Your Unread Message: The Sad State of (Bible) Literacy

Let’s get real: most churchgoers do not read a Bible . . . some not at all. But why? We think we stumbled onto something worth dialoguing about. Don’t dismiss this as “TL;DR.”1 Souls are at stake.

Shortly before COVID lockdowns, I (Andrew) had an opportunity to speak in my son’s public high school biology classroom. What struck me wasn’t something I saw, but something I did not. All the textbooks were neatly stacked in the corner, collecting dust. I took two years mulling that over until it just clicked. So we decided to dig a little deeper.

Were students being taught to devalue reading in general and, thus, the Bible as well? We surveyed college students to find out. The survey asked them to score (on a scale of 1 to 10) how much they valued a list of 14 things. Here’s what we found:

Students value their Bible ~40% more than reading! Think about that. Reading is valued the same as learning and exercising, which are both sometimes viewed as challenging and unpleasant activities. This unreading poses an issue when the Bible is, well, a book.

Our data highlights what has been called the Sunday School effect (i.e., giving the “right” answers of Bible, Jesus, God). However, the irony is that those partaking in the “school” happening on Sunday do not value reading.

We initially thought students/people value their Bible in a way other than reading it. But there is a grave disconnect here. We’ve brainstormed some (discouraging) ideas.

Obviously, learning doesn’t happen by osmosis, so why do people believe spiritual growth does? The end result is sought after without putting in the work to get there.

But there’s hope. When the priests found and read God’s Word in the days of King Josiah, revival erupted (2 Kings 22:8, 14). Revival happened when people returned to the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16–17). What sort of state do you think Westernized culture would be in if we all read the Bible daily? And especially, if the reading was approached with the reverence of understanding that this is our Creator and Redeemer’s message for us—what he wants us to know and understand! What if our spiritual learning came straight from the living, breathing Word of God rather than a commentary, blog, or (worse yet) social media? In brief, some successes we have experienced are the result of applying what we know from the neuroscience of learning with Bible literacy. It includes things like this old song:

Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.

Let’s do better. First, we must closely examine ourselves instead of broad-brush statistics on others. How much do you and I value reading the Bible? Continue reading here for more of the dialogue.

You Can Help!

Calling all believers! Are you concerned about the state of your church (and of course, all Christians and churches after seeing surveys like this and others by Ken Ham and Brit Beemer)?

• Set an example in your family and church by making the reading of the Bible a much higher priority! Make sure any learning tool you use is loaded with Scripture and not a disheveled assemblage of disconnected and well-known “Bible stories.”
• Use and share these tips to really engage with Scripture.
• Help get this message out to pastors to make them aware and get them involved!
• Pastors, how can you help? Find out more!