I was preaching on a Wednesday night and asked the group “how many of you want to be like Jesus?” to stand up. Now remember this is the cream-of-the-crop, the best-of-the-best, in the church. These were not the once-a-month attenders but rather they were the hard-core church supporters. Everyone in the room stood up. I was not surprised and neither were they because isn’t that the goal of every Christian, to be like Jesus.

Then I thanked them and asked to be seated but not before taking an index card out of the pew pocket in front of them. My follow up question revealed what I believe the number one factor that has influenced our nation’s spiritual, social and political environment. “How much time do you spend each day in the Bible?” When I say “in the Bible” I’m talking about reading, studying, listening to, memorizing, and meditating on. I asked them to only write the number of minutes on the card and pass it forward, don’t sign it.

Only 20% of the cards came back with anything written on them which to me meant that 80% of them didn’t do anything with the Bible every day. The average of those that responded with a number was a little less than 30 minutes a day. I was amazed that in this church only 7 people out of every 100 read their Bible for than 45 minutes each day. We all want to be like Jesus and we want to know Him better but we don’t connect the fact that to really know Him we must be in His Word. The Barna Group put it this way, “One of the most important convictions you can ever form is the conviction that Jesus, as a real, living, precious person, is known today chiefly through his word.”

What are some things you can do to make sure your Sunday School class is engaged with God’s Word every day?
1. Commitment to daily Bible reading. Make it a goal for every member to read through the Bible in a year.
2. Couples reading the Bible together every day. Help your church by helping your families. Nothing makes stronger homes than families that read the Bible together.
3. Call on men and women to gather in triplets to hold each other accountable for daily Bible reading and memorization of scripture. Meet together once a week and pray together.

In I Samuel 3:21 it states that, “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” I think the same is true about Jesus. He makes Himself known to us through His Word. The issue for us is how much do we really want to be like Him?

Dr. Smith serves as a state missionary with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and is the Sunday School, Groups and Faith Development Specialist. Visit their website at gabaptist.org/groups/ for more information and other resources to aid your Sunday School or Small Group. You can also connect with Dr. Smith at facebook.com/GABaptistGroups or twitter.com/GABaptistGroups. Dr. Smith is available for conferences or other speaking opportunities and can be contacted at tsmith@gabaptist.org.