Year of Biblical Literacy

Welcome to the Home Page of Restoring The Core’s Online Year of Biblical Literacy

– Read “A Call to Action

Resources

The Restoring The Core Initiative is launching A Year of Biblical Literacy.

Starting on July 1st 2018 and concluding on June 30th 2019, the Initiative will be dedicated to providing resources to promote biblical literacy in the church. The crisis of biblical illiteracy within the church in the United States has been reported on for a number of years. (See link). It is one thing for those in our culture who do not know Christ to not know the Scriptures. It is puzzling to find those who name the name of Christ to not be engaged in reading, studying and reflecting on what Christ indicated was of need to us spiritually as bread is to us physically, namely, the Word of God (Matthew 4:4). Rather than simply bemoan this condition, it is our desire to be among the many who understand this state of things to be the problem that it is and to find a way to supply a solution.

Our Year of Biblical Literacy is patterned on similar initiatives by Reality Church San Francisco and Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon. Our version is customized to be a web-only project.

It is my prayer that you will join us in this quest to engage further with Scripture. Whether you are a seasoned reader of many years of taking in the Bible or are rather new to it, I believe that all of us can benefit by this deeper interaction with the Bible, the very Word of God.

The Restoring The Core Initiative’s online version of the Year of Biblical Literacy contains four layers:

Layer 1 – Individual reading

In this layer, you will be taking time to read through the Bible and pray a Psalm everyday. We will be following the Read Scripture plan created by the Bible Project. There are videos which accompany the readings to give an overview on a set of biblical books. The resources for Layer 1 can be found on the Resource Page which also includes a video from Donald Whitney about how to pray a Psalm.

Layer 2 – Group Interaction

In this layer, we will be interacting with others about our reading, reflections and experiences. Where this has been done within face-to-face church communities, this would involve meeting on a regular basis as part of a small group. If you know some other believers who are a part of this project, feel free to meet in person with them and discuss your journey the Scriptures.

For our version of this project, we will be interacting using the Web. We use comments in the weekly posting as well as Google Hangouts as the means to interact what we have read, studied and reflected on in all four layers. See the resource page for the link to obtain the Google Hangouts app.

Layer 3 – Worship Interaction

In this layer, we will be interacting with what we hear in Sunday sermons. This is actually the oldest way that believers have engaged with Scripture. It is where, ideally, we hear the Bible proclaimed, explained and applied to daily lives. As a supplement, links to the weekly sermons of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and Doxa Church of Rochester Hills, Michigan, will be supplied on the weekly posts.

Layer 4 – Educational

In this layer, we will be learning about the Bible with supplemental material. It will contain links to videos and audios that will teach us about such things as the history of Scripture, book study materials, devotional practices and other supplementary material to assist in your quest to deepen your life in Christ by deepening your life in the Bible.

It is my prayer that you will join us in this quest to engage further with Scripture. Whether you are a seasoned reader of many years of taking in the Bible or are rather new to it, I believe that all of us can benefit by this deeper interaction with the Bible, the very Word of God.