Tampa Bay Newspaper Delivers Bibles to Subscribers

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, February 03, 2009

A local Tampa Bay newspaper distributed a copy of the New Testament along with its Saturday edition this past weekend as part of a national effort to deliver scriptures using a newspaper's circulation.

The Tampa Tribune delivered 56,500 copies of a paperback New Testament that features retired Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and the Tampa skyline this past Saturday – the day before the city hosted Super Bowl XLIII, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

It became the latest newspaper to be part of International Bible Society's "City Reacher's" project, which seeks to distribute Bibles in major U.S. cities to encourage its residents to read the Word of God.

The Tampa Bay effort was organized by two local residents who raised $127,000 with the help of 15 area churches and 19 local businesses.

Debbie Lamphier and her sister said they decided to bring the City Reacher project to their city after hearing an evangelist friend talk about the Bible program. They picked the Saturday before the Super Bowl to distribute the Bibles because they expected that to be the day to have the most readers.

But their effort has been received with some complaints from not only anti-religious residents but also some Christians who fear the free Bibles would just be thrown in the trash.

"Someone who has got strong beliefs in another religion might not be thrilled with this … but the hope is to reach lost souls who need God," Lamphier said, according to the St. Petersburg Times. "There was no intent to offend anyone."

Within the past year, IBS has distributed 700,000 Bibles using newspaper circulations in major U.S. cities such as Philadelphia, Houston, Fort Worth and Spokane, Wash.