The Eleventh Annual Bring Your Bible to School Day Is This Thursday, October 2

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The eleventh annual "Bring Your Bible to School" event will take place on Thursday, October 2nd, this year. Its focus is to encourage and empower Christians to live out their faith. Christians of any age are encouraged to participate by bringing their hardcopy Bible to school or work and taking advantage of the opportunities to share about why God’s Word is important to them as He brings people their way, according to Focus on the Family.

The event also helps to develop a sense of community among students, opens the door for them to get to know other believers, and helps them build a support system of Christian students. This support system will allow them to come alongside each other as they deal with the complications, and sometimes even hostilities, of life at school, according to Bible2School.  

Last year, there were over 10,000 churches, 1.2 million participants, and 70,000 schools that came together to speak out about the value of God’s Word in their lives and exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Focus on the Family hosts the event, and this year, they’re hoping to inspire two million people to participate, according to the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). 

Bring Your Bible to School Celebrates Two Critical American Freedoms

Program Manager for Parenting and Youth at Focus on the Family, Emerson Collins, told NRB that the movement is intended to “celebrate two of the most important freedoms we can have in this life: our freedom in Christ and our freedom of speech here in the United States. Both freedoms are worth celebrating, sharing and talking about.”

The event follows the 35th “See you at the Pole” movement, which took place on Wednesday, September 24th. This event encourages student-led prayer as students gather around a flagpole on their school grounds and pray for the school leadership, fellow students, and the nation, according to ACLJ. The timing is the perfect opportunity to also pray about Bring Your Bible to School, covering areas such as reaching students and faculty for Christ, everyone’s safety, and everyone’s health.

The Mental Health Crisis in Schools and the Nation

There’s a mental health crisis,” Collins told NRB. “Students play a bigger role than they think, and especially in the lives of their classmates and in the communities they are a part of.”

Between 2021 and 2023, 40 percent of U.S. high school students experienced feelings of sadness or hopelessness over the course of one year. There were 20 percent who seriously considered suicide, and 16 percent made a plan. Nine percent made a suicide attempt, according to CDC. As for college students, 45 percent struggle with their mental health. This leads to disengagement and a lower GPA, which can then put students at risk for dropping out. About 39 percent of students who struggle with mental health issues end up dropping out. And oftentimes, the stigma of mental health issues is a barrier to students reaching out for help, according to Mental Health First Aid. 

How to Prepare for Bring Your Bible to School

There are multiple ways students can choose to share about God’s love and His salvation plan during the event. A few ideas Focus on the Family suggests include writing down favorite Bible verses and passing them out, setting up a Bible study during a study hall or after school, or giving a Bible away to someone as a gift. Taking the time to brainstorm with parents, a Christian youth leader, or Christian friends might generate some great creative ideas.

Using social media as a way to help build excitement can be a fun way to pique the curiosity of friends who don’t know the Lord yet. Posting flyers about the event and passing them around can be a great way to help announce the Bring Your Bible to School event. Click here for some free, premade fliers. 

The best way to prepare practically is to sign up for the event at BringYourBible.org. This also provides participants with free resources such as conversation guides, suggested answers to challenging questions, and a legal memo that informs students about their rights for the event. 

Photo credit: ©FocusontheFamily/BringYourBible

Elizabeth Delaney has been a freelance content writer for over 20 years and has enjoyed having her prose published in both the non-fiction and fiction markets. She has written various types of content, including Christian articles, healthy lifestyle, blog posts, business topics, news articles, product descriptions, and some fiction. She is also a singer-songwriter-musician. When she is not busy with writing or music, she enjoys spending time with friends or family and doing fun social activities such as hiking, swing dancing, concerts, and other activities.