Cleveland, TN–Dozens of people have taken 25 minute shifts to read the Bible through in seven days at the Church of God International Offices. The reading event began at 6:00 am on January 1 and is scheduled to conclude on Monday, January 7.
As of 3:00 pm EST on Thursday, January 3, the reading had reached the approximate halfway point as readers were in the book of 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament. The goal is to read all 66 books of the old and new testaments. While readers are free to read from any version of the Bible, most are reading from the New King James, which is provided at the podium in a large print version. The reading is taking place and being broadcast live via Web stream from the Leadership and Communications Center at the Church of God International Offices. Times of reading are from 6:00 am until 9:00 pm EST. To log on, visit www.churchofgod.org [1].
General Overseer Mark Williams first mentioned his desire for the Church of God to take a lead in getting back to reading the scriptures in their entirety. Williams has adopted the theme “Living The Word,” unveiled at the Church of God General Assembly last July, as a benchmark toward launching a denomination-wide reading initiative called READ (Reflect, Engage, Apply, Disciple). More than 108,000 people have signed up through the READ Initiative to read the Bible through in 2013. Over 1,000 have signed up since the live reading began two days ago.
To participate in the READ Initiative and read the Bible through in 2013, log on to the Church of God website.