The Bible Reading Marathon (article)

Article 15 of 33 from the Ponder This - 1999 series

September 1999 - A few months ago I announced to the congregation that we would mark the end of this millennium with a Bible Reading Marathon. Here are the details.

The Bible Reading Marathon will take place during the last 90 hours of this year-from 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 28, to 12:00 midnight on Friday, December 31. During that time, hundreds of people from our church family will join in an unbroken reading of God's Word from the pulpit in our sanctuary. We will start with Genesis 1:1 at 6:00 on Tuesday morning and will finish with the final verses of Revelation 22 just as the new millennium is ushered in.

Most of us (myself included) have never done anything like this before and we will probably never do it again. By this public reading of God's Word we will proclaim our confidence that the same message that has carried the church for 2000 years will take us into the new millennium.

We already have a schedule for the Bible reading that breaks the 90 hours into 15-minute segments. Families and/or individuals will sign up for specific 15-minute periods. For instance, in the first 15 minutes on Tuesday morning our first readers will cover Genesis 1-4. And on we will go through Exodus, Joshua, II Kings, Ezra, Job, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Habakkuk, Mark, Acts, Galatians, Philemon, II Peter, I John, Jude, and Revelation.

This is a Bible reading marathon, which means we will read the Scriptures from beginning to end. The Bible will stand on its own with no commentary, no application, no stopping for devotional thoughts, no singing, no additional insights. I expect whole families to read together, including grandparents, parents, and children. Since this will take place over a holiday period, we will encourage church families to invite their relatives to take part in this celebration of God's Word.

We want to enlist hundreds of people in this project, including all ages, ethnic backgrounds, family groups, and so on. Anyone who is connected with Calvary (directly or indirectly) can participate. We hope for 500-700 volunteers. We will encourage people to come and sit quietly and listen as God's Word is read around the clock for 90 straight hours. We will invite the entire congregation to come to the sanctuary for the final two hours-10:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight, December 31-and we will all stand and read Revelation 21-22 in unison as one millennium passes away and a new one begins.

In just a few weeks we'll begin signing up scripture readers. I hope you'll volunteer to be a link in the chain of Bible readers for this once-in-a-lifetime event.