Getting Started with B90/B90+

So you’ve never organized a group before? No worries, learn the basics of how to start your own B90 group.

Journeying through the Bible in 90 Days (B90) with a group together greatly increases the success rate of reading through the whole Bible. The premise is simple: participants read 12 pages a day using a B90 Bible on their own. Then, once a week, they gather in a group for discussion, watch a teaching video, and enjoy fellowship. Meeting times generally last about an hour. This provides accountability for everyone, a chance to share insights, and get an overview of the previous week’s reading (from the B90 teaching videos).

Who can lead a group?

Almost anyone can. By using our recommended resources, even with minimal Bible knowledge, you can lead a group through Bible in 90 Days. It works because both the B90 (traditional) Bundle or the B90+ (digital) Bundle are designed to help you facilitate a group, rather than teach. Your main concern as a facilitator is your commitment to lead a group through the readings. You must either (a) read with the group, or (b) have previously read through the entire Bible yourself.

Starting a group.

First, determine start and finish dates for reading, and what day your weekly group meeting will gather. Think about the time of year and the availability of potential participants when you select your dates. Example: starting B90 near Thanksgiving or Christmas is not the best time. B90 sessions should end before Thanksgiving — it will be more successful. Think of times or seasons that will be most convenient for you and your group.

Choose a video series.

Bible in 90 Days offers three series of video lessons; the first two series apply to B90 Traditional, and the third series for B90+ Digital:

1. One DVD teaching series is led by Jack Modesett, a businessman, former Chairman of the Board of Christianity Today, and gifted communicator. Jack presents his insights in effective and entertaining ways that keep participants engaged in their daily reading.
2. The other DVD series is led by John Walton, PhD and Mark Strauss, PhD. John teaches Old Testament at Wheaton Graduate School and College and is the author of several books on the Old Testament. Mark is professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary, a member of the Committee on Bible Translation, and has written numerous books and articles on the New Testament.
3. For B90+, “The Essential Snapshot” video teaching series is hosted by Dr. William Campbell, Founder and Executive Director of Scripture Awakening. This 14-week series was made to match and complement the B90+ Digital option.

For B90 Traditional, participants may purchase a B90 Bible and B90 Participant’s Guide (or both together). For B90+ Digital, there is no charge. Participants only need to become SA Subscribers to obtain free access to the B90+ email series, B90+ GuideBook, and the Essential Snapshot video series.

Prepare for the first meeting.

Decide which B90 version you’re going to use; print or digital. For B90 Traditional, we suggest you bring copies of the B90 print materials for participants to purchase. Let participants know about B90 material costs before the first meeting. For B90+ Digital, give participants the link to subscribe to B90+ (it’s free!). It’s also possible to integrate B90 and B90+ in a small group, it just takes a little extra logistics.

Publicize and promote the first meeting in advance.

When offering B90 or B90+, use email, fliers, your church bulletin, newsletter, or social media to spread the word. Feel free to download our B90/B90+ logos to include in your promotions. Also encourage participants to invite friends or family members to join them.

Think outside the original target audience.

When the Denver Post visited a Bible in 90 Days host church, there were 600 participants! Of the 600, there were 200 who were not even members of that church … they came from the surrounding community! You just never know who you might reach with Bible in 90 Days.

FAQs: know the answers.

Be prepared to answer most (or all) of the Frequently Asked Questions. Help your group members understand what materials they will need and what will be expected of them.

About accountability.

The B90 Leader’s Guide (B90 Traditional) provides a simple reader-accountability plan. For some, using a group accountability method may feel awkward, so an alternate approach is to use a roll call to announce if they are caught up or not. Other groups have used a check-in sheet to indicate their reading status. It’s important that you know your group—so encourage everyone to acknowledge where they are each week so that no one gets too far behind.

Keep group sizes small.

If a group has more than 12 people, then divide it into two smaller groups. But be sure to ALWAYS watch the B90 videos together in the combined group. Appoint a discussion leader for each small group. In the B90 Participant’s Guide and B90+ GuideBook, you’ll find discussion “rules of engagement” that will help guide the discussion times. Remember: B90 is not a Bible study … it’s a read through the Bible. As the facilitator, always keep this in mind.

Set a finish date.

A finish date keeps everyone fixed on the same goal. People can join in later, but if they do, it needs to be early on, not weeks into the reading. Trying to join later is always a huge challenge for people to finish on time. Starting together, being on time, consistency, etc. sets up participants for success, and will minimize discouragement, dropouts, or failing to finish.

Celebrate completion!

Many B90 groups celebrate the half-way mark (usually week 7) with refreshments. Even more groups plan a graduation party for their last meeting. It’s good to celebrate, so we’ve created B90/B90+ Completion Certificates for your graduates, which can be found here. Also encourage them to share their B90 experience here. Finally, graduates make great B90 advocates—perhaps some will launch new B90 groups!

It’s been said that everything rises and falls upon leadership. Here are a few helpful pointers.

Once you’ve decided to facilitate a Bible in 90 Days group, and become familiar with the steps to Start a B90 Group (first tab), here are a few best practices for facilitating your B90 group:

Pray.

At beginning and end, and throughout the week, pray for yourself, and your group, that God will reveal Himself to each participant as they read through His Word. Always acknowledge God’s presence (Jesus assured it) and ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance as you facilitate. Lay your challenges at His feet. He will guide you and your group to the finish. Encourage group members to do the same.

Read B90 yourself.

This may seem obvious, but you must commit to reading daily yourself, and complete the readings ahead of the group. Your own commitment is paramount to the group’s success. Participants need to know that you are invested to read and achieve this goal.

Honor everyone’s time.

Everyone is strapped for time. When you start and end each meeting on schedule, they’ll know you value their time. To ensure a meeting’s success, do the readings, be prepared by using the B90 Leader’s Guide or B90+ GuideBook, and stay focused on what needs to be discussed. Whether meeting in-person or online, try to avoid banter so you can start and end at the times you’ve scheduled.

Foster accountability and fellowship.

Help group members get to know each other, to feel comfortable discussing the reading, as well as holding each other accountable. Encourage members to pray for each other. Accountability for online groups is an extra challenge because they may never be face to face. If hosting an online group, do weekly check-ins with each other. You can do this via a Facebook group, blog page, Zoom, or by email. One successful online B90 leader paired her group members so each had a direct accountability partner.

Use the B90 resources.

This website contains a complete line of B90 articles and free promotional tools (sign up for free to access). You’re free to customize the resources to better fit your group. We have carefully designed, developed, and tested our materials to ensure success. Many thousands of participants have successfully completed reading the Bible in 90 days by following these procedures. You want to succeed, we want you to succeed too — so it just makes sense to use our proven process.

Facilitate — don’t teach.

Often your readers will have questions about the content of the reading. Your job is to help them read, not teach. Most often the two best answers to reader questions are “What do you think?” or “Keep reading and let me know what you think later.” Suggest that they write a list of questions to research and delve into after the reading is complete. One B90 facilitator invited the senior pastor to the group’s graduation celebration, where participants could then ask any questions they had collected during the course.

Our core resources will maximize your B90 experience. Learn more about our B90 and B90+ materials here.

Your life can change in 90 days — guaranteed! But for a life-change to happen, you need to complete the process. You’ll be surprised how easily you can do it if you’ll follow these simple instructions.

Reading the Bible in 90 days is an incredibly rewarding experience, and definitely a challenge. So here are a few tips to help you make it to the last page:

• Make reading your daily priority.
• Remove distractions: get in a quiet place; silence your phone, computer, and TV.
• Pray before you read.
• Don’t judge your response to what you are reading: just keep reading!
• Write down questions as you read; investigate them later.
• Take your Bible with you everywhere.
• If you get behind, don’t give up and don’t quit! Use the weekend to catch up!

The only bad question is the one you don’t ask, right? Here are some frequent questions and answers about B90.

The great thing about thousands having completed B90 before you is knowing you won’t make rookie mistakes.

Mistakes by Facilitators

1. Failing to read yourself. Unless you’ve successfully read previously. Nothing will sabotage a group faster than a leader who fails to keep up with the reading.

2. Not holding the participants accountable. Many will join your group specifically for the accountability. They’ve tried to read before, but failed, often because there was no accountability. At the first B90 meeting, most participants will make a commitment to God to do the readings. Accountability is simply assisting them to follow through on that commitment.

3. Letting people read their “own” Bible. See Mistakes by Participants (below). In addition, when everyone uses the B90 Bible, you can also refer to page numbers versus chapter and verse. It helps groups run more efficiently. It also avoids distracting discussions about the differing phraseology of various translations.

4. Skipping the small group discussion. Typically, 40-50% of a class needs to be able to talk about what they are reading in order to stay engaged in the reading. Skipping small group discussion can cause drop outs.

5. Skipping the videos. The lessons “reward” the participants by sharing insights together. The videos provide context that keep participants interested and engaged.

Mistakes by Participants

1. Reading without being part of a group. Finish rates plummet for people who “go solo.”

2. Using a non-B90 Bible. Unless you’ve used THAT Bible in the past and read to read all of it previously, it probably is NOT well-suited to reading through cover to cover in 90 days. The vast majority who succeed testify they are very glad they chose to use the B90 Bible.

3. Adding B90 to your list of TO DOS rather than REPLACING one or more of your activities with B90. The distinction may seem subtle, but consciously choosing to watch one hour LESS of TV each day means you are REPLACING TV watching with Bible reading. Without making such a conscious decision, you are simply ADDING TO a hectic schedule, which may undercut your chances of success.

Mistakes by B90 Hosts

1. Not using the recommended resources. The B90 materials have been used successfully across denominations throughout the United States and in 20 foreign countries. They work. If you are going to substitute materials, please ensure they can demonstrate the same success. If you question this, talk with people who’ve used the B90 curriculum. There is a reason that they work.

2. Not recruiting small group leaders ahead of time.

3. Not having an engaged senior pastor and key lay leader.

4. Distributing materials before the first class (except to facilitators and small group leaders).

Don’t you like it when people talk straight with you? When they’ve been where you want to be? When they give you the inside information that you need to make it? Of course you do! Here are things to do — and don’t miss the don’ts!

DO…

Do ask for God’s help. We cannot think of any reason why God would tell you not to read the Bible. If that’s what you think you are hearing, though, pray about it some more and think about why God might tell you that. No, this is not a competition with yourself and no it is not just so you can say you’ve done it. You WILL see God move in ways you haven’t before if you do this and listen. And even if you catch only a small portion of what the Bible says in this reading, you will catch what He wants you to hear this time. Once you ask, seize the opportunities He shows you. And yes, you still have to do the work. Pray each time you read to hear what He wants you to hear and be able to let the rest go. This is a not a Bible study. This is Bible reading. Absorb what you can. Forget the rest. He will help you.

Do set a goal for getting caught up. You won’t accidentally get caught up one day. Instead, set a goal and write it on your calendar. How far behind are you? Can you get caught up in one week? What about in three weeks? Pick a date, divide the number of pages by he number of days you have until then and make it happen.

Do figure out how to meet that goal. Your reading won’t just get done if you just hope it gets done. How will you do it? Can you schedule two extra 30 or 45 minute reading breaks in the day somewhere? Can you explain the situation to your spouse or a friend and get some extra help for a few reading breaks? Grab additional reading time whenever possible. Even 10 minute increments help. You are on a mission, and it’s not necessarily an easy one. Forces will conspire against you to keep you from reading. He is there to support you!

Do take your Bible everywhere. Yes, everywhere! In your home, in your car. Take it to meet your friends and read while you wait for them. Read it while in a grocery store line. Read it while your daughter is in ballet instead of chatting with friends (let your friends know about the challenge … we bet they’ll understand.) Get to church early and read before worship. Read while waiting for the oven to preheat. Read while waiting for water to boil. Read while in the bathroom. Read while your kids do their homework. Institute family reading time, even if that just means looking at pictures for your youngest ones, and read then.

Do watch your progress. Download the Bible reading bookmarks from the Bible in 90 Days promo page, print them out and check-off the reading as you get it done. Do this even if you are reading digitally. Seeing progress will motivate you. If you are using a hardcopy Bible, place a sticky note at the end of each day’s reading, each week’s reading, or wherever your next goal in reading may be. As you move your Bible reading schedule bookmark closer, you’ll see your progress.

Do ensure that you’re committed. Is reading the entire Bible important to you? If so, commit to reading the whole Bible. If you commit to just reading as much as you can, you won’t read the whole thing. Don’t you want to know all that God wants to share with you? Talk to God again. Talk about this commitment. Thank Him for the gift of the Bible and let Him know you want to open, read, and learn from this gift. Make a new commitment to Him and to yourself. And keep it. He will help you if you just ask.

DON’T…

Don’t skip ahead and assume you’ll go back and read what you missed. Readers that do this rarely go back and read the entire Word. We are reading the entire Bible here, in order, cover to cover. By skipping around you will miss some of the story that is built upon in the scripture. If you are behind, do not skip ahead so you feel better. Just keep plowing forward in the reading. Once you do catch up, it will be SO worth it.

Don’t listen instead of read. Listening is not reading. Things happen when you read that do not happen when you listen. You signed up for a reading plan. You can, however, listen while you read if that helps you to stay focused. But do not listen in place of reading—you’ll be cheating yourself.

Don’t read without a plan. If you are trying to catch up, set a plan for catching up. How many pages behind are you? How many pages are in a day’s reading? Come up with a realistic deadline to be caught up, divide to find the number of pages you need to read each day, and GO TO TOWN reading. Time yourself to see how long a day’s reading takes. Figure out how many days you are behind and how much reading time you need to do to catch up. Then plot those times on your calendar instead of expecting those windows of time to just appear and keep those appointments to read. If you want to try to catch up all at once, go for it. Sunday is often a great catch up day. Block out the time.

Don’t set yourself up for failure. When is a realistic time for you to read? You might say you’ll just get up earlier to read beginning at 5:30 AM. Is that realistic for you? You might decide you’ll just read after the kids go to bed. Will you really get it done or do you tend to fall asleep when night-reading? Decide when it really makes sense for you to read and then think of all the excuses to NOT read at that time. Prepare yourself NOT to give in, but rather to read, read, READ, and listen to God.

Don’t give up. If you think you should just give up, try to remember why you decided to start this in the first place. Then think about why you are quitting — its it REALLY a good reason? Did you talk to God about it? Do you really think He wants you to stop reading His Word consistently? Don’t. Give. Up.

Best Practices for Prison Ministry

B90 groups have made a huge difference in prisoners and prisons alike. These notes will help men and women behind physical bars find spiritual freedom.

The Bible in 90 Days has been exceptionally well received by Prison Fellowship for over five years in several states. We have seen very positive results from using The Bible in 90 Days within the faith-based dorms in the prisons of Texas. In addition to the individual spiritual growth that comes from reading the Bible from cover to cover in only 90 days, we have seen that the use of the materials has produced a tremendous sense of community among the participants. Many inmates have invited family and friends on the outside to read along with them, thus bringing them closer to those on the outside. Below are some of the “Best Practices” we have observed when using the materials in prison ministry:

• Always remember that each prison is unique; therefore, work closely with both the chaplain and warden when implementing the materials.
• Small groups are the key to the success of B90 in prisons. Ask the chaplain to select qualified inmates to serve as group facilitators. Let facilitators choose co-facilitators from within their group. Emphasize and train group leaders to facilitate discussion, not teach. Allocate as much time as possible to the small groups (at least 45 minutes). The leaders will be very comfortable using the questions in the Participants Guide, so there’s no need to add to them.
• Always be yourself, even if you feel inadequate. Inmates are usually very flexible and appreciative of the opportunity to read God’s Word.
• Don’t miss a week. Keep on schedule. Work with the chaplain if any conflicts develop within a group.
• As leader you set the tone. Be continually positive and encouraging. Keep their focus on the big picture and the unity of the Bible, and postpone (for now) questions that arise from particular Scriptures. Those can be addressed after B90 is completed. The best preparation for you as leader is to participate yourself by reading along with the inmates. Share what you are learning as you read the Bible with them. Preview the DVD for each session, choosing the track that best fits your situation. Inmates have responded well to Jack Modesett’s presentations.
• Work with the chaplain to plan a celebration event at the end of the class. It might include a meal, inmate’s testimonies, and a personalized copy of a B90 certificate of completion.

Best Practices for Communities

Many have taken B90 straight to their community and seen great success. You can do it too … especially with these notes from our most vibrant B90 community groups.

Several smaller communities have offered Bible in 90 Days programs community-wide . While each community is different and has unique resources and challenges, some universal best-practices are summarized here:

• Have a well-respected member of the community spearhead the effort.
• Enlist influential organizations in the community to organize the effort (ministerial association), mobilize volunteers (churches), provide resources (businesses or civic groups).
• Encourage all participating hosts (churches, prisons, bridge clubs, companies, etc.) to adapt the Best Practices for Church-Wide B90 Program as appropriate to their entities and audiences.
• Plan ahead. Be patient. It takes time and persistence. Depending on the size of the community and whether or not an organizing structure is in place (or needs to be formed), a successful community-wide effort requires one to two years from inception to completion.
• Upon completion, consider hosting a community-wide celebration, or, a series of celebrations open to all participants.

B90 is part of a much bigger picture. Widen your view by reading this article to see our grand scope.

A common question after finishing Bible in 90 Days is, “What’s next?”

Dig Deeper with BNEXT Bible Studies

Now that you have read the Bible cover to cover and have a basic understanding, wouldn’t it be great to dig deeper and mine it in study. Our BNEXT Bible Studies are a great way to peel back a layer and take a closer look at God’s ways and works. We suggest you start in Genesis with the In The Beginning study. Over time and with discipline, you can work all the way through to Revelation with the Brighten Your Light study. Talk to your church leadership about launching a BNEXT study group, or rejoin with your B90 classmates at your home and jump right back in — just a little deeper! BNEXT studies can work for individuals, but they work best in small groups.

Keep Reading

You have many options, and here are a few popular suggestions. And, by the way, congratulations on finishing your reading! You’ve established a daily reading habit, so… keep reading. However, just as a marathon runner only works out lightly for a few days after a marathon, you might choose to reduce your daily reading load for a time. Here are some ideas/options:

• Set aside time each day to re-read portions of the Bible that intrigued you during your 90-day journey. If you have a Bible commentary, refer to it as you read. If you don’t have a Bible commentary, check a nearby Christian bookstore for one, search online, or ask your church staff or class leader to recommend one.
• Read one chapter of Proverbs a day for a month. There are 31 chapters, so you’ll finish in a month.
• Wait a month, and do B90 again, or host a B90 reading group yourself. You enjoyed the first journey—you’ll enjoy the second even more. By waiting a month, your anticipation and enthusiasm may build. If it doesn’t, then re-reading may not be the best next step right now. If you dread doing a re-read rather than anticipating it, then ask the Lord about what’s best for you next.
• Spread the word: ask to share your B90 experience at church. You can also talk with friends, family, co-workers, and others in personal conversations, or posts on your social networks.

Thank you for faithfully reading the entire Bible. We’d love to hear how your life was impacted by your B90 experience.