The majority of the teaching and preaching that occurs in our churches is shallow. It is rudimentary in concept and emotionalistic in delivery. Whenever a position is weak, men will paint over it with emotionalism. An open outpouring of emotion can hide some of the weaknesses of a discussion. Or in the case of church teaching, can make a topic appear to be deep when in reality it is emotionally driven.
The modern American education school system has seen the introduction of the “no child left behind” and common core ideas.
The core philosophy is that the content of school must be watered down in order to accommodate the lowest common denominator. This watering down is done irrespective of differences in individual family situations, which seem to be one of the primary driving factors behind the academic success. It stands to reason that the family who places a high value on education will create a familial culture of an appreciation for education that manifests in good or excellent academic performance. Barring those with exceptional gifts and anomalistic intellectual defects, all individuals have the ability to succeed in school at a relatively consistent level based on their mental faculties alone. The use of those mental faculties and the effort placed in developing them on an individual level will be a prime driver of differences among the individual performance.
Despite those realities, the school system nonetheless marches ahead with the philosophy of common core. Rather than maintaining a certain standard for academic performance, the school waters education down so the person who cares the least can still “succeed” with flying colors. Instead of taking additional time with the individuals who struggle academically and pushing those who work hard onto advanced course work, the state-sponsored indoctrination camps give the same cookie-cutter education to every individual.
It is easy to understand that this has disastrous long-term effects on cultural education (and the NAEP scores demonstrate this fact). Yet many religious groups mindlessly plod down the same pathway. Instead of taking the time and effort to be autonomous in the development of training programs for religious individuals, the church and other religious entities simply copy the school system method of common core in their teaching. The same system that is producing academically retarded individuals is copied in religion and produces spiritually retarded individuals.
Instead of creating bible classes and having high-level teaching and preaching, we have common core.
Related: Tips for Improving Bible Class
Adult Bible lectures are becoming indistinguishable from the children’s classes, as most adults are still on the same developmental level as children, both in spiritual knowledge and overall spiritual development.
The application of the common core method in the church is producing generations of people who have no idea what the Bible has to say about any given topic. They could have grown up their entire lives in the church, yet their knowledge is still almost zero. You can test this by asking any given individual in your church where to find a certain topic or story in the Bible. 75% of the time they will not be able to tell you. And why should they need to be able to tell you? In reality, no one is ever going to come up to them and ask them a question about the Bible.
The irony of recreation with fellow Christians is that there is never an intense Biblical discussion to be found. We might sit around, have an emotionally and Biblically shallow “devo” while singing the latest songs from the liberal press, but we will never discuss the bible in a way that actually requires us to think.
And that is the problem with Christian and men as a whole: they never think.
They never take the time to develop their own mental faculties to the point where they are able to use them independently. And that is what humans want. These men want other people to do the thinking for them, they do not want to do any of the thinking themselves. Henry Ford was correct in his observation that “Thinking is the most difficult labor of all, which is why men do not do it”.
The more liberal or emotionalistic or Biblically ignorant a religious group becomes, the more the entirety of the group will mindlessly look to their leadership and accept everything they have to say without a moment’s thought. Just look at the Catholic church for a perfect example of this.
Catholics notoriously know nothing about the Bible. They could not tell you where any Biblical topic is located. The majority of their knowledge is limited to their priest or the occasional “missile” publication. And the Catholic religion as a whole of course looks to the pope for guidance and answers. Rather than using their own minds and looking to the Bible, the word of God, for the answers, they trust other men to find the answers for them.
So strong is the urge to avoid the labor of thinking that men will stake their souls and eternal destination on some other man’s interpretation of the word of God.
Part of the epidemic of low-thought level teaching is the laziness of so many preachers. It is a rare thing to find a preacher who presents original content anymore. When thousands of sermon outlines are available online, why should any man bother to write his own unique material?
The lack of work ethic among our religious leaders is a topic all in itself. But I would argue that 70% of the people who intend to go into ministry or who, bless their hearts, go to college to study the Bible are not nearly as concerned about the Lord’s work as they are about avoiding their own work. Most college Bible majors want a cushy youth ministry job so they can be paid to do nothing. And that is exactly what so many do. Not all leaders are like that, of course, but many are.
It is reflective of the safety of the times and the convenience of religion. Religion is fast, cheap, and easy, so we have no problem engaging with it as a part of our lives. Add a sprinkle of difficulty, persecution, or war and everyone will sing a different tune.
The main point, of course, is that the teaching in the church has become so watered down that no one is improving their overall knowledge or spiritual development.
When lectures become common core, those who are far beyond the level of that core have nothing to stimulate their minds and are forced to resign to reading their Bible and doing their own personal study during class time. Does that sound like an effective use of time? The entire purpose of the class is to provide subject matter at a rather advanced level. If I can get the same level of new knowledge from simply reading my own Bible and doing approximately 5 seconds of focused thinking about it, then the class is a waste of time.
A class session should represent a full week of study, digging, and focus on the part of the teacher. But rather what it often reflects is the ability to search online for a topic to speak about on Sunday. A class should be a graduate-level learning session for people who have spent their lives and hundreds of hours studying and improving their understanding of the Bible. But rather we get the adult equivalent of VBS for adults with not a soul in the entire room having to stretch their minds to accommodate new ideas or difficult passages. T
his is not a new development, it has been happening for years. Generations who thought that sitting their kids in a pew for a few hours was sufficient for their spiritual development are now seeing the results of that mentality: hordes of biblically ignorant young and middle-aged adults passing on mutated forms of doctrine that are nothing more than emotionalistic propaganda.
The common core mentality that has leaked into the church has made religion into nothing more than a social gathering with a light dusting of spirituality.
And everyone knows that if you can manage to lightly dust anything in religion, you can call it a “religious gathering” and shame people who do not want to attend. Regardless of the fact that you offered cookies, pizza, blow up houses, and games you dare to call it a “devo” because there is about 5 minutes of nominalistic nonsense vomited out by a teacher who found the devo outline online and decided to share with the group.
Common core is crushing the education system, and now it is crushing the religious system. And no doubt it is or has tried to creep into your church. You would do well to stand guard against that nonsense, provide intellectually and spiritually stimulating lectures, and hold people accountable for their spiritual development because they are obviously not strong enough to hold up themselves. Maintain the heavy spiritual discipline; the alternative is to give way into the spiritual rot or religious common core.
