When Reading Declines, Discipleship Suffers

The literacy gap is a valid concern, but that is not the main hindrance to discipleship- not even close. The greatest hindrance is the person's desire to know more about God and to want to draw close to him. One of the most teachable people I know is a lady who is academically challenged. She is quite discerning and is also discipling others. I am currently discipling a couple of young men with dyslexia and they are passionate about learning God's word and they are also teaching others. So many others have great God given talent, yet are apathetic. I am more concerned about those who are lukewarm than those who are unable to read well.

I am thankful for the contributions of those with scholarship, but we need to be careful that our learning does not puff us up with pride while those who are simple minded are also out there doing real ministry. BTW, please do not take my statement as an excuse to be lazy or to ever stop learning. Instead let it be a challenge to remember that God uses the humble among us.

One of the ideas I implemented when I began pastoral ministry was to encourage my congregation to read good Christian books. When I start preaching through a new book of the Bible, I give out three or four good high school / college-level commentaries. I began meeting with our deacons on a monthly basis and assigning books for us to read and discuss together. I began giving books to our elders to read and discuss together. Our youth/music minister and I read and discuss books during our weekly meetings. The discipleship groups that we've started also work through books together. I started a "theological conversations" class with the ladies of our church, and we read and discuss books together. Our youth/music minister is having our youth group and musicians reading and discussing books together.

This is a definite culture change for our church. You can tell some people are not fully engaged with the reading. That's okay. People need to be challenged and stretched. People need to read good Christian books that help them think about God, the Scriptures, theology, personal holiness, discipleship, etc.

I am discipling a young man who struggles with reading (dyslexia) so I am reading Ryrie's Systematic theology out loud to him as he follows along and then we discuss it as we read. It has been going really well. The point I want to make is that if we have people who want to learn, do not let reading challenges hold them back. Further, there are so many audio resources available. Reading can be done with both the eyes and the ears. Find ways for people to read even if they have trouble reading.

JD Miller wrote: Further, there are so many audio resources available. Reading can be done with both the eyes and the ears. Find ways for people to read even if they have trouble reading.

Agreed. One of our elders isn't a good reader, but he listens to audible and other audio resources as we work through books as an elder team.