This morning I read this:
"...the average American Christian owns nine Bibles, is actively in the market for more, but rarely use the ones they have."
So what's the big deal? Isn't that the American way? To have more than we really need, and continue to chase after more?
The article went on to say:
"The troubling aspect of this research is that CRI gets more than 400 letters a month from pastors and Christian workers in developing countries whose churches own no Bibles or Christian books."
Wow! 400 letters a month, that's 4800 letters a year! We aren't told h ow many Bibles the average letter is in need of, but let's just go with 10 (I promise you the need is much greater than that). That comes to a total need of 48,000 Bibles a year!
Let's do some more math. As of today there are 303,434,963 people in the US - according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If the average American has 9 Bibles, that means the average American has 8 Bibles to spare. Multiply 8 Bibles per person by the total population (see above) and we find that there are approximately 2,427,479,704 - that's 2.5 million Bibles sitting on bookshelves unused, with no plans for being used.
Are you starting to see the problem? It's not that there aren't enough Bibles - it's just that they are sitting around gathering dust on our bookshelves.
If you would like to learn more or find out how to help, check out Bare Your Bookshelf - a website dedicated to getting Bibles and other resources into the hands of pastors and teachers around the world who desperately need what we aren't even using.
1 comment:
Dude, great post.
Hey Geoffry, would you help me out with the little contest I am running on my site? There are a lot of blog illiterate people who can't seem to figure out how to do this thing.
I just ran a little contest on my blog a couple weeks ago in connection with our, "Friends with Benefits" series. The response was good, but I want it to be better. Would you be willing to enter a post for this current, BIGGER contest? The real reason I am doing the contest is to reach out even further beyond the church, but it never fails that people are hesitant to submit a story until they see that others have. This one is about the best advice to give teenagers regarding sex and few people are more qualified than you to enter an opinion.
Anyway, when you get a chance cruise on over to today’s post (http://www.robsingleton.net/2008/02/15/lets-talk-about-sex-baby/) and share some of the wisdom you’ve learned over the years!
Thanks!
Rob
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