When you read your Bible throughout the week, from what translation are you most often reading?

If this were the year 1991, and Living Waters was polled about our Bible translation preferences, none of us would say it’s the English Standard Version (ESV) or the New Living Translation (NLT), because they hadn’t been made yet. If it were 1981, I doubt many of us would be using the New International Version (NIV) because it had only come out in 1978. Most of us would probably be reading regularly from the King James Version (KJV) or, perhaps, the Revised Standard Version (RSV).

Nowadays, however, the English Bible options are so abundant, it’s difficult to know for sure what we’re all reading.

Over the past 20 years or so we’ve seen an explosion of English Bible translations that have either been newly created or updated significantly. Those would include translations like the New International Version (NIV), the English Standard Version (ESV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New Living Translation (NLT), the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), the New English Translation (NET), and the Common English Bible (CEB).

The question that ultimately comes up for church families like ours is, “What translations are we reading from?” Questions like this are asked not to control or determine if someone is doing what they ought, but to get a good feel for how people in the church are experiencing the word of God. We could also ask what medium we’re all using (print, electronic, audio), but that’s a question for another time.

So, if you attend Living Waters Church regularly and feel up to sharing what Bible translation you most often read from, we would love to know.

There are two ways you can respond to this question: 1) you can reply by texting me (Kevin Davis) the translation at (269) 804-9268 or 2) you can submit your answer on a Sunday morning in the offering box (look for the small answer sheets).