attend a ministry or church), their personal Bible reading habits do not reflect the same consistency.
When correlated with responses to trust-related questions, the trend becomes clearer: respondents who seldom read the Bible also reported lower trust in pastors, lower trust in faith institutions, and even lower trust in the reliability of Scripture it- self. This alignment indicates that declining Bible literacy is both a cause and a consequence of weakened spiritual trust. In contrast, those who read Scripture daily or more than once a day were far more likely to describe the Bible as divinely inspired rather than merely historical or moral literature. The implication for ministry leaders is twofold. First, discipleship must re-center around Scripture as a relational practice , not merely a task of information retention. Second, creative teaching models—digital devotionals, story-based Bible studies, and generational reading challenges—can help youth see Scripture as alive and transformative. The future of church vitality will depend on whether we can help the next generation move from occasional readers to daily disciples.
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