wfn.org | Church promotes speed-reading through the Bible with meal vouchers

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3026 Edition

>February 22~28, 2010

Church promotes speed-reading through the Bible with meal vouchers

>Reported by Chen Wei-chien

>Written by Lydia Ma

Churches have never stopped searching for new ways to get their  members to read the Bible

everyday and Taichung Presbytery’s Hsin-Ping Church is no  exception. The church recently

began encouraging members to speed-read through the Bible in one  year by dividing them

into small groups and making Bible-reading a group contest so that  members can encourage

one another to persevere. It also offered meal vouchers as an  incentive or prize so that

members will be more motivated to read their Bibles.

Early in March, the church began promoting a Bible-reading program  called “You read, I treat”

by dividing members into groups of six and having them speed-read  through the Bible in one

year and record daily what they learned from Scripture. The  program asks every individual to

hand in a notebook filled with their personal reflections at the  end of every quarter. If every

member of a group accomplishes these tasks, the church gives the  group a meal voucher as

prize. However, if any member of a group fails to fulfill these  tasks, the whole group fails to

>receive a prize.

According to the church’s pastor, Rev. Tsai Shih-wei, reading  through the entire Bible in one

year is an enormous task and many people cannot do it. However, if  this task becomes a

game or a competition, it may create an opportunity for Christians  to work together to reach

this goal as they can encourage one another to persevere.

However, Tsai is quick to emphasize that speed-reading through the  Bible cannot replace

daily devotionals and both must be practiced daily. Knowing how  challenging this can be, he

usually gives little reminders or sermonettes every week to help  his flock read and understand

the Bible. He hopes that at least five groups can reach their  goals this year.

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