The Methodist Church in Britain has pronounced A Word in Time, the online Bible study for daily life, launched at the beginning of September 2007, “hugely successful”, and is extending the programme to reach a wider audience.
Thousands of visitors have been going to the site every week, but now the team responsible have decided to make an audio file of each day’s Bible study, and a bigger file with all of the studies for each week can easily be downloaded onto a computer or mp3 player, so that users can listen at a time convenient to them.
Alison Pollard, Web Writer and Researcher and the new voice of A Word in Time says: “People find it increasingly difficult to make time to read and reflect on the Bible in today’s busy world. A Word in Time made it easier by giving people access to a Bible study on the internet. Now we’ve taken it to the next level and you can catch up with your daily Bible study at a time most convenient to you – whether you’re cooking dinner, doing your weekly shop or on the daily commute to work.”
A Word in Time features a daily Bible reading, background and an explanation of the text, reflections and questions to ponder from that week’s contributor. It follows the readings in the Methodist Prayer Handbook bringing the 40,000 readers of the handbook together with online disciples in their search for daily spirituality.
Each audio file is available in two formats – a high quality version for those using broadband internet connections and a lower-quality file for those using a dial-up connection. The audio files for past Bible studies are available online in the Word in Time archives.
The audio Bible studies are also ideal for sharing with those who otherwise might not have access to daily Bible notes, perhaps because of a disability or simply not having access to the internet.
The Methodist Church is one of the largest Christian churches in Britain, with nearly 300,000 members and regular contact with over 800,000 people. It has about 5,800 churches across the country, and also maintains links with other Methodist churches totalling a worldwide membership of 70 million.