5 Reasons Every Church Should Create a Bible Reading Plan

There are thousands, if not millions, of bible reading plans and daily devotionals out there. And yet, at least 8 out of 10 Christians are not practicing any spiritual disciplines on their own outside of church activity. So how does your church creating another reading plan or devotional change anything?

You’d be surprised.

The opportunities and benefits of creating your own devotional or bible reading plan for your church are numerous and exciting — and it doesn’t have to be nearly as much work as you might think.

The Benefits for Creating Devotional Content

Here are all the benefits to creating and delivering daily or weekly content for your church:

• Deeper Connection: Your people don’t want to hear from just anyone; they trust YOU. Daily devotionals help people feel more connected to your church throughout the week, which will also make them much more likely to actually engage.
• Establishing Spiritual Disciplines: By providing a framework for your people to easily engage with, you can more effectively encourage a daily rhythm of Bible reading and reflection. Devotionals facilitate spiritual growth and reflection, promoting a deeper relationship with God.
• Shared Experience: Daily devotionals create a shared language and experience within your community, fostering unity and understanding among church members. Spiritual conversations are easier than every to have when so many people are engaging with the same content on their own time.
• Further exploration and application: Devotionals provide an opportunity to expand on the ideas discussed in the sermon. The right content can offer additional insights and encourage reflection.
• Driving Toward Daily Action: Without practicing what we learn, we never actually change. By incorporating actionable steps into the devotionals, pastors can guide church members toward daily actions that align with the sermon's message, promoting practical application and growth.

The main point is simple: you have your church’s trust and attention. Why not capitalize on it when so many benefits come with it?

If you’re already creating and delivering devotional content, or do at certain times throughout the year, you’ll know the potential challenges and downsides that can come with this type of content creation.

How to Create Engaging Devotionals

With the right vision (and the best tools), here's how to create and deliver a devotional or bible reading plan:

• Choose Relevant Themes: Select themes that matter to your congregation, ensuring the content is meaningful and impactful. Staying in step with the message from Sunday is the easiest way to create that consistency.
• Stay Simple: The best devotionals value brevity. They’re easy to engage and digest quickly, and they leave room for the reader to dive further (instead of just reading or watching more). This is also why the “devotional” content isn’t even necessary — simply providing one passage and one reflection question is quite effective.
• Keep it Familiar: Choose a format and stick with it so you can foster familiarity and comfort for your congregation. When they know what to expect, they’re more likely to carve out the right amount of time and make it their own.
• Encourage Reflection: Devotionals shouldn’t just be something else to passively consumer. Instead, they’re a chance to push people toward introspection and response, encouraging personal growth and reflection. This is where people should learn to wrestle on their own, and it’s our job to create that space for them.
• Drive Toward Action: Learning has to require doing. Without practice, we never actually change. Include one clear, practical, inescapable action step that’s sure to facilitate real change and transformation. When possible, steer clear of intangible action steps like “remember,” “think about,” or “Consider.”
• Don’t Forget Prayer: Even though most Christians would say they believe in the power of prayer, many would also say they don’t have a very vibrant prayer life. Include a simple prayer prompt that’s tied directly to the theme that day.
• Keep Talking About It: Reference devotionals often from the stage on Sundays and in other communications, reinforcing their importance and encouraging engagement. You can even work it into your new guest follow-up process so everyone gets an early invite to join in.
• Emphasize Relational Engagement: Prioritize relational engagement, recognizing that relationships are key to fostering change. Encourage group and team leaders to bring it up often, or provide them with questions that specifically reference the content.
• Offer a Paper Option: Provide a downloadable PDF for those who prefer to print out the guides and use them to write on. But make sure it’s not the only version, because then it won’t be mobile-friendly or interactive on phones.
• Choose a Sustainable Rhythm: The best frequency is one you can actually keep up with. Batch create weeks or months at a time to get ahead, work it into into sermon prep, and get multiple voices to create content. Create in seasons if needed, with intentional breaks built in. Long term consistently is better than short term daily.
• Utilize Analytics: Let data drive your decisions, checking analytics regularly to make intentional choices that enhance engagement and serve people better.

Tether is the ultimate tool for high quality devotionals in way less time.

Believe it or not, you don’t have to be an expert or invest hours every week to create the most engaging and effective devotionals.

Tether was intentionally designed to be the perfect platform for churches to provide rich, interactive, relational content for their congregations. With its customizable features and user-friendly interface, Tether allows pastors to create devotionals that meet their congregation's needs and preferences.

Tether brings together all the tools you need in one convenient place:

• A centralized hub for all your content
• Automatic, customizable notifications via email, SMS, or push
• Step-based, easy-to-read formatting
• Fully interactive content for individuals and groups
• Automatically generated PDFs
• Unique landing pages for every devotional or reading plan