93% of Protestant pastors give free Bibles to congregants: study

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, January 12, 2025

iStock/942551288

An overwhelming majority of Protestant pastors in the United States have gifted their congregants free Bibles to encourage them to engage with Scripture outside of church, according to a new poll. 

Lifeway Research released a report titled “Pastors’ Views on Encouraging Bible Reading” based on responses collected by 1,003 Protestant pastors between Aug. 8 and Sept. 3, 2024. The report examined the methods used by pastors to encourage their congregants to read the Bible, comparing the results of this survey to the findings of similar research conducted in 2016. 

“In an increasingly secular culture, pastors are not assuming people have a Bible,” said Lifeway Research CEO Scott McConnell in a statement accompanying the report’s publication. “More churches are prepared to give a free Bible to someone who needs one to encourage them to read more about the message the church shares.”

The most common way pastors encourage their congregants to engage with Scripture on their own is by providing free Bibles to those who need one. Ninety-three percent of respondents told pollsters they gave free Bibles to congregants who needed one in 2024, an increase from the 86% who said the same in 2016. Nearly all pastors affiliated with the United Church of Christ (99%) gave out free Bibles to their congregants in 2024, along with 98% of Pentecostals and 98% of pastors leading non-denominational congregations. 

Eighty-eight percent of both Presbyterians and Methodists gave out free Bibles to their church members if needed. Ninety-two percent of pastors surveyed said during sermons they remind their congregants to read the Bible independently, a jump from the 86% who engaged in this practice in 2016. 

Just over three-quarters of respondents (73%) include Bible readings during worship services, a slight dip from the 76% who featured Scripture readings during services eight years ago. Bible readings during worship services were most commonly embraced by pastors affiliated with the Church of Christ (85%), followed by Lutherans (83%), Baptists (71%), Presbyterians (67%), pastors of non-denominational congregations (66%) and Pentecostals (55%). 

A large majority of respondents (59%) provided their congregants with a printed Bible reading plan compared to 64% who did the same in 2016. Most pastors affiliated with the Church of Christ (72%) took this course of action, as did most Lutheran (69%), Baptist (67%), Pentecostal (53%) and Methodist pastors (51%), as well as 41% of Presbyterian pastors. 

Conversely, the percentage of pastors who used social media to encourage their congregants to read Scripture increased from 52% in 2016 to 56% in 2024. Most pastors leading Methodist (69%) and Pentecostal (69%) congregations utilized the social media option, as did one-half of those leading non-denominational churches (50%), 47% of Lutherans and 42% of Presbyterians. 

A significantly smaller share of pastors provided reminders to congregants via email to read the Bible in both 2024 (49%) and 2016 (46%). Reminders to interact with Scripture via email were adopted by a majority of Lutherans (65%) and Methodists (65%), exactly one-half of non-denominational pastors (50%) and smaller shares of pastors affiliated with the Church of Christ (48%), Presbyterians (47%), Baptists (36%) and Pentecostals (36%). 

The least commonly used method to encourage Scripture reading is providing a digital or online Bible reading plan. Thirty-seven percent of respondents embraced this option in 2024, down from the 40% who did so in 2016. 

Less than half of pastors belonging to all denominations included in the study provided their congregants with an online Bible reading plan. While nearly half of pastors belonging to the Church of Christ (49%) have taken this route, smaller percentages of Pentecostals (46%), pastors leading non-denominational churches (41%), Baptists (39%), Lutherans (28%) and Presbyterians (28%) have compiled digital Bible reading plans. 

Overall, more than 99% of pastors use at least one method to encourage their congregants to partake in independent Bible reading as less than 1% selected “none of these” in response to the survey question. This marks an improvement from 2016, when exactly 99% of pastors employed various methods to get members of their churches to read the Bible and just 1% did not.