The best way to get a feel for the story of the Bible is to read it chronologically. This means you read everything in the order that it occurred, instead of book by book the way it is usually arranged. For example, if you were reading it straight through you would read the stories of David’s life, and then read his poetry about 3 months later. Reading it chronologically means you will read his poetry with the stories they were likely written about. It makes more sense and brings more context to each part. Sometimes a story is told several times, from several different perspectives. The chronological plan has you read those accounts one right after the other. It can seem repetitive on some days, but it is easier to keep it all straight.
I have used several chronological plans. They are each slightly different. The one I recommend can be downloaded for free on the YouVersion Bible app. You can find the plan here.
Here are some tips for using this plan on YouVersion:
For those of you who would prefer a paper Bible, you can find the exact same plan in print here.
You can find the timeline here. You can print that out for your participants or just send them a link to it. I recommend having a printed copy to follow along on and jot a few notes on.
I really hope you can find some friends to do this with. It makes it a lot more fun and gives you some added motivation to keep going when you get behind (we all get behind at times!). My group uses the “Group Me” app to have a running conversation about what we are reading. Alternatively, you can use the “read with friends” feature within the YouVersion plan.
Some groups watch the video together (usually around 30 minutes), and then go through the discussion questions. Other groups watch the videos on their own, so they have more time for discussion. Some groups meet every week, some every other week, and some once a month. There is just one lesson for each month, but you could easily spread that into several discussions and then add a standard question each week. Something general like “What stood out to you the most?” or “What questions are you thinking about?” If someone has a question that no one in your group has an answer for, encourage them to look it up and report back to the group. I look a lot of things up on Bible Hub.
Here is a tutorial that shows how I look things up when I have questions: https://youtu.be/kIP8tlpFGck
If you really want to dig in, here is how I look things up in in Greek/Hebrew: https://youtu.be/aowICla-V5w
If you have any questions you want me to answer, or you want my perspective on something, feel free to reach out to me at wholebiblechallenge@gmail.com.
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