When pastors get together, we often mourn the biblically illiteracy of the people we come into contact with in our churches and communities. Even the most basic biblical narratives are not know any longer. And it is right that we would mourn this since we believe that the words and narratives of Scripture are given by God to give life of all who know and hear them.
But one thing has been really on my mind lately. It seems to me that is is not the population in general that is becoming less biblically literate. It is the pastors also. And I do not just mean the pastors out there who are perhaps are new Christians elevated too quickly to the office of the ministry. I mean pastors like me and my peers.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, most of us would not be unaware of the basic narratives of Scriptures and could quote many verses if we wanted to show off. But it seems to me that often times, we are too busy with all sorts of other things to soak in the word like pastors of old did. We can find ourselves stumped all too easily and often can not recall quickly or without aids the locations of the verses we know are in the scriptures somewhere. There are entire portions of the Scripture we know we are certainly not able to teach competently with our current knowledge and thought.
Those interested in the historical practice and teachings of the Christian Church spend lots of time reading ancient and modern theology. They go to studies were we study the confessions of our church. They take in what other pastors are writing about the history of Christian practice. They exchange ideas and opinions about doing faithful ministry in our settings.
Those more interested in the missional nature of the Church spend lots of time reading the latest books on the subject. They go to groups which look at various leadership models and strategies. They read the missional gurus’ blogs and tweets. They exchange ideas about how to engage their communities.
If you want to find a conference on the confessional or missional approaches to ministry, there is no shortage of conferences to attend. If you want a conference taught at the pastoral level that just does exegesis on the texts of scriptures, good luck. Occasionally, we do get such a thing, but not nearly enough.
And this is not good. If we are not constantly student of the scriptures themselves, it is all too easy for one part of the Church to be carried into all sorts of assumptions based on a obscure theological quotes or early church practice and another part to be ordered according to leadership models rather than scriptural truth.
Brothers, we need ourselves to return to the Word. These other things may be of some value. But if they keep us from constant engagement with and study of the life-giving scriptures, we are in trouble indeed.
Let us all confess that many times, our own interests lead us to place our focus on extra-biblical things at the expense of our biblical literacy. We do not know the Word as we should and therefore are not the shepherds we ought to be. Lord, have mercy.
Phil,
I really appreciate your honesty and your continued challenges to fellow pastors. Stuff like that makes us better as a church.
Jaime
Hey Phil,
I love the topic and your observations are right on the money. The point about the conference is so true. That is why our church started our Biblical Studies Conference three years ago. We invited Dr. Reed Lessing to come in and he has taught on Amos, Jonah, and Isaiah 40 -55. The entire conference is built on 10 hours of Biblical Instruction and teaching. Plus we added a Lay Bible Conference to it. This year we had 31 Pastors participing and 81 at our Lay Conference. I was blown away at how much the pastors just ate up sitting in a quality – text driven – Bible Study.
Dave
Phil,
The Lutheran abandonment of the historic lectionary (which was done for the stupidest of reasons. For a bunch of anti-papists, when the pope says jump you ask “how high?” a lot.) probably has a lot to do with this. The adoption of the three year lectionary was supposed to increase Biblical literacy and it has done exactly the opposite. Rather than actually preach the Gospel, you’ve rather wanted to preach stories from the Gospel. And this has had not only negative effects on the laity but on its ministers as well. If you were to “re-adopt” the historic lectionary you may have less material, but you will be able to master much more. Tell me, is it better to know little about a lot or a lot about a little?
Phil. Well now you’ve done it. You’ve hit the nail right on the head and I’m afraid it is my head in which the nail is bedded. I want to excuse myself (and others) by pointing out that we do spend a great deal of time studying the weekly texts in sermon preparation, sorta. And then there’s all that other busy stuff like sharing our ingnorance in Bible and catechism classes; not to mention the funeral I am preparing for this week complete with a quickly written sermon without study. Well, you’ve stateted the problem quite well. So now, what’s the solution? Yeh, I know. Quit being so lazy and self-indulgent. Thanks. Larry.
Chris, I’m not sure the abandonment of the historic lectionary has anything to do with what I’m writing about here. I do not think only focusing on portions of the holy Scriptures is the answer to Biblical illiteracy. The true answer is to let ourselves stop being distracted of all sorts of other things in order that we can focus on the word.
Larry, the only reason I could write about it is because I know the situation so well. Some of the guys in the circuit it may be beyond are thinking about getting together once a month to study a book of the Bible. I think were looking at doing first Thessalonians first. It would be an afternoon kind of like the confession stunning. I’ll let you know when we get the details set up.
Phil,
You’re quite wrong. The abandonment by the Lutheran Church and other western confessions of the historic lectionary together with the historic liturgy, which is, at its core, a repeat of the Scriptures, is largely the cause of both a Scripturally illiterate priesthood and laity. No one can expect people to be Scripturually literate when the Scriptures are seldom used and replaced with cheap grace praise hymns like “Awesome God.” Reap what you sow. Own up to the cause of the problem and fix it. The key is to return to the historic liturgy and the historic lectionary. You’re worried about distractions? The liturgy exists to free you from the pointless distractions of having to come up with your own prayers, your own hymns, your own orders of service, etc.
From you, I see no course of action save for a general plea “to return to the Word.” That’s not an action plan. How do you plan to return to the Word? Bible studies or simply reading the Bible do not solve the issue. Platitudes like that call attention to a problem without any discernible means to remedy it. And of course, the LCMS won’t remedy the problem as I suggested because a) it would mean actually enforcing a conformity which the Confessions call for, but would trespass on that misguided notion of “adiaphora” and b) it would make you look too Roman and heaven forbid that should happen, though the Catholics have almost exactly the same problems.
Is it me? Is it me? Is it me?
Chris – your entire argument is pure speculation. Unless you have empirical evidence that shows that the decline of biblical knowledge is directly tied to the disuse of the lectionary and liturgy then your argument does not hold water. The problem for pastors is simple – we don’t dedicate enough personal time to biblical studies, our winkles don’t focus enough time on both biblical and confessional studies, our seminaries are designed that a guy could go through the entire 4 years and not even read the entire BIble, and the typical district pastors conference focus more on pet issues rather than getting Into the word. For example my district convention is in June and we have less than 2 hours devoted to Bible Study over the cours of 2 and half days. That is why we started our own Bible Conference for Pastors because no one in our area was doing anything like it. As far as lay Bible knowledge goes the problem is simple. The average number of adults in Bible Study in a given week is 25 to 30%. I don’t care what kind of lectionary you use that is the core problem. At our church we set a goal of 60% of all adults and 75% of all youth/children in Bible Study. It is hard work but it can be achieved. I think what Phil is trying to do is address the fact that we Pastors have to set the tone for our church about getting into the Word and staying there.
David,
Fine, set the tone. But a Bible Study is not the panacea you claim it to be. Bible Studies tend to make the Scriptures more an intellectual pursuit rather than using the Scriptures as the means of prayer. Lex orandi, lex credendi, right? When the Scriptures are studied more, the Scriptures are less and less prayed. The historic liturgy is the Scriptures in prayer, but that has been largely removed by Lutherans ever since the Reformation. So, I fail to see how you can make a case that the (re)institution of the historic Liturgy and lectionary would actually hinder Scriptural literacy for both laity and clergy.
You ask for my empirical evidence. I regret that I have none. But I suspect you have no empirical evidence either. Still, you’re the ones who are clearly innovating by replacing the liturgy with bible studies. I’m advocating for historic church practice. You tell me who has the stronger case. Here’s a hint: It is I.
Chris,
Obviously you have an axe to grind which is going to limit your ability to actually engage the topic Phil wants to address, biblical illiteracy. If you want to use the historic liturgy and lectionary go right ahead but to think that this one change will solve the problem of Biblical literacy is naive. And btw I never once made the claim or asserted that reinstitution of the liturgy or lectionary would hinder scriptural literacy so please don’t put words in my mouth.
And to say that Phil or I are advocating replacing the liturgy with Bible Studies is just absurd. You want advocate for historic church practice – then start with Acts 2:42 “they devoted themselves daily to the apostolic teachings….” sure does sound like Bible Study to me.
And if you want empirical evidence I can give you stats and figures related to boh church attendance and bible study attendance and daily Bible Reading that greatly impact Biblical Illteracy.
David,
By all means, provide your statistics.
but you still have not yet refuted my claim that the re-institution of the historic lectionary and the historic liturgy would actually go quite far in helping to create a Scripturally literate congregation.
Also, I don’t know how you can parse apostolic teaching to be equated to Bible Studies. That’s simply not supported in the language.
Lastly, I don’t have an ax to grind (If I did this will look like a calm sunny day). Phil is an old friend from many years back and I like to read what he posts here. But I will admit that I was starved while I was Lutheran for real spiritual food. The constant abandonment of the historic liturgy in favor of church growth, get-people-in-the-door-at-all-costs mentality, the ahistoricity of the Lutheran solas, the abandonment of the church calendar, the ignoring of principal feasts, etc.left me needing much more.