A new study finds that the overwhelming majority of those who read the Bible at least three times a year have experienced transformation due to their encounters with Scripture, along with a sizable minority of Christians who interact with the Bible less frequently.

The American Bible Society released the seventh chapter of its 12th annual “State of the Bible” report, which focuses on “Bible use.” The survey of 2,598 adults conducted from Jan. 10-28 defines “Bible users” as those who said they interacted with the Bible at least three to four times a year.

Within this group of “Bible users,” 92 percent answered in the affirmative when asked if “the message of the Bible has transformed my life.” Just 8 percent said otherwise. By contrast, most respondents who did not meet the criteria for designation as a “Bible user” (62 percent) did not see the message of the Bible as a source of transformation in their lives, while 38 percent did.

John Farquhar Plake, the director of ministry intelligence for the American Bible Society, reacted to the findings of the survey in a statement: “While we’ve reported that there has been a sharp decline in Bible reading, nearly 60 million people who engage with the Bible less than three times per year say it has had a transformative impact on their lives. Our research shows that consistent interaction with God’s Word changes us.”

“As the Church, we must look for every opportunity to show our neighbors the transformational love of Jesus — which is all over the pages of the Bible,” Plake added.

Much of the latest installment of the “State of the Bible” report specifically examined the practices of Bible users. The survey asked “Bible users” to identify their methods of Bible use, finding that 48 percent of respondents within this subgroup “read a few verses at a time.” Forty percent of Bible users read passages based on their mood, 32 percent read entire chapters or stories of the Bible at a time, 26 percent follow a set schedule, plan or program to read the Bible, and 22 percent read the Bible at the same time every day.

While men were more likely to prefer reading entire chapters or stories in the Bible at a time than women, women chose all of the other methods of Bible reading. The survey also examined the preferred ways of Bible use among the three categories of respondents, classified based on their responses to “14 survey items about the frequency of Bible use and the impact and centrality [of] its message.”

Additionally, the study revealed reading from a printed Bible as the most common way Bible users interact with Scripture, with 69 percent citing the traditional method as one of their preferred ways to expose themselves to the Word of God. Less than half of Bible users told pollsters that they used Bible apps on their electronic devices (48 percent), watched a Bible-oriented program (46 percent), searched for Bible-related content on the internet (46 percent), enrolled in an app-based Bible reading plan (29 percent) and listened to a Bible-related podcast (28 percent).