An estimated 2 million students across the United States are expected to participate in Bring Your Bible to School Day, marking the long-running annual effort to encourage both students and adults to share scripture with those around them. 

Focus on the Family’s annual Bring Your Bible to School Day is taking place on Thursday. Statistics compiled by the socially conservative advocacy organization show that nearly 1.3 million people representing over 70,000 schools participated in Bring Your Bible to School Day last year. More than 10,000 churches were involved. 

In an interview with The Christian Post, Focus on the Family's Parenting and Youth Program Manager Emerson Collins projects even larger participation rates this year.

“Based on signups this year alone, we’re projecting close to 2 million participants,” he said, estimating that between 1.5 and two times the number of churches and schools that participated last year will take part in Bring Your Bible to School Day this year. 

“We’re looking at thousands of churches, thousands of schools and 2 million students total participating,” he stressed. Collins explained that if projections hold, Bring Your Bible to School Day is expected to see the highest level of participation this year since its inception in 2014. 

Collins provided specific examples of how Bring Your Bible to School Day has led to powerful evangelism experiences in the past. He told CP about “a second grader named David in Tennessee who brought his Bible to school and put it out on his desk all day, and the teacher actually noticed it before their story reading time that day.” 

“She picked it up and she actually read the story of Noah’s Ark to her students. And the students were so engaged that David actually created a Bible study where once a week he and his friends get together, they play tag for 10 minutes, and then they read the Bible together afterwards,” he added.

Collins also shared the experience of a first-grader in California named Lucie, who “brought her Bible and she read it right before pickup period.” According to Collins, “She was there in the carpool line with her Bible and all her friends were gathered around her.”

“She got to share the Gospel with her friends and some of her favorite Bible stories,” he noted, adding that both David and Lucie attended public schools. 

When asked by CP if Bring Your Bible to School Day creates curiosity about the Bible among other children who see their classmates participating, Collins said it does, adding: “That’s what we’re hoping to create is the curiosity, the connection and the conversation around Christ and the Gospel.”

Collins summarized the purpose of Bring Your Bible to School Day as “starting a conversation about Christ and the Gospel with a believer or an unbeliever to create that connection point for students in schools and, of course, be a light for Christ wherever they are.”

While the primary goal of Bring Your Bible to School Day is to encourage students to take their Bibles to school and share scripture with their classmates, last year marked the first time adults were encouraged to participate in Bring Your Bible Day. 

Reflecting on participation among adults last year, Collins said, “It went fantastic last year.”

He added, “The inspiration for that, of course, was that every year we heard students who were hesitant to participate in bringing their Bibles to school until mom or dad or a brother or sister or even an uncle said they would bring their Bible with them to work wherever they went if their student participated as well and they’d make it a whole family thing.” 

Collins estimates that around 3 million adults participated in Bring Your Bible Day last year. “Based on sign-ups alone, we can anticipate more than last year,” he said, adding, “We’d be looking at probably the 3.5 to 4 million range.” 

Collins also pointed to the resources Focus on the Family provides on its website for those wishing to participate in Bring Your Bible to School Day, including “conversation guides, answers to tough questions that you may face throughout the day about Christianity or apologetics or theology,” as well as “legal memos from our friends Alliance Defending Freedom.”

He concluded by stating, “We just want to equip everyone who wants to participate to participate in Bring Your Bible to School Day.”