A good strategy for becoming adept at Bible study is to find a mentor, someone who models skilled Bible study and can pass on what they know. That transmission happens either by verbal instruction or modeling. In a perfect world, one’s pastor would fill this space. I was blessed to have a pastor who took us through the text. I didn’t know it, but I was learning to study the Bible. If you can say the same, thank God for your pastor.
However, I’ve heard hundreds of complaints from Christians about the lack of biblical content from the pulpit in their church. Granted, I may be hearing a distorted number of those laments because I interact with people online. But other lines of evidence have convinced me there may be a deep problem in this regard.
First, some recent studies have confirmed the vacuous state of biblical knowledge in Christian churches, including those in the evangelical orbit. A 2009 Barna Group study sent shockwaves through thousands of churches after it reported significant declines in biblical literacy and engagement of the Bible among churchgoers between the ages of eighteen and forty-four. This was offset by a rise among the same group in desire for “Bible knowledge.” The divergence suggests a disconnect between what people want and what they’re often getting in church.
Second, I have regular exposure to the books being produced by pastors and lay teachers for the church at large. Many of them are light on biblical and theological content, focusing instead on advice, encouragement, and cultural engagement. Those things are good, but they don’t feed the hunger for biblical content.
Pastors have a difficult job. Most are insanely busy with administration, counseling, visitation, and meetings. They have little time to study Scripture in depth. But that recognition doesn’t solve the problem. Christians are starving for serious biblical content, not the basics of the faith with adult illustrations. If pastors don’t preach and text the text, they don’t provide a template for how to study Scripture. If you can’t retrace your pastor’s sermon in the biblical text after Sunday, you may need to find a mentor somewhere else.