Faith Assembly of God will be holding Read the Bible Out Loud 2024 at four different locations on March 29 and 30 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day.
Between those two days, the bible will be read from Genesis thru Revelation, and anyone can come out to listen or be part of the event at one of the following locations: Richey Park in Enterprise, Stonewall Town Hall, Courthouse Lawn in Quitman, or the lot across from Outreach Services in Shubuta.
This is not the first time the church opted to read the Bible out loud in the place of carrying the cross like they are most commonly recognized for doing each Easter. The first time they felt led to read the Bible out loud was in 2012, and then they returned to carrying the cross after that.
“Faith Assembly is kind of known for carrying the crosses on Easter weekend. We’ve done that for probably 20 plus years,” explained Faith Assembly Pastor Ryan Farmer. “We did that for a while. Monica Gavin was attending our church at the time—she’s since passed away—and the Lord birthed in her heart this idea of reading the Bible out loud. It went through the proper channels at church, and they prayed for it all and decided it was something they wanted to do back in 2012. That was the first year we did it. We read it at Richey Park in Enterprise, we read it at Stonewall Town Hall, and we read it on the courthouse lawn here in Quitman. We read in three different spots. We read the Bible from front to back in about two full days. What we did was take 30-minute time slots and divided them out, and people just signed up for those time slots. We had people sitting out on the lawn in chairs listening. It was really powerful. It was a change of pace from what we had previously been doing, which was carrying the crosses. We just decided that was what we wanted to do that year. Then, we went back to carrying the crosses for the next few years. For the past 12 years, we’ve been doing some version of carrying the cross and praying over different things. Sometimes, we would do dramas in different areas and do some ministry like that over the weekend.”
Now, 12 years later, they feel led to read the Bible out loud again at more locations than they did the first time.
“Some people my know my dad, who was the pastor for Faith Assembly of God, retired in April for health reasons and later passed in November of 2023. My wife and I took over the church in July,” added Farmer. “It had been in my heart for a while, and I talked to the leadership about it. We prayed about it and felt like this is the direction for us to go again this year, so we started making plans to do that. We find ourselves here in 2024, 12 years later, doing Read the Bible Out Loud again. We’re doing those same three locations again, but this year we’re adding Shubuta to make it four locations. There are four opportunities for people to come and be a part of this.”
While the idea may have originated at the church, they are welcoming everyone in the community to participate in the event.
“This is not just our church thing. We want all the churches in the community to participate—people that might not be a part of a church that want to come listen or that may be part of a church and want to just bring a lawn chair and listen,” proclaimed Farmer. “Even if they didn’t sign up, we might have an opportunity for them to jump in and read some. It’s going to be a really good thing. In the book of Nehemiah chapter 8, it talks about how they read the Bible out loud plainly so that everyone could understand it. The reason for that is so that they could understand the laws and how they were supposed to govern themselves. In today’s time, we have become an almost lawless society it seems. It’s time for us to be bolder about our walk with Christ and to tell other people about Jesus. We figured this would be a good way, and what better way than on Easter weekend when it’s the biggest church weekend of the year for Christians. It’s a good thing, and we’re hoping everybody will turn out and help us do this thing like it’s supposed to be done.”
Everything is already worked out so that the reading will flow easily in each location. The only thing they need is for those who would like to volunteer to read to sign up for one of the 30-minute time slots available at the different locations. All the volunteer has to do is show up to the location at their scheduled time and read.
“The time slots are 30-minute time slots from 9-6. There will be a moderator on site, and there will be a bible on site. We’ll have a microphone and all those things there. All you have to do is show up and read your time slot, or you can just show up and listen. It’ll all be taken care of seamlessly behind the scenes. All people have to do is sign up and want to be a part of it and come deliver and do what the Lord asked them to do,” declared Farmer. “We have the Bible sectioned out into four different sections. We’ll start, and you just read whatever you can read in that 30-minute time slot. We’ll mark it right before you’re finished up, and then the next person will walk right in and pick up on that verse and read however many chapters they can in that time. It’s pretty seamless.”
They witnessed the tremendous effect the event had on the community in 2012, and they would like to see the same thing happen again.
“We didn’t even advertise for people to come out and sit and listen the first time, but once they found out we were doing it, some people would come while people were waiting to read and listen to them read. It just kind of snowballed, and in every spot, there were people that would bring their lawn chairs and just sit and listen to the Bible being read,” expressed Farmer. “That was super exciting because it showed a little bit of unity. There were people that were interested in the Bible being read and their relationship with the Lord and what it could do for their community. I know that while that was going on, there were people praying for what we were doing at the time. The prayer combined with the Word of God is a double whammy in the enemy’s face. We want to continue to bring the fight to Him. It’s time for us to stand.”
The only thing they desire is to share Christ with others through His word.
“We want the Word of God to be read. We want it read plainly so that everybody can understand it. If we understand the Word of God, then it can change our life. It can be difficult to understand sometimes, but if we can read it and make it plain, there’ll be people there that will be able to answer any questions,” informed Farmer. “If you have a prayer need that you want to pray with someone about, there’ll be people there on our team or even just sitting there that will join in for that. We just want people to understand that Jesus is our Savior and He gave His life so that we can be free from all these things that we’re bound by that would keep us away from Him. If we can help people understand that there is a Savior that loves and cares for them, then maybe they can lay those things down and turn their life over to Christ.”
Anyone who desires to be part of the event is welcome. To reserve a time slot or learn about more ways to participate, contact Pastor Ryan Farmer at 601-616-6188 or Associate Pastor Troy Dew at 601-486-3795.
