
So let me give you a few ways you can promote literacy and build a Bible culture in your church
1. Be A Reader
For centuries, pastors were among the most well-read people in society. They weren’t simply preachers—they were scholars, teachers, translators, and writers. Augustine, John Chrysostom, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and countless others devoted their lives to studying the Scriptures, history, theology, philosophy, and literature. They loved God with all their heart and mind.
That isn’t always true today. Very few pastors have or make time to read. If they do, it might be a narrow selection of leadership books. I want to encourage you to branch out into other genres. Read the classics, read biographies and history. Find a few authors who resonate with you and read their entire collection. In a culture that consumes thirty-second videos, you have an opportunity to model something different. You can model patience, curiosity, thoughtfulness. You can remind people that wisdom is more often found in good books.
2. Use a physical Bible when you preach
I’m not anti-technology, but symbols matter. When you walk onto the platform carrying a Bible, open it, flip through its pages, and read directly from it, you’re sending the message: we use the Bible around here.
Not just having it on the podium, but actually holding it up and flipping the pages, even reading the sermon text from the Bible instead of the screen or confidence monitor. I’ve been guilty over the years of never actually opening a Bible when I preach. The passage appears on the confidence monitor, and the sermon notes are on my iPad. None of that is inherently wrong, but it unintentionally sends a subtle message that the Bible is a digital commodity just like everything else you consume.
Even something as simple as saying, “Turn with me to Psalm 23,” instead of immediately putting the passage on the screen, encourages people to interact with their own Bible. It teaches them where things are. I’m not suggesting you stop using screens, but keep the book visible.
3. Quote classic literature and famous thinkers in your sermon
My kids love to tease me about how often I quote C. S. Lewis in my sermons. They’re probably right. If you listen to me preach for very long, you’ll eventually hear Lewis, Tim Keller, Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, and a few others. It’s intentional. I’m trying to send a message: Christianity is very old and trustworthy.
I think this is a good time for a Lewis quote…
“Every generation of believers faces the risk of becoming prisoners to its own myopic vision of the Christian faith, assuming that how it understands and practices faith is always the best… the only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.”
One of the greatest gifts a pastor can give his people is intellectual curiosity. Every time you quote a meaningful sentence from a great author, you’re quietly reminding your congregation that every idea doesn’t come from you and that we’re a part of something much older and bigger than their lifetime, and you’re exposing them to voices that have shaped the church for generations.
As a little bonus, I love when I can put a picture of the person I'm quoting on the screen. This does two things: First, it gives people a visual representation of ancient Christianity. Second, it challenges you to diversify the voices you quote
I also think it’s healthy to occasionally quote historians, scientists, psychologists, economists, and novelists often make great observations. All truth is God’s truth, and thoughtful Christians shouldn’t be afraid to learn from careful observers of the world God created.
More and more pastors feel the pressure to be original and “revelatory” in their messages, but one of the healthiest things you can do is stop trying to appear smarter than you are, or that you thought of everything you say. Make it clear, “I’m learning too.”
Which leads me to the next way to promote literacy and create a Bible culture…
4. Have a resource area or bookstore in your church lobby
If I walked into your church lobby and looked around for a few seconds, what would I infer is most important to you? Merch? Coffee? Announcements? Culture is built by what you put in front of people. If your congregation sees a thoughtfully curated bookshelf every Sunday, they know that discipleship is a priority.
Keep it simple. Choose 10-20 books that have either helped you or answer questions they are asking. Make recommendations. If I quote C. S. Lewis in a sermon, I’ll tell people, “If you’ve never read Mere Christianity, it’s available in the lobby today.” You’ll be surprised how many people go buy a copy.
5. Lead a Through the Bible campaign
We created Through the Bible specifically to help you create a Bible culture in your church, but in order to make that a reality, it takes time, and it must start from the pulpit.
The Through the Bible campaign is an 8-week series that teaches the story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The companion journals provide reading plans to help them connect the dots of the major stories. If you want more information, you can click here.
Whether you use Through the Bible or something else, you must be intentional to communicate to your church: “We are a Bible church, and we are going to help you learn and love this book.”
6. Teach through books of the Bible a few times each year
You have fifty-two Sundays every year to preach. Many pastors naturally organize those Sundays into sermon series. Some are topical. Some are built around holidays or cultural moments. Others answer practical questions about marriage, anxiety, finances, or parenting. There is absolutely a place for those kinds of series. Jesus addressed the real concerns of everyday people.
But if your goal is to build a Bible culture, you need to make room every year for one or two extended series through an entire book of the Bible. It’s important that your sermons are primarily expository. I don’t mean it has to be verse-by-verse preaching, but it does need to be historically accurate. Be careful that you don’t work so hard to make it applicable to a felt need that you strip it of its original meaning.
Preaching books of the Bible are important because the way you consistently preach the Bible is the way your congregation assumes they’re supposed to read it.
If every sermon begins with a topic and then collects verses to support that topic, people will naturally assume that’s how they’re supposed to study the Bible topically. If every message jumps from one isolated passage to another, they may never connect scriptures to the larger story.
Ironically, some pastors avoid teaching through books of the Bible because they’re afraid it won’t feel practical enough. I think the opposite is true. People are starving for depth. They want to understand what God actually said, who He said it to, why He said it, and what it means for us today.
Be People Of The Book
For centuries, Christians were known as people of the Book because they believed God had spoken. If our generation is facing a literacy crisis, perhaps it’s also being given an opportunity to rediscover one of the church’s oldest strengths.
Every time you open a Bible from the platform, recommend a great book, preach through a book of Scripture, or encourage your people to read God’s Word for themselves, you’re helping create a church that knows God because it knows His Word. And I can’t think of a better legacy for a pastor to leave.
