Written by: Justin, Next Gen Director
The Bible. God’s Word. Scripture.
Here at Gateway Church, we make it a priority to regularly point ourselves back to the Bible. We believe that in order to live the way God calls us to live, we must truly get to know him and the best way to know him is through his Word.
Our beliefs about Scripture are outlined in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which beautifully states:
“The whole purpose of God about everything pertaining to his own glory and to man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated in the Bible or may be deduced as inevitably and logically following from it.”
(Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 2025, p. 4)
It’s encouraging to see that, in the past two years, Bible sales and Bible app downloads have broken records. More and more people are curious and open to engaging with Scripture (Gryboski, 2025; Trachtenberg, 2024).
However, even as interest grows, Bible literacy has actually declined. According to a Pew Research Center study, while 79% of U.S. adults knew that Moses led the Exodus from Egypt, only 28% knew who Esther was. And just 56% knew that Jesus grew up in Nazareth (Pew Research Center, 2019).
Knowledge, though, isn’t the ultimate goal. Our goal is for kids, and all of us, to know God’s heart and character through his Word. Still, remembering the people God chose, the stories he divinely inspired, and the ways they lived helps us better understand who he is, his love for us, and why he sent Jesus to save us.
In Kidway, we recently celebrated by giving Bibles to our first graders! We want our kids not only to have a Bible, but to know how to use it. We teach them how to find books, chapters, and verses, what the New and Old Testaments are, and how to navigate Scripture with confidence. These are lifelong skills that will help them stay rooted in God’s Word.
We’ve also launched a new initiative for our third graders, giving them journals to use alongside their Bible reading. Our hope is that these journals become a space where they can reflect on what they read, write out Scripture, and record their own spiritual stories as they grow in faith.
As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and members of the body of Christ, we all share the responsibility of helping the next generation know God. The most powerful way to do that is simple: read the Bible to them, with them, and for ourselves.
The Bible gives us a sobering reminder in Judges 2:10:
“And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”
When one generation fails to pass on the knowledge of God, the next generation suffers. But we can be different. Let’s be a Psalm 78:4 people:
“We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.”
May we be faithful to open God’s Word, live by it, and pass it on so that every generation at Gateway grows to know and love the Lord.
Stories, news, and resources for things happening at Gateway Church.
