Miles To Go

This week I attended a gathering of area pastors and church staff.  This particular meeting is always enjoyable to me for many reasons.  There was one experience I had, however, that has left me scratching my head about ministry leaders.  Can you guess if I am going to write about the good or the bad?

You guessed it.

At one point several ministers were brought up front for a game.  They were asked eight questions about the Bible and whoever could jot the correct answer down first won a point.  Simple right?  Here was the problem – very few of these professional ministers could answer any of the questions correctly! 

At first I thought the game was a setup, that this was some sort of skit intended to make us laugh.  I mean, several ministers thought Mark was an apostle and someone didn’t realize that Simon and Peter do not count as two of Jesus’ followers (since they are the same person).  Sure, maybe not everyone can spell Melchizedek, but shouldn’t people who make a living doing ministry be able to name at least one of Job’s three friends, or name at least one island that Paul visited? 

This anecdote supports a suspicion that I have had for quite some time.  Our culture and our churches are biblically illiterate because our leaders are biblically illiterate.  We have stressed for years (decades) that we do not need to memorize facts about the Bible or memorize parts of the Bible.  We have stressed that we only need to “have a relationship with God”. 

I have a relationship with lots of people.  I know things about them, like the names of their family members and places they have traveled.  These are not meaningless facts I have memorized.  They are parts of the stories of people I love.  Knowing facts about my friends does not create a “legalistic” relationship with them.  It provides context for me to understand them on a deeper level.

When my friends write books I read them.  I do not consider it a chore.  I consider it an opportunity to understand my friend, and learn something from them.  You see where I am going with this.

I had a hard time focusing at the meeting after this event.  There were other important things to be done during our time together, but I wanted to someone to address the fact that our leaders obviously are lacking in Biblical knowledge.  It never happened.

What to do?  The only thing I can do is take a hard look at myself and what is being taught at my church.  I can complain all I want about “those” people, but my ministry is to “these” people.  How well would my church leaders have done in that game?  What am I doing to teach them?

I suppose some of this goes back to a teaching philosophy that eschews learning and memorizing facts.  That is where I must begin my work.  The youth group meets on Sunday.  Perhaps I’ll start there.  Maybe this next generation will not only take a relationship with God seriously, but also take knowing things about God seriously.

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