How Can You Believe Without Education?

How can you believe without Education?

John 8:31-38

Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Sometimes it sounds like a broken record because the problem of education is brought up by Yeshua often. This is another place where Yeshua says that the lack of proper education is detrimental to one’s faith. Faith and believing are action words. It is easy to say I believe or I have faith, but it isn’t easy to hold to it. A solid education about the sacred writings which we call the Bible today is necessary. Then the ability to be free thinkers is imperative. How can the church fix this lack of education?

I am now a retired United Methodist ordained pastor. During my tenure and still today, I firmly believe that the church’s education system is helping the decline in membership. The mission statement from the Bishops of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. That is a remarkable statement; however, it does not consider the education of these new members. Jesus said here and in many other places in the Bible that we need to educate people in the faith.

What good is making church members when you never see them after their baptism? Without education the new member will look across the sanctuary and see that apathy is acceptable. The worst thing I believe a church can do is to have a sign showing the total number of full members and the number of full members in attendance. In most churches, the percentage of full members who attend on Sunday is 25% or less. One church I was asked to preach at extremely early in my career had a sign showing 12 members and 18 persons in attendance. Wow, that is a 150% attendance rate. It was a special Sunday; extra people who usually did not attend attended. These signs just look bad.

So education is a big problem. Clergy education is a bigger problem. When I started the ordination process 25 years ago in the UMC, if a person was under 45 years old, the person had to go through the ordination process. This required a bachelor’s degree, a master’s in divinity degree from an accepted seminary, and two huge three-hour examinations. Today that requirement is gone. The bar has been removed for an education and anyone can become a licensed pastor in the UMC with minimal training. This lowering of the bar is causing the members of the UMC not to be educated well.

There is a huge difference between a seminary graduate and a high school graduate regarding the understanding of Christianity. A problem today is that fewer people are going into the ministry. Why would a person spend a lot of money on two college-level degrees to earn a small paycheck? Working for the LORD is rewarding but does not pay the bills alone.

My first church as a stand-alone pastor was proud that it always paid the minimum required salary that the Conference established. It was not near enough for one person to live on and impossible for a family of five. My spouse had a teaching position that could help us when I was pastoring. Many of these UM churches will be exiting the denomination in the forthcoming years. They will be shocked when they cannot get a pastor for the miserly amounts they are willing to pay.

While connected to the UMC, the Conference has to supply a pastor. The Conference is discovering they have difficulty finding persons to fill the pastorates. They are turning to lay folks with even less training than local licensed pastors. Therefore, the education problem in the UMC will continue to deteriorate.

Jesus said to the people listening to him that the religious leaders who were doing the education were not knowledgeable about the truth of the sacred documents. These leaders had created their own interpretations, allowing them to flourish at the expense of the people. They were not educating the people about the ways of the LORD as given to us in the Torah. Jesus said that the people then and now needed to listen to his words and become educated through him.

Jesus also said that the individual’s responsibility is to ensure their education is valid. Today too many people preach wrong messages claiming that they are biblically based. You have to decide whether the preacher in your church or on the internet is preaching from the Bible. You are responsible for that.

I know this is a difficult thing to hear for many churchgoers. For years you have been told that the pastor sent to your church is an expert and knows all. Sorry, that is just not true. Listen to the sermons and determine what is biblically based and what is not. Yes, I am becoming repetitious. At my first church assignment, I was leading a discussion of the Trinity Doctrine. In a booming voice, an older man stood up and said, “just tell us what to believe.” I said that was not possible. I will give you the differing theologies on this topic, and YOU have to choose what to believe. He stormed out of the class.