I can't believe I have never noticed this...

Can you tell just from looking if this picture is of a classroom or a church? OK, I guess there are too many young people for it to be a church... Other than that, it all pretty much looks the same, right? One of my biggest gripes about Christianity right now is that we have become primarily a teaching organization. To an outsider most church services appear to be some tepid music followed by a bible college lecture. That's a big part of what brought about actionchurch...I want to be a part of a church that doesn't just teach about Jesus...but actually does what Jesus did.

I haven't just started feeling like this about "teaching"...I've actually been feeling this "holy discontent" about church for years. The funny thing is that whenever I would verbalize that maybe we should focus on more than just teaching "bible trivia" and actually try to motivate people to act on biblical principals, maybe we should even (gasp) be entertaining and interesting while we did it, someone would invariably quote this verse:

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. II Timothy 3:16

To tell the truth I got sick of hearing this verse...It was always the reason why it was "right" to teach what ever random bible passage we were learning at the time... Last night I noticed the verse that follows it... I can't believe I never noticed it before! The very next verse states that the purpose of learning scripture is so that we can actually go out and put it into action in our good works. Check it out...

17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

II Timothy 3:17

Wow... I must have not been paying attention when that verse was taught...maybe if it would have had an illustration...