Yesterday I shared the Bible reading plan that works for me. It might be for you also, but if not, I have listed below some different Bible reading plans for you to consider. Where I can, I have given you what I think are the pros and cons of each. For some of them, I am just giving you the link with a description.
Here they are in no particular order of value or importance:
1.      Bible Gateway has a Chronological Bible Reading Plan. The drawback is that you won’t be reading all of the Bible. It only covers what the creators of the plan consider the major events and people in the Bible. The positive about this plan is that it does give you a good overview of Scripture in chronological order. So, if you are a new believer or someone who has never looked at the Bible chronologically, this would be a good way to be introduced to that overview of Scripture. A second positive aspect of this plan is it only takes 61 days to complete it. So, even though you aren’t reading the whole Bible, you can finish this in about two months and then switch to a different plan that is more thorough.
2.      Another chronological reading plan comes from Bible Study Tools. On the plus side, this plan covers the whole Bible. If you sign up with them, they send you reminders of what text you are supposed to read each day. The downside (in my opinion) is you don’t get to the New Testament until day 274, and because of the nature of the Bible, it is difficult to put everything in exact chronological order. They try, but that means you read Psalms interspersed with the historical books, and the gospels are broken up and stitched back together in a way that makes reading them difficult. Again, that is just my opinion. If I were going to do a chronological Bible reading plan, I would do the simpler one by Bible Gateway as a primer or introduction to the Bible and then move to a different plan.
3.      ESV has a Systematic Theology Bible Reading Plan that looks interesting. It is a 30-day plan that suggests readings that are connected to major theological themes in the Bible. I have never used this, but it might be a good way to introduce yourself to systematic theology. The scriptures that are assigned to various theological themes are somewhat arbitrary in the sense that many others could have been used. So, I would caution that you don’t see this as the end-all of theological study. The link is for the printable PDF of this plan.
4.      Here is another printable PDF file of the M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan. I would say it is closer to what I described the plan I use is, but a little more complicated in terms of keeping track of where you are in your reading. The goal of this plan is to read through the whole Bible in a year. If you use this, it would be important to have this PDF printed out and use the checkboxes to track your progress.
5.      Here is a nicely laid-out PDF from the Navigators that takes you through the Bible in one year. Similar to what I am doing, you read from four different parts of the Bible every day. What is different is you are reading Proverbs and Psalms once. It is a somewhat more complicated system than what I do, but still, a worthwhile option if your goal is to read the Bible through in a year. It only requires 25 days a month to reach this goal, so if you miss a day or two you would still be on track.
6.      Here is a second Bible reading plan from the Navigators that they call the Book-at-a-Time Reading plan.  I like it better than the one above because it gives you a more consistent look at each book you are reading. It still accomplishes the goal of reading through the Bible in one year but does it in a slightly different fashion. I think it would be a good choice to split the reading between morning and evening, doing half in the morning and half in the evening, since every day you are reading from two different books.
7.      Credit where credit is due, the Navigators have a lot of resources in this realm. Here is their 5X5X5 Reading Plan. For those who find the idea of reading through the whole Bible overwhelming, this plan focuses on reading through the New Testament. It takes five minutes a day, five days a week, with five ways to dig deeper into the Word.
8.      For those who are up for a bigger challenge, there is the popular Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading Plan. I linked to this in the Delightful Paths blog because she has printable Bible book markers with the books on the Bible on them. It would be really helpful if you use this plan. I did this for a couple of years. My only struggle was with time (maybe that says more about me than this plan). It requires reading 10 chapters a day. If I ever do it again, I will divide it up and do four in the morning, three at noon, and three in the evening.
9.      Here is a PDF of the Legacy Bible Reading Plan. It is less rigid as far as the daily requirements. It suggests how many chapters a day you should read to stay on track, but it focuses more on you reading certain books each month. I think this is a helpful plan if you find that you have more time some days than others. For instance, if you can sit down on Saturday morning and knock out ten chapters, while Monday finds you running out the door with a cup of coffee in hand, this might be the plan for you. Â
10.  I decided to stop with ten because it seems like a good number of choices. Here is one that isn’t a plan at all. At least not yet. It is the Bible Reading Plan Generator. This is a good one for you independent-minded folks who don’t want to follow the crowd, or for folks who just like to be creative. Maybe you have used several Bible reading plans and know what works and doesn’t work for you. Here is a place where you can create your unique plan and print it off.
There are other plans out there if none of these meets your needs. I hope that you will find one that works for you and stick with it this year. Please comment if you have another plan you use and find helpful. If there is a website you can share that others can go to, include that. Tell us why you like it. Maybe someone else will find it helpful also
I’m going for the 5x5x5. Thank you for sharing. I also like your method too.