Recently I pointed out the sad state of American theology – as demonstrated by the shocking responses to a recent poll. Many American Christians were unsure of God’s omniscience, His perfection, and even the divinity of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n
My first response was: We need to be teaching more doctrine from the pulpit of every church!<\/p>\n\n\n
But then I came across the 5 Whys Technique, an approach to problem solving first developed at Toyota decades ago. Once you hear it, it might strike you as common sense: it is simply to keep asking “Why?” until we reach the heart of an issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Too often, when confronted with a problem, we only ask “Why?” once and then run with that answer toward a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n
In reality, problems most often stem from a deeper place where our quick fix might not even reach.<\/p>\n\n\n
So using the 5 Whys looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n
“American Christians don’t know basic theology.”<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 Why don’t they?<\/p>\n\n\n
“Because they are not learning it on Sunday mornings.”<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 Why aren’t they learning it?<\/p>\n\n\n
“Upon a bit of reflection, I conclude it’s not that doctrine isn’t being taught – most sermons ARE propositional, like ‘7 Principles from the First Chapter of Romans’ or ‘What the Bible Teaches about Marriage’.”<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 So again, why aren’t they learning it?<\/p>\n\n\n
“The propositional and doctrinal teaching isn’t sticking.”<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 Why isn’t it sticking?<\/p>\n\n\n
“The propositions are coming secondhand – from the outside. Truth is best learned firsthand. (Read the book, NOT the SparkNotes regarding the book!)”<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 Why are the people in the pews not getting their Truth firsthand?<\/p>\n\n\n
“They aren’t reading the Bible for themselves.\u00a0The propositional teaching from the pulpit serves as an easier substitute.”<\/p>\n\n\n
Therefore: My first kneejerk solution – “Teach more doctrine!” – might actually exacerbate the problem. (Especially if the doctrine is Calvinism, as in the case of the group who commissioned the poll on theology!)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Maybe what the people in the pews really need from their pastors is guidance, encouragement, and modeling in approaching Scripture daily on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently I pointed out the sad state of American theology – as demonstrated by the shocking responses to a recent poll. Many American Christians were unsure of God’s omniscience, His perfection, and even the divinity of Jesus. My first response was: We need to be teaching more doctrine from the pulpit of every church! But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6227,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions\/6227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}