Pick Up and Read...

Did you read the editorial in the Chicago Tribune this weekend about standards for teachers in the state of Illinois? Evidently, a new standardized test administered to prospective educators at Illinois colleges (a test which measures basic skills in language arts, reading, writing, and math and is geared toward 8^th-11^th graders) requires a score of 75% to pass. According to the Tribune, pass rates have plummeted to 37%. The Trib rightfully asks the question (and I’m paraphrasing here), “How can we expect kids to learn what their teachers evidently don’t know?” (Click here for the full skinny.)

I don’t write this to pile up on teachers. There are many, many great teachers in this state, and Faith Community Church is home to several of the very best. I write this to highlight what is generally true in the Christian church—George Barna stated not too long ago, “The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy” (Michael J. Vlach, “Crisis in America’s Churches: Bible Knowledge at an All-time Low"). May it never be so at FCC!

So what do we do? “Pick up and read…pick up and read.” (The Bible, that is.) Worship. Study. Pray. Be a part of a Life Group or Bible study. Spend time each day in God’s word. Our children are depending on us to teach them, and their discipleship will go only so far as their parent's discipleship. I remain committed to the belief that youth programs are good and well, but that unless kids see their parents worshiping, studying, and praying, they themselves will not do these things over the course of their lives.