Bible Month is an annual campaign that celebrates Scripture by inviting the whole Methodist Connexion to feast on one particular book of the Bible together.*
Through a menu of carefully curated resources, training and learning opportunities, churches and circuits are encouraged to taste and see the goodness of an individual text; enjoying some of its unique flavours, considering its origins, appreciating its place alongside the rest of Scripture, and savouring the unique contribution it might make to our faithful living and learning today.
New to Bible Month or thinking of running it for the first time? Find out more about it all in our Bible Month Stakeholders Guide.
*Typically, churches engage with Bible Month during June and many of the resources and training opportunities are timed accordingly. It is possible, however, for churches to choose a different month in the year in which to engage with the materials if that works better for their local calendars and needs.
In 2024, we’re feasting on the Book of Genesis
Join us for the adventure and discover for yourself the life-giving truths that this brilliant book ponders and imparts.
Genesis is the starting point for all Christian theology and explores many of the foundational questions of life and faith:
Who is God? What is God like? How does God interact with the world? How is that world meant to be? What does it mean to be human? What does it look like to be God’s people?
Through the book, we get to journey with many different characters as they wrestle (sometimes literally!) with finding answers to these questions in the midst of the messiness and uncertainty of life.
A short introduction to Genesis
The stories of Genesis divide neatly into 4 bite-sized chunks, which we’ll take each at a time over 4 weeks:
Week 1: The Sovereign God who Creates (Chapters 1-11)
Week 2: The God who Calls and Blesses (Chapters 12-25)
Week 3: The God who Comes to People in their Struggles (Chapters 25-36)
Week 4: The God who Confirms and Safeguards Divine Promises (Chapters 37-50)
Here is a quick video from Debra Reid - author of this year's Study Guide Bible Notes - about why Genesis is such a good book to engage with and how we're going to approach it.
Four Week Study Guide
A booklet including Study Notes with Preaching Points, Small Group Session Plans and All-Age Worship Ideas, and more.
Daily Reading Guide
We don't just want to encourage churches and circuits to talk and read about Genesis - we want to encourage them to read it too! And hopefully discover that its fascinating narratives can lead us into deep reflections that will help us to better read the rest of the Bible too. So we've broken it down into this guided reading plan which also includes some helpful notes to help you get the most out of reading it together.
Animations
We've produced some short animations for each week of Bible Month which you can play in services or put out on social media. They offer a short, accessible introduction to that week's theme to help whet your appetite for engaging further.
Conversation Videos
This is a set of four video conversations about Genesis, hosted by Tim Baker from Twelvebaskets, with special guests. Preachers might want to use these as they plan a sermon (each one has preaching tips) and small groups might find them helpful as a resource to watch together and discuss.
Bible Journalling Kit
For those artistic and crafty ones amongst you, we've put together a Bible Journalling Kit. This is a printable resource with key words and images from the text of Genesis, that you can cut out and stick into your Bibles or journals to help you as you meditate on its message.
Andy Fishburne introduces this year’s Bible Journalling kit and shares his process as an example.
Training Day
This year's Bible Month Training Day for Local Preachers and Worship Leaders was on the 16th March. You can view the whole recording here.
Jasmine Devadason shared two pieces of reflective writing:
Images Pack
Hymns and songs
A starter list of hymns from Singing the Faith and StF+ to help worship and sermon planning. Selected to reflect the four themes developed for the Bible Month resource.
B&W Version of Study Notes
This is not the full version of the Study Guide which you can order from the Preach website. This is a reduced, black and white version with the core preaching notes for those wanting to prepare for Bible Month sermons and small group sessions.
We're also providing an accessible version of this year's Study Notes. For more info or to get a copy, please contact LWPT.
Here you can see and sign-up to upcoming Bible Month training and events (you can also browse through the calendar below to see what is happening when.
Here you can ‘like’ ‘follow’ and join in on the general conversation about Bible Month itself as well as find updates, links and details for Bible Month related events and resources.
Here you can find helpful videos including input from the Study Guide authors, full-length recordings of the various Learning Network events, and bite-sized input and guides to help you prepare for delivering Bible Month in your context.
Past Bible Month Archives
You can access information and resources for past years' Bible Month books by clicking on the links below.