For Evangelical Christian pastors in the U.S., what are the 50 Bible
passages most commonly preached about on a typical non-holiday
weekend?

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Request for Question Clarification by digsalot-ga on 29 Oct 2002 16:07 PST

There are Evangelicals, and then again, there are Evangelicals.  Some
use Bible passages to teach faith, others use Bible passages to pursue
a particular political agenda.  Some are quite liberal in their
thinking and others conservative to the extreme.  Some use Bible
passages to support an agenda of intolerance and some are almost
universalist in nature.  If you could let us know "which" Evangelicals
you are asking about, it would make an answer much more possible.  A
generic answer to this question could create more confusion than
enlightenment.

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Clarification of Question by lwitzel-ga on 29 Oct 2002 17:43 PST

Good point. I'm not interested in any politicized Evangelicals, but
rather those who use Bible passages to teach faith, as you put it. For
those pastors preaching during a typical faith-building Sunday morning
service, what are the 50 most common Bible passages used as the basis
for the sermon?

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Request for Question Clarification by webadept-ga on 29 Oct 2002 22:38 PST

Hi, 

I don't know why but I've been thinking about this question most of
the day. The reason I "don't know why" is because it is not really a
question that could be answered completely and I tend to ignore those
and move on to others. But, like I say, I've been looking at it off
and on, and I think I've come up with something that may be able to do
and could get you the information you are looking for.

Separating the Evangelical Christian from the lot is not really a
feasible thing, but I could run a query using the Google API for
something like "This Weeks Sermon" which produces about 300 good
pages, and search each of those pages using a Perl script for which
Bible verses are being mentioned. Then count those verses and complied
a "top 50 list" from that.

I've looked through the posts and they are from all over, Evangelical,
Catholics, Methodists, everyone. But the bible verses are there, as
you would expect. For some of the sites the list will be more
comprehensive because they keep a years list of sermons on the
website, so the program could go through all of those. Most of them
simply replace the page with the new week, so this isn't available.

If you are interested in something like this then post a reply, if
not, that's okay too, at least I can stop thinking about how to do
this now :-) You have a great day!

webadept-ga

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Clarification of Question by lwitzel-ga on 30 Oct 2002 09:54 PST

Hi, webadept-ga,

I would accept an answer based on your methodology. I know that
getting an absolutely authoritative answer is not practical, and your
approach would point toward an answer that would be close enough for
my needs.

Thanks,

lwitzel-ga

Hi, 

That was fun. Thanks for the question. 

I wound up with about 1000 webpages with sermons on them. From that
I'll give you the top 100 verses here :

Acts 2:1  = 19 
Genesis 1:1  = 14 
John 3:16  = 14 
Dan 9:27  = 13 
Acts 2:42  = 13 
Dan 9:20  = 11 
John 20:19  = 11 
Revelation 22:21  = 10 
Galatians 3:28  = 10 
Matthew 16:13  = 9 
Ephesians 5:15  = 9 
John 3:1  = 9 
John 1:1  = 9 
Matthew 6:19  = 9 
Dan 8:16  = 9 
John 1:29  = 8 
Acts 1:8  = 8 
Luke 16:19  = 8 
Dan 1:1  = 7 
Luke 15:1  = 7 
Matthew 22:1  = 7 
Matthew 28:19  = 7 
John 14:1  = 7 
Matthew 6:9  = 7 
Titus 2:11  = 7 
Romans 1:1  = 7 
Philippians 2:5  = 6 
Matthew 28:18  = 6 
Matthew 17:1  = 6 
Matthew 3:1  = 6 
James 1:22  = 6 
Romans 13:11  = 6 
Matthew 6:  = 6 
Romans 3:21  = 6 
Ephesians 1:15  = 6 
Romans 3:23  = 6 
Matthew 16:27  = 6 
Luke 19:10  = 6 
Matthew 1:21  = 6 
John 7:37  = 6 
Dan 9:24  = 6 
Dan 7:1  = 6 
Matthew 2:1  = 6 
Matthew 4:1  = 6 
Ephesians 3:14  = 6 
Matthew 28:16  = 6 
John 15:1  = 5 
Matthew 24:  = 5 
Acts 2:14  = 5 
Mark 6:30  = 5 
John 10:10  = 5 
Hebrews 12:1  = 5 
Ephesians 1:3  = 5 
Romans 8:28  = 5 
John 15:5  = 5 
Matthew 5:17  = 5 
Luke 24:1  = 5 
John 1:14  = 5 
Matthew 5:  = 5 
Luke 24:13  = 5 
Luke 14:  = 5 
Daniel 9:24  = 5 
Acts 1:1  = 5 
James 1:  = 5 
Dan 10:11  = 5 
Genesis 1:26  = 5 
Luke 3:15  = 5 
Genesis 1:  = 5 
Genesis 3:1  = 5 
John 14:16  = 5 
John 4:7  = 5 
Colossians 2:1  = 5 
Dan 9:1  = 5 
Dan 10:13  = 5 
Matthew 5:1  = 5 
Matthew 5:13  = 5 
Ephesians 3:20  = 5 
Galatians 5:1  = 5 
Romans 12:1  = 5 
Dan 2:44  = 5 
Dan 9:26  = 5 
Dan 9:25  = 5 
Romans 7:15  = 5 
Ephesians 2:10  = 4 
James 1:2  = 4 
Ezra 7:1  = 4 
John 2:1  = 4 
Acts 10:34  = 4 
Genesis 2:7  = 4 
James 1:19  = 4 
Mark 12:28  = 4 
Romans 8:  = 4 
Joshua 1:1  = 4 
James 3:6  = 4 
Matthew 1:18  = 4 
Luke 14:26  = 4 
John 14:15  = 4 
John 20:1  = 4 
Philippians 4:4  = 4 
Ephesians 4:11  = 4 

These are the Top Chapters in the bible. Sorry for the sorting but the
program sorted by alpha instead of by number, but it may be helpful to
you in your researcher.

John 3  = 46 
James 1  = 46 
Matthew 6  = 40 
Genesis 1  = 40 
Matthew 5  = 39 
John 14  = 37 
John 4  = 36 
Ephesians 1  = 34 
Ephesians 4  = 34 
Romans 3  = 34 
Proverbs   = 33 
Ephesians 5  = 33 
Colossians 1  = 31 
Dan 10  = 29 
Romans 1  = 28 
Ephesians 3  = 28 
Galatians 3  = 27 
Romans 6  = 27 
Matthew 28  = 26 
Ephesians 2  = 26 
Luke 19  = 26 
Genesis 3  = 25 
Hebrews 11  = 24 
Luke 15  = 23 
Luke 1  = 23 
John 15  = 23 
Romans 12  = 23 
Matthew 10  = 22 
Luke 8  = 22 
Romans 5  = 22 
Dan 7  = 22 
Luke 6  = 22 
Revelation 13  = 22 
Matthew 16  = 22 
John 20  = 21 
John 6  = 21 
Philippians 2  = 21 
Romans 7  = 20 
Luke 2  = 20 
Acts 1  = 20 
Exodus 20  = 20 
Luke 24  = 20 
Luke 16  = 19 
John 16  = 19 
Matthew 24  = 19 
John 8  = 19 
Luke 9  = 18 
Philippians 4  = 18 
Genesis 2  = 18 
Revelation 22  = 18 
Ephesians 6  = 18 
Matthew 7  = 17 
John 12  = 17 
Romans 13  = 17 
John 10  = 17 
Matthew 4  = 17 
Matthew 18  = 17 
James 5  = 17 
Mark 1  = 17 
Galatians 5  = 16 
Romans 111  = 16 
Matthew 22  = 16 
Philippians 1  = 16 
Mark 10  = 16 
Luke 3  = 16 
John 17  = 16 
Dan 8  = 16 
Isaiah 53  = 15 
Dan 1  = 15 
Colossians 2  = 15 
Titus 2  = 15 
James 4  = 15 
Matthew 11  = 14 
Daniel 9  = 14 
Mark 6  = 14 
Luke 12  = 14 
Luke 14  = 14 
Luke 18  = 14 
Romans 10  = 13 
Luke 10  = 13 
Proverbs 10  = 13 
Matthew 13  = 13 
James 3  = 13 
Mark 12  = 13 
Matthew 1  = 13 
Proverbs 3  = 13 
Hebrews 12  = 13 
John 2  = 13 
Hebrews 9  = 13 
Acts 20  = 12 
James 2  = 12 
Matthew 21  = 12 
Matthew 2  = 12 
Luke 4  = 12 
Dan 2  = 12 
Revelation 21  = 12 
Matthew 3  = 12 
John 11  = 11 
John 13  = 11 
Luke 5  = 11 

And these are the top books used 

John   = 403 
Matthew   = 400 
Luke   = 348 
Romans   = 315 
Dan   = 222 
Acts   = 210 
Ephesians   = 174 
Genesis   = 149 
Revelation   = 128 
Mark   = 124 
Proverbs   = 116 
Isaiah   = 115 
James   = 103 
Hebrews   = 99 
Exodus   = 83 
Jeremiah   = 71
Philippians   = 66 
Galatians   = 62 
Job   = 56 
Colossians   = 54 
Deuteronomy   = 50 
Psalms   = 48 
Joshua   = 44 
I Corinthians   = 37 
Proverbs -  = 33 
Titus   = 28 
Ezra   = 27 
Ezekiel   = 24 
rev   = 21 
Leviticus   = 20 

Thanks for the great question and the chance to answer it. I hope this
is as interesting to you as it has been for me.

webadept-ga

Very creative solution, resulting in a very informative answer. Great work!

Your question is difficult to answer in any authoritative manner. 
Please know than many Christian denominations have adopted the use of
the lectionary which results in very broad coverage of the bible over
the course of a three year cycle.

Not a definitive answer, but a google search for Bible memory verses
(://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=bible+memory+verses)turned
up a nice list of topics from Valley Bible Church in California. From
their web site they appear to me to be the kind of evangelical church
you may be referring to. This is a list of 60 prominent passages on
basic aspects of christian faith and life. I think it would be a great
starting point for a year's worth of sermons. I know that I have heard
sermons on most if not all of these verses over the years.
http://www.valleybible.net/resources/MemoryVerses.shtml

Dear Webadept-ga. There are more books in the Hebrew scripture than
Genesis, Ezra and Daniel, Exodus,Ezekiel and Leviticus. All of these
are important, but it is necessary to consider the WHOLE Bible. I
appreciate that you were researching the scriptures most used by
evangelising faiths. Jesus in his day read from the scriptures
available to him. A whole lot of groups seem to quote from memory.
E.G. The Pope reads from a printed page but I have yet to see him
actually hold a Bible and read from it. And who is this , as the Bible
puts it, " The man of lawlessness".