Back to the Basics

Growing up we heard Bible basics quite a bit. I don't know about you but it has been a while since I have heard many of those teachings. Sometimes I wonder if we went over those things so many times that some of us got tired of hearing them while others got tired of teaching them.Now, as someone who doesn't just hear the teaching but is regularly teaching and preaching one of the things that I think pushes out teaching on the basics, except to new believers and seekers if we have a class designed for them, comes from the desire for something new. When we study we are often seeking new information. We are looking for things to consider that show us new ways of looking at things. In our desire to be relevant we don't like to repeat ourselves much and we can make the fundamental mistake of thinking that relevant requires being recent so we are constantly looking for something new rather than for something old. In doing so, the basics of the Christian faith, have often been neglected save a few select words at the end of the sermon.The result of this is a generation full of questions. They wonder why we do what we do. Well, we knew what we did and we knew the Bible verses that supported the things we do when I was growing up. That is slightly different than knowing "Why" we do what we do but it is related. Why we do what we do was often because we believed our practices were authorized because that is how we were brought up to read the Bible but that still isn't entirely a good answer to why we do what we do but it is a start. People today, young people especially, haven't heard many of the basics of the Christian faith and those of us who teach got so tired of going over those same topics that many of us haven't taught them ourselves.It never hurts to teach the basics of the Christian faith and that means more than just worship practice. People need to understand their faith. They need good answers to their questions. We need to not push so hard to be relevant that we fail to teach some of the most relevant biblical information we could possibly teach!Time to get back to the basics! How have you incorporated these things into your teaching and preaching or how have you seen it done?