Is the quiet time doomed?
Photograph by Dan Kiefer via Unsplash
Rev. Dr. Paul Bailey
Apparently, Americans are reading less. A 2022 Gallup survey reported we are reading fewer books than in any year since 1990. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the time people spend reading has dropped steadily over the past 20 years. Combine that trend with the idea that Christian discipleship depends on reading, not only the Bible, but a myriad of devotional practices and written resources. Is there a problem?
Brad East sums up the current situation in Christianity Today: “For Christians, daily Bible reading is the minimum standard for the life of faith...In a culture where most people are not daily readers of books, most Christians probably will not be daily readers of the church’s book, either.” Should we be concerned? It might be helpful to look at some history.
When I started in pastoral ministry, a common response to any spiritual problem was a question about your daily time in the Word and prayer. The Navigators even promoted a “Morning Watch” practice for a culture that perceived itself as short on time called “7 Minutes with God.” It was marketed as a spiritual discipline any person’s schedule could accommodate: “Prayer for Guidance (½ min), Reading the Bible (4 min), Prayer of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication (2 ½ min).” Robert Munger imagined in “My Heart Christ’s Home” a disciple’s life with Christ. In the drawing room, after dinner, Jesus tells his host “Let us come here often…I will be here early every morning. Meet me here, and we will start the day together…So, morning after morning…He would take a book of the Bible from the case. We would open it and read together.”[i]
Over time, devotional booklets like “The Secret Place” and “Our Daily Bread” were staples on the greeting tables as you entered any American Baptist church. Yearlong devotional books like Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost for His Highest” were popular, along with an unlimited number of daily devotional resources for Advent and Lent.
But the truth is that for most of Christian history, disciples have not been able to read anything, let alone the Bible. The Gospel came by hearing and by singing the songs (Romans 10:14, Colossians 3:16). Yes, the Reformation was a time marked by new translations of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures into familiar languages, but it simply allowed people to hear it being read in a language other than Latin. Reading was for the privileged, educated, and determined. The Puritans, and later Methodists, promoted education and encouraged daily Bible reading, but most followers just listened.
Eventually, Bible societies and Bible translation ministries addressed the problem of access. The founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804 is rooted in a legendary story of Mary Jones who walked 27 miles barefoot to acquire a Welsh-language Bible only to get to Bala, Wales, and find Bibles were sold out.[ii]
Is a decline in reading a problem if people are just reading off a screen? Research is showing that we read differently off a screen. We scroll. Comprehension declines. We retain less, than off the printed page.
Is a decline in reading a problem if people are just reading off a screen? Research is showing that we read differently off a screen. We scroll. Comprehension declines. We retain less, than off the printed page.
We could become reactionary, preaching that reading the Bible off a paper page is the only true way to understand our faith, but of course, we would be denying the experience of the majority of the disciples in the Christian era.
A better answer might be to embrace our oral history. In the temple, in the synagogue, and at the cathedral the Word was heard. The Bereans were renowned for having heard the Apostle Paul and then examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. Griffin Gulledge writes, “This would’ve involved public reading of Scripture, debate and disputation by teachers…a communal act.” No one was going home and checking their personal Hebrew Bibles.
Can we embrace our oral tradition? Consider letting the congregation share what audio devotionals they find helpful. When I retired, my wife and I recognized we had never read the Bible beginning to end. We started waking each morning to Father Mike and the “Bible in a Year” podcast. The fact that it had a Roman Catholic flavor only made it more refreshing. After two years, we switched to “Be Still,” a daily devotional out of a Vineyard Church in Columbus, Ohio, that seems more in the vein of spiritual direction, including a Saturday Examen each week. I suspect that one day, “The Secret Place” will find its place among the hundreds of podcast options. It is ironic that promoting devotional listening actually turns people back to the written word. Many a morning after listening to a devotional, I found myself returning this time to the printed text. It was the Berean effect.
There are also times in the life of the church when an oral presentation of Scripture without interpretation brings a whole new dimension to understanding. During Lent one year, we hosted a guest who recited the Gospel of Mark, from memory. On another occasion, we had four people read Paul’s letter to the Philippians, each reading a chapter. A reading of the Sermon on the Mount can be a great emergency sermon when the pastor falls ill Saturday night.
And what happened to memorizing? How did you learn the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed? Practice the oral repetition of Psalm 23 or the fruit of the Spirit or John 3:16-17 in worship for the purpose of memorizing.
Don’t panic! People are still buying and reading Bibles, but the less reading trend may be an opportunity to hear the Word in new ways. Recovering from the exile, Ezra the priest brought out the Book of the Law and read it out loud to the people. A celebration followed because they now “understood the words that had been made known to them.” (Nehemiah 8). Hear the Word!
Rev. Dr. Paul Bailey retired in 2021 from Eastwood Baptist Church in Syracuse, NY. In addition to over 40 years of pastoral ministry, he was an adjunct instructor in Communications at Onondaga Community College for 15 years.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
[i] Munger, Robert Boyd. My Heart, Christ’s Home. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, pp. 4-5.
[ii] History of the Bible Societies, pamphlet, p. 6.
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