This is Read Not Misled, a newsletter to get people excited about reading the Bible!
I grew up in a Baptist church in South Carolina, walked away for 6 years in which I identified myself as agnostic and sometimes even atheist. After getting married, my wife and I church hopped for many years. I went because she wanted to and I knew how to go through the motions.
Then one day, we ended up at NewSpring church and the preacher spoke in such a way that it actually made me want to hear more. After a lifetime in church, I could not tell you about almost any sermon I’d ever attended. I was bored, tuned out, drew on the church bulletin or planned how to beat a video game that I was into at the time. This one was different.
The pastor was in the book of Judges and he was telling the story of Ehud. He kept calling him Ehud, the left handed dude and proceeded to tell his story. I walked out of church that day and could not wait to go back the next week. We continued with that church for almost 6 years. I was so interested that I even went to the church website to watch other sermons.
Over the next 6 years, these sermons maintained my interest throughout. The pastor pulled in historical context to frame the picture of the time and discussed a number of topics that, despite being in the Bible, were not “appropriate” for church as far as I remembered.
At some point during that time, I was dealing with a very intense personal struggle for almost 2 years that I did not believe I could overcome on my own. I gave up and finally confessed it to my wife, who simply asked me, “Did you ask God to help?” I did not. Despite my newfound interest in going to church, I still had my doubts and honestly didn’t think it would do any good.
I said a simple prayer, “God, please help me forgive.” That night I had a dream, then woke up feeling incredible. Everything was better. It was as if a switch had flipped inside of me and simply turned off everything I was struggling with. That was the first of many experiences in my life that have erased every doubt to which I clung.
And that is when I started reading the Bible.
Finally.
I wanted to understand what happened to me and I learned a tremendous amount from it. It took me 3 years to complete a “1 Year Bible” reading plan, but I got through it and learned a lot along the way.
The most fascinating thing for me was what was not anywhere to be found. There were so many things that I’d grown up hearing in church, were regularly recited by church going Christians that I knew and I could not find any support for these sayings or common beliefs anywhere in the Bible. Reading had become a filter for things that were simply not biblically supported.
Eventually, we decided to find a more “normal” church with adult Sunday School classes rather than small groups at people’s homes. After a few months of me speaking up in class to share a detail or clarify a point from the lesson, I was asked to help teach the class every now and then. I was not comfortable with it. The Minister of Education who supervised all of the Sunday School classes took me out to lunch to talk about my concerns.
“All you have to do,” he said, “is follow the lesson in the teacher’s guide. It’s pretty easy.”
I asked, ”If I don’t think the teacher’s guide is accurate, can I say that?” After weeks in the class there were a number of things in the Lifeway lesson plans that felt…injected.
He said, “Use your judgement and pray about it. If you have any questions, I’m happy to talk.”
For the next 2 years, I taught a lesson every 3 weeks or so and loved it. I was a nervous wreck sometimes. The time I had to teach about what the Bible says about alcohol in a Baptist church, I was pretty sure I’d be kicked out but they supported me every step of the way. I was able to dive into history and sometimes go deep down unexpected rabbit holes that were nowhere close to what the lesson plan wanted me to teach. If the lesson was going to put me to sleep, I wanted to find a way to make it more interesting.
When Covid started up, our class tried meeting remotely but then eventually died out. We’ve only just started attending regularly again in person and haven’t rejoined a Sunday School class yet. At some point, I hope to return to teaching.
After the Easter service this past Sunday, I felt compelled to setup this newsletter to share the lessons that I have taught so far and hopefully new lessons in the future. I hope these can get you interested in reading the Bible yourself if you haven’t before or at the very least, give you a different perspective on stories you may already know.
You cannot be misled if you’ve read!