Introduction
In December 2024, I embarked on a journey to read the Bible cover-to-cover and facilitate a monthly online Bible Book Club. This ambitious journey was possible for me because I had the time and faith to do it. I retired from a demanding 32-year career in June 2024 and, with two grown children, I suddenly had a lot of time to fill. I lost my father on February 1, 2024, which created an enormous void for me that I filled through church and faith. Together, these two life changing events led me to this special way to fill my time and embrace my faith.
I started formulating my plan to read the Bible cover-to-cover early in 2024 just about six weeks after I lost my dad. At first, I just planned to read the Bible on my own. However, I quickly made the decision to not only read the Bible myself but also to create an online monthly Bible Book Club. This decision came, in part, because I loved the book club I was in at the time and hoped to share my experience of reading and studying the Bible with others. I decided then that I would announce the club on Facebook in December 2024. I knew I would not be in a position to facilitate an in-person Bible Book Club because I would be splitting my time between three different states: New York, Maryland and Florida. I had two sons, a serious boyfriend and a slew of friends in New York where I had lived since 1990 and, after we lost my father, I was trying to spend a lot of time with my mother who split her time between Maryland and Florida. I also felt like having the club online had the potential to reach more people from all over the country and even the world.
My favorite part of this beautiful journey was when I would curl up with the Bible I received more than five decades ago when I was child. I loved opening my old, frayed, little, white Bible to just read the book(s) I had scheduled for the month. My next step, which I also really liked, was to go through the NIV Jeremiah Study Bible by Dr. David Jeremiah, recommended to me by Reverend George Patterson of Atlantic United Methodist Church in Ocean City, Maryland, and write a summary and create a graphic(s) to help me (and perhaps others) better understand the book(s) of the month. I found it more challenging to shorten the summaries and develop discussion questions for the book(s) to complete the monthly Bible Book Club posts for Facebook. The part that I did not plan when I set out to do this were the monthly Zoom meetings. I had envisioned the discussion unfolding through Facebook comments on my monthly posts. However, when I made my initial post for Genesis, people started to ask when the meeting was and so we decided to try Zoom meetings. Those monthly meetings were both challenging and fulfilling for me.
As the journey unfolded, more and more unexpected twists and turns would follow. All challenging but also fulfilling in their own ways. All in all, the experience - of reading the Bible cover-to-cover, facilitating the online Bible Book Club and doing more and more to spread God’s Holy Word – has become one of the most rewarding times of my life. I hope the materials I developed and continue to develop and my online posts will inspire others to read the Bible cover-to-cover, facilitate online and/or in person Bible Book Clubs and do more to read, study and spread God’s Holy Word.