How to Use This Reading Plan
Here is a brief guide on how to use this reading plan:
Unit Structure
This reading plan divides the Bible into seven units which are ordered as follows: 1) Gospels & Acts, 2) Epistles, 3) Pentateuch, 4) Historical Books, 5) Wisdom Literature, 6) Prophets [two formats available], 7) Revelation. This order allows you to begin by reading something familiar (the Gospels) to help boost your confidence before diving into the Old Testament which is typically more challenging. Revelation is scheduled last since it is best understood in the context of the entire Biblical story and it heavily references the Old Testament prophets.
Unit Content
Each unit generally has two pages:
The first page is the Unit Detail. It lists all the content in its recommended order and includes the URL of each video (URLs are clickable hyperlinks when viewing on your computer).
The second page is the 10-Week Reading Plan which breaks the unit’s content down into 5 readings each week. The video URLs are not included on this page, but the video labels are clickable hyperlinks when viewing on your computer. The reading plan has the added feature of suggesting one psalm per day (which is not included in the unit detail page) to benefit from the way psalms often touch our heart.
Preparation Courses
At the beginning of each unit there is a list of “preparation courses” to complete. They are detailed on page 3 and provide useful background information for understanding the readings in the unit. You need only complete a preparation course once. If another unit calls for the same preparation course, you may skip it.
Scheduling
The reading plans were made to be 10 weeks long for an intentional reason: 10 weeks easily fits into one season of a church calendar. One 10-week unit can start in September and be done well in advance of Christmas. Then you can fit two 10-week units from January to June and still allow for a one-week break in the spring and a full summer break. The Revelation Unit is very short making it easy to work as a summer study, thus allowing the entire Bible to be completed in two years.
However, do not let that suggested schedule box you in. One of the main reasons this plan was developed was to offer more flexibility than many whole-Bible reading plans. Committing to reading the whole Bible is a giant barrier for some. With this plan, you are only committing to one unit at a time. For individuals using this plan, you need only commit initially to 10 weeks, and then you can start up again if life allows. If your group is doing the units in sequence and life gets busy for a short season, there will soon be an opportunity for a fresh start when a new unit is started.