How can a Christian can go to church every week & still know less about their religion than most atheists?

Question

Is it a global trend or is it just a Yahoo Answers trend?

Answer 1

This is a great question. I think the answer lies in the form which most churches have elected to pursue, as unbiblical as it is: passive recipient/feeder.

It is demonstrably true that the WORST form of teaching BAR NONE is the non-participatory lecture. Medical schools have long recognized this. A number of decades ago, researchers began to examine exit scores on general medical knowlege tests in comparison to general medical knowlege entrance tests and found that there was little difference. The fact is that memorization and regurgitation is the most perishable of all the forms of cognitive activity. For this reason, med schools, at least for the diagnostic portion of training, have moved to a problem based learning model. Under this learning method, students are presented with a poorly structured, messy, real world problem and are required to learn what they need to learn in order to solve the problem. This is a far cry from listening to a lecture in which the teacher provides all the correct answers and students try to take it all in.

You see, I am firmly convinced that going to church is most of the problem. The early church did not do this when they met; in fact, the purpose of meeting was mutual encouragement, prayer and a shared meal. Learning was a much looser affair, and activity was a large part of this.

I am also convinced that another large piece of the problem lies in the unspoken message that this method of meeting communicates: the real Christian activity of the church is carried out by professional ministers, and the most important thing for you to do is attend the meetings, support them financially and believe the right things, and there is a heavy emphasis placed on believing the right things. By contrast, the first century church had a live in church planter in their homes who showed them how to be Christians and showed them what to DO, and it was in this context of doing that what to believe was fleshed out.

By being active in questioning what Christians believe and refuting, rebutting and rejoining what you are given as answers, you are far more active than most who sit in a pew in the average church.

In order for the church to survive and to remain relevant at all, there is a crying need for restoring the ancient model: house church with unpaid leadership whose sole purpose is to exemplify the walk and to train the believer, not live off of a passive flock.

Tom

Answer 2

Most Christians specially Catholics were only allowed to read Bible some few decades ago. Still they have been warned not to read alone because they were told that they might have the tendency to interpret in it on their own and be influenced by evil thoughts.. So, they conduct a weekly studies led by a priest or a layman.
If you attend, you will notice that they will really try to inform you with everything they wanted you to know. Not necessarily what you want to know. If you raise a question which I doubt you can always do. they will have to show you first their academic achievements on their doctorate study of the religious doctrine and their mastery of Theology. Therefore, they will keep you off track and you may even lead to lose your trend of thoughts when you start raising doubts and might end up being called a heckler.

Answer 3

First please realize that going to church does NOT make anyone a Christian.

And not all churches even try to teach the Bible.

My Dad was a Trustee of a Lutheran Church for over 30 years, and he never owned a Bible or read one, that I know of during those whole 30 years.

During my whole childhood growing up I never saw either of my parents read a bible, ever.

When my Dad was in his late 60's my Mom asked me to get him a large print Bible for Christmas. That was long after I was married and had a family of my own.

The only Bible in our house, except for the Bibles I owned, was given to my brother when it was time for him to start confirmation classes. Once he was confirmed that Bible sat around collecting dust.

The Pastor preached more out of Time Magazine than the Bible.

In my view any church which baptizes babies does not understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Below is a link which shows you about 50 denominations which are pretty good. And obviously you should know that no church on earth is perfect because of the fact that sinful men or women run them.

And the very first requirement in becoming a Christian is to admit you are a sinner and that you are far from perfect.

Pastor Art., a sinner saved by grace thru faith

Answer 4

Just going to Church every Sunday doesn't make you a good Christian. Sadly, many Christian denominations think this way. And sadly there are many hypocritc out there, but in all religions and in the atheist community. This is something that those hypocritcs will have to deal with when they face judgment before Christ. I grew up in a Catholic famiy and went to Catholic school for 8 yrs. Yet my father never has said the rosary and has never read the Bible except when he was in school and that was limited. My mom just started reading the Bible 8 months ago after she went to a Bible study with me about St. John and she realized that she knew very little about the Bible. She only knew what she had heard from the pulpit. She is 71 and never knew that Moses was the author of the first 5 books. And she never knew that Moses even had a brother named Aaron. I am amazed at how little my parents know about their faith as well. But it's never too late to learn.

Answer 5

This is true with a lot of people.

Sometimes, it's called "special interest." Pastors teach easy-going, self-serving doctrine so that people will remain in the church and pay tithe so that he can get a healthy paycheck.

Other times the fault is in what the Bible calls the blind leading the blind. People hear and regurgitate. It's like a bad game of telephone.

There are good churches out there that really teach the Bible instead of just preaching lame "feel good" sermons. They're just not as common.

Answer 6

Easy. I met people like that for my last 50 years. When all that is required is to sign up on the rolls and hand over money each week, learning has no place. Satan loves it as he set it up this way. Scramble the perception of people to the true God and you get the 1,000s of religions today.

With Jehovah's Witnesses, it requires first learning the basic teachings of the Bible and putting it into our hearts, not just what some clergy class tells us. Then being able to tell others acurately about the Bible truely says. Only then can one be called a Witness for Jehovah.

Answer 7

It is an American trend, unfortunately. Many ministers, clergy, etc. give too 'water-downed' of sermons to their attenders, and thus these misinformed persons show the nation absolutely nothing of what Christians should be. Sad, but true. I pray for a revival, for American Christians to wake up, see the light, and go ACT like disciples before other Americans.

Answer 8

It would depend on what you call less. Theres' a difference between what you hear and what you wanna hear. Going to Church proves nothing. It's about being as concious as possibel of the world around you. That's when you truley undersatnd your faith. After all not all the importamnt things you learn come from a book. It's about the experience. That's why church doesn't do it for me. Life does. It's how I'm coming to undersatnd my faith more and more. And also reading the Bible a bit more. PECAE!!!

Answer 9

I have seen this question many times- but this time something just hit me. Why would an atheist desire to know anything about a "religion" when they do not believe in God? If there was something that I totally do not believe, I would not keep looking into it- unless I was questioning if I was wrong or not? You have just made a very generalized statement- there are many Christians who not only know the Word of God very well, but have wisdom in that they follow what God says.

Answer 10

To barry.chase and all the like,
I guess all you God bashers did all your homework, researched your butts off, have IQ's 200 points higher than a Christian and have found all the transitional fossils that would prove evolution. Your condescending crap is getting a little tiresome. Ever stop to think that you might, just might, be possibly be wrong? get off your friggin' high horse and come back to reality to discuss the issues with some form of respect for others.