Churches to ditch their Bibles in the United Kingdom.

UK (MNN)–On Sunday, May 16th, thousands of Christians will get to experience firsthand what it feels like to not have access to Scripture.

Churches from the United Kingdom and around the world are planning to give up the Bibles–but just for a day. “No Bible Sunday” is sponsored by Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Wycliffe points out that millions of people don’t have a choice in having access to the Scripture, and for them, every Sunday is a “No Bible Sunday”.

The event also makes note of the fact that there are still 27-hundred language groups for which no Scripture translation is available.

For some churches, “No Bible Sunday” will be a stark look at how little of the Bible people read. Many churches will mark the day in a variety of ways, such as confiscating Bibles at the door and seeing how many verses of Scripture people can still remember.

“The church in the UK will not survive unless it rediscovers its love of the Bible,” explains Geoff Knott, Executive Director of Wycliffe UK.

That’s both good and bad news. It appears that more and more Americans are reading their Bible. That’s according to research by Barna, Gallup and US News and World Reports. They all indicate that the number of people reading Scripture may be up by as much as 44-percent. This jump in the statistics is being attributed to the recent release of the Mel Gibson film, “The Pasion of the Christ.”

The bad news: while more people are reading the Bible, fewer are sharing its meaning or their faith. The numbers on that issue show one in three will take that step. There are hopes that an event like “No Bible Sunday” can spur interest toward both study and evangelism.

A website is also providing a broad selection of free ready-to-use resources to help churches gain maximum impact from this event. Go to: www.nobiblesunday.org