'Couch to 5k' but for Bible reading

THE QUIET TIME KICKSTART:
Six Weeks to a Healthy Bible Habit
By Rachel Jones
The Good Book Company. 96 pages.
£6.99.
ISBN 978 1 802 541 366

Who of us hasn’t needed a kickstart, at points, for our quiet times? Taking the premise of ‘Couch to 5k’, which builds up running ability and stamina, the author here helps us start small with reading our Bible regularly and build up to more in-depth times of study.

The book’s aim is to equip the reader with skills to understand the Bible for themselves, considering questions such as what the passage says, why it says it and the Bible context. These questions develop as the weeks progress, along with lengthening Bible passages to read and longer comment and questions in the book itself, all increasing at a gradual and realistic pace.

Time to catch up

There are five readings for each week, allowing time to catch up if necessary at weekends or opportunity for further reading. There are suggestions of what this may include, such as reading the passage which will be preached on at your church that Sunday with some key questions to consider (what excites, confuses or surprises you).

Each day’s reading starts and concludes with ideas for prayer and has a column for additional notes. Just as with Couch to 5k, the author also gives frequent encouragements to keep going with your Bible reading.

The book takes the reader through 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Ruth, and Mark 1, concluding with an eight week reading plan for the rest of Mark’s Gospel, to help the reader continue in the Bible reading habit they have begun with the support of the book. It might be useful if the book had pointed to further resources for Bible reading plans stretching beyond these weeks, perhaps online, to give the reader ideas of where to go next.

The book would be of great benefit to anyone who has got out of the habit of regular Bible reading or who struggles to understand the Bible for themselves. It could also be helpful for younger (perhaps teenage) readers to begin their quiet time habit.

Though running may be good for our body, our quiet times can be good for our soul – and this book can certainly help as we invest our energy in that.

Caroline Haley, pastor’s wife, Beech Hill Church, Otley, West Yorkshire

See also Rachel Jones' comment article.