Where to next? Once Christmas is over, how can we keep up the momentum of Bible reading with our young people?
Jen Robertson
Christmas is an easy time to find ways for children and young people to explore the Bible for the first time, with many excellent resources created each year by churches and organisations across the world.
But so often, Christmas day is seen as the finish line, rather than the start of an exploration into the God of the Bible. Families and churches manage to cram in advent readings and activities, but just as children are getting excited about what they are learning about, the big day and the lull that follows might leave everyone feeling like they don’t know how to get started again. And if you do get started, where do you go after the story of Jesus’ birth?
Barriers to entry
Research has shown us that a lot of the barriers to getting young people reading the Bible, isn’t the content but the format. Verse numbers and columns, seen in traditional Bibles but nowhere else, can be confusing and intimidating. Alongside this, small text and thin pages make looking at a Bible feel like it’s “different”.
The Bible is “different”. But the difference we want people to see is the message within, and the God behind it all. That’s why we’ve been working to present the Bible in formats that remove the barriers.
Whether you’re a child who has never opened the Bible, or someone who feels they know God’s word inside out, these publications present God’s word in a way that makes sense, so the reader can focus on the words.
Here are two books to get people reading the Bible in 2022.
Dear Theo
Dear Theo is a publication of the books of Luke and Acts. The chapters, verses and columns have been removed, and the dimensions and paper thickness make it feel more like a “normal” book you’ve probably read before.
The Bible translation is New International Reader’s Version, which was created in partnership with a group of 8-year-olds who gave advice as to the best kind of words to include in the text. With these simpler words and shorter sentences, it helps to make reading easier.
Dear Theo has been illustrated by Jason Ramasami. His comic book style illustrations are in themselves a form of translation, enabling readers to understand the story better as they explore the drawings.
To go with the book, we have created 30 “Dear Theo” conversations to help you use the book effectively with 10 to 14 year old’s, as they connect the words they are reading with their own lives. Also available are 6 “all age” conversations to help you create spaces where multiple generations can explore the Bible together.
"
"
Joseph and the triumph of grace
Our research in 2019, found that illustrations really help young people engage with Biblical text. In our latest book, Joseph and the Triumph of Grace, Jason Ramasami has skillfully interpreted the whole story of Joseph in comic book format. The drawings are extremely detailed and with close reading enhance the understanding of Joseph’s story and the action of God within that story. All the text within the cartoon is directly lifted from the Book of Genesis, which is contained in the second half of the book.
The text used in the cartoon has been highlighted within the book of Genesis to help the reader move between the cartoon and the text, giving a fuller understanding by combining the visual images and the words.
In the Genesis text the verses and columns have again been removed and the text is taken from the New International Reader’s Version translation of the Bible.
To go alongside the book, we have created Joseph’s Journal which takes the reader through 5 key themes of the story of Joseph, helping them to consider how this story from the Bible connects to their own story.
Look inside Joseph and the triumph of grace >
Take a look for yourself and find new ways to help young people open up a Bible that looks like it was written for them.
