One of the main pieces of my ministry involves discipling college men. When I disciple them, I often have ideas of what we could study to help them further in their faith journey, but I always ask them what they would like to study both so I can gauge my reading of them and so I can hear if there's something that would be more valuable to them.
I did so with a young man who's new to my discipling roundup this semester, and he suggested we study how to study Scripture. What a simple-yet-elegant idea! Soon after reading his suggestion (we had been communicating over Facebook) I realized that while I studied Scripture every day, I had never had formal training in HOW to study Scripture, and thus had little ability to teach someone else how to study Scripture.
Hours of asking others' wiser perspectives and surfing the internet and praying I decided upon Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. The book arrived yesterday, and only ten minutes into reading the text I found myself asking: Where has this information been my whole Christian walk? I had already learned so much that I had never heard before about observing, interpreting, and applying.
This morning, the young man and I met and talked about how so few Christians have been taught these principles that we're embarking on learning in a useful and powerful way - and we wondered why? People with a new job get job training for a significant chunk of time, freshman college students get introductory classes that teach them how to study and the fundamentals of their major. Why is it that the most major decision any one person can make in their lives comes with little to no entry level training on how to study the source of growth and development for their lives?
It seems like a simple thought in the form of a question. It also seems like a convicting question to me as a teacher of Scripture and a mentor to Christian college students. I'm passing the question on to you mainly because it's what I'm thinking about today. Maybe it's something we all need to be thinking about.
1 comment:
Thanks, Matt...I had not heard of this book; just ordered it and the workbook as I'm always looking for ways to improve my own understanding of the Word and to pass it on to teens, adults, convicts with whom I work.
Though I resonate with your comments and question; the prime need is for professing Christians to get into the Book in ANY fashion. After three decades of ministry it continues to horrify that Biblical illiteracy is rampant and increasing...even among "Bible-believing" people. It's like the "Terms of Service" etc that we need to click to install software etc...we "agree" with the terms but we don't read them...
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