Bible Mapping
What is Bible Mapping?
Bible mapping is simply studying, completing personal projects and tasks, or reading plans that build your personal Bible roadmap.
These can be unique little projects or long-term formal studies - but the key is to find something that works for you in your current season of life. Bible mapping is about creating a lifestyle of studying in various increments rather than segregating it into something that only those with time to study should do.
You may be in a season of life that allows you to formally study the Bible at a tertiary. Or you may work full time and have kids and only have small moments of time a week. Whatever the circumstance, Bible mapping can be adjusted to work for you.
Here are some examples of both short-term and long-term Bible mapping projects I’ve either tried myself or heard about from others:
Reading the whole Bible in 30 days
Reading the whole Bible in 90 days
Reading the whole Bible in 365 days
Reading Genesis 7 times in a row
Reading Genesis 50 times
Writing out chapters or books of the Bible
Reading sections of the Bible aloud to yourself or others
Listening to an audio Bible (the James Earl Jones narration is amazing)
Highlighting specific keywords or themes throughout the Bible
Completing a course on a theme of the Bible (BibleProject Classroom is a great resource)
These are Bible maps that don’t necessarily have a specific end date but are meant to fit into your lifestyle.
You’re wanting to achieve 2 things with Bible mapping:
1) Gain better retention and recall of the Bible
This does not mean memorising the whole Bible, but knowing how to get around the scriptures and where key parts are without having to look them up.
As I’ve started doing the 30 day Bible shred more often, I’ve gotten to know the overall layout of the Bible a lot better and where each story fits in the larger narrative.
2) Gain a deeper understanding of the Bible
You may not know all the answers, but if you’re equipped to ask the right questions and you have a better understanding of the Bible even at a surface level, you’ll be much more prepared for deeper studies.
But please keep these 3 things in mind while Bible mapping:
1) It doesn’t always have to be devotional
In fact, my Bible mapping projects are often very separate from my personal devotions. Bible mapping will eventually help my devotional life, and my devotional life can create ideas for the next stages of Bible mapping.
2) You need to be intentional with Bible mapping projects
This shouldn’t be something that you multitask as you want it to stick to your brain. I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks while driving, but I don’t count that as Bible mapping as I’m not intentionally gleaning from when I’m learning.
3) Writing down or note what you’re doing and learning
By the end of a Bible mapping project, you should have some sort of product or evidence of what you’ve learnt.
This can be as simple as notes or drawings or summaries or questions (I recommend RGB notes for this, see previous post), but there should be something tangible you can refer to in the future.
By the end of a Bible mapping project, you may have only gained a little more retention or understanding of the Bible, and that is completely ok! The next Bible map will add a little more to your Bible roadmap, and the next project will add a little more, and so on.
Happy mapping!