In our experience of more than 3 decades of attending weekly church meetings, working for churches, helping to lead churches, it is our firm conviction that much of what is called “Bible teaching” is not the same as “the Bible being taught.”
Whether due to the very common “pick ‘n’ mix” approach of teaching ‘from the Bible’, (the selection of isolated verses to bolster another overarching point that may or may not be true), or the “name it and claim it” possy whose core belief is tantamount to reducing blood-bought promises to the summoning of a lamp-dwelling genie, the Bible is rarely taught faithfully.
This unfaithfulness is pandemic.
Consequently, there are at least two major problems affecting our personal & corporate lives:
- Biblical malnourishment leading to the suppression of biblical appetite and literacy;
- Contorted forms of spirituality that are generally considered to be Christian, though, in fact, they are not.
A significant percentage of what passes as Christianity today is nothing more than a form of pagan spirituality with teaching from the Bible to appear kosher. This is often spiritually abusive/neglectful and, ultimately, profoundly damaging.
Some Questions
- Have people in your life given you “words” that haven’t proven true? (And vice versa?). What was the effect of this on your life/heart/mind/relationship with God?
- Do you have a solid understanding of the gospel to be able to lead someone else to saving faith, and to be confident that they have indeed been saved?
- Do you have a growing understanding of God’s interaction with mankind from creation to the New Jerusalem?
- Do you have a “gagging”/“yearning” desire for the Scriptures – or is it more “take it or leave it” and ‘dutiful’ in nature?
- What might the net result of a pandemic of “wrongly dividing the Word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) be on the global Body of Christ?
- How might this pandemic relate to the preparation of the “straight way” of Luke 3? (The same word “immediately” used distinctively over 40x in the gospel of Mark).
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word.
Psalm 119:8
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
firebrandnotes.com 
Absolutely right, I get most of my Bible teaching from a few decent teachers, Many in the pulpits base a whole load of teaching on one verse when we should be teaching and reading. together and apart. from whole chapters/sections, More Bible less singing,
Indeed. Single verses are of course important but it’s often not the slower reading of Scripture that’s the problem, rather the haphazard picking and choosing that’s so disastrous. Together and apart, as you say, is also critical. We have to come to terms with our neglect of the Bible.
p.s. Bible literacy/appetite are hand-in-hand with singing! It’s both/and not either/or!