COMBATING BIBLICAL ILLITERACY IN THE CHURCH

 

                "A Weariness of the Flesh" (2010, collage) 

A recent article by Jen Wilkin in Christianity Today magazine was titled “Go and Make Learners: How the church ended up in a Bible literacy crisis and what we need to do to recover.”

There are probably many reasons behind the general lack of Bible knowledge in the church today including our often crammed schedules, lack of space in many church buildings in which to hold classes for adults, pressures of work, and a dearth of qualified teachers. In a related article in that same CT issue, Russell Moore quotes Wendell Berry as saying, “Short-term practicality is long-term idiocy.”

And in some churches, learning more about the Bible is actually discouraged. We probably all know of congregations where the pastor or priest feels that he or she must project an image of absolute omniscience in order to discourage parishioners from asking embarrassing questions which they cannot adequately handle. And such discouragement can even come from fellow congregants. An acquaintance of mine who attended a mainstream denominational church told me that each Sunday when he entered church with his Bible in hand, he had to face a gauntlet of men making fun of him by calling him “holier than thou.”

The statistics from carefully conducted polls are evidence of the widespread problem the church faces today. One such recent poll actually revealed that just 28% of evangelicals agreed with the statement: “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”

So what is the solution to this crisis? Wilkin offers five basic suggestions, which I have summarized below with added comments based on my own experiences after 80+ years of church attendance and approximately 60 years of Bible teaching. 

Focus on Your Church

She starts with the admonition: “Recognize that the problem is in your congregation, not just someone else's.” And to do that she suggests that those in the church be given a simple Bible literacy test to gauge where they stand. I have done that in the opening lesson of almost every Sunday school series I have taught. It accomplishes several things right off the bat. First, it shows the teacher exactly how high or low he or she much pitch the intellectual and knowledge level of the whole class semester. Secondly, by going over the the correct answers that week or the following one, class members (1) begin to realize their own lack of understanding and need for further instruction, (2) may become more excited about the attending the coming series of lessons where they could begin to learn more, (3) and a give-and-take atmosphere is established in which those in the class can interact freely with each other and the teacher without fear of being looked down upon.

Clarify Terms

Wilkin suggests that the teacher clearly explain the different types of Bible studies (i.e. devotional, topical, book study) in order to clarify expectations.

For years in the Sunday school class I led, I would rotate regularly between an Old Testament study, a New Testament study, and a topical study. And each lesson would attempt to conclude with some sort of call to action or devotional thought.

Ask a Different Question

Wilkin says, “Instead of asking 'What do our people want?' ask, 'How are disciples formed?'”

Actually, when I was in charge of a teaching team at one church, we were very successful in both attracting people to our class and providing them a well-rounded Christian foundation by using one very simple technique. As one semester was coming to a close, we would describe two to four potential subjects for the coming semester and then hand out ballots on which we asked them to rank these according their interest level. Using that input, we chose our next subject based on both which subject was of most interest to them and which one was their least. That way we could find out immediately “What our people wanted.” And since the original slate of choices was based on the teachers' view of what they most needed (i.e., to best form disciples), we were able to satisfy both of Wilkin's requirements at the same time without having to make the difficult choice between the two.

Bring Back Active Learning Environments

Concerning this parameter, Wilkin says, “Create classroom opportunities where students are actively invested in the learning process through pre-work, thought-level group discussion, and dialogic teaching.”

The only problem with requiring pre-work is that 90% of students won't do any, other than possibly reading the Scripture passage in advance (It is imperative that they at least be told a week ahead of time the subject and Bible verses which will be discussed). And if they think that they may be called on in class to discuss that pre-work, some people won't even show up on Sunday rather than take the chance that they might be embarrassed in front of others.

On the other hand, there should definitely be a time during the class period in which a thought-provoking question or two be thrown open for discussion. I have found that many Sunday school teachers simply do not have the knack of doing this. All too often I have run into teachers who will read one verse of Scripture such as “God is love,” and then ask a class of adults, “What is God?” Of course, only the class teacher's pet will pipe up with the right answer. The others will just keep their mouths shut.

We had one man on our teaching team who once asked such an obvious question and no one bothered to answer him. His response was to tell us, “It looks like I am teaching over your heads. In the future I will try to simplify my words so you can comprehend them.” Actually, the reverse was true since he was already treating a class of rather knowledgeable Christian adults as if we were all grade school children.

As far as dialogic teaching goes, there is a definite knack to reducing that advice to practice. I have found that the only way I can get a dialogue really going, is to devise a question to ask that is truly open-ended even if I may feel that I already know the correct answer. The teacher at that point must at least appear to show a little humbleness in front of the class by admitting that he is not exactly sure of the answer himself. It is amazing when you do that how open and sharing the class becomes at that point because they no longer feel that you already know the answer and are just waiting to pounce on anyone who doesn't guess what that answer is (or what the teacher thinks it is).

In my years of teaching I utilized a number of different, somewhat off-the-wall techniques to better engage the attention of the class. These included several types of role plays, dramatic readings, dividing the class into two or more groups to discuss a question and then present their findings to the class as a whole, guest devotional messages before the main speaker, tag-team presentations by more than one teacher, etc. The main problem most Sunday school teachers have with such techniques is their fear of what might result if they loosen up their control over the class.

Raise the Bar

Wilkin says regarding this subject that we need to “Ask more of people, believe they are capable, and call them to a beautiful vision.”

I would have to agree with her on this point. However, the time limitations and mixed class make-up of most adult Sunday school classes make it very hard to accomplish this goal in a one-hour time slot. That is why I have found the most successful churches by far in really making knowledgeable and motivated disciples is by supplementing what happens on Sunday morning with more in-depth teaching during other time periods during the week. These can take many forms from small sharing-caring home groups to almost university-level classes attended by up to 100 students at a time to scheduled debates between trained apologists and atheists in the community.

Final Caution

There is much more which could be said in relation to ways in which meaningful learning can take place in the church other than on a Sunday morning. However, all of them involve a certain giving over of total control by the pastors. And we all have to admit that there are some pastors who feel that the local church is theirs and theirs alone. Such leaders get quite threatened to give up their monopoly on all content taught in “their” church. And they aren't completely wrong in feeling that way. I have personally witnessed and been told more than one horror story regarding renegade Sunday school teachers basically starting what amounted to deviant cults which attracted certain members of a congregation and ended up almost splitting the church. Therefore I would take to heart my experiences years ago at two congregations in which I was a new member. The church leadership at both churches made it a regular practice to test out new adult teachers before giving them free rein over a class. One church accomplished this by first having me team-teach with a long-time respected member of that congregation. That way the more trusted teacher could gauge both my effectiveness and orthodoxy. And in another church where I had volunteered to teach a series of special classes in the evening, the head pastor personally attended the whole series before trusting me to teach further subjects later on without being so closely monitored for content.

Conclusion

As Wilkin summarizes: “Two thousand years of faithful instruction and transmission are the reason anyone reading this is a Christian today.” And regarding those, “It is their heritage to receive with joy, and it is their heritage to transmit with diligence.”