Members of The Church of the Nazarene will receive free Audio Drama New Testaments or Kidz Bibles on CD in MP3 format and will listen through the New Testament from Easter to Pentecost.
(PRWeb) February 5, 2007 -- Faith Comes By Hearing, the American Bible Society, and the International Bible Society are impacting members of The Church of the Nazarene through You’ve Got the Time, an Audio Bible listening program. Members of The Church of the Nazarene will receive free Audio Drama New Testaments or Kidz Bibles on CD in MP3 format and will listen through the New Testament from Easter to Pentecost.
The Church of the Nazarene is branding the program Make the Connection with God’s Word, and is encouraging over 5,000 churches in the U.S. and Canada to take part. This means that an unprecedented 600,000 people will be impacted by listening to God’s Word at the same time.
The event is intended to overcome cultural challenges facing the American church. The U.S. Department of Education’s 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy cites that 43% of American adults are functionally illiterate which means that they cannot read at a level that enables successful comprehension. This indicates that nearly half the people in churches today do not have the skills required for meaningful Bible reading.
Literacy rates are not the only problem facing the church today. Statistics prove that although most Americans consider themselves Christian, many do not know basic biblical facts. Not So Christian America, by Professor Thomas C. Reeves, cites a Gallup Organization poll which reveals that more than half of American adults cannot name the four Gospels and only three in ten teenagers know why Easter is celebrated.
Audio Bible programs offer a fast-paced society the opportunity to increase Bible knowledge while performing other tasks or while on the go.
Organizers expect positive results from the Make the Connection program. International Director for Faith Comes By Hearing, Morgan Jackson, explained, “The Church of the Nazarene has asked God for revival and seek this revival by having the whole church listen through the New Testament together. God’s Word is the source of all life and the foundation of revival. In the Bible, the book of Romans states that ‘Faith Comes By Hearing and hearing by the Word of God.’ As the church hears God’s Word, we expect to see a faith explosion—faith that will lead to a transformation of people, families, and the church—leading to the revival our hearts long for.”
Audio Bible listening programs in the U.S. have an astounding effect on nations in other parts of the world. After listening programs in churches are completed, congregations are asked to sponsor programs for poor and illiterate people groups around the world.
Through You’ve Got the Time, churches fund recordings of the Bible in the heart languages of the people. To date, Faith Comes By Hearing has 264 Scripture recordings in 222 different languages with plans to record Audio Drama Bibles in every language spoken.
Dr. Woodie Stevens, District Superintendent of Sunday School Ministries for the Church of the Nazarene had this to say about the possibilities of sponsoring Faith Comes By Hearing listening programs in other nations, “Imagine a remote village without electricity or running water where people gather around a black box that speaks. Imagine the powerful impact this 40-day listening adventure will have on those who have never heard God’s Word in their mother language. For the first time we can literally take the good news to the illiterate of the world.”
Faith Comes By Hearing is a nonprofit ministry which exists to reach oral communicators and poor and illiterate people worldwide with the Word of God through audio technology. For more information visit http://www.fcbh.org.
SOURCES CITED:
U.S. Department of Education’s 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, http://ccclib.org/psc/2003_NAAL_report.pdf.
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9610/articles/reeves.html,
Not So Christian America, by Professor Thomas C. Reeves, citing a Gallup Organization poll.
Contact Information:
Laurie Westlake
505 881 3321
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