Last week I was in a pastor’s meeting where we were reminded, we are preaching the Gospel to a Biblically illiterate generation. Even in the church, for various reasons the current generation is not reading their Bible as the generations before have. Now, before I sound all gloom and doom, I do know many in the current generation who are reading their Bibles. I get invitations from young adults and teens to join their group Bible reading plans on their Bible apps. I get text messages from young people asking questions about a passage of Scripture they just read. Still there are an alarming number of young people who, even though they are attending church, and Bible study groups, they are simply not reading the Bible on their own. Some contributing factors may be that they don’t believe the Bible is real. Also, in previous generations everyone seemed to agree the Bible was the moral standard, regardless of if their lives were in harmony with it or not. They knew the Bible was right. Today’s generation does not think that way. A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a former Adventist academy high school student, who told me she no longer believes in the Bible because it does not harmonize with her feminist views. She also went on to explain that the Bible was hate speech because it condemned homosexuality. In her eyes she was a moral person condemning the Bible because it was immoral. I have just described what could be a discouraging evaluation of our current culture not only in the world but also in the church! yet this is the generation to which the everlasting gospel will be preached. This is the generation that is to experience a reformation of primitive godliness which has not been seen since New Testament times.

So how do we make the Bible relevant to today’s generation? How do we encourage today’s generation to read the Bible on their own, and accept it as the moral standard that judges this generation, instead of this generation judging the Bible? I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even know if I have any of the answers, but I have a few ideas, and would like to hear your ideas also.

1. We need to understand people are Biblically illiterate.

While preaching, we can’t casually refer to a story in the Bible and assume everyone or even anyone knows what we are talking about. We need to share the story from the Bible. This means instead of preaching topical sermons, jumping from passage to passage, we may need to preach on one passage just focusing on one Bible story. This way people can read along in their Bibles, instead of having to find one passage after another. It will also help them become familiar with the actual stories in the Bible and learn their applications. We can focus on one Bible story and make it relevant to today’s generation by finding modern day illustrations to go along with the Bible study. For example, after preaching about Jesus feeding the multitude tell a story about how God provided for you when you had very little.

We need to stop telling the younger generation to only read the KJV. First of all, the King James Version is simply that, a version. It is not the original manuscript. I imagine back when the KJV came out there were probably conspiracy theorists telling people to only read the Geneva Bible or better yet, the original scrolls! I am not going to take too much time to talk about versions of the Bible here, but we can trust that God will protect His Word so that the pure message of the Gospel will not be lost. For more detail let me share an article I wrote a while back. Meanwhile let me just say here, that I have studied with many people who can barely read today’s English let alone 17th century English. A friend once told me, the best version of the Bible is the one that you are reading, I agree! Especially with today’s generation. And don’t worry. I have successfully taught Adventist Bible teachings from the NLT, NIV, and NKJV as well as the KJV, After all, even when reading from the KJV I have to explain mistakes in translations like the misplaced coma in Luke 22:43.

When we are preaching or teaching, instead of just telling people to turn in their Bibles to John 3:16, tell them now to find John 3:16. And take you own time finding John 3:16. Don’t race to it and then make people feel bad for you waiting on them. Again, I know we Adventists love comparing Scripture with Scripture, but there is nothing wrong with sticking to just one passage per presentation. After all, when I was on a mission trip to Peru, a Peruvian Adventist pastor told us, “You American Adventists love using 30 different texts to explain our Bible doctrines. We use 7.” Yes, we want to search the Scriptures. Yes, we want to be well grounded in Bible doctrine, but show me one sermon or parable Jesus gave where He had His listeners refer to several scattered passages of Scripture. Yes, I am aware that in Luke 24 Jesus explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, but that was an exception, and He was not dealing with Scripturally illiterate people in that setting. Yes in Acts 17:11 the people searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. That is the goal, to get people to search the Scriptures for themselves. At the same time, we need to understand point number 2.

2. We need to understand attention spans are smaller in today’s generation.

We can understand this without having to apologize for today’s generation. After all, Jesus never prayed public prayers that lasted all day. His public prayers were extremely brief. Likewise, Jesus never preached long exhausting sermons. His teachings were brief and easy to understand. They were simple, yet profound. His illustrations involved things the people He was talking to worked with every day. I imagine if Jesus was telling parables today, His stories would include computers and cell phones and such. And it is not only today’s younger generation that feels this way. An elderly lady in one of my churches told me the other day she loves it when I preach because my sermons are short. No, she is not in a hurry to get out of church. She is a very devoted, conservative and seasoned Adventist. She just does not like sitting through sermons where the speaker takes all day explaining the same point a hundred different ways. When I fly from Tampa to Dallas I don’t need to fly through New York and Toronto along the way. Likewise, when preaching make a direct route from your introduction to your conclusion, and don’t forget to land the plane and let everyone off. Old people as well as young people will thank you!. And more importantly God will thank you too!

3. We need to assure people the Bible is Truth.

This is why many Bible study guides begin with the prophecy in Daniel 2. So much of Daniel 2 has already been fulfilled it helps the reader to see that God’s Word can be trusted. While we may not rely upon discoveries made by modern archeology to validate the Bible it can be useful to today’s generation. There are a lot of Bible skeptics in the world today, but there is also plenty of evidence in secular research to validate Scripture. Remember one of the reasons Jesus used his humanity to veil His divinity was because He had to gain people’s trust and He knew that would take time. Be patient. Share with new believers reasons why you believe the Bible and how you have found it to be true. If you don’t have plenty of stories to tell about how you have personally tested God’s Word and found it to be true, don’t be so surprised that those who have never tested it may be skeptical.

It may appear we are taking a few steps backwards to reach our current generation with the Gospel but believe me we are not. Simplifying the Gospel is a step forward. After all, Jesus simplified the Gospel in His day. I have heard that if you can’t explain a complex topic to a kindergartner then you really don’t understand it yourself. Simplifying the Gospel does not mean watering it down either. While focusing on the basic teaching of the Bible we are not losing the vision of our Adventists message for the last days. Consider what one of our Adventist pioneers wrote concerning sharing the Gospel in the last days.

“More people than we think are longing to find the way to Christ. Those who preach the last message of mercy should bear in mind that Christ is to be exalted as the sinner’s refuge. Some ministers think that it is not necessary to preach repentance and faith; they take it for granted that their hearers are acquainted with the gospel, and that matters of a different nature must be presented in order to hold their attention. But many people are sadly ignorant in regard to the plan of salvation; they need more instruction upon this all-important subject than upon any other.” –Ellen G. White, Evangelism, pp. 185-186

I have shared some of my ideas. I hope you have more ideas to share with all of us so we can reach this generation for Jesus.

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.