Working on Bible Reading Plan module

It is unclear as to how this differs from the many existing Web sites which offer multiple Bible reading
plans.

We are currently reading through the Bible chronologically as a family.

Does this new module leverage the "book writing" module in a way that facilitates a "group commentary" or the like?

I'd see a value in a group of serious people reading through the Bible chronologically and sharing their
observations. (Each group doing this might focus on a different matric, e.g. one might look for links to
later Bible texts to show the consistency and progress of God's message, others may look for links to archeological discoveries, others might look at comparisons to other translations, still others may look for cultural/sociological patterns.)

I'd also want the NET Bible with the 60,000 translator's notes as an option.

WDYT?

http://firstbaptistchurchsh.com
Pastor David

This is a great start, but following on pastordavid's thoughts, I think a daily discussion of the passage would be excellent. If you could tie this in to the Calendar module to allow a new node to be created each day with these links, that would be ideal, since then, people could discuss the passage.

Wouldn't this be a great idea for a mobile app? Have the day's node appear on your phone/Blackberry, and discuss the passage with others around the world throughout the day.

Further, tie it in with the Bible module to prevent the need to go to Bible Gateway--the text just pops up.

Separate ones based on the various weekly lectionaries would be helpful for pastors to discuss thoughts on the upcoming texts in order to prepare sermons, sharing insights, illustrations, etc.

While we can't "Open Source" the Bible (need to stick with God's Word), discussions on it should be as public as absolutely possible.

Pastor Dale
http://crossfeednews.com/podcast

I have been using OSIS, as this offers parallels and your choice of a wide variety of translations. I like to look at the Greek and Hebrew. OSIS offers both Textus Receptus and Majority Text and for OT offers LXX through Rhalf's and their Hebrew is Codex Westminster-Lenningrad, not so bad. Anyway, nice to get it all in parallel. See http://www.crosswire.org/study/parallelstudy.jsp?del=all&add=KJV&add=TR&...

I would like to see all this developed farther so I could actually look at graphics of papyri by passage look up and each of these was tagged to history/theory for the fragment.

Actually, what I have in mind is a Bible Commentary that allows individuals to either add something scholarly, or look up work of scholars who use the system, or those who do devotions to get sermon podcasts related to their daily readings, which they can schedule themselves, or use a recommended scheduler. - In other words, an all-encompassing system that appeals both to scholars and laity.

Dialog with study groups is not so much what I would be personally interested in. I'm a little tired of group think. But I think this should accommodate that, since what I am aiming at is the definitive system.

I'm thinking that individuals can add their devotion notes into their own journal and set that to public or private. Scholars can do the same and can offer their opinions on the one hand and contribute to a Wiki on the other. Those who teach or proselytize might be interested in public settings that would be searchable. Those with special interests, such as prophecy could compare notes, and so could groups.

There is also a time travel machine attached. he he. No, but really, I'd like to know what would be required to actually put the ultimate Bible Portal together. As new translations go public domain I'd like to see them added. I think for papyri and fragments there is certainly an interest among scholars. I find it frustrating that I have to read their works, which somehow they have been privileged to see from all over the world without seeing scanned graphics of the source texts myself.

A stage after this might have an ancient languages lexicon attached. I like Strongs but I think language study needs to move beyond this. Word meanings change over time. For instance, the word "anathema" shifted from "solemn offering" to "curse" right around the first century. So where Paul said "if anyone doesn't love the Lord let him be anathema", either means "let him be cursed" which totally doesn't fit the rest of his epistle, or it means "let him be lifted up to God with an oath" which fits quite well. But you will only find it in Strongs under "curse."

If you let scholars add their commentary to a text analysis track for each passage, you wind up with open-ended notes. A Wiki might work for that. But I like to see an ever growing knowledge base with links to a variety of opinion, as well, so I'd be looking for a combination of a Wiki and a personal commentary and/or journal options.

I'd like to be able to add in the commentary of the church fathers and others for which there is historical record so that anyone can look it up. They click to a passage. They see a variety of links to commentators throughout history and today. You can set your own preferences to display the commentators you choose.

That's obviously more ambitious than the Bible Reading Plan module, but I thought I would paint a picture of what I'd personally like to have access to as a way of encouraging you. I think that your module is a great idea. I don't see churches having a use for it so much as individual people on the web, but when it comes to the web there are already great resources and you've got to think in terms of a market of resources, which is competitive. As such any truly successful project requires funding and a commited core group of individuals who understand the vision and the need for the tool.

I mention "competition" because to be practical there are a number of organizations that are already supplying great resources, BibleGateway and OSIS among them. Peshitta.org is specialty. I'd love to see the best-of integrated. All these operate on donations. A truly successful project is going to eat up a lot of bandwidth and get tremendous CPU consuming hits, as there definitely is demand. So the first thing I would do is gather up some visionary prospects to see if you are on the same page about it and then make out a preliminary business plan. Estimate your development schedule and as soon as you have enough to demo put together a Power Point Presentation and start raising funds with it.

If you can develop a system that churches can use for a variety of purposes, and pastors can use to get their sermon ideas from, and both individuals and groups can use, you may be involved in something very significant for the kingdom. In a sense the Internet interface you create becomes a common ecclesia and knowledge base, which to me is kind of cool.

Of course, there is a "market" for a less ambitous Bible Reading Plan tool that could serve as a module on drupal. And that's that. And you'll learn exactly what that is just by developing it and seeing how many try it out.

The web to me is inherently competitive when it comes to church. Great video-casts of great sermons are probably the most effective use of a site, outside of posting directions and listing ministries like a brochure. For Bible Study I think most pastors will realize that they can't control the flow of information and will avoid suggesting to their congregations that they use their sites for that purpose.

I contrast this with a site that can accommodate churches. So lets say you go to the Ultimate Bible Site, and you are a Christian of a certain denomination and belong to a local parish. You go there because this is the definitive source of all information pertaining to the Bible and it is like Face Book, where you can put up your journal and personal stuff. And of course, you can keep whatever you want private or public - your choice. You look up your local church and then you can find out what other people in your church are using the site. There is a customizable Bible Reading Plan feature in the Ultimate Bible Site so you use that to create an online Bible Study Group for your local Church. You agree to do the studies and meet once a week at 7am for coffee and discuss it and pray.

The church pastor has nothing to do with the decision. The tool allows the congregants to make the decision. Later the congregants inform the pastor that a group is using the tool and that he or she is welcome to join in or to invite others. The Pastor never has to worry that the group will fail because by the time he or she discovers it it is already a blessing to at least some.

Now that would work, but as you see, it only works in the context of a major portal for the Bible, not an individual church site.

Let me know if you hear of anyone developing it. I'd be very much interested in contributing!

Hi, as a church, we are wanting to do a 2015 Bible Reading plan together, and I was looking for a way to insert the document with our reading plan into some website, and then I can have it send an automated email with the daily portion of what is to be read that day? And people who would like to get the daily emails can subscribe or unsubscribe...? Is this website a good way to do that?

Thank you for the help- I'm researching this for my pastor...

Hannah