More Than Words on a Page

There are stories in every family that stand the test of time. They are repeated over at reunions, weddings, funerals, and any gathering where a large group of the family is together. Most of the time, these are stories that carry some sort of personal significance to the family as a whole either because the moment was so formative, or so funny that it will never be forgotten.

Is that same principle true with the Christian story? Is the truth of God’s Word so deeply engrained within the fabric of the soul that it cannot be forgotten? A recent LifeWay Research study does not seem to think so. The survey found that only 45% of those who regularly attend church read their Bible more than once a week. 40% only read their Bible occasionally (once or twice a month), and 20% say they never read their Bible at all. Regardless of how well the culture or the Church thinks they know the stories (and ultimately the one overarching story) of Scripture these statistics seem to suggest that, in reality, the biblical narrative is having very little impact on the way Christians actually live.

As someone who has grown up in the Church for a long time, I often get trapped into thinking that everyone knows the stories from the Bible. Everyone knows the story of the feeding of the 5,000 or the story of Noah and the ark, and therefore, my responsibility as a communicator is not necessarily to tell the story again, but to simply communicate and apply the story to modern 21st century life. And while this is certainly true and is an important part of communicating the message it can be very easy to simply jump past Scripture straight to application. However, if these statistics are true, then the narrative that everyone knows the stories of Scripture seems to be a false one, even if they have been a faithful member of Sunday School or youth group.

However, I believe, this is not for a lack of desire to understand the biblical story but a lack of clarity in how that is accomplished. Many Christians know the stories of the Bible from rote memory, like they are being read out of a textbook, but they do not internalize the message. They are simply ‘good stories’ but they have no real or eternal impact on how people live their lives.

One of the constant struggles of being a seminarian and someone who studies the Bible frequently is the desire to examine or study the Bible like it is a textbook or an exam study guide. May we be reminded that God’s Word not only carries rhetorical weight in its beauty and its flourish but it carries spiritual weight and the power to shape and shake the nations and the human heart. May we who communicate and share the Gospel never become entangled in the lie that the devil so often uses to trap us that it is our words that hold transformative power or our intellect that can bring change. Rather, it is the power of God working through His Word and through His Spirit to redeem lives from the pit and transform our hearts from the inside out.

God’s Word is not something archaic that can be used for pithy quotes or chicken soup for the soul. God’s Word has the power to transform our soul and shape us to be more like Him. May we never lose sight of the fact that it is not by our strength or our merit that hearts are changed but only by the transformative work of the Gospel being written on our hearts.

To read more about LifeWay Research and their study read Ed Stetzer's article from Christianity Today "The Epidemic of Biblical Illiteracy in Our Churches"

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/july/epidemic-of-bible-illiteracy-in-our-churches.html