Sharply dressed in a button-down shirt and V-neck sweater vest, the speaker stood at the front of the church, microphone in hand, and talked about what he had learned reading the Bible.

The entire Bible.

A hushed silence overtook the packed auditorium of the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock, Ark., as Davis Burton spoke.

“I had no idea what was about to happen,” said Jerry Allison, a longtime member of the White Station Church of Christ in Memphis, Tenn., who was visiting that day. “He presented perhaps the best synopsis of the Bible I have ever heard.”

The surprising part: Davis is only 9 years old. Yet the brown-haired boy with glasses delivered a sermon for the ages as he encouraged the crowd of nearly 1,000 people to enjoy the blessings of daily Bible reading during 2011.

“God speaks to us through the Bible, and what I think the Bible is trying to tell us is, it’s telling us how to live, and it’s helping us to know God better by telling us his characteristics,” said Davis, no hint of nervousness in his voice.

“One of the main characteristics the Bible tells us about is God’s love,” he added. “God loves us so much that he wants us to be his, follow him and worship him only.”

Over the next eight-plus minutes, the straight-A student spoke from memory as he shared what he had learned about Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Samson, Samuel, Deborah, Saul, David, Solomon, Isaiah and other key figures of the Old Testament.

Then the son of Pleasant Valley members Jason and Amy Burton turned his attention to the New Testament.

“Jesus was born into the world, and he taught and told parables and did miracles so that we might believe in God and turn back to him,” said Davis, a Central Arkansas Christian Schools third-grader. “But that wasn’t all God had in store for his son. He wanted him to die on the cross for our sins. So that’s what Jesus did. He took all of our sins … so that we wouldn’t have to die for them. And then, to show his power over death, God raised his son back up from the grave.”

Through the Pleasant Valley church’s Project 4:4 — based on Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 — roughly 20 percent of members read the entire Bible last year, missions minister Roger Pritchett said. “All of our adult Bible classes studied the previous week’s readings,” Pritchett said. “Many of the children’s classes followed the same general theme of the reading.”

Davis’ parents read through F. LaGard Smith’s “The Daily Bible,” while Davis used Karyn Henley’s “Day by Day Kid’s Bible.”

As 2011 began, many Churches of Christ across the nation urged members to make a renewed commitment to spending time in God’s Word each and every day.

In Houston, Michael Whitworth, pulpit minister of the Jersey Village Church of Christ, decided to read the entire Bible aloud — from Genesis through Revelation — in one sitting streamed live on the Internet.

The “Eat This Book!” marathon kicked off the congregation’s 2011 daily Bible reading initiative. Volunteers provided coffee, food and emotional support and filled in to give Whitworth short breaks.

“I ended up needing a little help so that I could sleep for an hour or so, but I completed the marathon in 75 hours and 37 minutes,” Whitworth said.

“The Lord greatly blessed our efforts,” he added. “One lady who was inspired to read her Bible as a result of the marathon has just been baptized.”
 
‘EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE’

In North Carolina, the Wilkesboro Church of Christ uses a chronological plan to read the Bible, and members keep daily journals.

“It is great doing a group read and having everyone on the same page,” said Lisa Brewer, a Wilkesboro member whose husband, Greg, serves as a deacon. “Every time I read through a verse or a chapter or a book, I learn something new … but this particular pace seems to be having increased benefits and blessings.”

For nine years, the Fourth and Bois D’Arc Church of Christ in Pecos, Texas, has promoted daily Bible study and offered a variety of reading plans.

The Pecos church’s minister, Fred Dominguez, said he has completed a different English translation each of the last three years.

“It has been a wonderful exercise that helps me to better teach and preach God’s Word and to offer studied responses when asked about various translations,” Dominguez said.

“Lord willing, we’ll keep ‘reading through’ each year until the Lord calls us home.”

In Oklahoma, the Edmond Church of Christ has dubbed its 2011 daily Bible reading emphasis “Counting Verses, Changing Lives.”

“We’re hoping for 6 million Bible verses to be read this year by those of all ages,” senior minister Don Vinzant said.

Pat Shelbourne, a member of the College Hill Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas, said he has determined many times to read the Bible in one year.

Usually, though, he falls so far behind that he can’t catch up, so he simply quits, he said.

But this year he’s trying a different approach.

“I will read as much as I can and keep reading until I get it all done,” Shelbourne said. “It may take me two or three years, but I will keep a marker in my Bible as I go along. I still teach and study outside of this effort, but this way, if I live long enough, at least I can say I did it!”
 
‘GETTING TO KNOW GOD BETTER’

Back at the Pleasant Valley church, 9-year-old Davis encouraged the church to think of the Bible as a movie.

“You wouldn’t rent a movie and go to scene selection and say that, ‘This part looks interesting; I’ll start here,’” he said. “Because then you don’t know who the characters are, what they’re doing and where they are. So just like you have to watch the whole movie to get the whole picture, you have to read through the whole Bible to see what God’s saying.”

In his free time, Davis plays youth soccer. He’s learning lines and preparing solos as Winthrop Paroo in Central Arkansas Christian Schools’ production of “The Music Man.”

Besides reading, he loves building with Legos, his mother said.

A video of his presentation on Bible reading has drawn thousands of hits on YouTube and The Christian Chronicle’s website.

“I predict great service in the Lord’s kingdom from this young man and pray for him a long life of continued spiritual growth,” said Allison, the visitor from Memphis.

Jason Burton said his son’s love for the Lord inspires him to be a better father and servant in God’s kingdom. Along with Davis, the Burtons have a 5-year-old daughter, Hannah, who read from a children’s Bible.

“It’s a very proud moment for us,” Amy Burton said of her son’s presentation, “but it’s very humbling to watch him stand there with such confidence, just being able to tell what God has ready for him to share with everybody.”

Davis said he enjoyed reading the Bible daily and read ahead if he had a busy day coming.

“It’s a good way to get to know God better and to know his characteristics and to really get into what he’s trying to tell us,” he told the Chronicle. “That’s what I enjoyed about it: getting to know God better.”
 

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