What's wrong with us? Part 1

My love of scripture probably began while participating in Bible drills when I was a kid. Every Sunday night while I was in 4th, 5th and 6th grade, our team of drillers would meet to practice and prepare for our church, associational and state competitions. I'm not sure if it was fueled by my competitive nature or not, but I was a state winner in 4th grade and a state winner perfect in 5th and 6th grade, which is as close to perfection as I'll ever come on earth. Many lessons and memories from Bible drills have stuck with me, but one stands above the rest. On the cover of the pamphlet provided by our state association each year was this verse:

2 Timothy 2:15 "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth."

The context of that verse is simple. Timothy was struggling and Paul was writing to encourage him to not forsake the teaching of sound doctrine. People were looking to Timothy to equip them and Timothy needed to be up to the task. As a young man, this verse was impressed upon me to see the need for studying God's Word for myself. Pity that isn't the case today.

Oh, many in ministry will claim that this is their desire. They will tell you that they want nothing more than to know that their people are participating in daily study. However, if this is really a desire then why are we not equipping our people to do just that? There is too much evidence out there to suggest that people today are not engaging in study themselves. Most notably is the statistic from the North American Mission Board that shows that 80% of students abandon their faith at some point after graduation from high school.

My fear is that when we see a stat like the one above it causes us to preach louder and make the Christian do and don't lists longer. We feel like we in ministry are who must fix the problem. The problem with that is we still haven't realized what the problem is. Until we realize that we are not in control and then relinquish that control and do ministry from a Biblical model we will never see change.


This is the first in a two part series.