I Was Searching For A Title

I was searching for a title for a topic on my mind. The topic is why people learn more from a good Bible Study than they do at Church. I came across this article title; Why You Don’t Learn Much Bible in Church. It was by famed biblical author Michael S. Heiser. For the record, he wrote this almost a decade ago, but this has been a trend.

Recently reports are circulating on how people are falling out of Church by record numbers. Especially so since the shutdowns in 2020, church attendance has dwindled. During my church-going days, even my bible class church, it slowly (or swiftly) became a hangout. It turned into a chance to see the fellas, the sistas, mingle, network, learn some words, and chop it up about deeper stuff (for those who could follow).

It was a given that every so many months you would see someone drop out of class or church and the talk would be, “Another one bites the dust.”

But why is church attendance dwindling?

Why don’t you learn much Bible in Church? As Dr. Heiser said, the short answer is that it is by design. It is by the design of the church and church leaders to not utilize the Bible much.

The long answer is on his site.

In medium-short, Heiser tells the story of reading an article by Christianity Today. The article was titled, “Yawning at the Word.”

It was about the low tolerance for biblical content written by Mr. Mark Galli. Galli talked about preaching and driving home points by quoting scripture. To avoid the appearance that he is just randomly quoting scriptures out of context (that was a thing back in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s – probably still is), he would quote longer scriptures.

Longer scriptures were like 2 to 6 verses.

He mentions that he did this at one church as a guest pastor. During the intermission of the services, he’d asked a staff member for feedback. He was told to cut down on the scripture quotations. They told him he’d lose the people with too much scripture.

YIKES!

What strikes me as it did Heiser is that 2 to 6 verses were too much! I cringe about the body of work I’ve accumulated here at BibleStudyMinistry.com over the last 14 years. I see why some people look like deers in headlights after some of our live studies.

But I understand it; let me relate it to sports or business. In sports, let’s say basketball, there is professional basketball. Among the professionals, the highest level is known to be the NBA. Then there is a college with tiers there, Division 1, 2, 3, and NAIA. High School and so forth it goes.

In the professional realm, there are amateur professionals. Small leagues, former players playing in YouTube-type leagues, and on and on.

Aside from professional and amateur players, there are recreational players. These are the Saturday or Sunday morning guys, your park district stay-in-shape gals, and those who are playing to live up to their glory days when they were first-string.

Guess what?

All these tiers train for the game differently. The Jeff Bezo businessman prepares differently than the internet affiliate marketer business guy. This is because there are levels or tiers to things.

The Bible Study Industry is the same. There are the guys and gals who put in serious training hours, the pros and amateur pros if you will. Then we have the recreational students, the weekend warriors of Bible Study. Then you have those who pull the Bible out whenever there is an occasion. The occasion most of the time is on Sunday morning, and it is called church.

This is where Galli and Heiser realized something, and so did I. There is a great reason why you do not learn much Bible while at church.

The reason typically isn’t that your pastor doesn’t know anything or is too lazy to study. The reason you and most church attendees are starving for content is because, as Galli points out, that’s by design. Pastors are encouraged (some are brow-beaten, or have their salaries threatened) to dumb down sermons to be “relevant” and focus on “felt needs.”

I’ve been told for over a decade, that if I want to really grow this online ministry, I have to cater to what the people want. They want motivation and inspiration. A pinch of truth is okay, but please do not substantiate it. Substantiating truth is proving it to people by documentation like our ATLOS Project.

BibleStudyMinistry.com does well over 60 sometimes 70-thousand people a month in traffic. Our statisticians found that 85-90% of our readers simply come to learn about a specific chapter then they hit the bricks (meaning they leave the website). This is unless we can convince them in a minute and a half or less to join our newsletter to learn more Bible Studies.

Essentially, they are reading a chapter summary to prepare themselves perhaps for a chapter study. This would take place at their church’s Wednesday Night Bible Study or Sunday Bible School before church. This means, that for the masses, that is 90% of the people out there, being inspired, motivated, and drizzled with minimal scripturally intense Biblical content is all they desire, want, and need.

In the sports analogy, they are the recreational players.

The ex-pros, pros, and amateur pros are 10%; they want heavier content. The sad truth is that in a very busy world, they too sometimes want these things simplified or summarized for them as well.

This can make the Bible Teacher Enthusiast a bit mad, but in all things, a man or woman must take in things as they are, not as they desire them to be.

Written by Minister Koko, for BSM

Hey before you go, do you want a better foothold of the geography and peoples of the ancient biblical world? If you do, we have something for you. Support and look into our current project, Africa the Land of Shem.

Visit AfricaTheLandofShem.com, visit Today!