The social segment of evangelicals has experienced a great growth in Brazil, but their contribution to the development of the congregations' literacy has not been studied yet. This research investigates how readers with different formal education levels evaluate the role of their engagement in practices of reading the Bible in their personal development. The research participants were divided in two groups - Bible's regular readers with less formal education (up to five years of schooling) and Bible's regular readers with more formal education (more than eight years of schooling). Results show that their participation in literacy events of Bible reading favor their literacy development, as well as their personal formation. We venture to say that even those with low literacy according to common sense, are nimble and able to read and understand certain texts like the Bible, as much as the ones with higher education. This shows that different literacies have their own features, whose mastery is needed to interact properly in each environment. The liturgical literacy and knowledge of genres in the context of this study are crucial to the reading comprehension of the participants.
literacy; non-school context; Bible; genre; reading