In North American society, the church likes to emphasize the importance of spending quiet time with God. The purpose of this quiet time with God is to experience intimacy with God, and get to know God on a deeper and more personal level. It's supposed to be a part of where the relationship with God grows and flourishes. One thing I've noticed about this time with God is that the Christian Church seems to have a very... focused and narrow view about what a person and God are supposed to do during this time.
I've found that the general idea behind quiet time with God is that the person is supposed to be alone, have a Bible plus a devotional book hand, and start and/or end the time with prayer. Don't get me wrong, this is a good way to spend time alone with God for some people. When I first became a Christian, I used devotional books and resources during my quiet time to help me understand the Bible more and to grow in my relationship with Christ. These books are good for beginners and do provide excellent insight to the Christian life at times- provided they are written by the right people.
However, I have found that this method has become more of a growing business and marketing scheme about giving good advice from the Bible than about growing a person's relationship with God. The majority of these books are targeted at youth and people in their mid-life who are living in the typical middle-income Canadian and/or American household. I have yet to see devotions for people with homosexual tendencies, people living in low-income situations, or teen mothers.
My #1 issue with these books, however, is that they have a bad habit of not encouraging maturity of historical, biblical or theological knowledge. They do not really teach people to read a verse in its context, understand the process of biblical interpretation is knowing what it said to the original before bringing it to the 21st century, and they do not educate people in the importance of knowing and studying theology. This is a problem because for most people, devotional books are all that they use for their quiet times.
This lack of encouragement to grow in biblical and theological knowledge is leading to a lot believers staying at the beginner’s level and not really forming their own faith and their own beliefs. Instead they just regurgitate what they’ve read as solid theological arguments and correct biblical interpretations. Because of this, people do not really know how to share or to defend their faith. Without a proper understanding of the Bible, theology, and Church history, personal witnessing becomes a long string of recited verses that are incorrectly interpreted and the person will not even be able to explain what they mean and the seeker will quickly figure that what they are hearing is really reciting what other people told them to believe. They won’t even know how to address historical issues, like the Crusades, in a convincing manner.
Have you ever heard of Girlfriends in God devotions or Susie Magazine? What about Sharon Jaynes, Susie Shellenberger, John and Stasi Eldredge, or Gwen Smith? How about the books Wild at Heart or Captivating? These people write devotions and do youth and women's ministry and have reached people all over the world. They teach people Scripture, help women and youth grow closer to God, and have gained an excellent rapport. Unfortunately, these artists and authors fall short on one important issue: They are uneducated in the interpretation and application of the Bible and biblical theology, are uneducated in Church history, and could have had a lot more systematic theological education. They don’t even know the difference between a biblical interpretation and a theological position! While I’m sure God can and is using them, they are still passing on their immature, uneducated, and incorrect views of the Bible without to millions of Christians all over the world. Would you let a person who has no education in medicine and medical practice perform surgery? Would you trust their diagnosis of you? Then why should we be taught by people who do not have the academic qualifications to teach us about the Bible?
For example, the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge states that women have these three core desires: to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty. These traits compliment the Wild at Heart's three core desires to a man's heart: a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. Both these books, and the authors who wrote them, have been criticized for their poor and unorthodox interpretations of the Bible and their too heavy use of interpreting the Bible in light of culture instead of vice versa. This use of culture has lead to their works reinforcing the stereotypes and values the world places on people instead of helping them to become more.
Remember those core values men and women have? Don’t look for them in the Bible, because you won’t find them. They are found in the fairy tales and modern movies we have seen and heard. The adventure where the woman plays the irreplaceable role and where she unveils beauty is in the man's adventure he wants to live in and be the star of. Captivating and Wild at Heart are two of many examples of books and other resources, written for Quiet Time with God, that reinforce stereotypes that our society has created for its citizens to function. Not only are they VERY North American specific, but they are very poor, improper, and incorrect methods for interpreting the Bible.
If John and Stasi Eldredge had bothered to really, and correctly, look at the Bible from cover to cover, they would never find the god who encouraged and promoted stereotypes in either Testament. To the contrary, God’s people were always called to be better and higher than the surrounding nations (OT), or the society they lived in (NT). To reinforce and encourage stereotypes and promote an ethnocentric view of North American culture is to be the opposite of what God’s people are called to be and to do.
By the way, John and Stasi, those above “core desires” are not core desires of a man or woman’s heart. Even if a man had a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue he would STILL not be satisfied or wild at heart. If a woman was romanced, played an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and unveiled beauty there would be still be no satisfaction for her in those things. The one and only core desire that is at the route of any human being that is placed in everyone’s heart is to have a relationship with the Almighty Triune God of the universe. A person's life is not truly fulfilled and their core desire will never be met until there broken relationship with the Triune God is restored by accepting God’s free offer of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour of the world, who is God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ!
Do I have any suggestions for my fellow brothers and sisters after the above? Of course I do. I have something to say to the authors of these resources: First, get an education that includes proper biblical interpretation, theology, and church history. Other subjects to add to the list of things you need to get educated in are stop being ethnocentric sociology and cultural anthropology. Perhaps they will teach you to not be so ethnocentric about North American culture and reinforcing stereotypes in your works. Third, encourage your readers to do the same! The readers of these resources need to mature in terms of their knowledge and study of the Bible, their knowledge and understanding of theology, and their knowledge and interpretation of Church history. At some point you have to move on from milk to solid meat. These resources are milk and it’s time to move on from them!
Hebrews 5:11-14, TNIV
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 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.
1Corinthians 3:1-3a, TNIV
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly.
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