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Modern Churches Miss the Mark with Bible Study

In most churches today there seems to be an inadvertent lack of focus on Bible study.  We emphasize Sunday School attendance, worship attendance, having an effective prayer life, salvation and evangelism.  However, a lack of emphasis exists when it comes to studying and applying Scripture.

It has been my experience that this is the case.  When I attended church as a young adult and accepted Christ as my savior, the congregation and the pastor rejoiced with me.  Baptism was emphasized as the next step and, again, this happened with much celebration and rejoicing.  The next step, the step of Bible study implementation, was never discussed.  It’s almost as if I did what I was supposed do to, the church did what it was supposed to do, and that’s that.  The rest was up to me.

As I have grown and matured in what little Bible study I had managed to pick up on my own, other churches functioned in much the same way as the first.  A walking the isle, a saying of prayer, a presentation before the congregation and, Poof!  You’re a member.  Again, the experience was almost an expectation of mingling in and fending for myself in the flock.

It was not until approximately a year and a half ago that I did take Bible study a little more seriously.  I was discussing with my husband about reading Scripture and growing in my walk with Christ.  I made the comment that unless I took classes and was assigned Bible study as part of those classes, I didn’t know if I would honestly make a strong commitment to it.  The opportunity arose for us both to take classes at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston.  Low and behold, there were my classes for Bible study.  I have learned more and studied Scripture more than ever before in my life.  It is an exciting moment when reading through even a verse that is very familiar and realize that God is leading you into a new area with it.  Amazing does not even come close.

After experiencing many, many of those amazing moments, and during the course of the first year or so of classes, I realized I was not the only Christian who felt that there was a lack of emphasis on Bible study and application in the churches of today.  More and more people I discussed the subject with concluded that the churches almost assume that new believers, and long time members as well, have the tools they need to “study to show thyself approved.”  However, it has been my experience that many adults do not even own a Bible, much less know how to study it and apply it to their lives.  Yet, we expect them to live up to what it teaches.

Indeed churches hit the mark on tithing, worship, prayer, salvation, church membership and evangelism --- which are all key elements in Kingdom advancement.  But, there exists a gaping hole where the churches of today lack promotion of, emphasis on, and incorporation into their ministries, Bible study for their members.  It is my prayer that we, as a whole, wake up to Bible study and help new believers and long-time saints alike acquire the tools necessary to study God's Word and discover what He has in store for them on a personal level.