Most of the focus on the Quiet Revival report has been on the figures concerning Church attendance. However, the report also asked people about perceptions of the Bible and their own Bible reading habits.
According to the report, 44% of adults own a Bible at home, however, 79% either hardly ever or never read it. Meanwhile the words most commonly used to describe the Bible were Outdated (32%), Contradictory (27%) and Guidance (25%).[1] Those figures are interesting in themselves as we try to gauge what is happening in wider society. They will also help us think about evangelism. So we will come back to those perceptions later.
However, in terms of considering the question of whether or not we can talk about a revival happening, we are more concerned with those who are attending church. There is promising news here:
Bible reading among adults in England and Wales has doubled since 2018, with 12% of the population now saying they read the Bible outside of church services weekly or more, compared to 6% six years earlier.2 This rise is largely accounted for through the rise in churchgoing. However, it is not just down to an increase in attendance, as Bible reading rates have also increased among churchgoers. In 2018, 54% of churchgoers said they read the Bible at least weekly. In 2024, this had risen to 67%. This rise is reflected across denominations, suggesting again a more religiously active Church than in previous years. Rates of Bible reading among non churchgoers remain largely unchanged[2]
The report also notes that
“Within the Church, the highest rates of Bible reading are within Baptist, Independent Evangelical, New Churches, and Pentecostal expressions, all of which show weekly Bible reading at around 90%. The lowest weekly Bible reading rates are among Anglicans and Catholics, at 61% and 56% respectively. Overall, 22% of churchgoing Christians say they read the Bible less than monthly outside of church services. Again, we see indications of a generational change within the Church, as weekly Bible reading is far more common among young churchgoers.”
I think this is important and encouraging because often we hear doom and gloom about whether or not Christians do know and pay attention to the Bible. The focus may well be on the 22% who don’t read the Bible much but it is worth remembering that this is reflective of broader Christian traditions, as expected, Bible engagement is much higher with those you might expect to be from a more Evangelical background. It is also encouraging to see that younger church goers appear to be more engaged with Bible reading than older ones.
I must also add at this point that I’m personally not inclined to worry so much about Bible reading as others might be. There isn’t a command to read the Bible, daily or otherwise. We are told to let the Word of Christ dwell in us, to meditate on God’s Word and to be hearers and doers. Our concern therefore shouldn’t be so much about reading habits but the impact the Word has. So, what the survey did helpfully do was look at three types of confidence heart (emotions), hands (obedience/actions) and head (understanding). [3]
I terms of “heart confidence”, the report says
“Churchgoers as a whole demonstrate a strong emotional connection to the Bible. The words they are most likely to use about it are wisdom (57%), guidance (53%), hope (52%) and truth (52%), and 9 out of 10 (89%) agree ‘the Bible is relevant to me personally’. For the majority of churchgoers, the Bible also has impact on their spiritual life: 78% agree ‘I feel closer to God when I read the Bible’, rising to 87% of churchgoers aged 18–34” [4]
This seems positive, except that the report goes on to say about “hands confidence” that:
“When it comes to bringing the Bible outside the personal-spiritual realm many Christians demonstrate greater uncertainty. Applying what they’ve read or heard in the Bible to everyday life is fairly or very challenging, say 38%, while around a fifth say they are not confident they could apply the Bible to their personal life (21%) or situations and challenges in work life (20%)”[5]
This may reflect lower “head confidence in terms of understanding God’s Word. It would also be helpful to see the breakdown of those more negative descriptions, “outdated” and “inconsistent” for those who identify as church going Christians.
As the report argues, this should encourage us to think about the implications for discipleship. It might be helpful for local church leaders to directly survey their own congregations to see how confident church members are in both their knowledge and application of God’s Word.
We also need to consider what it means for people to come into church without a Christian background. I note that 38% of non-church goers say they would attend if invited by family/friends whereas 18% would like to know more about the Bible. This means that it is likely that many newcomers have minimal if any exposure to the Bible.
We might want to consider
- Asking people if they have a Bible and if not helping them get hold of one. This might include offering new people a free Bible or simply showing them apps they can use.
- Running more intentional introductory courses.
- Making sure our gatherings are saturated in Scripture.
- Not presuming knowledge
- Showing our working out, not just for the exposition of a text’s meaning but also its application. This might be aided by returning to Sunday’s talk in small groups to focus in on applicatrion.
The news about the way that the Bible is faring is encouraging and provides opportunities to lean into.
[1] The Quiet Revival, 16.
[2] The Quiet Revival, 18.
[3] The Quiet Revival, 35.
[4] The Quiet Revival, 36.
[5] The Quiet Revival, 36.
Faithroots 