RANDOM THOUGHTS
by Robert Meyers

Many have criticized that kind of congregational study which uses some shallow little workbook instead of digging into the great principles of Christianity and their meaning for today. The technique is inferior even for children, unless nothing else is possible, and it certainly has minimal value for adults.

I thought of this when I visited a congregation in Florida. For fifty minutes the teacher went from one person to the next, all adults, and asked the questions which were mimeographed on a sheet of paper. I observed that each person got ready for his own reply by quickly checking the Biblical verse written down after the question. Each person then read off the verse, was praised by the teacher, and the person next in line was addressed.

The questions went like this: “Who came to see Paul in Damascus?” The adult student answered, “Ananias.” “What did he tell Paul to do?” Answer: “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.” When all the questions were answered, the teacher said we were finished for the morning.

And so out we went, into the world of atomic weapons and nuclear power, of cancer, famine, hatred and illiteracy. Spiritually, we all had on rompers that morning, and only juggled blocks in a playroom. We were totally unprepared by that study to apply Christian principles intelligently to the world we lived in. We knew the age of Methuselah when he died, the names of the judges, the sequence of Biblical books --- all the fringe details --- but little of real Christianity and its vital relation to life.