Do I Really Know Me?
A friend of mine, James Nored, recently asked a class about the spiritual value of bible class. The group almost unanimously agreed that Bible classes don’t change behavior. Why is this? Is God’s Word less effective today? Of course not!
The reason that lives don’t change is because we don’t let the truth really shape our habits and tendencies. We permit our experience of God (and the Holy Spirit) to penetrate only the surface our lives.
If we have made a commitment to change, one of the next key steps is knowing ourselves. How well do I really want to know what is going on in me.
Our action in any given moment are controlled by habits that we have developed. These tendencies and dispositions “double back” on themselves and become self reinforcing. In simple terms, our prejudices run the show.
We will only change if these deeper habits and beliefs are addressed. Sounds easy right? Hardly.
Too often, we fail to confront what is really going on deep down in our minds and souls.
This is especially true in Bible classes (and other public settings) where we don’t really condition ourselves to be open to change. I find that adults are pretty guarded in public– they put up their defenses so that they don’t look foolish or out of place.
What do you think about these issues?
Yes, I agree that people are pretty guarded in public; however in a bible class setting it only takes a few people sharing honestly about their ideas, thoughts, and struggles to thaw out a frozen class. Some people are only attending out of obligation or guilt, some attend out of a sincere desire to learn, some are mature in the Lord, while some are immature. Bible class isn’t like a math or history class – but yet we treat it like one. That’s why people claim that it doesn’t change lives. The term Bible class links it to school study in our minds. I know that changing the name isn’t going to change the perception (it’s too ingrained in us to call it bible class) – it’s going to take a few people honestly sharing out loud in a class to get people to really pay attention and be more introspective. Perhaps that introspection will bring about a commitment to change behavior.
Well, that and maybe homework assignments.(wink)
Most Bible classes focus on acquiring knowledge, rather than spiritual transformation. Typically, the teacher approaches the subject matter from an academic standpoint and tries to lay out all the history, background, and proof-texts associated with the topic, OR it quickly descends into basic reminders of the same essential “truths” we’ve learned since childhood (God is love, Jesus died for our sins, we need to be good, etc…). We rarely focus on HOW to undergo spiritual transformation and honestly analyze and share how much or little the Spirit is moving within our lives. I don’t want to sound too negative, but the teacher almost always gets more out of the class than the participants. Much of our religious approach in the Church of Christ has emphasized knowledge acquisition and not inner transformation – until that changes the Bible classes, sermons, and small group gatherings won’t do a lot for widespread transformation.