I have been reading the book of John most recently. Great gospel. One thing has struck me completely new through this reading it this time that I honestly have never noticed before. The disciples that Jesus chose knew He was the Messiah because they had studied the scriptures!!!! This fisherman guys had done their Sabbath lessons. In the Book of John it says over and over how the disciples recognized He was Christ because of the prophecies they remembered. Wow! Ok, then juxtaposed that against the pharisees and saducees who claimed theological guru status but couldn’t see the truth or refused to see the truth for fear of losing power.

Ok, so the point. Hey, study is not bad, not bad at all. In fact, there are some test that will not be passed without study. Study to show yourself approved a workman unto God that need not be ashamed but correctly handles the word of truth. Yep! But it is possible to know it all and miss God. Jesus said to the pharisees…”you study the scriptures diligently because you think that by them you have life but you don’t come to me.” Woahhh. So if you think that you have life by studying the scriptures, you might be mistaken. If you read the scripture so that you can come to God and know Him better, you are gonna recognize Him when He shows up. It is so much about the heart. During a short stint at YWAM I met a girl who couldn’t remember what she did yesterday. No short and not much long term memory. Didn’t finish high school. Ran into her at a wedding 4 years later and she was a bible scholar. God had granted her the ability to study and know His word. It was a miracle. She was preaching the gospel and doing bible training down in South America. Wow. This is how God works. Study is not bad but the moment it becomes a pride badge, or an exclusive systematic snobology circle then it has set itself up as an idol in a life and may block a person from the very Living God that they are reading about.

Thanks again for providing this forum, Charlie

Maybe we say things like “digging deeper” because our understanding of how church should be “done” really only lends itself to that end. We show up. Worship. Pass the plate. Sermon. (optional: pass the plate again). Worship more. Socialize. Clear out before the next service begins or the band tears down.

It’s been done this way for years. And it is effective. It is perfectly fine.

With that in mind, the gospel really isn’t all that complicated. A 7-year old could explain it just fine in less time than an average TV commercial break. And yet we feel compelled to expound upon it for 30-40 minutes per week (depending on how long announcements take) every week. It is only natural that within this model of doing church, that we should expect the end to be “deeper knowledge”.

Let me stop here and add my own obligatory de-heretic-ing. I think this model of church is perfectly fine. It is great. I have absolutely nothing against it. I immensely enjoy every Sunday at The Grove. I am not advocating against it. At all. Good? Good.

But it shouldn’t surprise us that when we format our services like a classroom with singing that a congregation would expect to progress in their knowledge much like they expect to do in a classroom…”Dude, I know 2+2=4…we cover that exact same topic 17 times every year, each time just putting a slightly different spin on it. Let’s do us some algebra!”

Even in changing how we teach the application of a topic (”if you had 2 dollars and your friend gave you two more dollars, you would have 4 dollars and still couldn’t afford to drink at Starbucks”, “in order to fill the four seats of your car, you and your spouse would have to invite another couple to ride with you”, “if you have a 2-pound chicken in each hand, well you’ve got yourself 4 pounds of chicken”), we still aren’t guaranteeing that we are digging deeper in the way people expect to dig deeper in a regular teaching setting.

It could be that it requires a fundamental shift in our thought of what Sunday “looks like” if we want to really move away from a pursuit of knowledge toward a pursuit of application. Arguably, that’s what community groups are for. And while I don’t advocate moving away from how we “do” church, WHICH I FEEL THE NEED TO REITERATE AGAIN, this may help us understand where the “dig deeper” expectation comes from.

Anyways, great post, Charlie! You are as engaging of a blogger as you are a teacher

Peace,
~Scott

If we don’t understand truth and if we are not ABLE to discern truth from error then what we apply to our daily lives will not matter, and in some situations will be dangerous. This might require Biblical Greek and it might require thinking very deeply about some things. We can’t just expect God to hand us all truths on a platter. In fact, that cannot be the kind of world we live in as it is clear that born again Christians disagree on really important issues all the time.

We also need to know how to apply that truth. We need really solid application! But, there are some more subtle issues under the surface here. First, even application is something done in the mind. It isn’t like digestion or emotion. It happens as we think and process. Thinking in a really integrative way is another way of describing practicality. So both head knowledge and application are both intellectual activities, although we tend to think there is more action involved in the second. Second is the whole idea of “practicality”. Even rocket science is incredibly practical, and any knowledge that is going to be taught has practical application. We often think of practicality as a separate step that has to be taken. But, if I truly believe that a train is fast approaching, I’m going to automatically get out the way. I don’t need to be told “apply this truth to your life”. Likewise, I tend to think that as we grow in our knowledge of God and the world, we WILL live differently, and if we don’t, then we may not really believe what we think we believe.

However, this kind of warning, which I hear often, I think, is kind of misplaced. It’s like telling a bunch of soldiers to be strong, or a bunch of Oxford scholars to use your heads more. Telling this younger generation of Christians to “not be so heady” isn’t what they need to hear. Alarming statistics abound about the lack of a Christian worldview among this younger generation.

I often hear about the danger of unapplied knowledge and over-theologizing, but the problem is that when I look at our younger churches, I don’t see younger Christians filled to the brim with “head” knowledge, unable to apply truth in any practical way. What I see is Christians who, precisely because they lack the “head” knowledge, are unable to function in life as healthy Christians, unable to apply truth and live the full life.

It is precisely because they haven’t really thought about Christian truth FOR THEMSELVES and sometimes in its complexity that they are not able to apply Christian truth FOR THEMSELVES. Young Christians can be buoyed up by tradition and their parents’ faith to the point that they haven’t learned how to own it for themselves. The problem is that you can’t just tell someone to have faith or be loving and get results. Any results will be short-lived. This is why Paul said we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, not by charisma and good examples. Biola University (where I went to seminary) was an experience for me. There we had people of incredible depth of thought as well as depth of relationship. There was no dichotomy. Add to this the problem of a secular world bombarding us with its own messages and beliefs, and if we haven’t learned to actually think for ourselves, then we are going to be tossed this way and that by every wind of doctrine.

I do think there is such a thing as heady or doctrinal preaching, where God’s truths aren’t seen as mattering to the rest of life. So, there is a way to show how the deepest truths integrate with Christian life and really matter. Unfortunately, this is rarely seen today.

When people ask to go deep, give them both! I think spiritual poverty comes when we lack both. Matthew 10:16 gets it right: be both wise and innocent. So when people ask for depth, give both profound insight but profoundly simple and meaningful application.

It’s the job of all Christian leaders, I think, to not only model, but teaching how to do both equally well. I’ve seen bright Christian scholars with big warm hearts. This younger generation needs to see that, too. Jesus was like this:

See article “Jesus as a Philosopher”: http://www.equip.org/articles/jesus-philosopher-and-apologist

Peter