I agree. I attended a class at the Atlanta ElderLink a couple of years ago where the teacher said some churches that had dropped Sunday school had come to regret it, but couldn't put it back in their program once the members had gotten used to not having it (and many of those churches have a 1 1/2 hour worship).

I think this part of the problem Willow Creek came up against shown by the Reveal study. It's awfully hard to go deep into the word through a sermon and small group Bible study.

On the other hand, lots of churches with Bible classes teach at the 4th grade level — or teach the same stuff they taught 30 years ago, over and over and over.

So far, at my church, we've managed to stay away from that (I've posted our adult class materials on the blog for the last several quarters.) But I'm heading toward the idea of the Church of Irresistible Influence. They require 3 years of classes and then send their members into the community to serve.

I'm thinking we might develop a carefully designed curriculum that covers the core, and then offer more specialized classes from time to time (parenting, marriage, Christian evidences), and then give them back the hour the rest of the time on condition they invest that time in service to others.

On the other hand, there's new stuff being published every day. And there's so much to teach. And people enjoy their classes. And in the Churches of Christ, we often have more un-teaching than teaching we need to do.

So it's something to think about.

I think you're spot on. Many churches have a bad case of "that's what we pay our taxes for" — said by the same people who complain about how injurious welfare has been to the people receiving it.

You can't have it both ways.

My preference is the small group format where people are interacting. This take leadership and oversight to insure it keeps going, just as a bible class would. It really takes all of them, if there are people to reach and teach.

How can we be assurred that the bible is being taught? Do we simply throw it out there and let people do it for themselves or do we use some process, simple or otherwise to assist them through it. The eunich asked to be shown the word, and he was. I think in our society today that we may also be faced with many people who need to be "shown".

I do agree that it needs to be simple. The gospel was simple enough that an everyday fisherman dropped his net and found it. So too, can we.

My comments were directed to those of us today who believe that we can teach the bible, and in so doing we impart probably only 50 to 70% of knowledge to those we teach. They then go and teach it and impart their knowledge to others – probable only about 25 to 25% of what they were taught, so we may be dumbing down the gospel.

My preference would be that all would simple get into the book and read it –

Jim K.

I believe that we may be "dumbing down" the church and it's members by eliminating biblical teaching.

"How can I know what I am reading – unless someone show me?"…….

In order to have a social gospel, you need to have the gospel. I would hope that the gospel would be the one emphasizing Christ. To insure that we must know and teach that gospel.

Blessings,

Jim K.

Calls for giving to help the poor are nowadays met with, "that is what our tax dollars do."

Hence, the success of churches in caring for the poor has led to the government caring for the poor for us. The government has become the benevolent arm of the church.

At least it all seems this way to me.

Thanks Jay for these honest reminders of great men and women of the past, though different in many ways and employing different methods, they preached Christ and loved sinners. Who can disagree with that approach to ministry?

Royce

Some Christians overreacted by denying the social implications of the gospel. However, most Christians are eager to accept the social implications of the gospel because they know that God is glorified in caring for others physically and spiritually. God is honored when we care for the vulnerable and oppressed, and when we care enough to share the gospel that will mean a difference for eternity for them. And the glory of God is their primary concern.