By Randy Petersen
Every so often you’ll see a survey that shows how ignorant Americans are about the Bible. Who killed Goliath? Who was Jacob’s brother? Where was Jesus born? The dismal and declining percentages of correct answers show that most Americans are now strangers to Scripture.
It wasn’t always like this. Go back to the 1950s, the 1840s, or the 1730s, and you find an American culture steeped in Scripture. Children learned to read from Bible-based primers. Public discourse was salted with biblical phrases. Many Christians long to go back to such times.
But there’s a big difference between knowing biblical content and letting the God of the Bible guide your life. If we do go back to the 1730s, we find a nation of slumbering churchgoers, desperately in need of the Great Awakening that was about to sweep through. Whitefield, Edwards, and others preached to biblically literate crowds that weren’t thoroughly engaging with the Lord of life. That pattern continued in the revivals of Finney, Moody, Graham, and many others. People knew the Bible, but needed to invest themselves in its teaching.
Editor’s note: EPA’s Cause of the Year for 2026 has been revised to Scripture Engagement. Articles published on the subject in 2026 will be eligible for the contest in 2027. Articles already published that were focused on Spiritual Engagement, as previously announced, will still be eligible for the contest.
The American Bible Society is the sponsor for the 2026 Cause of the Year.
Look Who’s Talking
Scripture itself keeps calling its readers and hearers into a deeper engagement. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves,” says James. “Do what it says” (James 1:22 NIV). He adds a witty example of a mirror—the example works best if you imagine that you have a bit of spinach stuck in your teeth. Before going out, you check the mirror, see the problem, but don’t do anything about it. That’s what it’s like when you read the Bible and don’t “do what it says.”
But there’s more than just obedience involved. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path,” a Psalmist sings (119:105), suggesting ongoing guidance and perhaps a way to see the world around us. The first Psalm describes the “blessed” person “whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night” (1:2). So there’s an emotional component in Scripture engagement too, as well as continuing interaction.
We learn even more from the run-ins Jesus had with Bible experts. “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life,” he said to a group of religious leaders. “These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40 NIV).
They aced the exam, but failed the relationship.
What Can We Do?
It’s certainly true that your readers (and for podcasters, your listeners) could benefit from more Scripture-reading. Statistics show that only 41% of Americans read the Bible on their own, outside of a church service, at least “3-4 times a year.” Clearly it’s not a dominant part of our culture anymore.
So, as an editor, writer, and communicator, do all you can to promote Scripture-reading for churches, families, and individuals. Show the joys of connecting with the Bible. Tell stories of those whose lives have been changed through encounters with God’s Word. Provide onramps wherever possible, giving people concrete ways to establish Bible habits. When you find an extremely helpful Bible resource—an app, a children’s Bible, a curriculum, a Bible dictionary, a game for families, a video series, etc.—puff it like crazy.
For my thirteenth birthday, my parents gave me a Zondervan Bible with an amazing index of subjects, which captivated my attention through my teen years. Yes, I was a church kid, primed for Scripture engagement, I suppose, but this index gave me a helpful roadmap to a complex book I was beginning to explore for myself. The right product at the right time can change a life.
Understanding Engagement
For many years now, the annual State of the Bible survey has measured Scripture engagement in the U.S. At first, the metric focused on frequency of personal Bible reading, along with one’s view of biblical inspiration. Eight years ago, the formula changed. Frequency remained important, but so were other questions about the centrality of the Bible in people’s decision-making (what they buy, what they watch, etc.) and the Bible’s impact on their relationships with God and others.
That’s more than statistical nitpicking. It signaled an important shift in our understanding. Now “Scripture engagement” involved the mirror, the lamp, the light, and coming to Jesus for life—as well as “meditating day and night.”
As an editor or writer, you have various sources for data on the church, faith, and Christian issues. They have their own helpful ways of processing the numbers. I mention State of the Bible because I’ve had a front-row seat to these decisions as a staffer and now as a freelancer. But more than that: I think this is a very important broadening of our understanding.
We know the power of God’s Word. We want to encourage people to read it as much as they can. But let’s not build more Pharisees, combing the pages for rules and regulations and ignoring any meaningful relationship with the main character. Let’s keep showing how we can meet Jesus in those pages (whether those “pages” are in print or on a screen). Let’s keep talking and writing about how the message of Christ can live within us, in our churches, and in our communities (Colossians 3:16).
Let’s promote a deep, personal, life-changing interaction with the book we love.
Randy Petersen is a freelance writer, an associate member of EPA, co-founder of the Christian Freelance Writers Network blog, author of The Printer and the Preacher (Nelson, 2015), formerly Director of Scripture Engagement Content for American Bible Society, and currently the lead writer on the State of the Bible report.
Posted June 5, 2026
