Trivial Pursuits

I read a quote today that was quite startling and goes along with a previous post about why the church doesn’t seem to care about learning the Bible (OT especially):

“For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.” - HL Mencken

Of course people aren’t interested in learning more about the Bible—they haven’t been shown why it matters or what the benefit is. They see knowledge dispensed with no real impact on their daily lives. In a “me first” culture, people must first come to a realization about why studying the Bible for its depth affects them positively. They don’t care about a bunch of interesting (at least in our minds) factoids. They want convincing that studying the Bible is worth the time and energy. I think deep down people do want to grow, but they need a reason to try.

It is like someone who becomes overweight and doesn’t care until they have a heart attack. Then they realize the need for proper diet and work. Or it is like a senior in high school who does not pay attention in algebra class, missing the formulas and concepts needed to balance equations, thinking that there is no need to know these things since s/he is exempt from the final. Only to find out a week before said final that s/he will be forced to take it, and failure on the test will result in failure to graduate.

Our churches are full of spiritually overweight and uninterested people. Blissful ignorance like that found in the student permeates our sanctuaries. But leaders do little to correct such faults if we dispense the truths of the Bible like Trivial Pursuit answers. And the result is church full of people whose spiritual pursuits are just that—trivial