Matt and Carol Prater

Matt Prater, Pastor at New Hope Church in Brisbane and History Maker’s radio host, says committing to reading the Bible each day has been one of the most important things he’s ever done for his Christian growth.

Given his experience of the importance of reading God’s word regularly, Prater willingly agreed to participate in Bible Society Australia’s Bible Reading Campaign, Live Light in 25 Words. The campaign seeks to encourage Australian Christians to commit to reading the Bible, starting with just 25 words a day for each day in the month of October.

“I think the campaign is a brilliant idea,” Prater says, “because so many Christians don’t read their Bible, and you have to start somewhere. It takes 28 days to develop a habit, so the month long campaign should work well. My hunch is that people will get addicted to reading God’s word, and will start reading more than 25 words a day.”

For the last seven years now, together with people at his church, Prater has been reading the Bible each day and writing a S-O-A-P journal. The church runs a program to read the Bible in a year, with four chapters assigned to each day, and journaling in the S-O-A-P style is encouraged.

The S-O-A-P journaling involves choosing one (S)cripture passage from the four chapters read, and writing it at the top of the page – the ‘S’ in the acronym. This is followed with an (O)bservation, the (A)pplication of the passage to your life, and a (P)rayer.

“I love journaling in this way with my wife Carol,” says Prater. As the host of a weekday breakfast radio show on the VIsion Radio Network, The Journey, Prater also shares his journals on the radio show’s blog.

The church at which Prater serves as Senior Pastor, New Hope Church in Brisbane, was planted nine years ago from New Hope Church in Hawaii, which has since planted 120 churches, all of which follow the same Bible reading program.

To cater for all the different kinds of people in the church, including youth, there is a version of the program which assigns only one chapter of the Bible to read each day, and the church also uses the Word For Today resource, Australia’s most widely read daily devotional.

“Half our church does the full Bible reading and journaling,” says Prater. “It’s the best foundation for our church. For example, we’ve just been reading through the book of James. I’m preaching from James this Sunday, and it’s great, because I know people have just read through it, so we’ll be on the same page – literally!”

Prater loves journaling with his staff at the church and encouraging them with his thoughts. “Often I’ll email my journal entries around to the staff,” he says.

Before starting this reading plan, Prater admits that regular Bible reading was something he used to neglect. “I’ve been a Christian since I was 15, and I’d never regularly read the Bible.”

“I used to only read the Bible when I had to preach, to feed someone else,” he says. “Then I learnt that I had to feed myself, and read the Bible for God to speak to me about what needs to change in my life.”

“When I realised the Bible could be read as a personal devotion, and not just as public teaching, it changed the way I read it. I realised that I can’t just expect to be fed by other preachers or by reading Christian books. I had to feed myself on God’s word, otherwise I’d starve.”

Along this theme of starving from the lack of God’s Word, Prater mentions a t-shirt his wife Carol has which carries the scripture from Amos 8:11, “ ‘The time is surely coming,’ says the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD’”.  Prater describes the t-shirt, “On the front it reads, ‘Break the famine’ and on the back it says, ‘Feed yourself’ with the reference to Amos 8:11.”

Prater says his secret to reading the Bible regularly comes from working it into his daily schedule. “I actually have included Bible reading and journaling into my job description,” he says. “So I’ve made it part of my thinking that I’m not fulfilling my job properly if I’m not reading God’s Word each day. There are still days when I struggle to read God’s Word, or miss reading it entirely. But I don’t beat myself up over it. I just pick up the next day, and if I miss out during the day, I make sure I do my journaling at night.”

During October, Christians around Australia can choose to ‘Read the Bible with’ Matt Prater, through the 25 Words website. Using his own Bible reading and journal entries, Prater submitted 27 days of Bible Devotions which are available now on the website.