Troubleshooting: Bible Class Structure

Hebrews 5:11-6:3 says,

“¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, ² instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And God permitting, we will do so.”

In a world that is less and less “churched” there is certainly a large number of people who will come through the door and need to be taught the basics. Do we make any effort to reach them where they are or do we just allow them to fall into a random hodge-podge of Bible classes that may not even be close to what they actually need? Then there are the “mature” Christians who have attended hundreds, if not thousands of services. Are they moving along in their maturity? Or are they still going around and around on the basics? I sometimes wonder if the class structure of the typical church has considered any of these things and what things might look like if we did a superb job of meeting people where they are at (whether mature or brand new) and helping them grow from there.

Does your class structure have any of that built in or is it random based on the whims and desires of whoever is available to teach at the moment?

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