Missouri Baptists are catching the vision for distributing one million Bibles in 2014. There are 48 Bibles in a case. The Find it Here New Testaments (NT) cost less than $40 a case.
We are all challenged to distribute one million Bibles in print, audio, or Bible storying. Here are some ideas gleaned from reports that have been coming in from around our state. Get started by April 12 and celebrate this Easter.
• Christmas carol through your community and give away a dozen cookies in a plastic container and a Bible, too, at every home.
• Walk door-to-door handing them off or hanging one in a plastic bag on every home in your apartment complex or neighborhood.
• Promote a Bible read-a-thon. Get permission to read the entire Bible out loud without stopping. Do this in a very public place such as in front of your church, a LifeWay Christian Book Store or Christian business. Line up (good) volunteer readers who will do it tag-team to keep it going. Provide a free Bible to people who show up.
• Pay for the person behind you in a drive-thru. Give the money-taker a copy of the New Testament and a second one that he can pass along to the driver behind you.
• Prayerwalk communities asking people for prayer needs. Stop and pray with them and then offer them a Bible or audio Bible before you move on.
• Ask your server in a restaurant for a prayer request. When you leave, include a Bible with a generous tip.
• Have your kids open a “Bible-ade” stand in front of your house and sell NTs for a nickel.
• Host an appreciation barbeque for local firefighters, police, and city maintenance crews. Give them each a Bible as a gift of appreciation. Order special NTs that are geared toward their service category.
• Ask a store owner to let you leave them near their point of purchase.
• Leave one in a sheltered bus stop.
• Provide a NT to everyone attending a local college, university or junior college at the beginning of each semester.
• Visit the county jail each week and give them away until they’re all gone.
• Contact your ESL leader and see what languages are needed in their heart language and purchase dual-language versions of the Bible.
• Download a free MP3 file from www.faithcomesbyhearing.com and load it on a player with headphones in a number of languages to distribute to immigrants.
• Use the Bible storying sessions listed in the back of The Pathway to start a new small group that tells biblical narratives and discusses Bible truths.
• Record 52 Bible stories on an audio CD and give them to families who attend Christian daycare centers, codependency programs and other ministries.
• Ship two Bibles developed for the military (one they can give away) along with candy bars, a fly swatter, Christian magazines, etc., in a care package for troops in service from your community.
• Initiate a website that offers free Bibles for anyone requesting one in your community. Be sure to update it daily with Bible verses, testimonials and photos of real people you know reading or discussing God’s Word.
• Ask your town’s leaders (mayor, police chief, school board president, etc.) for three impossible tasks that your community faces. Pray, train and then light up your community with workers taking on the project. Invite others to go with you and give everyone participating a copy of the Bible in audio or print form.
• Include Bibles in audio form (MP3) or marked copies of NTs, such as the FinditHere.com HCSB or KJV versions to accompany an act of kindness with a gospel witness.
• Leave a Bible behind in a seat – bus, taxi, subway, shuttle, airplane, etc.
• Provide school teacher appreciation activities, focusing on a different school each week providing teacher supplies, an appreciation banquet, etc. Include a Bible as a gift expressing your appreciation.
• Invite your grandchildren to a special sleepover. Encourage them to tell their favorite family memories. Give your testimony of coming to Christ and then tell your favorite Bible story and explain why. (Parents could drape blankets in a family room and do the same thing with an indoor family campout.)
These are just a few ideas. Contribute your own ideas to “Light Up Missouri” on Facebook or explore other ideas at www.mobaptist.org/light. (Mark Snowden serves Missouri Baptists as evangelism/discipleship strategist (573) 556-0319 or msnowden@mobaptist.org.)