Poll About Gideon Bibles in Hotel Rooms
 

Thought I'd take an informal poll to see if anyone is as dumb as me...

I don't know how many times that I have been on travel over a weekend and have gone to church somewhere completely forgetting to grab the Gideon Bible out of the nightstand to take along with me. The Pastor or worship leader will invite everyone to take out their Bibles and turn to a passage. That's when I say "DUH!" to myself. It's not like I forget that it's there -- I pull it out every morning for my morning devotional time.

Is this just a character flaw or have others done the same thing?

Since I travel with my own Bible (have several small sizes in various translations for different work projects or to match what I'm reading at home), I don't use the one in the hotel room.

I take for granted when I travel that churches will have Bibles/prayer books available in each of the pews. I see it's not the case for denominations outside of my own.

Every now & then, I'll have a hard time falling asleep in a hotel room. Then, I do enjoy the relaxing poetry of the Psalms, and it's nice to be able to just reach over and grab a look at them.

I would think that if I took them along in a small, travel-sized Bible, than they'd be hard to read with tired eyes late at night.

I purposely do not take Gideon Bibles with me, when attending church on the road. Usually, churches have spare Bibles. If they don't, I am usually able to follow along anyhow.

In addition, the carrying around the Gideon's Bible makes me look too much like a toruist - absolutely nothing wrong with that! I just like being incospicuous and not standing out, espcially so in a church.

And Bible reading does sometimes put me to sleep, especially if I'm sitting in a pew. ;)

I've forgotten my bible a few times, and the Gideon Bible in the drawer does come in handy. At my church all the scripture passages are put on powerpoint slides and projected on screens for all to see along with the sermon outline.

I never travel with a bible... never been in a church yet that doesn't have one for me to peruse.

Many of the "seeker sensitive" type churches don't have Bibles handy. Generally, their services have the passages on a powerpoint screen.
I take a small Bible with me, but appreciate the Gideon's efforts and sometimes read theirs (bigger print).
I probably have visited 100's of Christian Churches in America and have noticed a trend where I see fewer and fewer people carrying their Bibles into chuch.

What is a "seeker sensitive" church?

Many churches in the U.S. use worship service formulas that are meaningful to people who have grown up in the church. But others, who may have left the church long ago or never have had much church experience, yet have an interest in finding out what Christianity is about ("seekers"), report that some of the "older" church traditions either have little meaning for them or can make them feel either unwelcome or at least like "outsiders." Seeker-sensitive churches structure their worship services in particular to avoid these hurdles for people coming to the church without a strong prior church background. For instance, they encourage people to dress casually, they do away with hymnals and older-style music, projecting song lyrics on a screen, they use "contemporary" music styles and a praise band comprising synthesizers, guitars, drums, and a handful of singers rather than a choir and organ, etc. In some cases, this goes so far as to do away with or minimize references to personal sin and the need for forgiveness, since that presents an "unnecessarily offensive picture of a judgmental God." The last part, as you might imagine, is a source of some controversy, with some people claiming that the Bible is being watered down, though from the specific examples I've seen I'm not sure this characterization is always fair.

Helena
That's a good definition. "Seeker" churches now go across most every denomination and faiths. The Willow Creek and Purpose Driven Associations have really pushed this "movement" to new heights. Some of the biggest churches in the country consider themselves "seeker driven" and many mainline churches are adjusting some services and other activities to attract the same groups. One of the ways is to show Bible passages on big screens.
Overall, the majority of those that attend these chuches are in ther 40's and younger.

i bring my own bible cos there's all my notes and stuff in it, also it's easier to look up stuff when u know where it is, visually.

I usually take my Bible with me on the road since I read from it daily. If for some reason I do forget it, I can look up verses online for devotionals. At all the churches I've been to, they've offered Bibles either in the pews and/or in Powerpoint form.

seeker friendly
 

its very sad about the seeker friendly churchs. it is like they dont want the Bible in the church at all. it might makie the new comers feel guilty. whew maybe they have committed a sin and the Bible would show it up.

Seems like it's a tough line to follow---trying to "make" the Bible more accessible and approachable to those who grew up without it, yet not compromising its truth. To pursue either end at the expense of the other would be dangerous, I think, either ending up with a completely watered down gospel that makes people feel good....or a struggle with how to take the truths of the book and mesh them with everyday life.